In this Deep Dive episode, we uncover why chiropractic team meetings often cause more stress than clarity—and how to fix them. With insights from Dr. Noel Lloyd and stories from real chiropractors, you’ll learn how to run meetings that actually work. Whether you’re dealing with poor engagement, missed communication, or just plain chaos, this episode offers practical solutions you can apply immediately. This podcast was generated using advanced AI voice technology and is produced by Five Star Management: https://myfivestar.com/
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Welcome to the Deep Dive, your shortcut to essential insights. We sift through stacks of sources, articles, research, maybe even your own notes, and pull out the absolute key nuggets you need. We want you to get well-informed fast, and today we're doing a chiropractic deep dive. We're tackling a challenge that, uh, honestly seems to trip up so many chiropractors.
You've got these fantastic ideas, right? Big dreams for where your practice could go, but then actually getting that across to your team. It's like hitting a brick wall sometimes Uhhuh. That broken link, exactly that broken link in leadership. It just leads to confusion. Things don't run smoothly, and frankly, it creates a lot of stress that nobody needs.
The road ahead feels bumpy, full of potholes instead of being that smooth path to growth. You envisioned this chiropractic Deep Dive is brought to you by Five Star Management. They're a leading chiropractic consulting company really dedicated to helping practices like yours thrive. So our mission today, let's unpack these internal communication hurdles.
We want to reveal some practical, genuinely low stress solutions. Things that lead to smoother operations, less stress, and yeah, happier, more productive teams. Absolutely. We're pulling insights straight from a recent Zoom call led by the brilliant Dr. Noel Lloyd. He shared what he calls his dance steps for making team meetings actually work.
Okay. Let's get into this because I mean, the idea of a low stress, consistent way to communicate where you are, where you wanna go and how you'll get there, that sounds amazing for any busy practice. It really does. And you know, Dr. Noel Lloyd's framework for looking at a problem is so helpful here. He talks about first recognizing the symptoms, you know, the frustration, the things feeling messy, then defining a really clear goal, and finally creating what he calls a thought frame to actually tackle it and that core problem.
Like you said, it's that broken communication link. It's more than just annoying. It's a real barrier. Yeah. He frames it perfectly. You have the ideas, but you struggle to kind of choreograph them into action with your team. You know, the destination maybe, but if the team doesn't know the specific dance steps, the whole thing can just fall flat.
Exactly. And what's really interesting here is that this isn't just about, you know, scheduling another meeting. It's about a fundamental shift, moving from that feeling of chaos to something. Low stress, inconsistent. Think about like a big Bollywood dance number. Okay. If everyone knows their steps perfectly, if they're all in sync with a rhythm, the moves, it just flows beautifully.
Right. That's the vision for team communication, everyone knowing the steps, what to do when, and critically why they're doing it, and that ultimate goal, he mentioned things run smoother, less stress. Everyone's happier leader and team. That's incredibly appealing. When you think about your own practice listener, what does that smoothness actually feel like?
How would you even measure less stress? Well, and that brings up a really important question, doesn't it? If you connect this bigger picture, I mean, how often do simple assumptions things left unsaid create way more friction than the actual work itself? Oh, definitely. When people don't know those dance steps.
They're just constantly bumping into each other, figuratively speaking, and that leads to frustration all around. Yeah. Milling on that idea of assumptions, Dr. Lloyd then got into all the different kinds of meetings that participants on the call were already having, and it was quite a range. You had like fun, girly pop ca meetings.
Using Jeopardy for procedure codes. Yeah. All the way to, you know, serious clinical discussions for docs and rehab cas, monthly doctor dinners focusing on growth, even individual vision meetings. Hmm. Quite the variety. Exactly. But what became crystal clear from Dr. Lloyd's call was that despite all these meetings and you know, good intentions.
Certain big mistakes kept popping up again and again. Yes, and they really fall into a few key categories. First, what just absolutely kills meeting effectiveness, lack of structure and direction. Participants talked about not having a specific agenda and a flow, which just leads to quote discussion sections that go really nowhere.
Someone else just said it was totally off the cuff, just winging it. Pretty much. Another huge mistake trying to tackle all topics all at once, that just results in poor organization. Mm-hmm. And what happens then? You get sidelined and off topic. Maybe you plan three things, but you only get to one because there's no outline, no timing, that's like, uh, a dance with no choreography.
