Defining a team Opinion
with Dr John Barry W
e have all heard the old saying “There’s no I in team” and then the retort “yeah but there is a me”. I take
this to mean that a team is the sum of all the parts and every individual in a team is interconnected, whether they know it or not. I had the very greatest of pleasure to have
won an award recently for being the best dental employer in Scotland at a Scottish awards ceremony. It was a delight for the 20 members of my team who were with me after travelling nearly 300 miles to be at the event with no prior knowledge that we might win. Every single member of that team, without exception, came down and I had to call in favours from another practice to cover our emergencies as no one was left behind. I genuinely did not judge the award was
just for me but was simply a reflection of the energy, enthusiasm and strong morale that exists in the practice due to a feeling of achievement that the team experiences. After all the congratulations have settled down, both internally and externally, it really has set me to thinking how we can ensure that the team can continue to be motivated as the difference in atmosphere and productivity for a motivated team is like night and day. Appraisal, both formal and informal,
is the key to understanding your team and them understanding you, and this means communicating with everyone. Another tool is the daily briefing which is a gathering together of everyone for ı0 minutes every morning to discuss a structured agenda about any issues. When this is managed properly it ensures that every single member of the team is aware of each and every thing that is happening in the practice, good or bad. In so many of the practices I visit, it
is clear that teams are not connected as they don’t communicate. I see staff coming in and setting up early and the dentist turning up with a minute to spare and getting right into the day with no interaction at all. This is not conducive to team building.
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Column
The final piece of advice I can offer
is that the team that trains together and learns together, grows together in loyalty and production. It is always a good idea to set aside small amounts of time to interact with every member of your team on a regular basis, it is effective and it also builds loyalty. We all know that it is very difficult
to block out large amounts of time for daytime training sessions, which can be very expensive. I am convinced that there is very little benefit to it either as we forget most of what we are exposed to very quickly. Start using some ı5 minute spaces in a structured way to get together to discuss stuff and see your team morph into a team rather than individuals.
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