Crazy Staff Meetings

WELCOME  to  some   Crazy Days with the Fiddleheads!!

Dr. Chuck and I have been "practicing" our leadership skills, for 20 year. It's not something that comes without attention to detail. In that light, Chuck and I have made a point to make our staff meeting exceptionally FUN, instead of a boring or negative drag.

We meet a lot in our office.... as a team and in small groups who work on special projects.

Just today, as a matter of fact (July 14, 2010), during our staff meeting, I was so thrilled with the idea that Lori put forth that I climbed up on the meeting table and walked its length to kiss her on the forehead. Now THAT kind of thing makes a lasting impression!

We try to play some sort of group experience game during almost every meeting, or we watch a funny U-tube or TED video to illustrate important points.

We like to eat together,... There are not enough pages to contain photos of all the meals we have shared as a team. I especially love this pic because you can see a couple who are very dear to us in this photo: Al and Barb Ward. They are the seniors in the foreground of this photo sitting across from each other. Al and Barb have cleaned our office for us for 23 years,.. And STILL DO! They were 64 year old when they started looking after us and this big old house. (You can do the math on how youthful they are now!) They don't look a day older than when we first met them. (LOVE YOU BARB AND AL!)

A Fall 2010 meeting  - This was a test of "teamwork"!

Many of our best fun has come annually when we have to put together our surprise 2-3 hour OSHA/Office Emergency Planning meetings. These meetings, in particular, can be torture to sit through if we don't change up the setting. We never miss and opportunity to shake things up a bit. We always pick a theme and incorporate this important review with some kind of game: 

One year we played "OSHA Clue", where we all dressed up as the characters from the Clue Game, and then we made a game board that was the exact layout of our office. We played the game in character, with dental related items as "weapons", and had a ball. To take your turn you had to answer an OSHA or safety question.

Mr. Green, Nurse Ratchet, and Mrs. Peach	The elaborate game board we made in the layout of our 154 year old office.

Another year we played  made up an elaborate "OSHA Jeopardy" game and we dressed as the characters in that TV show. (Dr. Chuck was a wigged Alex Trubec) We spent the afternoon yelling out things like "Sharps safety for five hundred!" and "Infection control eye wear for a thousand!". What a hoot!

Another year we played  an OSHA game that we invented much like "Who Wants To Be a Millionaire?" Now THAT was too Funny!


We also close the office for a whole day, once a year, for a business planning meeting where we review our budget, plan for expenses and new technology, and generally brainstorm to improve all our systems. These meetings always have a wild, funny theme to keep things light and moving along:

We have spent a day doing our planning, while playing our way through a game we invented a lot like the antics on the  "Survivor" show.  We've spent a day together on our pontoon boat having this meeting. We've made field trip to places like our local hospital cafeteria to get inspiration,.. etc... etc..

The following photos are  a montage of many of these wacky and productive days that our team has shared. Enjoy!....

The Ropes Course to end all ropes courses.	Halloween at the dentist office in 1989!.. BeforeOSHA "suggested attire".
Sing-alongs to Dr. Lynda's guitar and her mixed-up dental songs. She's "written" tunes like "House With No Pain"  (Horse With No Name) and  an anthem to the aging dentists - "When I'm 64" (Beatles of the same name)
Untying a human knot.... Ever think that something like fixing the copier, or getting everyone to a meeting on time, feels a bit like this?!	Dr. Chuck tries  a new look at our "Hats Off" celebration.
Staff Christmas Card some years back.	??? Who can remember???
Dr. Ron Kaye, whose Dental Practice we took over in 1989, at our open house. (And whose patients were the greatest gift to Fiddlehead's origins.)	NO!... Those are not our real teeth! We made our entire team a set of huge choppers for some reason.... Who knows!  ;)
The team "tower building contest"... 3 teams of Fiddleheads were challenged to build the highest tower they could using only 8.5X11 sheets of paper - nothing else. This tower stood right in front of our check-in desk for 3 days, undisturbed, and not one patient even asked about it!... We guessed they had come to expect the unexpected at Fiddlehead!
FOOD seems to be a common theme in many of our get-togethers.... Everything from Mexican Night, to custom cookies baked by team members.