Enhancing Communication Through Team Building

It’s 11 AM on Friday morning. After a half-day team building session last week, the entire office seemed to be working together fairly well—until today.

Now, Boris and Doris are back to constant bickering in front of other staff members and clients. The kennel technician that started last month has suddenly shifted from excitement about the new job to complaining about being overworked and underpaid. And the practice owner has just announced that “someone needs to have a talk” with her professional associate about billing practices.

What happened? How has everyone forgotten about the elements of effective dialogue that they seemed to embrace just the previous week? Will your staff members ever begin to treat each other as well as they treat the animals? What’s getting in the way of just getting along?

Communication.

Everyone agrees communication is an essential element of professional practice. Most people, in fact, think they communicate fairly well. (How often do you see a resume that describes communication skills as anything other than “excellent?”) In reality, it’s not a skill easily mastered. As with other technical skills, communication takes practice.

So how can we develop effective communication that enhances relationships and team camaraderie in our clinical environments? Perhaps we need to consider an approach to team building for communication that explores the fundamental elements of T. E. A. M. 

Trust
There are many definitions and models of trust. While there isn’t 1 “right” answer to what trust is, there’s considerable consensus around what happens when it isn’t present. Especially in our work settings, the lack of trust can lead to staff members feeling unsafe, uninvolved, and unhappy. According to leadership authors James Kouzes and Barry Posner, trust is at the heart of collaboration and “without trust you cannot get extraordinary things done.” Without trust, it’s even difficult to do the ordinary things.

How do you know if low levels of trust are interfering with effective communication in your office?

Consider asking the following questions to provoke thought and conversation about trust.

The responses to these questions can lead to dialogue about how trust can facilitate ongoing communication. As part of the discussion, it helps to cite examples of what is already happening in the practice to create and sustain trust and to identify behaviors that may be getting in the way of trust.

Engagement
Research suggests that engaged employees feel a connection or sense of ownership that leads to higher levels of retention and customer satisfaction, lower levels of accidents and absenteeism, and increased overall productivity. Yet, in a recent report of employee engagement (Blessing White, 2010)¹, only 31% of surveyed employees reported levels of active engagement in their jobs.

How do we develop a culture that is characterized by energy and enthusiasm for the important work that we do?

Employee commitment and engagement are most affected by:

Having conversations around these questions can help determine the current level of employee engagement. If it is not at desired levels, there can be additional conversations about ways to increase individual and collective engagement that can enhance both satisfaction and performance.

Alignment
When we explore alignment, it may help to think in metaphor about the steering of your car. When your steering is aligned, you can keep the vehicle on the road with a slight touch on the wheel. If you happen to hit a curb or other road hazard, your steering may suddenly be less effective and the car can unexpectedly veer off in the wrong direction.

This can happen in the workplace, too. Many veterinary practice groups have spent considerable time and energy developing policies and procedures related to care delivery. If individuals understand their roles and responsibilities and feel connected to the culture, they are more aligned as a team and better equipped to navigate the bumps in the road together.

Consider asking the following questions from both an individual and team perspective.

Again, an open and honest discussion of these questions can lead to a better understanding of how well you are “walking the talk” of your desired culture. If your walk is a bit wobbly, consider developing some strategies for maintaining balance and alignment.

Mindset
Mindset is best defined as a set of assumptions or ideas held by individuals or groups that can be powerful determinants of thoughts and actions. Sometimes referred to as outlook or attitude, mindsets can be positive or negative in terms of the impact that they have on others.

In a clinical environment, it can be helpful to explore the general mindset related to how team members approach the work, relate to clients, and interact with each other. If mindsets are relatively fixed or attached to only one way of doing things, communications may be limited to telling rather than asking or exploring together.

Consider the following questions to stimulate dialogue around mindset in your practice.

Exploring these fundamentals of T.E.A.M.—Trust, Engagement, Alignment, Mindset—can lead to ongoing conversations about what really matters.

Only then can a veterinary practice enhance communication through team building!

References

¹The Social Workplace, Social Knows: Employee Engagement Statistics (August 2011 Edition) http://www.thesocialworkplace.com/2011/08/08/social-knows-employee-engag...