Meetings with teams.

How many teams meetings do you go to regularly? If you give a quick answer you may say one or two, but if you stop to count them up you may be surprised at the number. They may include meetings involved with clinical service, training, audit, management and several other aspects of your work. When I worked as a full time general practitioner, for example, I belonged to a partnership, a medical team, a clinical team, a trainers’ group and several more teams—probably about a dozen in all. Given how much time we all spend in team meetings, it is surprising how little attention has been given to running them well, and making sure they work effectively. Over the last few years I have become increasingly involved in facilitating good teamwork and in teaching others to do so. My interest in this began serendipitously. I was already involved in running courses in reflective supervision. We were struck how many problems brought by the people who attended were about the difficulty of teamwork. We regularly heard of teams where there were simmering disagreements or open conflict. Some doctors told us they found it hard to change the way their own teams worked, and they did not know of any resources to help them. As a result, we set up a facilitation service for teams of clinical teachers as an extension of our work. Our service has now given input to at least one unit in most hospitals in the National Health Service in London, and we have had worked with almost every specialty you can name. One of the most crucial factors in ensuring teams function well seems how well their meetings are run, and whether they provide a proper forum for airing differences constructively. This may sound obvious, but doctors often feel disenchanted with their teams because meetings are so poorly organised or unfocused. People drift in and out, one or two people always dominate, the discussion rambles on, and no-one minds very much if a meeting is cancelled. As a result, the overall morale of the team suffers. By contrast, everyone in a good team meeting has a clear idea of why they are there, what the meeting is expected to achieve, and what they are expected to contribute. In other words, good meetings are primarily about addressing tasks and not about talk for its own sake, or letting personal differences take over the discussion.