Gosh I get tired of hearing about cross training. Not because it’s a bad thing, as it can be quite important, but because it’s just simply done all wrong in most every instance I have ever seen.
The idea of cross training says if someone is gone, sick, fired, leaves, on vacation or whatever other scenarios you can come up with, then other team members would be able to fill in and they know what to do and how to do it.
This also goes for people being busy, on the phone, with a patient or not available and therefore need someone else to be able to effectively do the job.
I say pfui.
Here’s the reality: if you know how to do everything, you can be darn sure that you are just barely adequate (or maybe even less than) at everything you know. I wouldn’t want you being responsible for anything that I was dependent on knowing I’d be getting someone who was not a master of their role.
Does the quarterback know how to kick the ball or play defense or block? They likely know the principles of these things but they don’t waste their time learning things that aren’t going to bring them to the highest and best use of time.
Besides, not every team member is supposed to be good at every-thing. If they are the best in your practice, then you know without a shadow of a doubt you really haven’t created highly skilled team members at their respective positions – also known as running an amateur operation.
Here are the fallacies of this whole idea…
Expecting people who you hired with specific strengths for a specific position (the right way to do it) to be proficient at things that are outside of their skill-set… breeds frustrated team members.
Creating a team culture where “everything” is “everyone’s” responsibility instead of having real positional ownership and therefore accountability… breeds a chaos of systems.
Yes, of course, you want everyone in the practice to have respect, appreciation and understanding of every other team member’s role. This is a secret to a well-oiled machine of a practice and cohesive teamwork.
You also must have people that become true masters of their crafts for what they do every day all day long. The things that make them so great at their roles and positions would automatically make them fairly poor at other things. This should be okay.
There are key qualities which we talk about often right here of all-star team members and these qualities do not have to be cross trained because they all have them. Skills on the other hand are just that skills; they are developed, practiced and honed. Cross training on these would be a waste of time. You need the ones you need, not the ones someone else needs.
Now, there are things like communication, overcoming objections and so on and so forth that everyone needs to know.
You also want to have each team member within a specific area or department of the practice to be able to be a supportive, helpful and resourceful team member for all the other people there.
That’s how you build depth on your bench and grow into the future. These things are very important for your success and stability.
But – don’t mistake cross training done wrong with cross training done right – and that’s where we’ll pick up next week – all about giving your team the winning advantage.
