The Secret Ingredient to Great Meetings

Episode #391 with Christina Byrne

Do you dread scheduled meetings with your team? Are they boring, exhausting, and just not great? Maybe your team meetings are terrible — and they don't have to be! To show you how to have productive and structured meetings to save you time and energy, Kirk Behrendt brings back Christina Byrne, lead practice coach with ACT Dental, to share some of her coaching secrets. Meetings don't have to feel pointless and draining! To learn how to make them energizing and fun, listen to Episode 391 of The Best Practices Show!

Main Takeaways:

You, the dentist, need to value team meetings.

Be intentional with team meetings. Always have an agenda.

Understand the difference between action items and issue items.

Don't let your limiting beliefs get in the way of progress.

Lean on your coach and team. You don't have to do this alone.

Quotes:

“Meetings tend to rehash the same old stuff over and over again, and nothing ever gets finished. And I'm sure anybody who’s listening could relate to being in a meeting, twiddling your thumbs, hearing people talk about the same thing over and over again, knowing that we’re going to come back here and sit down in a month and talk about the same stuff, because we either don't keep people accountable to the things that we agreed to, or we’re just having a meeting for having a meeting’s sake.” (3:27—3:57)

“Meetings do increase communication, but that communication is really important, and the intentional piece of communication is really important. So, one of the things that we try to do here is to always have a plan in place before we have our meetings.” (3:59—4:15)

“Our time is so valuable. Time is the new rich. And if we can say what we need to say and accomplish what we need to accomplish in half the time, it makes everybody’s lives better.” (6:11—6:24)

“When we’re starting with a new client, we present the idea that they need to have weekly team meetings. And immediately, they're like, ‘Oh my gosh, there's no way we’re going to do that,’ because their limiting belief is filtered by or colored by the way that they had their meetings before, which were nonproductive. But we have such a good agenda and such a great meeting pulse that there's just no way that you're not going to accomplish things.” (6:28—6:54)

“I like to have fun at meetings, and I like to talk about barbeque and football too. And there's actually time for that in the agenda. That's how we start all of our meetings, is with, ‘Let's talk about a little celebration,’ or a segue about, ‘What did you do this weekend?’ Because it’s not all cold, and it’s not all by the book. We do have to get to know each other too, so we do leave space for that and there is budgeted time in the agenda for that.” (6:55—7:23)

“In our system, we talk about scheduling a two-hour block once a week for your team. Now, you can use some of that time for your huddle. So, think that the minimum would be an hour and 45 minutes to accomplish all the things that need to be accomplished in a week so that you can make sure all the goals you set for yourself are going to be achieved.” (9:09—9:34)

“We look at the team meeting as a time for people to get together, to connect, to really sit down and work on the practice, on the things that show up that are priorities that we need to make sure we have a fully functioning practice, and that we’re moving forward. Progress is the name of the game. If you're staying still, then you're losing. So, you need to be progressing every single year.” (9:35—10:03)

“Oftentimes, doctors don't lean into their team for this. They think they have to shoulder this burden all by themselves. But the beauty of our meeting pulse is that there's not really a leader. I mean, you want to have somebody who can help direct which section of the meeting we’re going to go to next. But the doctor doesn't really have to lead the meeting every single week. And so, that becomes really great for them. It’s two things: number one, they don't have to stress about it and think about, ‘What are we going to talk about? How am I going to get this done?’ And then the other thing is that the team feels really empowered, and they have the opportunity to be leaders in the practice themselves.” (10:07—10:48)

“The issues list is a list of things that have come up, either throughout the week or throughout the month, that need to be discussed. It’s not simply a task; it’s something that's happened that we need to get the weigh-in and the buy-in from everybody on the team to move forward. So, we call it IDS. And basically, you identify what the problem is, you discuss the problem, and then you solve the problem.” (11:50—12:19)

“Oftentimes, what happens is several action items will come out of the solving of that problem. And often, what happens is we get confused and we’ll say, ‘Oh, we moved the X-ray unit and there’s a hole in the wall now,’ and then that becomes an issue. But that's not really an issue, right? That's basically, ‘We need to make an action item for Suzie to call and get somebody to come in and fix this wall and paint it.’ So, what I have learned in the last couple weeks of talking to clients is that they're putting action items on the issues list. So, you think about it in terms of, an issue is something that we don't know how we’re going to accomplish this yet. We have to talk about it. And then, action items will come out of the issues list. And we strategically place that discussion toward the end of your team meeting time.” (12:19—13:19)

