Communicating Through the Noise
Strategies for improving internal communication using a multi-modal approach. What are the tools and techniques we can use to communicate with our teams?
What do we want or need to communicate? When should we communicate? How do we communicate? What boundaries should we observe with communication tools and what are the written and unwritten rules of communication etiquette?
In this talk, Mike Falconer will answer these questions and more including the advantages and drawbacks of multiple different types of communication and how to break through the everyday noise and distraction of our world.
Numbers for Vets who Don’t like Numbers
A basic introduction to the numbers behind practice management for students, technicians, and doctors. Learn why certain numbers are important, what they are, and which ones to ignore. How to interpret numbers, and make numbers work for you. Demystify terms like gross, net, EBITDA, profit, loss, average transaction, markup, and understand their relationship to what you do every day. Use actual practice examples to decode what prices should be and why. Use basic math skills (addition, subtraction, and a little multiplication) to get a grip on the financial side of any veterinary practice. Have actual understanding of the basic metrics that all veterinary hospitals use.
What’s the Worst that could Happen? – Disaster Preparedness
Planning for every type of disaster or emergency is almost impossible. But creating strong policies to allow management and staff to adapt can allow organizations to adapt and respond to unforeseen events. Walk through on how to run disaster preparedness exercises. Learn how to make strong protocols to deal with internal and external disasters and how to test them.
The Myth of Time Management
“They say time is a fire in which we burn.” Time management can seem like a mythical creature, we think we know what it looks like but actually finding it can seem impossible. In this hands on and practical workshop, we will take your actual list of jobs, tasks, and responsibilities and use real world practical strategies to turn them into a workable, and achievable, daily plan. We will also look at the role of delegation, structure, and routine, in personal time management. Touch on the new generation of computer tools, and why SEPs are important. There will also be lots of geeky references.
Three Concerns for the Future of Vet Med (And Three Reasons Not to Care)
Thinking through the convergence of Mid-Level Practitioners, Virtual Visits, and Artificial Intelligence.
A look at “The Problematic Veterinary Triad.” How we face a critical new business model that we are sleepwalking into in the name of making our lives a little easier. We will also look at why it is not all doom and gloom, but that we will have to understand what is coming, and what our role is in limiting the damage that could ultimately be wrought.
Weaponized Reviews
Reviews are here to stay, and that’s a good thing. But how do businesses defend themselves from those who would abuse the review system for their own ends? I offer practical advice on how to handle Yelp bombing campaigns and how to mitigate their effects. We look at how to prevent, and initially respond, to weaponized reviews. We look at preventing and then handling a weaponized review campaign going viral. And we look at other tactics undertaken by Yelp bombers, other than just posting reviews, and coming to a resolution. Strategize about how to tackle and respond to situations using a set of customized guidelines customized for your individual practice. Actual strategies for replying to and mitigating the effects of adverse reviews, online attacks, and abuse of the review system. We will also look at how new tools like A.I. can have a dramatic impact on the Weaponization of reviews for good and bad.
Belonging for Groups and Teams
How can we help make teams feel like teams? How can we use language, belonging cues, and hive mind switches to help? And what does Star Wars, Star Trek, superhero movies, and sports have to do with running a veterinary hospital?
Attendees will take away an understanding of these principles, how they unknowing probably already use some of these principles, and how they can add to their team’s and / or their sense of belonging in practice.
Strife between departments, strife between clients and your practice, and a lack of your team feeling like a team or you a leader feeling dislocated from your team can all be addressed by through understanding of group dynamics. By using belonging cues and hive mind switches, which are already preprogrammed into your brain, to reinforce the valuing of individuals, energy in the relationship exchange, and signaling that relationship will sustain, we can show how these tools work and are used all around us every day and how they can be used inside our hospitals while avoiding the pitfalls of this kind of thinking.
People are People
Today, it is generations; Gen Z vs Millennials vs. Gen X vs. Boomers. It used to be personality types and Myers Briggs. Before that it was Strauss–Howe generational theory. What they all have in common is dubious, if not the complete absence of, scientific basis. When we use these theories, we over simplify individuals and the management of individuals to the benefit of neither. In this talk, attendees will learn the commonalities between all these systems and why they are fundamentally flawed. In addition, we will look at why labeling is harmful and that it is much better to evaluate individuals as just that; individuals.
Getting the Job you Want
How do you impress an employer? What do employers care about? What is the employment process like?
Attendees we take away a deeper understanding of what the interviewing and externship process is all about from the employer’s perspective so they can better prepare themselves for the job of getting a job. More importantly, attendees will learn how to get the job that they want rather than just one they are offered.
Pricing Strategies
How and why do we price products and services? What makes a service different from a product and why should we care? In this talk on how to think about pricing in veterinary medicine, we explore the ideas and concepts behind the setting of prices and all the things to keep in mind when deciding how to charge. Attendees we leave the presentation with an understanding of what a pricing strategy looks like and how to evaluate their own practice circumstances to best match being the veterinarian they want to be with the realities of their business and market.
But I Don’t Want to Use A.I.
Machine Learning, more commonly known as Artificial Intelligence or A.I., is seemingly everywhere. It fills our social media feeds and our news bulletins. A.I. is also in veterinary practices one way or another whether we like it or not. Clients’ are using it, and every PIMS seems to have it built in. But what if you don’t want to use A.I.? What if you have concerns? Ethical, environmental, and operational? Well, have no fear. This talk is for you. Arguments and strategies for the A.I. skeptical or those just wanting to hear an alternative point of view from the managers and salespeople who can’t seem to talk about anything else.
Speaker Bio
Originally hailing from Scotland, Mike Falconer has been a Hospital Administrator for 20 years following a career in entertainment lighting. He recently retired from being the Hospital Administrator for a 15-doctor veterinary practice, and two satellite practices in Las Vegas and being the Recruitment and Externship Director for an alliance of independently owned veterinary practices – V.O.S.
Mike currently writes, speaks, and consults on management, human resources, marketing, and social media. A Top Writer on Quora, winner of the Founders Award from the Uncharted Veterinary Conference, and frequent poster to his own blog, Mike is also involved in various veterinary management, human resources, and marketing organizations.
In his spare time, Mike is a poet, film maker, voracious reader, and theater patron. He splits his time between Las Vegas and Scotland and lives with his dog Miles.
