Questioning the Status Quo in your Dental Practice
A friend of mine has an incredible family recipe for baked ham that was handed down from generation to generation. The first instruction was to cut 2″ off one end of the ham. For years, according to my friend, these instructions were followed without question.
When the recipe was handed down to the newest member of the family, she asked why the 2″ was to be cut-off. Did it add to the flavor? Reduce cooking time? It wasn’t until the surviving great grandmother was consulted, that the answer was revealed. “My cooking pan wasn’t big enough so I always had to cut off 2″ to make it fit” was the answer.
How many of your current policies, begun years ago at a lower practice volume, no longer serve you?
Maybe all you need to do to increase your production is to buy a bigger pan! Is it time to revise your new patient process? Is it time to improve your patient “hand-off” process? Can portions of your treatment planning process be delegated to others on your team? What’s adding extra steps, wasted motion, or needless activity to your mission of providing quality care and service?
Questioning your status quo can be one of the most important aspects to growing your practice. If everything you currently do is sacred and immune to inspection, you are a prime candidate for practice stagnation!
Continued Success!
Art Deden
www.vista-practice.com
You Have to Name it to Claim it…
No knowing what you precisely want is not OK. If you cannot name, with great specificity, what it is you want, you will never be able to claim it. If you cannot decide which movie to see, what meal to order or what to wear, is it any wonder you find it hard to identify your goals? Indecision creates inaction. Inaction leads to results you don’t want.
Imagine, you put an ad in the paper offering to sell your car for $6,000. What do you think the chances are that somebody will look at it and say, “Gosh! This is a really good car. I don’t think they’re asking enough. Let me offer them $8,000?” Sound crazy? The lesson here is that if you don’t ask for enough, the most you will ever get is what you asked for.
I can’t count the number of times I asked a dentist what they wanted and they responded with,” I want my practice to be successful, my team to be happy and my patients to be healthy.” It is a commonsense answer right? But as far as a vision, it is destined for failure.
Consider a practice that is focused on, energized by, and defined in relation to goals; then contrast it with a practice that doesn’t know what is missing or doesn’t know what they want. Naming what you want means you can begin to guide your practice like a ship toward a harbor light.
Tags: dental practice management, improving your dental practice, Leadership, practice development & growth, Practice Vision
What is NEW in your Dental Practice?
Seems most every dentist is on the constant look-out for the latest this or the newest that. This constant search for the next gadget or gimmick-of-the-week alarms me. Does it alarm you? Far too many dentists are ignoring the fact that the solutions we seek are already within us. I know what you’re thinking…”a practice management consultant who earns his income from selling dentists on hiring his firm is telling me that I already have the answers within me? Must be an imposter!”
I assure you I have been accursed of being a lot of things…an imposter is NOT one of them. But hang with me here…when we look for “new stuff” it is almost always because we are ignoring the true causes of our problems and, instead, simply treating the symptoms hoping the problems will go away. Hope is never a successful strategy!
Truth is, the factors that are causing your and your team problems don’t reside outside the four walls of your practice. It is not the economy, your patients, the ADA, insurance carriers, or the political party in power. The future of your practice rests on your ability to read the signs and adapt your practice appropriately. The problems lie inside your practice.
Many dentists would rather place blame for their poor performance than question how they are contributing to the challenges they face. How about you…is a healthy does of introspection due?
Continued Success
Art Deden
www.vista-practice.com
Implement the Four D’s in your Dental Practice
| A lot of practice management consultants I know tend to over-analyze things. Go to five consultants and you get five different ideas on how to handle cancellations, how to present treatment, how to handle poor performing team members, etc. All well meaning of course, but they tend to make the business of dentistry too complex. The joke is that if management consultants taught sex education, it would be the end of civilization as we know it. Too complicating!Want some advice that is NOT complicating? If you want to achieve sustained success (is there any other kind?), follow what I call the Four D’s. What are the Four D’s you ask? Desire. I always talk about desire as an important ingredient in achieving success. “Want” power is as important as “Will” power when it comes to accomplishing your goals. Many dentists have achieved their dreams and so can you. But you really need to “Want it.” What are your dreams? How badly do you want it? What’s on your “Want” list?
Dedication. Dedication is turning desire into action, which requires a lasting commitment. Football coach Lou Holtz said, “If you don’t make a total commitment to whatever you are doing, then you start looking to bail out the first time the boat starts leaking.” How dedicated are you to hitting your goals? What are you willing to do in order to achieve them? Are you willing to pay the price? Determination. Everyone wants to be successful, but those who achieve success are steeled by an unwavering resolve. They are self-motivated – the kind of motivation that fuels athletes like Kobe Bryant, Tiger Woods, Derek Jeter, and Kurt Warner. Early in his career, Jack Nicklaus would hit golf balls for hours, well into dark. “Let’s go, Jack,” his wife would call. “I’m hungry.” With hands so sore they bled from all the practice, Nicklaus would reply, “So am I!” Just how determined are you to break-through those barriers that hold you back? Discipline. It means doing what you have to do when you need to do it, whether you want to or not. Self-discipline – the only kind of discipline – is action oriented. It doesn’t procrastinate and it doesn’t make excuses. On a scale from 1 to 10 (10 being the highest), what is your level of discipline when pursuing your goals? How do you score as a team? There you have it: Desire, Dedication, Determination, and Discipline.
If you looking for some valuable tools that will help you achieve the goals you have for yourself, your practice, your team and your patients, without all that complexity…learn to put the Four D’s into action immediately. You won’t be disappointed! Continued Success! Art Deden |
Are you a Clingy Dentist?
One way some dentists keep their practices small is to overly concern themselves with getting patients to like them. This is often motivated by two unhelpful beliefs:
1. If patients like me they will more likely follow my recommendations.
2. If patients like me, I can influence them without taking an uncomfortable or unpopular stand.
Don’t fall for it!
Showing up as a chameleon, anxious to please others and avoid confrontation, is hard work. Changing colors with every patient, carefully editing every word, diagnosing only what you think the patient will accept so not to ruffle any feathers is practicing Cowardly Dentistry.
You know the truth. Be bold! Walk in confidence! To be respected you must risk rejection. To attract you must repel. To lead patients you must use your compass, not theirs.
Absolutely be friendly. But be careful that you don’t cross the line between being friendly and being friends.
Continues Success
Art Deden
www.vista-practice.com
