Managers: Take A Walk
What's the best thing practice managers could do for their clinics?
Veterinary practices are increasingly realizing an appreciation for having an effective practice manager onboard.
The responsibilities of a practice manager may seem endless especially when dealing with budgeting, marketing, inventory, and employment issues. In addition to the many critical operational tasks, it’s important for managers to keep their finger on the pulse of what’s happening within the practice. It becomes necessary to consistently stop and take a moment from the number crunching, phone calls, and emails in order to stay connected. Managers, it’s time to take a walk.
Management by Wandering Around
It is completely understandable how a practice manager can get stuck behind the closed doors of an office from the moment they arrive until the moment they leave. In addition to the laundry list of planned to-do’s, there are many things that just “come up” in the day in the life of a manager. No matter the number of planned or unplanned events, it’s extremely powerful and important to remain connected to the team and activities within the practice. Sometimes it’s not even the office doors that create barriers; sometimes it’s the intense focus on tasks that compromises healthy connections.
The term, Management by Wandering Around (MBWA) was introduced by management gurus, Tom Peters and Bob Waterman in their book In Search of Excellence. Peters and Waterman were intrigued by this management “secret” that had long been practiced by Hewlett Packard (HP) founders Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard. More than thirty years after Peter’s book was published, he still remains a fan of MBWA, “But what I really am in love with is more or less a metaphor, a metaphor for being in touch, a metaphor for not losing touch with your employees, your vendors, your customers or what have you.”
Benefits of Taking a Walk
- Management walkthroughs provide several benefits:
- Increases manager awareness
- Strengthens manager/team connection
- Improves manager/client/patient connection
- Provides manager renewal
- Promotes open door philosophy
A practice manager recently shared her experience with how she improved the connection with her team:
Practice Manager: “I struggled for a long time with trying to balance what was on my task list and keeping in touch with the employees. I felt extremely disconnected and out of the loop. I also felt that they didn’t trust me.”
Question: “What steps did you take to help strengthen the connection?”
Practice Manager: “I put lots of thought into just what I should do. I asked the employees for feedback concerning their thoughts on how the management team was doing. I actually had to step up my courage to not only ask for their feedback, but to actually read it. Although some of the comments were a little tough to hear, the overall feedback really helped me decide which direction to take.”
Question: “What were some of the things you learned from the feedback?”
Practice Manager: “Some of the consistent messages indicated that they never saw me and felt that I had no clue of what they do or what goes on in the practice. They also believed that my closed office door meant that I didn’t want to hear the good, the bad, or the ugly and that I just didn’t care. I make it a point each day to walk through the practice and ask them how they’re doing, do they need anything, or sometimes I don’t ask anything, but let them know they’re doing a great job. Such a small thing has made a tremendous difference.”
Who Would Have Known?
Eye-opening information may be discovered when wandering the practice. According to quality management expert, W. Edwards Deming, "If you wait for people to come to you, you'll only get small problems. You must go and find them. The big problems are where people don't realize they have one in the first place.”
Wandering and walking about is not only beneficial to stay connected with team members, it also provides the opportunity to assess the condition of the facility and say hello to longtime clients.
Here are a few examples of the “walk” in action:
Team Members: This is an opportunity to better understand what’s going on with team members.
Example: Manager informally checking in with Sonya, the receptionist:
Manager: “Sonya, good morning. How are your nursing classes going?”
Receptionist: “Thanks for asking. They’re going great and I will be graduating next month.”
Benefit: This is helpful information to learn as it may impact staffing needs. Is Sonya going to continue working as a veterinary receptionist after she earns her human nursing degree next month?
Clients: This is an opportunity to capture client insight into “how’re we doing?”
Example: Manager walking in the lobby and sees longtime client, Ms. Letterman:
Manager: “Ms. Letterman, it’s so good to see you and Molly. May I join you and Molly for a bit?”
Client: “Absolutely. I haven’t seen you in a while and you’re the only familiar face I know. I have to say I see so many new faces here and I don’t know anyone anymore.”
Benefit: A client’s perception of value is in large part determined by the relationships that are developed within the practice; they love to see friendly and familiar faces. If the client is noticing a revolving door of team members, what could this be saying about the practice?
Patients: Walking through the practice provides the opportunity to not only connect with clients and team members, but with the patients as well.
Example: Manager walking through the treatment area and spots a feline patient with Kris the technician:
Manager: “Kris, who is that adorable kitty you are holding and what are we doing with her today?”
Technician: “Uh, you know…I don’t know. Dr. Martin has the chart.”
Benefit: Effective communication and training is critical in order to provide quality medical care and service. If our support team doesn’t know who they are caring for and why, could this indicate that potential tragic patient care mistakes are around the corner?
Facility: Walkthroughs also provide opportunities to see first-hand how the facility is being maintained.
Example: Manager walking through the kennel area and chats with Tom, the kennel manager:
Manager: “Tom, I see we have various items stored in many of our kennel runs. What’s going on and where do the boarders stay?”
Kennel Manager: “We haven’t filled those runs with boarders since I was hired about two years ago so I am using them to store extra blankets, cleaning supplies, and inventory overflow.”
Benefit: This provides insight into several areas. Why isn’t the practice filling up the boarding space with boarders? How effective is our inventory management system that requires significant overflow space?
Keep on Walkin’
There is no doubt that there is much to do in the day in the life of practice management. Just thinking about walking into potentially more work may appear daunting. Believe it or not, less effort and expense is required to prevent problems than is realized when problems have spun out of control and become disasters. Managers, remember to breathe, reach out, connect, and keep on walkin’.
References
Hewlett, B., Packard, D., Hewlett Packard, www.hp.com (1940).
Deming, W., E., The Economist/Harvard Business School Publishing, (2011).
Patel, A., V., Bernstein, L., Deka, A., Spencer Feigelson, H., Campbell P. T.,
Gapstur, S., M., Colditz , G., A., and. Thun, M., J., Leisure Time Spent Sitting in Relation to Total Mortality in a Prospective Cohort of US Adults. American Journal of Epidemiology, (2010).
Peters, T., www.tompeters.com
Peters, T., & Waterman, B., In Search of Excellence, (1982).
