Evolution of your practice ethos

We do not define our practice culture by posters on the wall, and provisions of sweet treats in the break room (though treats are always welcome).

Culture is the result of every move we make within our teams: the sum of our decisions, discussions, priorities, the things we say and crucially, don’t.

Many of us have witnessed rapid change within the profession, from a recruitment crisis to issues with retention, public perception and concerns driven by the increasing cost of living. We have undergone expansion and, in some places, consolidation: inevitably changing our team rosters and job roles. Thus, we are forced to recalibrate our strategies to cope with the changing landscape of veterinary care, but we must also allocate time to reassess our practice culture.

Your culture is influenced by your fundamental values as individuals, and how this translates into the way you work. If you assume that your values persist through upheaval in your organisations, you are at risk of losing coherence, sight of your priorities and stability within the team.

When values drift

Significant change, be it rapid expansion, branch consolidation, or even necessary staff departures, introduces new people, new processes, and new tensions. Without dedicated intervention, the original practice culture will drift.

Your team’s values (how they behave) may stop aligning with the business’s new needs or priorities (such as service offerings and clinical focus).

This requires an active, repeatable framework to ensure your values are robust enough to guide the business through continuous evolution.

Building the framework

Let’s implement a process that makes cultural stability a defined, clinical objective, not a vague expectations.

What do we stand for now?

Start by confirming your core values. BVA and numerous SPVS resources and past congress presentations highlight that a successful culture requires communicated and promoted values to improve teamwork and morale.

Bring your current team together and ask: “Based on our actions and our current business goals, what do we actually value?” This must be a dialogue that reviews the gap between your current, published values and the daily reality on the ground.

Embed these reaffirmed values into your recruitment process, new protocols and for want of a better phrase, behavioural expectations of all team members. Every major procedural change (for example, new out-of-hours arrangements) should be vetted against your core values to ensure they are being lived up to.

Culture consistency audit

Culture is a muscle that needs exercise. You must actively and regularly monitor and review it, particularly after a period of organisational flux.

The consistency check: use a dedicated, regular value reaffirmation session to review a success or failure through the lens of your values. For example, ask: “Did this outcome align with our value of ‘patient-first care’?” This creates transparency and ownership across the team, particularly if maintaining a “no-blame” stance.

Remember, this is not a top-down lecture. By encouraging the team to “take stock and work out what needs to change”, you empower them to raise concerns and generate solutions, which is vital for engagement and psychological safety.

Ambulatory adaptation: making it work

The biggest hurdle for farm and equine ambulatory practice is gathering a team that is rarely in the same room. Your cultural check-in mechanism can therefore be mobile and adaptable:

• Morning huddles: use brief, 10-minute pre-day team huddles (in person or virtual) focused solely on one value or one recent “niggle”. This allows for frequent, low-commitment check-ins that don’t drag.
• Go digital: utilise shared digital whiteboards or short, anonymous surveys to gather feedback on how well the team feels the practice is currently living up to its values, before the in-person discussion. This can cut through any awkwardness associated with speaking up and lead to more focused agenda points.

Stability through adaptive culture

By committing to the active, consistent realignment of your practice culture, you achieve two critical goals. First, you ensure your colleagues feel secure and heard during periods of significant organisational change. Second, you guarantee that your practice’s ethos remains a driver of business success, not a casualty of growth, consolidation, or transition.

Proactive cultural recalibration is not just “good HR”; it is a clinical and financial necessity.

• This article appeared in Vet Times (2025), Volume 55, Issue 45, Page 34