No, being organized is not always easy!  But the more organized you are, the more productive you can be!  First, we all need to ask ourselves...

• What really needs organizing? Is it our work station? Our desk? Our closet(s)? Our piles of paperwork? Our files? Our email? Our schedule?  Our thoughts?
• Now that we've identified some "problem areas" - can you suggest systems that can be put in place to help us manage them?
• What has worked for you?
• Or is there something in particular that we can help YOU better organize?   

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• Do you have a cell phone policy in your practice for staff and/or patients? What does it say?
• If yes, is this policy strictly enforced? How?
• Do you find that the policy is abused?
• Are there consequences for not following the policy?
• How does the doctor deal with a patient who is on their cell phone when he enters the treatment room?
• How do you deal with patients who present to the front desk on their cell phones?
• What is the reaction to patients who are on their cell phones in the reception room (by other patients?) Do they seem annoyed?

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I know there are many offices where doctors have invited their spouses to have a role in their practice. Some work; some don't. Why is that?

• Is this a situation that positively or negatively affects you?
• Can you share ways in which this type of dynamic can work and why sometimes it fails from the doctor, staff and spouse perspectives 
• What can be done to help everyone get along?

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Very often I am called into a practice because of “staff inefficiency” and I can tell you, from experience that even though “inefficiency” is the complaint, I realize immediately upon stepping foot in the office that the underlying CAUSE is a personality conflict which first needs to be dealt with.  Before a team can be efficient, they need to learn to work together and that’s not always so easy. 

It coule be a co-worker, employee, manager/employer, patient or family member....What types of behavior do you find most difficult with and how do you handle it?

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Have a little cheese with your whine?

Consider implementing a 3-solution policy if people keep coming to you with their complaints. My good friend Jason always said, if you have something to legitimately complain about, I will listen, but only if it also includes 3 solutions -3 ways that you feel can potentially make it better; otherwise all you are doing is whining.

Q: Complaining is easy. How easy is it to help solve the problem? Can you see this type of strategy worthwhile in your office?

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What ABOUT it?

Job Satisfaction is credited with enhancing performance, lowering absenteeism and turnover, producing committed loyal employees with eagerness to "go the extra mile" in order to achieve operational excellence. Is job satisfaction within reach at your workplace?

If employers appreciate their staff, now is the time to tell them. What's their incentive for doing so? Author Cecil Selig said, "When the grass starts looking greener on the other side of the fence, it's probably because they take better care of it there."

Q: What do you think? What gives you the greatest sense of "job satisfaction? What keeps you coming back day after day? Do you look at your job as "JUST" a job...or do you get much more personal reward out of it?

Doctors...what do you do to create a "satisfactory" workplace?

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