Do you think that JFK knew about Covid? He was quoted as saying “Change is the law of life. And those who only look to the past or present are certain to the miss the future.” We can all be dreaming about when life goes back to normal but there is no normal anymore, not in your personal life or your professional life. You can resist change and perhaps survive it, or you can choose to cooperate with it, adapt to it and benefit from it.
My focus moving forward with these newsletters will be change and weekly I will be providing for you ways that you will need to change moving forward.
I fully believe in daily strategic meetings as a communication tool that can be used effectively with every team. The daily meeting, weekly meeting or monthly meeting as we know it has to change radically for our current situation.
Prior to even seeing patients having a full team meeting (for whomever is returning first) to discuss the changes you have implemented already, changes that are coming as well as a positive discussion of how the team is feeling going back to work.
In my opinion I have never liked daily production goals or insurance information being shared at daily meetings. The daily meeting should always be patient driven, discussing patient care for today and outstanding care to be discussed, patient preferences and logistics of patient movement through the day. As of now though, daily meetings need to occur to discuss what went well yesterday, what do we need to change today, what patient care are we providing today and a check in as to how everyone on the team is doing.
If you have weekly meetings, they should be based on the some of the broader issues, sundry supplies, any new changes you are going to implement and perhaps some basic housekeeping ideas to talk about. If you are having productive daily meetings, then you may want to not have weekly meetings.
A monthly meeting can be held to review office metrics, such as accounts receivable, Dentist production per hour, hygiene production per hour, new patient flow, patient retention and treatment acceptance amongst others.
I challenge you to write a detailed agenda for your first group meeting that will detail your safety plan for the team, your safety plan for the patients and the plans for your office moving forward as you know them as of now. This meeting will set the tone for your teamwork moving forward. If you would like, send me your agenda and I will be happy to provide you with feedback on your agenda.
Emerging Stronger from Covid will take work and effort on your part as we are dealing with scenarios that we would have never imagined before. Every scenario will feel uncomfortable at first and then will begin to feel normal when you stop rebelling against it. You didn’t ask for change, none of us did but if you resist you will find yourself in a difficult position. My goal is that we adapt positively to change with probably some hits and misses along the way but in the end we will say that we are better for it.