“We have the same thing happen to us where we think, ‘Oh my gosh, this is the most important thing. We have to talk about this right away,’ and then your entire meeting time has been co-opted by the issues affecting your practice, and we don't get to talk about the things that are going to actually move you in a forward direction.” (13:41—14:01)

“If our goal is five new patients a week, and we’re noticing it’s the third week where we’re not hitting our goal, that is an issue. So, that immediately gets put to the issues list so we can talk about it at a later time during this team meeting. And then, we come up with ways to solve that. Then, we get the buy-in from our team. Everybody gets a chance to talk about how we can bring new patients into the practice. And then, ultimately, those become action items. So, one thing you might say is, ‘Let's start looking at our “A” patients and asking them for referrals.’ Then, that becomes an action item that the team is going to be responsible for, asking two to three patients for new patient referrals. And then, what you're going to find is in the next couple weeks, your new patient numbers are going to go up, because now we’ve added some intention to one of these things that are going to help us to move the practice forward and accomplish our goals.” (17:31—18:36)

“I just had this conversation last week where one of our docs, he’s been doing the meeting himself because it hadn’t been the way he wanted it to be. And so, I coached him to let other team members know, ‘This is the way we’re going to run this meeting. I'm going to do it for a few more weeks, but I want you to watch me, and I want you to take notice of how I'm running this, because I don't want to do it forever.’ And so, I think it’s a great way to be able to hold up the fact that you want it done a certain way.” (21:30—22:08)

“That's one of the best gifts as a leader that you can give your team, is to tell them, ‘This is what I want, and this is how I want you to do it,’ because some people have their own ideas. And if they want to see your vision of the practice or the way that you want the meeting to go, you have to tell them. They are not going to just get it. They're not going to guess it. And we don't want people to guess it. You can't be upset if somebody’s not doing what you want them to do if you haven't told them.” (22:09—22:39)

“If it’s something that is pertaining to a system that we already have in place, or agreement that we've already made, to me, that's not an issue because it’s not something that needs to be identified or discussed or solved. That's merely a conversation that we have to have with someone, that they're not following the system, or that the system’s not working, or the agreement that we made is not being handled properly. So, I would caution people against those kinds of things.” (23:49—24:19)

“If you're trying to get everybody’s approval, especially if you have a team of more than 12, you're never going to get 12 people to agree on anything. Ultimately, we have to look at what are our core values, where are we going, what are our priorities. So, understanding that we might not all agree — this goes back to Patrick Lencioni again, that if we get weigh-in, we’ll get buy-in, regardless of whether or not my idea was chosen.” (26:34—27:03)

“If you're listening to this and you're saying, ‘Oh, meetings suck. They're terrible. I hate team meetings,’ that's a limiting belief. Don't let your limiting beliefs get in the way of your future progress. So, think about what we said today and say, ‘I know that my team meetings in the past have been exhausting,’ and probably because you go right to issues. So, really consider the way that we have talked about how to identify your reporting, identify issues, deal with them after you've worked on the practice, and put agreements in place. And I think you're going to find that your meetings are going to be more energizing.” (31:33—32:12)

Snippets:

0:00 Introduction.

1:17 Christina’s background.

3:04 Why meetings aren't great, and why this is an important topic.

4:34 “No agenda, no attenda.” 

7:24 Lean into your team to help with meetings.

11:28 The difference between an issues list and action items list.

14:03 Prioritize action items as a team.

16:47 Look at KPIs prior to meetings.

18:37 How accountability works in meetings.

21:03 Communicate what you want to your team.

23:26 What dentists get wrong about issues or action items.

24:50 Be aligned so you can collaborate.

27:21 Lean on your coach.

31:22 Last thoughts on team meetings.

33:18 How Christina can help you.

Reach Out to Christina:

Christina’s email: christina@actdental.com   

Resources:

Traction by Gino Wickman: https://www.eosworldwide.com/traction-book

Books by Patrick Lencioni: https://www.tablegroup.com/books/

Christina Byrne Bio:

Christina Byrne has been involved in dentistry since 1985. Over the years, she has held many positions on the dental team, including dental assistant, business office, and dental hygienist. Christina’s extensive knowledge of the front office and clinical procedures is a great asset, and she loves to impart her knowledge to guide dental teams do the best they can to achieve a Better Practice, Better Life!

“One of the many unique things I love about ACT Dental is that we put as much emphasis on improving the culture of the practice as increasing the profitability. That is not to say we don’t have a keen sense of the financial health of the practice. But what we have learned time and time again is that when you do what’s right for yourself, your team, and your patients, the money will follow!”