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Strategic Planning – Set Mission and Vision
Strategic planning includes 6 major steps: Developing Mission and Vision statements for the group. Identifying internal Strengths and Weaknesses and external Opportunities and Threats. Discussing Key Issues. Developing Objectives. Developing Strategies to achieve those Objectives. Creating Action Plans to implement those Strategies. In this article, we focus on Mission and Vision. Why Important? I know more…
Hope Is Not a Strategy
One of the most important responsibilities of any group’s governance is to develop a strategic plan for the group. For some groups this is the role of the Board. In other groups, all Shareholders participate in this process. Unfortunately, it appears that for many groups, “Hope” is their strategy. I am continually surprised to find more…
Obstacles to Effective Medical Group Governance
In earlier articles I discussed some of the obstacles to implementing effective medical group governance: Physicians tend to be conflict avoiders. Physicians tend to avoid setting norms, or ignore those that are set. Why Is Effective Governance So Hard to Achieve? We believe there are several other reasons that medical groups have a tough time more…
The Importance of Medical Group Governance
Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it. – George Bernard Shaw Our last several articles focused on medical group meetings because that is where much of the work of governance is done. It’s now time to take a broader look at practice governance: what it is, why more…
Meeting Torture Technique: Rediscussing Issues
Many medical groups make a decision and then re-visit it over and over again. This situation comes about when a few members of the group do not get their way in the first vote. They then use this strategy to either torture the group into changing the decision, or to paralyze the group. When other more…
Tough Issues? Use Parliamentary Procedures
There are situations when medical groups need to be very formal when dealing with issues. Sometimes a group has severe intra-group conflict. Sometimes the group is split nearly down the middle on an issue and can’t seem to make a key decision. Other times group meetings are so large that you must use a more more…
Use Secret Ballots to Improve Decision Making
When the members of a medical group meet (at either Shareholders or Board meetings) they typically deal with issues that require a decision. Unfortunately, voting doesn’t work very well in many medical groups for the following reasons: Some group members feel the idea of actually voting is too “formal.” Some groups think they have consensus more…
Meeting Flow
By now I hope you have implemented meeting ground rules, set a schedule for the dates of your meetings, developed useful agendas (to include time limits for each discussion item) and selected a Meeting Manager. Meeting Flow Let’s now look at how a meeting should flow: Open the Meeting: Establish a habit of opening the more…
Stop Meeting Madness!!! The Meeting Manager
“Democracy means government by discussion, but it is only effective if you can stop people talking.” Clement Atlee Tools If you’ve followed our recommendations included in the last several articles you now have important tools in place that can dramatically improve group meeting performance: Ground rules. Meeting schedule. Appropriate meeting start time. Agenda with more…
Stop Meeting Madness!!! Create Useful Agendas
Why Agendas Are Important The best way to ensure that those attending a meeting are sure about its purpose is to send them a clear agenda, well in advance. An agenda for a meeting is a list of items or issues that need to be raised and debated. It should be short, simple and clear. more…
Stop Meeting Madness!!! Plan Your Meeting
The medical groups that achieve a higher level of meeting effectiveness devote time to planning their meetings. Meeting planning includes several steps: Establishing a Meeting Schedule. Setting a Meeting Duration. Creating a useful Agenda. Meeting Schedule One way to increase meeting attendance is to establish schedule of meeting dates well in advance. Many groups set more…
Stop Meeting Madness!!! Meeting Ground Rules
Now that we have looked at a few important organizational dynamics that hinder effective governance in medical groups (lack of adherence to group decisions, conflict avoidance, and getting stuck in the Storming stage of group development), let’s start looking at solutions. Why Discuss Group Meetings? We begin with group meetings. Why group meetings? No matter more…