Defining & Developing Your Practice Culture

“So, what’s it like to work here?”

Simple as it sounds, figuring out how to answer this question can be pretty tough.

But being able to define your practice’s culture is one of the most important tasks of practice owners and managers.

When it comes to your practice’s culture, you have a choice. You can either:

• leave the development of culture to chance, or
• be more proactive in your approach.

The 1st Choice: Leaving Your Culture to Chance

In my experience as a professional coach, this first strategy tends to permit common dysfunctions of a veterinary practice culture, like poor communication between the front and the back of the hospital, staff members talking behind each other’s backs, lack of respect, negativity and complaining, and ongoing, unresolved conflict.

The 2nd Choice: Be More Proactive In Your Approach

My advice to business leaders is to be intentional about defining and developing their organization’s culture. This approach:

• circumvents many of the dysfunctional behaviors mentioned above
• facilitates the development of a healthy practice culture
• paves the way for peak performance.

Characteristics of a healthy culture include trust, interdependence, open and respectful communication, caring, continuous learning, and fun.

What Is Culture?

Culture is defined as a set of shared ideals, values, and standards of behavior, including the unspoken and unwritten “rules” that affect how work gets done (i.e. “the way we do things around here.”) Culture defines what makes your practice and your team tick.

It’s important to realize that your culture may not be what you or your team says it is. Instead, it’s the core values that you demonstrate every day through your actions. Cultures can be diagnosed best by the work behaviors they promote. Behavior defines culture.

Values are at the heart of culture. Jim Collins and Jerry Porras, in their book Built to Last, maintain that the success of visionary companies is in large part due to an organization’s enduring tenets or core values. They concluded from their research that “the key is not what core values an organization has, but that it has core values.” They differentiate these from management strategies and practices that must change with the changes in market and environment. The core values must be able to stand the test of time and must articulate the most basic beliefs of the organization.

Values, then, state what is important to us as individuals and as organizations. They reflect who we are and what we stand for which in turn affects what we do and how we do it—which is the culture.

Why Is Culture Important?

Does culture really matter? The answer to that question is an unequivocal yes!

Today more than ever there is sufficient evidence telling us that we must pay attention to our culture because it directly impacts organizational performance. A fragmented, ambiguous, or contradictory culture is unlikely to result in optimum performance. A cohesive culture where core values are transparent and there is alignment between individual and organizational values can produce extraordinary results.

Culture also has a substantial influence on each team member’s performance. At best, it helps to engage and empower people. At worst, it stifles and demotivates them. An effective practice culture facilitates an emotional bond between the practice and the staff, providing a set of values and behaviors that motivate people to do the right things.

How Do You Create a Culture That Works For You?

There is no one “right” culture for all veterinary practices. Each practice culture is as unique as a fingerprint. The key to developing a culture that works for your practice is to involve your entire team in the conversation so that everyone can feel they have a sense of ownership in it. The operative question for you and your team is, “What kind of culture do we want to create together?”

A helpful starting point is to first understand and assess your current culture. Here are some questions for you and your colleagues to consider and discuss:

• What’s our practice’s mission or purpose?
• What core values do we share?
• What makes our practice unique?
• What image do we have of ourselves? What image are we conveying to our clients?
• What gets recognized and rewarded around here? What behaviors are discouraged?

Using the information gathered from this informal cultural assessment to inform the process, the next step is to create a written culture contract defining your practice’s ideal culture. It’s vitally important to have a clear set of expectations about what team member behavior is appropriate and what isn’t. By nurturing a dialogue about your team’s desired cultural “norms,” you can ensure that staff use shared values and principles to consistently guide their actions.

To accomplish this, it will be important to set aside several large blocks of time for the team to work on designing your cultural contract. It’s important to remember that this is a process, not a singular event. During these sessions you, or another team leader, can walk members through a series of important questions. Consider rotating the facilitation and note-taking roles as you discuss the following:

• Team Purpose: Why are we here? The answer to this question must get beyond simply identifying the service you provide; it must answer the challenge, “So what?” In other words, what do you do for your clients that matters to them?
• Shared Values: What is our ideal relationship with one another? How would we describe the best possible relationship we should envision inside our practice? Determine the specific, actionable values and what they look like in action.
• Practice Image: What image do we want to convey to our clients and community? What do we want to be known for? Considering our desired image, what implications does that have for our professional behavior, how we dress, the physical appearance and layout of the practice, etc.?
• Team Norms: What do we expect of each other? How will we communicate and connect to others within the practice? What does open and honest dialogue mean to us? How do we agree to handle conflict? What are our teams guiding/operating principles?
• Decision-Making: How are decisions made within our practice? What level of decision-making responsibility does each team member have? What is out of bounds?
• Work Processes: What processes will we use to do the team’s work? How often will we meet? Who determines and manages our priorities and schedule?

Once you’ve explored these questions, have one person or a small group combine the team’s agreements into a single document.

Congratulations! You now have a written culture contract that can be creatively displayed around the practice, posted electronically, and referred back to in staff meetings and daily conversations.

Remember, a strong culture leads to increased levels of effort and energy on the part of team members, a positive work climate, retention of key employees, and client loyalty. Defining and developing your practice’s culture is a key ingredient for long-term success and sustainable profits.

Read Practice Culture Part Two: Supporting & Sustaining Your Practice Culture