A successful planning meeting isn’t just about reviewing the numbers and setting goals. It’s about engaging your team, fostering collaboration, and creating a shared vision for the year ahead. Here’s how to plan, execute, and follow up on an impactful 2025 kickoff meeting that energizes your team and sets the stage for success.
Set Clear Goals Beforehand
- How to Do It: Define practice-wide objectives ahead of the meeting, such as increasing patient retention, launching a new service, or improving operational efficiency. Share these goals with your team a week in advance to give them time to think about how they can contribute.
- Engaging Step: Use a pre-meeting survey to gather team input on what they believe should be prioritized in 2025. Include questions like, “What’s one thing we can do to improve patient care?”
Celebrate 2024 Wins
- How to Do It: Start with a review of the past year’s achievements. Highlight both individual and team contributions that made a difference. Use visuals, such as a slideshow or video, to make this moment more engaging.
- Engaging Step: Create a “Wall of Wins” where team members can write down or share their proudest moments from 2024.
Define Your Practice’s Vision and Mission for 2025
- How to Do It: Reaffirm your practice’s mission and values, then articulate a compelling vision for 2025. This should include where the practice is headed and why each team member’s role is crucial.
- Engaging Step: Host a brainstorming session where team members contribute ideas for the vision. Write these on a large board and build consensus around the top priorities.
Involve the Entire Team in Goal-Setting
- How to Do It: Break the team into smaller groups and assign each a specific category, such as patient experience, clinical care, or marketing. Have each group identify 1-2 goals for their category.
- Engaging Step: Use collaborative tools like sticky notes or an interactive app (e.g., Miro or Jamboard) to visually map out the team’s ideas in real time.
Focus on Time Management and Prioritization
- How to Do It: Organize goals into a timeline that spans the year. Assign milestones to each quarter to keep the team focused and prevent overwhelm.
- Engaging Step: Use a giant wall calendar to visually plot out major initiatives. Give team members color-coded markers to identify key dates and deadlines.
Address Challenges and Solutions
- How to Do It: Encourage open dialogue about challenges faced in 2024. Frame this discussion as an opportunity to find solutions rather than assign blame.
- Engaging Step: Host a “Breakthrough Session,” where the team divides into groups and tackles one major challenge, presenting actionable solutions at the end.
Incorporate Training and Professional Growth
- How to Do It: Identify areas where the team wants to grow, such as clinical skills, communication, or leadership. Create a plan to invest in continuing education and certifications.
- Engaging Step: Ask each team member to share a professional goal for 2025. Offer a small reward (e.g., a gift card) for the most creative or ambitious goal.
Plan for Technology and Process Improvements
- How to Do It: Review current workflows and identify areas where new technology or refined processes can enhance efficiency.
- Engaging Step: Conduct a hands-on demo of new technology (e.g., digital scanners or patient communication software) and let team members try it out during the meeting.
Create a Patient-Centered Focus
- How to Do It: Brainstorm ways to enhance the patient experience, from the waiting room to follow-up care.
- Engaging Step: Role-play common patient scenarios to identify pain points and brainstorm solutions as a group.
End with a Motivational Boost
- How to Do It: Close the meeting with an inspiring message or story that ties into your practice’s mission. Thank the team for their contributions and encourage them to feel proud of their roles.
- Engaging Step: Surprise the team with a small token of appreciation, such as personalized thank-you notes, a team lunch, or fun swag (e.g., practice-branded gear).
Follow Up and Keep the Momentum
- Summarize the meeting with a document outlining the key goals, action items, and deadlines. Share it with the team within a few days.
- Schedule monthly check-ins to review progress and celebrate small wins along the way.
Partner with Bryant Consultants for Your Best Year Yet
Planning an effective kickoff meeting takes time, strategy, and skill, but you don’t have to do it alone. At Bryant Consultants, we specialize in helping dental practices create actionable strategies that align team talents, maximize time, and achieve practice goals.
Let us help you kick off 2025 with a powerful planning session that drives results and boosts team morale!
- Call us today: (877) 768-4799
- Visit our website
- Email us: info@bryantconsultants.com
Together, we can make 2025 your most successful year yet. Your practice’s potential is limitless—let’s start building the future you envision!
Hollie Bryant-Foust
CEO & Founder
