Successful staff meetings

I’ve observed staff meeting in quite a few dental offices. Most of them were sort of OK but none of them were great.

Today I’m going to give you my four keys to running effective staff meetings.

1. Keep them short
   I’ve seen meetings drag on for 2½ hours and more. By the end everyone was almost comatose. Setting an absolute limit of one hour forces everyone to be concise and stick to relevant topics, as opposed to just sitting around chatting.

2. Everyone must contribute
   Every staff member from the newest junior nurse to the most senior dentist must bring an idea to the meeting. It’s amazing how many good ideas can come from new staff. They see the office with fresh eyes and without preconceptions as to what is possible.

3. No blame or criticism
   Every idea must be welcome, no matter how silly it might appear at first sight. Many useful advances come from off-the-wall ideas.
   Also, trying to assign blame for things that have gone wrong in the office is very unhelpful. Instead, try to work out what went wrong and modify the office systems to prevent it happening again.

4. Implement immediately
   Once the meeting is over get to work implementing the ideas straight away. Nothing is more demotivating to staff than to develop a good new idea then forget about it as soon as a meeting is over. You need changes to happen fast after a meeting.

Try these ideas and see how your meetings go.