Whilst the government has announced there will be changes within the NHS and no doubt these will have an impact upon GP surgeries, I should imagine there are more pressing issues for surgeries to address immediately after lock down.
Practice Managers will want to review this whole period and assess what will be required in the “new normal” and want answers to questions such as:-
• As a surgery how well did we cope? What could we have improved upon?
• Of the many changes to our working practices what would we like to keep, perhaps tweak or indeed discard altogether?
• How is morale within the surgery? What can we do to improve things? How should we celebrate our successes?
Perhaps there is a feeling of wanting to rebuild the team, to allow people to engage in face to face interaction in a completely different setting to that of the day to day work place, for people to “let their hair down” in a safe environment – to rediscover how valuable those daily interactions can be – to have some fun after such a testing period.
This is not to say you aren’t able to combine this with discussing work related issues. Getting this balance between work and fun is key to achieving your outcomes and having a successful away day.
For us, it is the time the Practice Manager would like us to allocate between our fun motivational sessions, “Discovering Potential” and “Facing Challenges” and the “Have Your Say” discussion element of the day that is so important.
Something we are often asked is, “Would you be prepared to design an away day for just the senior management team, e.g. partners?” Of we could, but first of all we like to explain the benefits of working with the whole team and over the years we have found the best answers come when the whole team are involved.
For example one of the questions we like people to discuss is “One thing about your working day you would like the Clinical, Administrative and Reception team to know that would make your day easier.” We have discovered that not only does this produce some great ideas but it also develops a greater empathy within the team for the demands each person faces on a daily basis.
We would suggest that before booking up an activity, a meal out or any one of a number of available options you first of all take a very careful look at your desired outcomes from such an intervention, maybe an away would hit the spot.
