Commitment to Training

I recently returned from facilitating a staff training session for one of our clients. This was the fifth consecutive year that the clinic closed for a ½ day to allow the physicians to dedicate an afternoon to creating their annual strategic plan, while the staff participated in training and team building. A tremendous amount of good happens when you pull your team together in an environment outside of their normal day-to-day happenings. Not only is it focused time to work on developing skills or share important information relevant to their jobs, but a level of synergy and cohesiveness arises from sharing a common experience. Hearing the same message, the same terminology, the same story to illustrate a point, tackling a task and the laughter that erupts when it doesn’t go according to plan – all of these contribute to building a foundation for a high functioning team. If proposing the idea of a staff development day, you may get some push back or grumblings. Push through it, I promise it will be worth it. It is a commitment of resources, but protecting time to invest in developing your staff and the team, results in them investing in the success of your practice.