By: Kriss Barlow, RN, MBA | kbarlow@barlowmccarthy.com
Wow! Life is anything but business as usual in healthcare these days. To socially distance and accomplish the work at hand, many are finding new ways to connect. The traditional meeting is giving way to more virtual meetings, phone calls to check in, and a different level of conversation via email and text.
To help maximize time spent and the effectiveness of these connections, I’ve created a list of 7 ideas to start the process. While my context is for physician relations reps who are meeting with doctors, I suspect these ideas work for internal meetings too.
- Preparation is key: Time is more precious than ever. Organize your thoughts and make sure you are using the best type of connection for the objective. Prepare and share an agenda before each meeting. Don’t be the one that can’t get into the WebEx meeting! If you are using technology for a virtual meeting, make sure that the connectivity tool works well.
- Start each conversation with a status check: Be sensitive to the audience and their level of ability to engage in the planned topic. An empathetic staging at the front end will determine if the audience is ready for the conversation. If you need to postpone, do it.
- Consider ways to ensure everyone is involved: Meetings with a PowerPoint lend themselves to a presentation rather than good conversation. Assuming there is interest in open discussion, make sure this is built into the deck. Be really intentional about it or it will not happen.
- Shorter connections, more often: We’ve all been on a conference call where the agenda is not done, but all the attendees are! Consider one or two agenda items that you can successfully accomplish. Use the last five minutes to clarify the next steps and set the schedule for follow up.
- Make sure you have the right medium: Doctors often like us to text or email, yet, it may not be the best if you need two-way conversation. It’s easy to disseminate information via a text. However, if you need to ensure there is consensus, if you need feedback or if you need to engage a potentially disinterested individual, it’s not the tool of choice.
- Consider questions that ensure interaction: As part of your preparation, consider the questions you plan to ask to: affirm interest, gather feedback, understand current vs. desired process or to hear ideas. Different goals will require different questions so if you can’t see and read body language then trust your preparation and questioning skills.
- Always end with a next action: As the individual who convenes a group for a non-traditional meeting, own the responsibility to summarize the actions accomplished and the next steps. This would include a follow up meeting or notes sent or actions to be implemented. In these busy times, distraction is at an all time high, so short summary notes from the meeting and next steps are essential.
My list is just a starter of ideas to ensure our alternative meetings add value. What did I miss? How are you making sure to stay connected and add value with your key stakeholders? We’ve got the opportunity to demonstrate our credibility via sensitive, well-planned communication during these trying times. Let’s do it.
To keep up with the rapidly evolving COVID-19 situation we have created an interactive LinkedIn group for you to join, we look forward to your participation. Join here: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/12379604/