Lots of movement, but no real purpose. Right? A meeting without a map just wanders. Okay. But beyond the agenda itself, what about the leaders? Where do they tend to, uh, mess up? What were some of the leadership missteps, Dr. Lloyd pointed out? Yeah, that's crucial. Sometimes leaders are just not doing meetings at all.
They mistakenly prioritize, you know, admin over people. Mm-hmm. Or they make assumptions that they can read our mind, which as one participant rightly said, just isn't true. And here's a critical one, the leader talks too much. Oh, I've seen that. Yeah. Thinking they're being brilliant, but they're actually just stifling any real collaboration.
Dr. Lloyd really emphasized the best meetings, often the ones where the leader talks the least Interesting. Also, a big problem is meeting only unless there's a problem, which then just turns into attacking the team. Or, uh, as someone put it quite bluntly. A "B session". Ouch. Yeah. So team members end up walking in literally with their head down because they just expect negativity.
Yes. Yeah, that's, well, that's not motivating, is it? Hmm. Not a good rhythm. Definitely not inspiring. Okay. And what about the teams part in this? Or maybe. The lack of participation. Right. That leads us to participation and engagement failures. This is having attendees instead of participants, you know where maybe only one or two people actually speak up.
Yeah. The quiet ones in the corner. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. It also includes not letting somebody have a part in the meeting that leads straight to those glazed over expressions. People just feel totally disengaged, makes sense, and critically simply not listening. To the team's feedback, your team, they see things that you don't, things happening right there on the floor every day.
If you actually incorporate their feedback quickly, you can overcome these little hurdles you might not even know exist. It's like, you know, a patient comes in with shoulder pain. You don't start adjusting their ankles. Yeah. Right. You listen. You find the source. Your team often knows the source of operational friction.
That makes so much sense. You have to actively ask what they're seeing. Okay. And there was one more mistake, something about blurring lines. Yes. A really significant one is thinking that meetings or trainings, they're not the same thing. Training is specifically about role playing, practicing skills, getting procedures down
cold. Meetings though, they're for problem solving, sharing information, setting goals, different purposes completely. And when you blur those lines, both the meaning and the training suffer. Neither really achieves what it's supposed to. You end up with sort of half bigged solutions and incomplete training.
Lots of confusion about the dance steps. So, okay. Looking at all these mistakes, it really sounds like the fix, the antidote to a bad meeting is often doing the exact opposite of these pitfalls. As you're listening, think about your own practice. Do any of these mistakes sound familiar in your team
communication? All right. Let's pivot now enough about what not to do. Let's talk about what to do. Dr. Lloyd asked the participants for their absolute best team meeting secrets, their reproducible templates, and there were some really fantastic insights, shared, real go do actions. Oh, definitely some really practical stuff came out.
One really effective strategy was data-driven engagement. A participant shared how they use nightly stats, just simple numbers in a Google doc for a quick daily pulse check. Things like, uh, patient volume production, new patients, just the key metrics. Exactly. Mm. Then in their weekly meetings, they pull up the weekly stats on a big screen.
And here's the key. Everyone reports their own numbers. Uh, accountability precisely. It fosters immediate engagement. Mm-hmm. Clear responsibility. They even discuss specific goals for individual doctors. It ties performance directly to the team's overall progress. Everyone's on the same page dancing to that same rhythm.
I love that it makes everyone a real stakeholder, doesn't it? Actively part of the practices success. Okay. What about those daily huddles? They can easily become a time drain if you're not careful. Absolutely. Yeah. So another participant described their daily shift huddle. And get this, it lasts only five to seven minutes.
Five to seven? Mm-hmm. Really? Yep. It's led by the front desk and they quickly review the specials on the schedule. That's maybe 10 or 12 key patients out of a big daily schedule, like 200, 225 patients. It just ensures total clarity for the doctors and cas about specific patient needs or important interactions right before the shift starts.
Mm. They just buzz right through it. No wasted time. Sets the pace. Wow. Five to seven minutes for that kind of volume. That's incredibly efficient. What else makes that huddle a real go do? Well, they found ways to pack in value and connection. That same short huddle includes quickly going over the practices, mission, vision and values.
Ah, anchoring to the why exactly. Yeah. Anchoring everyone to the core purpose. And here's a brilliant morale booster. They share a recent Google review. Oh, nice. Yeah. And it's especially powerful when it praises a specific doctor and that doctor actually reads their own review aloud. Yeah. It just brings the impact of their work to life.
