Do's and don'ts for facilitating effective team meetings

It may sound easy and simple just to show up and have a meeting, but most meetings waste tremendous amounts of time and could be far more effective. The purpose of a meeting is straightforward: to make decisions. By following certain meeting protocols and policies, your practice meetings will be far superior and the decisions made in them far better.

Make decisions. Many people do not understand that meetings have one purpose and that is to make decisions. If you want to only communicate information, you can do it in other ways, including emails. You don't need to take productive time to communicate basic information. Don't let the meeting wander all over the place, become a waste of time with extraneous stories and comments, or become known as unimportant. Make decisions.

Don't forget to end on time. It is just as important to end on time as it is to start on time. This way, people know that they will have the opportunity to get back to other things they need to do following the meeting and not be rushed or unprepared for the next part of their day.

Dr. Roger P. Levin is CEO of Levin Group, a leading practice management and marketing consulting firm. To contact him or to join the 40,000 dental professionals who receive his Practice Production Tip of the Day, visit LevinGroup.com or email [email protected].

The comments and observations expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the opinions of DrBicuspid.com, nor should they be construed as an endorsement or admonishment of any particular idea, vendor, or organization.