How to run effective office meetings.(GUEST EDITORIAL)(Editorial)

"What do you discuss at office meetings?" a colleague wrote me recently. "We used to hold them monthly, and I never thought we accomplished anything. So now we don't bother anymore."

It's a comment I hear fairly often. Doctors and employees alike frequently dread staff meetings. Four common complaints about them are: Too much time is spent dwelling on trivia with no time left to address important problems; any important issues that do get covered are seldom if ever resolved; no one acts on any constructive suggestions made; and all too often they degenerate into petty gripe sessions. The problem, though, is not with meetings themselves, but with improper (or complete lack of) planning. Avoiding meetings is not the answer; structuring them effectively is.

First, call meetings only when necessary. No rule says you must have one every month if there are no issues worth meeting about, or that you must wait until the next month if an urgent problem arises. My office has held as many as three meetings in a single month when circumstances dictated it, and we have gone as long as 4 months with no meetings at all.

My office manager keeps a list of "meeting topics" contributed by everyone in the office. When she accumulates enough topics to warrant a meeting (anywhere from three to six, depending on their complexity), she calls one.

She then prepares an agenda, ranking the topics of discussion in order of importance, and determines whether the meeting will require attendance by the entire staff or certain subgroups only. For example, if the purpose of the meeting is to address scheduling issues, input from receptionists and clinical staff members will be vital, while business office personnel may not be needed at all. An "inservice"-type meeting regarding a new medication or newly installed piece of medical equipment might require the presence of "back" people (doctors, nurses, ancillary providers, technicians) only.

I am a firm believer in including at least one "positive" item in every agenda. Most meetings are grim affairs that deal exclusively with problems needing fixing, and that contributes significantly to the hatred most people have for them. Positive items may include recognition of specific professional or personal achievements, displays of photos of new babies or pets, examples of positive patient feedback, etc. They make meetings more fun and encourage higher attendance.

The agenda should be typed and distributed in advance of the meeting to all staff members who will be ...