How to Create an Effective Team
By the WDS Practice Advisory Committee From Dr. Shawna Flanagan: I think cross training your team in very important. My office is like a fine dining experience where all the servers and staff can answer your questions and they work as a team to create the best experience. You will never hear in my office “that’s not in my job description” or “I don’t know.” If one of my staff doesn’t know the answer to something, we politely address the issue and immediately get someone who does know. The patients appreciate the effort and the confidence in this big team approach. Frequent training and retraining sessions as well as lunch and learn meetings are an important part of creating an effective team. My team members love hearing about new procedures and protocols. This also creates an environment where everyone is willing to help each other out. Letting staff experience new procedures while others watch and learn is also a great team activity. The old adage “one bad appl...