You know, it starts today, really positive. That is brilliant. Such a quick win for morale and purpose first thing, and it gets even better. They also have an assigned doctor present an x-ray of a new patient. Just for 30 to 60 seconds. Just a minute. Yeah, max. Teaching the team briefly about the case, why certain treatments are happening.
This rotates daily so every doctor gets a chance to teach and share. It keeps the whole team informed and engaged. Clinically concise educational builds that shared understanding of the clinical dance steps. That's a fantastic way to blend education into a meeting, but keep it super tight. Okay. What about longer meetings?
Maybe monthly or quarterly ones where things can easily, you know, go off the rails. Right. For those, the key seems to be rigid agenda and focus. One participant. Who actually runs formal board meetings, uses a version of Robert's Rules of order. Okay. Like parliamentary procedure, basically. Yeah. A formal system to keep discussion.
Super disciplined and efficient. They emphasize having a crazy, rigid agenda. Nothing outside this specific topic gets discussed, period. So how do they handle new issues that come up? Great question. They have a section called New Business, new Issues. Get briefly jotted down there just noted. And that list that becomes the agenda for the next meeting.
Oh, clear. It totally prevents that Immediate sidetracking. New items get addressed, but thoughtfully and systematically later, not just on impulse. It's really a masterclass in. Staying on choreography, sticking to the plan. You know what's really fascinating? Listening to this is how these different practices are weaving together, engagement, efficiency, and that deep sense of shared purpose into their meetings.
It's really about making them upbeat, making them something people actually look forward to, not something they dread showing up for. It changes the whole team's rhythm. It really does. So what does all this mean for you, our listener? If you're sitting there thinking, okay, I need to upgrade my team meetings.
Here are some really actionable nuggets we've pulled from this deep dive. Okay. First empowerment through teaching. Get your doc involved. Have them present a patient X-Ray case. Keep it short. Keep it focused. It educates the staff. Yes, but it also gets the doctor excited and gives them ownership. That's a core dance step.
Good one. Second. Clarity of purpose. Hmm. Always. Always anchor your meetings by stating your practice's, purpose and goals. Remind everyone why they're doing what they're doing. It keeps the focus, right, prevent it from just being a task list. It aligns every move. Essential. Third, inclusive participation.
You have to make sure everyone feels they have a voice. Something to contribute, right? Even your cas, other roles, tell everyone the overall plan. It creates way more involvement. More accountability. No more glazed expressions. Get everyone on the dance floor, right? Get them engaged. Fourth preparation is key.
Seriously, plan ahead. Have a clear outline, an agenda. It sounds basic, but it's absolutely crucial to avoid getting sidetracked and to make sure you cover what needs covering efficiently. You know, without a score, the orchestra gets lost. Fifth, celebrate successes. Make it a regular thing to share positive feedback.
Those Google reviews patient compliments in your daily or weekly meetings. It's such a powerful reminder of the impact of everyone's work. Huge morale booster. Reinforces the positive parts of the performance. Love that positive reinforcement. And finally, maybe the most critical listen and act. Actively ask for feedback from your team.
Offer like diplomatic immunity so they feel genuinely safe to speak up. Your team sees things you don't. From the front lines acting on their insights, it can immediately fix those little hurdles and really improve how things run. You've gotta listen to the music they're hearing on the ground. That's a really powerful set of tools right there, practical stuff people can use immediately.
Dr. Lloyd encouraged everyone on that call to pick just one meeting, to upgrade using these ideas. One new dance step to really practice and master. So the question for you is, which meeting will you choose to upgrade in your practice? This. This chiropractic deep dive into making your team meetings truly effective has been brought to you by Five Star Management.
Now, if you're a chiropractor and you're looking to really refine your practices management, your communication systems, we strongly encourage you to book a free call with Dr. George Birnbach. He's fantastic. You can find the link to schedule that call right in the show notes. Definitely worthwhile. Also mark your calendars.
You can join us LIVE for an incredible two-day event in Chicago. It's happening July 26th and 27th, and it's called Streamline Scale, succeed. We'll put the link to register for that transformative event in the show notes as well. And of course, don't miss out on more insights and strategies designed to enhance your practice.
Make sure you subscribe to the Deep Dive for more tips and actionable advice like this. So as you go, plan your next team meeting, maybe mull this over what single element, if you truly mastered it, could shift your team's engagement from just being attendees to becoming truly active participants, people who are genuinely invested in your practice's mission, dancing in perfect sync towards that shared success.