Incentives always work. The challenge is ensuring that your incentives motivate the exact behaviors that you want to occur. People, in general, will always analyze and make decisions based upon their perception of what benefits them. If you aren't accomplishing what you want in some aspect of your practice, examine the incentives for each party involved.
In building and growing a successful team, it is important to provide incentives that align the interests of the practice with those of your team. When you are succcessful at aligning the incentives for all parties, your team and business will thrive. When you fail to align the incentives to benefit all parties, chaos and friction often are the result for a business.
When you set goals or objectives for your practice, define the objectives very clearly, and then work with your team to construct a plan to accomplish those objectives. Your team will let you know if there are conflicting objectives or incentives. Continually ask yourself how the owner, the veterinary associate, staff, and the customer will each view what you're proposing. Examine in detail how each stakeholder will view your plan. Then, ask a representative of each group to give you input. In this manner, you can build a plan and ensure that the incentives are likely to motivate the behaviors you want to occur.
Remember, incentives always work! Align the incentives.
