4Blocks: Managers (Office Administrators)

4Blocks

The Office Administrator acronym is FC3 — Face-to-Face, Communication, Coaching, Command. As an OA, you handle many tasks, duties, and situations each day, but you know you’re doing your part to help patients and the whole team when you:

• F2 — Set an example by having extraordinarily constructive interactions with patients and team members, and maintain and facilitate warm and open communication with and between the whole team
• C — Serve as collector, organizer, conduit, and triage for all information and communication across all departments in the practice
• C — Work with the team to supply clear, equitable, actionable feedback on their performance, and supply resources for their improvement
• C — Initiate and manage the dissemination, application, interpretation, and troubleshooting of company Vision and constituent policies

F2 — Face-to-Face

Everyone in the practice needs to practice good Face-to-Face. If we connect warmly on a human level to establish trust and open communication, we can give exceptional care to patients and support each other as a team. As an OA and a leader in the practice, you must also serve as an example of how to do this. Their Face-to-Face sets the tone for the culture of the whole practice. If they can form and perform their roles in supportive relationships with their team, they properly provide and administer the basis of the bottom-up structure that supports the team that supports the patient.

Some 4Block tasks centered around F2=Face-to-Face that you will master as an OA:

• Staff support
• Patient interaction
• Doctor support

Sample EAs:

• Each time you laugh with a team member, swipe.
• Each time you have a positive, smiles-and-laughter interaction with a patient, swipe.
• Every time you positively influence and guide a team member in their Face-to-Face, swipe.
• Every time you evangelize the practice outside of the office, swipe.

C — Communication

As an OA, you gather and process information to assemble and maintain an overhead view of the whole company, and assist the whole team in their roles by sharing the clarity of this perspective. Giving up control allows you to lead, and no one feels comfortable giving up control until they have good communication and interface with their teams.

Some 4Block tasks centered around C=Communication that you will master as an OA:

• Perform ongoing mediation of communication between patients, staff, and doctors
• Initiate and assist in problem-solving with patients, staff, and doctors
• Serve as a go-to knowledge source for company Vision, policies, and their rationale

Sample EAs:

• Every time you use an individual’s Strengths Tools (Kolbe, DISC, Forte) to enhance a communication with that individual, swipe.
• Every time you work as a management team and utilize your combined Strengths to adapt and manage a situation within the practice, swipe.
• Every time you clarify an issue with a Doc and identify the “hat” the Doc wears within the particular situation, swipe.

C — Coaching

As an OA, you understand the Vision of the company, its constituent policies, and their rationale. You are aware of the status of the whole practice and can communicate your clear understanding of benchmarks and success criteria for all practice roles. For this reason, you are uniquely equipped to regularly review the performance of the team and deliver clear, actionable feedback. Coaching is one of the primary responsibilities of these authority figures — it can be hard to find time for, but it’s important that time is in fact made for it.

Some 4Block tasks centered around C=Coaching that you will master as an OA:

• Working with staff in areas that need improvement and helping staff understand the “why”
• Giving objective feedback consistent with each role’s 4Blocks
• Working with mentors and the rest of the team to gather and share information to facilitate the development of new efficiencies and best practices

Sample EAs:

• Every time you respond to a teachable growth comment on GC, swipe.
• Every time you respond to a team member’s GC in real time, swipe.
• Every time you consider a team member’s personal situation as a factor in an interface or decision, swipe.

C — Command

As leaders of the practice, you are responsible for ensuring that each department and team member can execute their roles to accomplish the Vision of the company. You keep role expectations and procedures clear and practicable, and work to ensure full-team participation in your policies. You ameliorate any emergent challenges the team faces in the process of trying to take care of patients. Command is not coercive — it is creating the ability to be in command of each day’s performance. Relationships and communication are the basis of that capability to synchronize, and coaching supplements the abilities of each team member functioning in their component roles.

Some 4Block tasks centered around C=Command that you will master as an OA:

• Coordinating mentoring efforts to present an organized effort the team respects and uses as a resource
• Working with staff, mentors, and owners to analyze and constantly improve KPIs and metrics to ensure the review rubric equitably and practicably connects team performance to patient outcomes, compensation, and the bottom line

Sample EAs:

• For every clarification with a team member you deliver without owner’s input, swipe.
• For every event with a positive impact on Net Revenue, swipe.
• When you recognize a team member for a specific positive contribution, swipe.
• Every time you put dedicated effort into an event that has direct positive impact on the culture of the entire team, swipe.
• Every positive interaction with a mentor centered on their 4Block roles, swipe.