022 Vet Med Engagement Meets Efficiency With Bret Canfield

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Bret Canfield is a wealth of knowledge when it comes to improving culture and operations in a veterinary hospital. Today he joined me to discuss his specialty, engagement and efficiency.

What are engagement and efficiency in the workplace?

Bret first describes these buzzwords as what they are not, the maximum result in the minimum time. Efficiency is maximizing every positive and minimizing every negative in any given situation. And the variable is not always time, it can also be waste, cost, culture, etc. Engagement is involving the team in positive, intentional decision-making every step of the way.

Bret stresses to veterinary clinic owners that engagement and efficiency cannot exist without one another, the work together in harmony as a constant aspirational goal. You cannot “fix them”, they are ever evolving and require consistent work.

Improving engagement and efficiency:

Measure things that matter to YOU and YOUR hospital with an efficiency survey, or analyze and break down specific processes.
Start small. Growing and changing is uncomfortable. Engagement requires a full team buy in with intentional gradual change. Close the loop. The measurement is only diagnostic data, what you do with it matters. Think: “Here is the answer, here is what we’re going to do, here are the steps, and here is when I want to see results.”

On a mission to educate the veterinary industry on the beautiful coexistence of engagement and efficiency, Bret has shared he is happy to consult and be the starting place for your clinic. If you’re interested in talking to him, reach out to him via email.