Many private practices employ a 32 clinical work week. Seeing patients 8 hours per day for 4 days per week allows most dental teams that fifth day off. This opportunity for a third off day per week both adds to your team’s quality of life and helps reduce burnout in what can be a grueling profession.
We here at ACT recommend a slight variation to this schedule. Let’s call it the 30-2 hour work week. In this model, you offer 30 clinical hours to your patients with 2 hours every week for you and your team to temporarily lock the doors and perform a 2-hour team meeting.
Yes, many of us have a slight distaste for team meetings as our experiences haven’t been great. When done poorly, they will continue to be miserable. Logic would guide us to do them differently in order to improve the experience. In addition, the more we do anything the better we become and more effective the results. Follow our Meeting Pulse consistently, every week, and you will find your team happier, more aligned, providing better care to your patients and experiencing more profit in 30 clinical hours than the previous 32 hours.
Team Meeting Best Practices:
- Do for 2 hours the same day of the week.
- Hold the meeting the first two hours of the day before you see your first patient. Don’t do it during lunch. Eating is not conducive to getting work done.
- Keep the most important things the most important things. Our meeting pulse sets aside time to work on the previously identified quarterly priorities. Why? It will result in a level of accomplishment your team has never experienced.
- Track Performance – Want to make KPI’s a normal part of your culture? Talk about them every week with a #allin mindset to improve them and that culture will form before your very eyes.
- Identify who is going to do what. Leave each meeting with a specific action item list for the next week. You won’t wonder what your team will be doing in the next 7 days. You will know.
- Solve issues, not put out fires. Most dental teams spend their meetings dealing with a list of emotional fires. While most feel important in the moment, few address the long term strategy of the practice. Putting out fires leaves the team without time to get any real work done. This is a big reason your previous meetings were miserable. Our IDS system, inspired by the best selling book Traction, fixes this.
- Don’t just talk, actually do. Our pulse sets aside part of the meeting to actually get stuff done. The 2-hour time period allows you and your team some set aside time during the meeting to actually work on stuff. When else is your team supposed to work on the practice if they are working in the practice the entire week. Give them a little time to go to work and watch the progress happen.
What’s the outcome of this 30-2 habit?
A happier team that is better aligned and clear on expectations. Oh yeah, and because of that alignment and ability to work on the practice a little each week, you as a team are able to do more dentistry in 30 hours as you previously were in 32. Smarter, not harder. Give it a try.
Go here to get our meeting pulse. Want us to coach you exactly how to do this, reach out here.