“Failure to prepare is preparing to fail.”
– Coach John Wooden
Holding a very brief team meeting at the beginning of every day is absolutely necessary if your practice is going to achieve peak performance!! I cannot emphasize this point enough.
Every successful practice I have ever worked with not only conducts a morning huddle each and every morning, but they have mastered the morning huddle as a means of making the most out of every day.
The primary purpose of the morning huddle is to prepare for the day. It is more about ‘people’ than about process. By that I mean, that the focus of the morning huddle needs to be on the patients you are seeing today, their unique needs, and how you and your team members can make their visit an exceptional experience. While it is very appropriate to discuss necessary materials and other clinical details, the focus of the morning huddle should be on the people you are seeing today.
To be successful, your morning huddle needs to be very efficient and no more than 10 minutes long, ideally about 7 minutes. To stick within this time constraint you must strictly limit the topic of the morning huddle to today’s schedule. The morning huddle is not a general team meeting; rather it is a very focused meeting solely about today. Here is the checklist we use for our morning huddle.
Morning Huddle Checklist:
1. A review of yesterday:
Dr. Production Goal:____________ Actual Dr. Production:_______________
Hygiene Production Goal:_________ Actual Hygiene Production:___________
New Patients:___________ Units Scheduled from N.P.’s:___________
Hygiene Exams Conducted:_______ Units Scheduled from Hyg.:___________
FMX’s taken in hygiene:______Number of evening ‘we care’ calls made:______
2. A look at today:
Dr. Production Goal:____________ Projected Dr. Production:_____________
Hygiene Production Goal:_________ Projected Hygiene Production:_________
3. Are production blocks scheduled for next five days?
4. Next ‘Rock’ opening in Dr’s schedule?
5. Next new patient opening?
6. Next opening in hygiene schedule?
7. Identify patients to take digital photos on today’s schedule
8. Morning emergency slot____________
Afternoon emergency slot___________
9. Financial information on today’s patients
10. New patient review (review telephone slip)
11. Challenges and/or celebrations in today’s schedule
12. Thought for the day……….
We conclude the morning huddle by looking at the schedule for the day and asking the following question; “Whose life are we going to change today?” This brief meeting helps Dr. Nielson and our entire team focus on the day and start the day with intention. Keep Smiling!
