A meeting of equals: get the most out of team discussions

James has recently taken over a rural pharmacy in an area where local GPs have historically failed to engage with referral-led services.

As he is keen to explore the pharmacy’s current GP outreach efforts and develop a plan for forging stronger links to build services like Pharmacy First, he calls a meeting the following day with the pharmacy staff.

At the meeting, which is attended by two members of the pharmacy team and a pre-registration pharmacist, limited information is shared. The staff are new to the pharmacy themselves and feel they didn’t know what was required of them. After a few minutes, it is apparent the attendees do not have the required knowledge, and it is clear that if the objective of the meeting had been known prior to attending, they would have told James this in advance.

He reschedules the meeting, offering clearer instructions around his objectives. The rescheduled meeting is attended by more appropriate team members and is more successful in establishing an action plan going forward.

Pause to reflect

Consider how you can get maximum engagement from attendees at your meetings. Think about organising a meeting for you and your team on a specific subject. Ask yourself the following questions:

• What should you take into account when finding a convenient date, time and location for the meeting?
• How long does the meeting need to be? Is it for a one-off decision, or do you need to consider a schedule for weekly, monthly or quarterly meetings. If so, how might you time these?
• What types of tasks or what pre-reading materials could be sent out ahead? 

Reflect on your answers. If you have work to do as a result of this reflection, commit to a plan of measurable actions with specific deadlines.