“Effective Communication and Conflict Resolution”

Description: Underlying conflict, and ineffective communication is the way that a negative culture generally manifests itself. Pair that with the conflict-avoidant nature of most people, and you have a recipe for an unhappy workplace. This workshop is engaging and informative. It can be tailored to managers or all staff. Ultimately, the goal is to provide information and techniques to communicate more effectively, and a process for conflict resolution; both between employees and with clients.

Length: 3 – 4 hours

Appropriate Audience: Management or Support Staff

“Practice Culture: It’s a Top Down Thing”

Description: What impacts practice culture? How can I measure it? How, and how long does it take to change? All of these questions and more are addressed in this workshop. A risk assessment will be provided for the attendees to see how at risk their practice’s culture is. In addition, they will be shown how to measure their current practice’s culture; much like bloodwork for kidney disease. “What can be measured can be changed”.

Length: 3 -4 hours

Appropriate Audience: Management

“Compassion Fatigue: The What, Why and How”

Description: A common term that is used in practices, but grossly misunderstood. What is Compassion Fatigue (CF), why does it happen and how can it be managed? Attendees will learn quickly through this workshop that there is no avoiding CF. Instead, we must approach it from an “anticipating and managing” standpoint. Like many other things, it’s important to be able to measure levels of CF with oneself, and employees. Tools and resources will be provided to drive the change the practice is looking to make.

Length: 3 – 4 hours

Appropriate Audience: Support Staff

“Making Cents of Inventory Management”

Description: How do I use my software to make inventory management easier? Why are my COGS out of control? How do I decide how much to order, and when? Inventory management is a challenging, and sometimes overwhelming thing. There is a difference between ordering/selling, and actually managing your inventory. Many practices are making the same mistake over and over, tying up tens-of-thousands-of-dollars on the shelf. The K.I.S.S. principle is used often to focus time and energy on the items that have the biggest impact. Then that information is used to show attendees how to utilize basic parts of their software to make them more efficient.

Length: 3 – 4 hours

Appropriate Audience: Management

“Being Proactive with Suicide Awareness and Prevention”

Description: Unfortunately, the veterinary industry has become known for the rate of suicides with veterinarians. The eye-opening part is that the rate of suicide is very similar with support staff. Why is this an issue in our industry, and what can we do about it? We must become proactive, rather than reactive with this topic. Parallels will be drawn to answer many questions, and then resources will be provided to help become more proactive in practice.

Length: 3 hours

Appropriate Audeince: Management or Staff

“Common HR Mistakes that Could Cost Your Practice BIG”

Description: It’s a litigious world we live in. Clients are no longer threatening to take you to the BBB, but rather they are resorting to law suits and social media blasting. Likewise, disgruntled employees are reporting employers to OSHA, state labor boards and even the DEA. Even more so they are threatening lawsuits for discrimination. How can you protect yourself in this time? There are some pretty basic mistakes practices continue to make, and aren’t even aware of.

Length: 3 hours

Appropriate Audience: Management

 “I am comfortable talking about many different areas of Practice Management and Leadership and am happy to talk about any topics that might not be listed.”

Carol Hurst

“Having Difficult Conversations”

Description: It is a product of our positions that we need to be prepared to have difficult conversations. How do you approach these productively and with empathy? This isn’t just about the conversation itself – which is important, but it also includes fostering a culture where open dialogue is safe.

Length: 1-2 hours

Appropriate Audience: Leadership but also can be geared for owners/associates

“Client Service 2.0 – From Good to Great” – Workshop

Description: What happens when you have a solid team with a defined structure surrounding Client Service? Overall, they perform well and you have happy clients. How do you take them to the next level? Both over the phone and in person. This examines the Cycle of Service and what touch points can really add polish. Works best when the team can give input on current processes and be engaged in a healthy discussion.

Length: 3-4 hours | can also be made into a 1-2 hour presentation on cycle of service only

Appropriate Audience: CSRs with their team leads

“Wellness in the Veterinary Practice” – Workshop

Description: As the knowledge about Compassion Fatigue gains momentum, where do we take the conversation next? Let’s take a look at what we can do about from a practice standpoint. There are resources available to help educate your team and we can provide them. What are the systems that the practice can put into place to help build resiliency into the culture? We provide a road map to make this easy.

Length: 2-4 hours

Appropriate Audience: Entire practice team

“Coaching Done Right”

Description: Too often the method of “coaching” our team looks like annual performance reviews. This is short-sighted in many ways and unfair to both the employees who we are trying to cultivate and ourselves. What is a good frequency to coach? What are the differences between formal and informal coaching? What does our training system look like that aids in being the backbone of some of these conversations?

Length: 1-2 hours

Appropriate Audience: Leadership but can also be geared for owners

“How to Train the Trainer”

Description: Sink or swim, right? Throw ’em into the fire! That’s how I was taught. These sentiments still float around our practices when it comes to training support staff. The only thing this cultivates is resentment and far more individuals who sink when they could be swimming – and winning for your practice. Learn the basics of the EDGE Method and how it can be used in your practice to ensure you have a group of highly trained team members. What methods are out there for making training easier?

Length: 1 hour

Appropriate Audience: Anyone in the position to direct those who will be training others.

“Training New Leaders” – New Program

Description: The idea behind having a team lead is sound. Elevating a responsible, capable person who is an expert at their role to help with the day to day leadership duties that come with running a hospital. The thing that we don’t often think about is how to train, cultivate and elevate these individuals. They are already highly skilled in their role. So, what leadership concepts should -they- be learning? Where does the progression of their leadership training lead? Learn the fundamental concepts that should be taught and what points to consider for building a roadmap to training.

Length: 1-2 hours

Appropriate Audience: Those new to leadership or PM’s who may be training Team Leads

“Associate Vet Leadership” – New Program

Description: They are the bright, highly educated additions to our team. They bond clients, heal animals all within a day’s work. Have we ever thought about what their leadership development looks like? Oh wait, you didn’t know they were leaders of your practice? Of course you did. I bet they don’t always consider themselves leaders. Being a positive role model to the team, upholding clinic policies and knowing what to say when a support staff member divulges something sensitive are all concepts that we need to be talking about and teaching, not just assuming they will pick up. Do they have (and are held to) leadership expectations within the hospital as part of their individual growth?

Length: 1-2 hours

Appropriate Audience: Leadership, owners and associate vets.