The Blessed Dental Staff Meeting

Part 1 of 2

Several years ago Mike and I were discussing staff meetings and he suggested to me that if possible he would take the staff to lunch weekly. At the time I thought that it would be too often, and my attempt at weekly was not received as I anticipated. I am writing here to share my experience with this pearl of an idea with you as to the untold benefits that it can bring you and your practice.

After trying for weekly I asked my receptionist to schedule it as often as possible. Four years later we are now consistently doing this twice a month. We go to breakfast or lunch with each meal having a different advantage. We allow an hour for breakfast and one and a half hours for lunch. Lunch needs more time as we may not consistently be able to leave on time due to patient treatment.

Breakfast has distinct advantages over lunch that are important. We have our staff huddle for the day before we leave the office for this meal to be ready for the day. The major advantage of this meal time is that for the most part no member of the staff has had to receive any stress from a patient. This is a very important fact. The breakfast meeting allows for exchange that is not tainted with patient stress and their behavior. The breakfast time allows for personal exchange that is most important. These meals do not have an agenda related to business. For the most part we do not talk business as this is a time for socializing.

Occasionally, I will bring issues that affect our team dynamics. Whenever you have group dynamics, you will have friction. It is inevitable that this occurs, and it is the handling of this problem that is important to your practice. You may have considerable different ages with your staff, and the problems at home do differ with age. Some of your staff may have teenagers at home, and some may have adult children who have left the nest only to return with their children and different stresses. It is good to become a supportive, interactive group with a concern for the mental and physical health of each member of the staff. The breakfast meeting facilitates this interaction if it is laced with honesty from each member. This is the essence of handling interpersonal friction. Life is hard and it is suffering as the first great truth of Buddha states to his followers. Keeping this fact in mind with the group dynamic is invaluable.

Sharing must be honest for this meeting to be of help to your group, and it may take some time before everyone feels safe to be honest. You will have to allow time for this process to happen, and it will. Do not try to force this issue; it will only make things worse and stress staff members.

See Part 2 Coming Soon!