Are your eggs all in one basket?

Having been overwhelmed with many chocolate Easter Eggs this year (not complaining), it made me think about how we compromise ourselves in business. Are we compromising ourselves by putting all our eggs in one basket? Are we overburdening our managers or ourselves?

You see, Managers and business owners can often be swamped with too much to do and too little time to do it in. Even if they were to prioritise and use all the basic time management tools, things can still be left on the back-burner. This can cause undue stress to the manager and practice principal. However, it also has a greater detrimental effect directly on the business growth, which becomes stagnates. When this happens, the business slowly begins to decline.

There is also another problem that arises within the team itself – no one team member takes any responsibility for any given situation. It always becomes somebody else’s fault. This gives rise to a blame culture and excuse-making. No one team member takes the responsibility for his or her actions, and the situation becomes messy and unclear. This can lead to frustrations, and productivity becomes halted.

This causes some of the following problems:

1. The manager is the sole person with all the responsibility.
2. A business often has far too much “to do” to pile onto one individual, i.e. the manager, to make things happen.
3. Teamwork is not occurring – it’s more a ‘tell and do’ situation leading to a blame culture and excuse-making.
4. Creativity and innovation are stumped and at a standstill.
5. Overheads increase when you outsource as opposed to multi-task.
6. Productivity becomes sluggish affecting business profits.
7. Ultimately patient satisfaction and experience are affected.

Overcoming Excuse Making

Team motivation is often blamed for these problems when in fact it has more to do with an efficient delegation of responsibilities within a team.

Here are some solutions you might like to consider:

• Improve the system. When the results are not as you require, it often helps to re-evaluate the strategy to check for flaws or inconsistencies. You may need to eliminate, recreate or modify the system steps.
• Regular practice meetings can help to re-align priorities and iron out any problems.  I recommend 10-15 minute end of day meetings or/and weekly team meetings. These meetings are specific to improving current systems as opposed to training.
• Constant review of your “To Do” priorities can help to discard those aspects no longer needed and rejuvenate those that are essential. Therefore it is essential that the business owner continuously looks at their vision, mission and goals to check that they are still on track or whether they need to change direction. This spring clean of the manager’s responsibilities can help to keep the “To Do” list current and relevant.
• Create Directly Responsible Individuals or DRIs in your practice. This is where you delegate a certain area of your practice to keen individuals who are competent enough to take on the responsibility. You can also provide training in that area if necessary. The most important aspect is the willingness of that team member to manage that project. Having DRI’s is like having multiple micro-managers for every project in your practice.

Advantages of introducing the DRI System:

• Efficient Delegation.

  All the core focus areas of a practice business are effectively distributed so that the most interested and talented individual takes up a particular responsibility. This is delegation at its best, where the most appropriate person is responsible for any given project.

• True Teamwork.

  Team members feel that they are an important part of the organisation and hence feel more appreciated. They think that they are contributing to the practice journey of success. It creates a culture of true teamwork. This, in turn, motivates and inspires your team to be more creative and innovative, bringing home ideas and solutions that will help to achieve the success that you require.

• Project Micro-Managers.

  You do not have all your eggs in one basket. This means that you are not overly reliant on one team member, such as a single manager. Hence, should the manager or DRI employment situation change, you will easily be able to compensate for a halt in one area of your practice compared to a general stoppage.

Creating better practice systems, effective meeting strategies, and a DRI System enables the proper functioning of the business and can lead to better team coordination and success. Thus avoiding stagnation of practice growth.

Enjoy your chocolate eggs!

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