During a recent brainstorming session with a dental team, we sat down and analysed some key issues in their dental practice.
We used a big whiteboard to draw out a 3×3 set of boxes, very much like a tic-tac-toe board.
Across the top we labelled the columns from left to right:
- What are we doing now?
- What changes do we need to facilitate this?
- What would be the result that would make ALL happy?
Obviously, we answered these questions in the order of #1, then #3, and then #2.
The lesson here is:
If we know where we are starting from [Column #1], and we know where we want to go to [Column #3], then we can work out the means and the ways to get there [Column #2].
Down the left-hand side we labelled the three rows, from top to bottom as:
- Owner[s]
- Dentist[s]
- Team
What we found as we worked through the issues at this office was that the results that the practice needed to achieve to make everybody there happy were not achievable at all due to the current behaviours of the owners, the dentists, and the staff.
The owners, the dentists, and the team members all knew that for the dental practice to be successful and for everybody there to be happy, the practice needed to achieve two things:
- An increase in daily, weekly and monthly revenue collections
- Full appointment books
And the owners, the dentists, and the team members all knew that while ever the dental practice had inconsistent bookings and fluctuations in collections, the practice would always be operating under stress and duress.
What we consistently see in most dental practices is that there are many decisions and choices made by everybody in the practice that are not in the best interests of the success of those dental practices.
And while ever these poor choices continue to be made, the results for any dental practice will be fluky at best. But mostly the results will be poor, compared to the true potential.
The self-inflicted failure of dental practices to reach their true potential is an absolute tragedy.
As an outsider looking on, these results I observe are distressing to me.
Do you remember that scene in the movie “FOREST GUMP” where young Forest runs so hard that he breaks his callipers, and in so doing releases himself to a much greater potential?
That same image of achievement of potential is indeed possible for a dental practice when team members, dentists, and owners, as a whole, release themselves from limiting beliefs and limiting behaviours.
Albert Einstein said:
“Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.”
That’s kind of harsh.
Blunt.
And harsh.
But it is true.
Because without change, nothing changes.
The definition of insanity is repeatedly doing the same thing over and over, but expecting a different result each time.
Only with a change of thinking, will things change.
The good news is that dental practices don’t need to reinvent the wheel.
All they need to do to improve their results is change their limiting beliefs and replace their limiting behaviours.
The second sentence of the Einstein quote is:
“The mediocre mind is incapable of understanding the man who refuses to bow blindly to conventional prejudices and chooses instead to express his opinions courageously and honestly.”
To achieve, to truly achieve, you need to be courageous.
Discard your limiting beliefs.
Sail off to your horizons.
Make the changes you need to make to achieve true greatness.
Remember, if it has been done, it can be done.
Make the results you want happen.
Because those results will be worth the effort.
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