Dear Sharyn,
How do I get my team to come to huddles on time? The clinical staff are late because they’re preparing their rooms and the front desk are late because they’re answering calls or emails and we end up having to rush before the patients arrive.
H.S. Iowa
Dear H.S.
The metaphor about herding cats may apply to getting employees to meetings. But unlike cats, employees’ behaviors can be changed. To do that, you must change your systems and expectations. You need to specify with employees about their start time at the office and define exactly what they need to accomplish when they arrive in the morning. If it’s not feasible for the clinical team to set up rooms/trays before huddles, then you need to design a system where the bulk of that work is done during the prior day. Many practices reserve admin time to prepare for the next day for this reason. Also, you need to reinforce the behavior you want to see. The team will be more motivated to meet on-time when you demonstrate that you like this behavior, there are clear benefits to having a more sedate meeting and you will change systems to ensure it happens. You could consider a reward and debit system where employees get tickets or stickers for arriving on time, and lose a ticket when they arrive late. These tickets can then be traded in for gift cards or even cash at the end of the month.
