6 Questions To Ask Your Team To Ensure Success

What if your boss asked you to put up a fence, but didn’t give you a hammer and nails?

I imagine you wouldn’t be very happy. Well, first you would probably laugh and wonder if they were really serious about you putting up this fence. Then when you found out that was indeed their expectation, you’d think they were crazy. As the scene played out, you’d end up pretty angry that they expected a fence, but didn’t give you the tools to accomplish the job.

Now you may not put up any fences in the veterinary practice where you work, but I imagine you are still given assignments or expectations without being given the tools to get the job done. This can lead to a pretty resentful team, and a practice that isn’t experiencing a very healthy atmosphere. That is why in the Eight Laws Governing a Healthy Workplace, the fourth Law is to provide management and team with tools to accomplish their tasks.

6 Questions to Ask:

This is a pretty obvious law to follow when a “tool” is something you can hold in your hand or see with your eyes. If the doctor wants a fecal performed, then there had better be fecal solution, slides, and a microscope to get the job done. Of course if your practice is always running out of fecal solution, the test cannot be run consistently, which means the proper tools have NOT been provided. This is a problem that must be corrected. Pretty easy stuff! Yet the management of a practice doesn’t always know what tools are available, and which are not. The team needs to communicate on a frequent basis regarding their needs, and there needs to be a system in place to prevent or minimize the lack of tools.

As mentioned in our fecal test example, the correction here lies in an effective and consistent inventory system. Sounds easy enough, but frequent stock-outs (running out of an item altogether) can plague a hospital and make daily functioning very difficult. Tempers will rise, frustration will mount, and the atmosphere overall is anything but healthy. So the team and the management need to work together to implement a successful inventory system that allows for accurate reorder times and amounts to prevent stock-outs.

There are plenty of inventory systems out there, whether you track it by hand with inventory cards, through practice management software, inventory cabinets that electronically reorder when necessary, and/or other “spot” check methods that (when done right) can prevent stock-outs. The point is, the inventory system needs to work, and everyone needs to uphold their part in the process.

But ultimately there can be other “tools” that are missing when a job needs to be completed. What about time? Probably the asset you have the least of is the time to actually accomplish a task. You may be given a project above and beyond your normal daily duties, and are told to work on it “during down times” when the practice is slow. In my experience, the few minutes that you have between cases is anything but “down time”, as you process the case that you just admitted and anticipate the next case through the door. It isn’t easy to slip in small amounts of project time…just when your mind gets wrapped around the project, the next case comes through the door. So you need to be given TIME to get the job done, and you and your management together should determine how much time is needed, where this time is going to come from, and what deadline is reasonable for completion of the project.

We don’t often think of time as a tool, but it can be the most important tool to getting a job done.

Another tool that you may not expect is “access.” For example, you’re asked to research a new proposed piece of equipment or medication, or perhaps you’re supposed to work on the technician training program. If you do not have ACCESS to a computer (and the time to actually sit at the computer), then how can you get the project done? What if you’re asked to review a new protocol proposed in a journal or text book, but you’re never given access to the publication because the doctors always have it in use? In a similar but different way, what if you’re asked to help develop a cross-training program between the front office and medical support staff, to aid in mutual respect and coverage availability. But then as days go by, there isn’t an opportunity for your to get off the floor in the back, and spend time up front…this may be considered TIME, but it’s also ACCESS to the front office, which likely will require some change to your work scheduled. Maybe another technician needs to cover a shift or two, so you can be free to spend time up front. (In my experience, it’s rarely slow ENOUGH to allow for a technician to hang out up front!).

One of the other “tools” that may be needed is authority. This is particularly true for any type of middle manager such as a head technician or technician supervisor. They may be asked to keep the troops in line, but are not given the authority to recommend or carry out disciplinary actions. They may be given the task of scheduling the team for work, but do not have the authority to approve time off or pull in extra coverage. Perhaps the technician supervisor is given the awesome task of limiting overtime for the medical support team, but again, is not given the authority to change shifts, approve limited coverage for certain shifts, or send technicians home when it’s not busy and the case load allows. Authority can be a huge missing piece when it comes to delegating or assigning any task to someone on the technician team.