By Louise Dunn
Are any of the following situations “typical” for your practice?
- When it’s time for a team meeting, half of the employees show up, one pops in 10 minutes late and another never shows up.
- Changes are met with the phrase, “But this is the way we’ve always done it.”
- Finger-pointing and the blame game are typical when there is a problem.
- Toxic traits (e.g., gossiping, negativity, territorial attitudes) are more common than star team member traits (e.g., reliable, positive attitude, supportive).
- Burnout and team member turnover are on the rise.
- Everyone is treated the same, regardless of job performance.
If you said some or all of these were common in your practice, you might have a “killer” culture—one that is killing any chances for the team to adapt to change or be held accountable. While accountability has been a hot-button topic for many years, there is nothing like a global pandemic to move adaptability up on the list of management concerns.
Creating a culture of adaptability and accountability starts with removing any “killers” from the existing culture. Now, this doesn’t mean firing everyone; although some may need to be terminated, it does mean addressing the issues causing a poor culture and providing education and support to help team members change. Consider the following to change the culture of your practice:
- Clarify the mission: Is the mission statement aligned with what is actually going on?
- Clarify values and expected behaviors: Define expected behaviors.
- Clarify strategic priorities: Communicate the big picture and involve the team.
- Engage the team in defining goals: Implement SMART goals.
- Clarify and track key practice indicators: Use open book management.
- Maintain a system for priorities and goals: Utilize a coach, remove barriers and provide support.
- Manage communications, habits and routines: Implement transparent, genuine, two-way communication.
- Motivate and provide feedback and recognition: Celebrate progress and communicate.
As the saying goes, “Culture trumps strategy.” In other words, no matter what the strategies, SOPs, rules, or even statements on your website say, the culture says how the team behaves.
The team’s response to a client call near closing time is a classic example of culture trumping strategy. The website indicates that office hours are until 5 p.m., but after 4:30 p.m., calls go directly to an answering machine. The culture “kills” the strategy. In this situation, who is held accountable? Will the team adapt to a new SOP for client phone calls? Chances are, no, not if the culture remains the same. Culture change is therefore crucial if the team is going to adapt and be held accountable.
Adaptability is the ability of your team to change work processes due to challenges. The challenges may be the economy, patient care innovations, client service or client behavior, changes in the employment landscape, digital innovations, practice financials and more.
Think back to 2020, when the pandemic changed how the industry did business. How well did curbside service go? How many of you jumped into telemedicine? Who restructured duties to allow work-from-home for some team positions? That was just in one year—now think about these next few years!
The wrong culture can squash adaptability—just say, “But this is the way we’ve always done it,” and watch the resistance to change grow larger. Why is change so hard? The reasons vary for each of your team members; however, it is essential to look for any of these reasons:
- Personal issues about change (perhaps due to previous jobs or relationships)
- Concerned about the locus of control
- Fear of losing their job or losing job status due to task changes
- Feeling overloaded or unprepared
- Feeling unappreciated (and therefore, the business does not deserve any extra effort)
- Lack of support and commitment from the practice owners
- Past history of poor change initiatives in the business (chasing fads or problems with the process)
- Lack of awareness of why change is needed
A few key individuals complaining about the change in the breakroom can quickly bring down the rest of the team. Poor communication about the process adds fuel to the fire of complaints, and the lack of an organized process adds another log to the fire.
Aside from personal issues, all the other reasons fall within the scope of influence by leadership. How the leaders (practice owners and managers) implement a change process can result in success or failure.
For example, when you told your team that you were implementing curbside service, where did resistance come from? Was the team aware of the reason why they had to change? This was probably obvious with the pandemic, so what other reasons caused some resistance? Lack of preparedness? Feeling unappreciated for all the extra effort required for the change? A lot of resistance goes back to the culture and leadership.
A few key individuals complaining about the change in the breakroom can quickly bring down the rest of the team. Poor communication about the process adds fuel to the fire of complaints, and the lack of an organized process adds another log to the fire. Culture and leadership are crucial components of getting a team to adapt to a change—either something temporary (for example, working a shift when there is a call-off or providing curbside care) or something long-term (for example, adding a new doctor or offering virtual care).
To help with the change process, leaders can create a supportive environment by:
- Clearly identifying the need for change (transparency)
- Sharing information with the team
- Setting priorities, goals and milestones
- Allowing feelings to be expressed during meetings and discussing concerns
- Involving the team in designing the plan and implementing the change
- Rewarding and praising the team for their efforts and contributions
The main ingredient in these actions is communication, more communication, and even more communication. Failure to communicate creates a void, and most of us have heard the quote that a void is filled with rumors, poison and misrepresentation. Don’t feed culture “killers” by failing to communicate. You need a team that has a good culture and is adaptable. And you also need a team culture that welcomes accountability.
Accountability means everyone on the team accepts responsibility for their job performance and behavior and expects the same from others. When a team lacks accountability, they are not productive, and what work they do perform is poor quality. This, in turn, creates a high turnover of clients and team members. So, how do you develop a culture of accountability and overcome these problems? Here are a few tips:
- Communicate clear expectations (what they are to do, how to do it, when to do it (i.e., SOPs))
- Provide feedback and coaching and address any obstacles or objections (training, performance improvement plans, real-time feedback, etc.)
- Establish consequences and stick to them (what happens with poor behavior or job performance)
- Acknowledge positive behavior or performance improvement
Notice the importance of communication in each of the bullet points. Without consistent communication…you guessed it, there is a void, and we all know what starts to fill the void. In the case of accountability, there is gossiping, finger-pointing, blaming and excuses. When one person can get away with it, the culture worsens as another person behaves the same way.
For example, someone neglected to sterilize the instruments. “We were really busy last night” is the excuse. The subsequent failure to complete a task brings about finger-pointing and a similar excuse.
Another example is tolerating team members arriving late for their shift or a meeting. Soon, everyone accepts the excuse or the behavior, and the culture (“this is how we do things around here”) has killed any chance of holding others accountable.
Creating a culture of accountability depends on those in leadership positions (practice owner, practice manager, shift supervisor or team leader). Of course, there are times when the culture kills any chance of holding others accountable, but sometimes the weakest link in the accountability chain is leadership. This can be a tough pill to swallow—it isn’t always the millennials or “kids today” at fault.
Achieving this “nirvana” of adaptability and accountability is necessary for the practice’s future success. As Peter Drucker said, “Within five years, if you’re in the same business you are in now, you’re going to be out of business.” Where were you five years ago? Has patient care and client service changed? If not, is it because your culture is preventing it? Where does the business need to be in the next five years, and do you have a team culture that will enable you to get there?
Times are changing. Veterinary medical care, client service and the work environment are changing. A culture of adaptability and accountability will ensure that your team can handle any challenge that comes their way—no matter the size and scope of the change. Do you trust your team to handle the next need to pivot? If not, it is time to work on your culture and position the team for success.
