No matter which healthcare CFO you ask, you will no doubt get the same response – they spend the lion’s share of their workweek in meetings. But veteran healthcare CFOs have learned a few valuable lessons on how to make meetings as productive as possible, even if they can’t make them go away.
In a typical week, Mark E. Erath, interim CFO at Parkland Health & Hospital System in Dallas, the former CFO of Geisinger Medical Center in Pennsylvania, and a retired PricewaterhouseCoopers Healthcare partner who worked with hospitals nationwide, frequently finds himself attending meetings eight hours a day – “… which means the other eight hours I get to do my work,” he said.
“Of course, meetings are an important part of teamwork,” he added, “but I think I can safely speak for all of my colleagues, myself and probably everybody in the healthcare industry: The [time spent in meetings] is way too much.”
Unfortunately, meetings are on the rise, said Karen A. Shadowens, director of finance and CFO at West Chester Hospital in West Chester, Ohio.
Shadowens currently spends upwards of 30 hours of every week in meetings, 80 percent of which are called by others. The increase in meetings is driven “by changes in the industry and developing responses to those changes,” she said.
In order to curb meeting overload, Shadowens and Erath suggest:
Distribute materials ahead of time. Too many meeting moderators waste time revisiting what should be the obvious – the basic facts, said Erath. That information should be shared in concise read-aheads prior to the meeting so that everyone shows up informed and ready to act on that information.
“Too much meeting time is spent just trying to report out on basic facts and respond to uncertainties about the facts rather than cutting to the chase,” Erath said. “It’s a symptom of lack of alignment around what the facts are or what the purpose is.”
Keep track of time. Announce when there’s 10 minutes left to the meeting, said Shadowens, and use that time to assign follow-ups to people. Wrapping up a few minutes before the hour is up also allows people to get to their next meeting, she noted.
Maintain control and keep focused. If you’re moderating the meeting, maintain control, Shadowens said, by not allowing digressions during discussion and keeping to a set agenda. Keeping focus means presenting a simple statement of the essential facts and placing those facts in context, then moving to actions by addressing the implications of the facts, said Erath. Answer questions such as: What are we doing about the implications of the facts to enhance our processes and results? What are the responsive actions being taken, aligned with our goals and strategies? What is our performance plan to manage risks? And then wrap by evaluating how the plan will be achieved or how things are progressing towards achieving your goals.
Limit meetings. Only have a meeting if it is essential to meet, and only invite those people that need to be there. “There should be structured quiet periods, or meeting free zones, so that everyone has the ability and time to do real work and time to process information and act between meetings,” Erath said.