5 COSTLY Mistakes Made in Team Meetings You spend time and money when you attend a CE meeting. But you may NOT be getting full value for your investment. This is NOT 
about mistakes by the meeting planner, the speaker or the host group. These mistakes are made by meeting attendees ... veterans and newbies alike. As a speaker I find it disturbing that some attendees spend time and money to sit in a meeting room and not get full take-away value. Consider the following issues as they relate to CE on TEAM TOPICS:
1. The Boss attends a "team topic" meeting without the rest of the team. This is the #1 mistake I see. It is VERY common for the boss to approach me at the close of the meeting and ask, "how can I share this information with my staff?" You WON'T be able to share this in the same way as the speaker who presented it. It's likely that the team may perceive the items you share with them to be filtered by your own agenda. It will be much harder for the team to buy-in if they haven't heard it first hand.
The speaker may say something you've said dozens of times to staff. Staff may not hear it from you but somehow the heaven's open and they "get it" when it comes from the speaker. It's frustrating, but we all know it's true!
You miss an opportunity for team-building and team-bonding if you attend without team mates. You may elevate your own knowledge base while you leave your team behind and deprive them of this same knowledge base. You have NOT saved money by NOT bringing the team to the meeting.
2. A few staff attend without "The Boss". This is the flip side of the situation above. I often see situations where just a couple of staff attend and are charged with bringing the program back to the boss and the rest of the team. They frequently come up to me asking how they should present this information to team mates. Sometimes they'll say, "The boss and the rest of the team aren't going to listen to us telling them these things." This can be especially sticky when the topic is on interpersonal problems and team members want to hear solutions from the speaker instead of interpreted by a peer.
3;. Team members do not sit together. This may seem simplistic, yet sitting apart can divide a team when it comes to processing a topic ... especially when it's an interactive session. I often see this occur when there are cliques on a team or when the team is in conflict. It's important to get to the meeting room early to get seats together. The team can then process information together.
If the boss chooses to sit with his/her buddies instead of their own team mates, this may be symptomatic of other problems.
4. One certain team member consistently misses team meetings. Sometimes an absence is unavoidable and there are legitimate r
easons. It's another matter when the program topic is one that is extremely important for the team member in question. I think it's more than coincidence when a "problem employee" just can't seem to make it to the all-team meetings on communication and interpersonal topics. This has to be handled carefully, on a case-by-case basis. If you give employees the option to attend or not, you can be sure that the people who need it the most may opt out!
Many times staff members have approached me during a meeting and said, "our 'problem person' is not here ... how can we get her to understand this?" My hunch is that the absent team member is not a team PLAYER; What NBA team can win with only 4 players on the floor?
5. Lack of follow-through after meeting. All too often teams leave both the meeting AND their insights in the meeting room. Sometimes this happens literally! Periodically I find a very detailed "to do" list left on a table after the meeting. Even when I see teams working in groups, I can just about predict which groups will be proactive back in the office, and which groups have good intentions, but Monday morning it will be "business as usual". The really telling factors are if the group assigns responsibilities for "to do" items and then schdules an office meeting to discuss progress of these items. This is all about establishing accountability.
How do YOU approach team CE meetings? If you're the boss, are you showing support for the entire team by ensuring they attend. This is a vote of confidence in their value. Are you right there with them during the meeting? Do you start to process the information either during the meeting (if it's an interactive program) or do you continue the dialogue with them immediately afterward while the information is still fresh? Do you commit to productive change by scheduling a "progess team meeting" when you're back in the office?
____________________________
Want to strengthen your team?
Contact us about these programs:
"Building the Cohesive Team"
"The 5 Dysfunctions of a Team"
"Building the Dental Dream Team"
Click here to contact us!
Taking Your Practice to Next Level What's keeping you from moving your practice to the next level? OK, the 
economy has seen better times, but it will revive. So do you sit back and wait, or do you use this "slower" time proactively? It's vital now to keep your eyes on your goal. Don't get so distracted that you lose sight of where you want to go.
Based on extensive research with doctors and patients, Suzanne Boswell outlines the steps to move your practice to the next level. Click here to read more.
This topic is addressed in the workshop, "Moving Your Practice to the Next Level: The Interdisciplinary Journey"
Schedule this workshop for your study club. Click to contact us!