Office Culture Corporate Teamwork

Now, put a number on how much it impacts the bottom line of your practice and its future value. If you find yourself perplexed by this challenge, read on.

Picture a practice with constant staff turnover where personal interactions are discouraged, and everyone is expected to keep their nose to the grindstone. Do you think employees look forward to coming to work in an environment like that? Will they be engaged?

If your culture is task oriented, all work, no play, with little encouragement or time to develop professional or personal relationships with co-workers, your team lacks the information necessary to work together effectively and communicate with each other to maximize their success and efficiency.

How about a workplace where employees are allowed to make up rules as they go along?  That may work for some, but most team members would be uncomfortable without direction.

If your practice is a free-for-all, with few policies and procedures in place, where employees just do it their own way, not only will this cause friction among co-workers, it will also lead to client dissatisfaction due to inconsistencies.

One suggestion I’ve made to assist with developing a practice culture is what I fondly call “the huddle.”  We have a huddle at our practice at least two to three times a week.  It is a quick (5 minute or less), stand up team meeting in the hall to discuss what we’re working on, any news about clients we need to share, how we are progressing on goals and sometimes even something exciting happening in our personal lives we want to share Our huddle has increased our team engagement because we are better aligned with practice goals and have grown to know each other better.  It has also increased client satisfaction because if one team member is not available, another is up to speed and able to step in and help in most cases.

Culture is incredibly important in engaging and retaining a productive and successful team as well as a profitable practice.  Having an increased understanding of your employees and communicating vital practice information regularly, builds a culture of more effective communication, collaboration and alignment with practice objectives.  As the practice owner, YOU create the culture through your actions, behavior and decisions.