Real World Wisdom: How Should You Prepare for Staff Meetings?

Real world wisdom gives you insight from real world veterinary professionals. EVT asked veterinarians and veterinary experts across the country for their feedback and opinions on how to handle difficult situations in the workplace.

How should you prepare for staff meetings?

Debby Butler, DVM, Ark-N-Bark said it’s about balancing performance issues with training resources.

“I also like to include educational things so it’s not just ‘You did this, you did that, don’t do this, don’t do that, do it this way or the other way,’” Butler said. It’s ‘Okay, this is an educational seminar and this is how we do it and this is why.’”

Jana Davidson, Student educator, said it’s about having all the pieces together.

“I always ask for feedback ahead of schedule by a day or two if there’s something they need to address and then make sure that I took those notes and put them all together to make sure that we have it all together,” she said.

Doug Mader, MS, DVM, DABVP, Marathon Veterinary Hospital, says he likes to focus on the staff.

“At the end of every staff meeting we actually ask the staff what they want to cover at the next staff meeting and then during the month I keep running notes and the day before the staff meeting I incorporate those notes into my presentation,” Mader commented. “Every month a different staff member actually does the meeting based off the notes I give them.”

Mark Russak, DVM, Vice President, American Animal Hospital Association agrees.

“All our staff meetings are positive. If you allow your staff members to run them, they’re a lot better,” he said.

According to Louise Dunn, Snowgoose Veterinary Management Consulting, a meeting’s success lies in planning.

“You have a template, you know what continuing education meetings you want to discuss, what housekeeping meetings you want to discuss. They start on time, they end on time, minutes are taken and very important, you have action plans,” she said.

Sticking to an agenda is key, added Dr. Andy Roark, Green Valley Animal Hospital.

People get excited and they start to converse about other things and before you know it, you’re off on a tangent and then you run out of time,” he said. “Get the agenda together and move through the agenda. Then it’s got to end with specific action steps.”

Hear more about the best way to prepare for a staff meeting.