Less talk the better

A good friend who was a medical practitioner used to judge how well his practice was running by how much he had to say to his staff during the day.

The less he had to say the better.

Sounds strange? Let me explain.

The first thing I should explain is that he is not anti-social. He would chat with staff before work, after work and during breaks.

That is not what I am referring to.

What I mean is that if he worked an entire day and everything that needed to be done was done without him having to ask/tell anyone to do anything then he knew his staff were well on top of their jobs.

For example:

• Instruments and materials would “magically” appear just when he needed them.

• Referral letters would be written.

• Patients would be brought in and checked out.

• Patient records would be on his desk before the patient arrived.

• And so on…

But if he had to say a lot…

If he had to constantly ask for things to be done then he knew that further training and rehearsal was needed.

Excellently-trained staff are always just out in front of the doctor anticipating what is needed next.

Poorly trained staff don’t recognise what’s needed next and need to be told what to do.

Not that it’s usually their fault.

Frequently in offices where the staff need to be told to do things it is the doctor’s fault for providing insufficient communication, training and rehearsal.

Most staff I meet want to know what to do and how to do it. It’s most commonly the doctor who is not communicating properly.

So, my suggestion to doctors is to see how often per day you need to tell the staff what to do.

If it is multiple times per day (or even multiple times per patient!) then you have work to do. You need to communicate with your staff better and work on training them properly.

If it is very seldom then I congratulate you on your excellent communication and staff training.

Have a great week.