If you are struggling with creating effective Morning Huddles in your dental office, this article is for you! And that’s not all! Grab a free copy of our “How to Huddle” Checklist!
Having a dental office morning huddle is an integral part of the day. Yet finding 20 minutes or more to prepare can feel nearly impossible in today’s harried dental practice environment. Manually pulling schedules, reviewing patient notes, and finding the most recent production numbers creates extra administrative work before the day begins. However, without preparation, you can’t create a clear dental meeting huddle agenda and the meeting will be disorganized. In short, it’s a catch-22.
Enter YAPI’s Virtual Huddle. This digital tool removes the time-consuming manual tasks of huddle meeting prep; instead, all the relevant information is available on the Daily Huddle Report at the click of a button. If team members are absent, they can review past Huddle reports and even add notes to future huddle dates that they may miss.
Once you have Virtual Huddle in your corner, all your information is centralized, making it much easier to create and follow your dental meeting huddle agenda. Here are some additional tips to keep your dental office morning huddle on track:
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Tip #1: Appoint a Huddle Leader
Consider rotating who leads the huddle each time to share responsibility.
Tip #2: Show Up on Time and Finish When You Say You Will
Sticking to the schedule shows team members that you value their time. Have someone, such as the office manager, be responsible for enforcing meeting time limits.
Tip #3: Start by Sharing Team Wins
Set a positive mood at the outset by sharing practice and team member successes. You can appoint one person from each team to share their wins from the day before or quickly go around in a circle if your dental team is on the smaller side.
Tip #4: Use Checklists to Guide Your Discussions
Each person on the dental team should come prepared with a list of items to discuss (see our free resources below). For example, hygienists should review their schedules and alert the front office and doctors of any not completed or scheduled treatments.
Tip #5: Create Game Plans
We recommend briefly reviewing what happened the day before and what needs to happen today. Were there cancellations? How did that affect production? Can you fill openings in today’s schedule? Are there any new patients coming in? How might your dental team make them feel welcome? What was the collection goal yesterday? Morning huddles are also an excellent time to identify bottlenecks in the schedule and decide how to address them.
Tip #6: Avoid Tangents or Lengthy Discussions
A morning huddle should be quick and to the point. If team members want to air grievances or go on a side tangent about a specific topic, such as schedule changes, note the issue and politely tell the person that you can discuss the item with them at another team meeting.
Need more help with your dental huddle meeting agenda?
Want more huddle help? Download Dr. Gina’s How To Morning Huddle” templates. This free resource provides your front office, hygienists, and dental assistants with checklists of items to prep for dental office morning huddles, so your next meeting can be a success!
