Power in Numbers

Excellence in the delivery of treatment, service and care to patients can only be achieved through a team effort. 

No matter how effective you are as an individual, your ability to deliver high standards of treatment, service and care is dependent upon a team effort.  This requires an individual commitment to the success of your team and the people you work with.

We can accomplish more as a group than we can as individuals.  Whatever we think is possible in terms of individual accomplishment pales in comparison to what is possible through the committed effort of a focused and aligned team.  What we think is possible cannot take into account the magic that evolves from a competent and committed group of people working together toward a common goal.

"Great people" don't equal "great teams."

                                                         Tom Peters

Setting and Monitoring Production Goals

Setting and monitoring production goals is an important component of any effective practice management system.  At the same time, production is only one of several measurements that is used to determine how well a practice is performing.

It is important to keep in perspective that production represents an outcome of how well a team is utilizing their systems in providing treatment, service and care to patients and not the focus for providing treatment, service, and care to patients. 

It is often assumed that attempting to achieve high levels of productivity necessitates compromising the standards of treatment, service and care provided to patients.  However, from a systems perspective, the opposite is true.   It is important to keep in mind that the implementation of systems enables dental teams to more efficiently and effectively deliver service and care to patients.  This directly results in increased levels of practice productivity along with decreased levels of inefficiency and stress.

Production goals can be used as guidelines to help team members understand how well their systems are performing.    They play an important role in the  monitoring of the effectiveness of practice systems and preventing slippage from occurring.

Solutions to Service Problems

Depending on the type of service issues that surface with your patients, the following customer service strategies can be employed to resolve problem situations and maintain patient loyalty:

Apology / Empathy - Minor service problems or situations where the inconvenience or service problem cannot be corrected.  i.e., Wrong address, wrong billing, being late.

Urgent Effort / Attention - Commit to look into the customer’s complaint or special situation and assure the customer of your intention to resolve the problem.

Problem Resolution - Resolving the problem, offering an acceptable solution to the problem, meeting the customer’s request or requirements, negotiating an acceptable counter offer to the customer’s request, providing the customer with pertinent information.

Compensation - Honoring guarantees and / or similar service commitments.  Correcting the customer’s problem at the expense of the organization. In addition, compensating the customer for any inconvenience by offering a token of appreciation.

Going the Extra Mile - Be sure to follow up with the customer to ensure they are satisfied even once the problem is resolved. Is the customer is satisfied with the final outcome?

Essential Skills

Commitment, hard work and the desire to succeed (although important attributes), in and of themselves are insufficient to achieve quality or excellence in the provision of treatment, service and care to patients. 

Team members must develop knowledge and skills in specific areas in order to achieve high standards and provide for a healthy and productive work environment.  These include:

 1. Job Skills Which Include Systems Management Skills

2. Patient Service & Consultation Skills

3. Leadership and Self Management Skills

4. Problem Solving Skills

5. Teamwork and Communication Skills

The acquisition of knowledge and skills in the areas enables staff members to work together more effectively as well as participate in the ongoing process of improving the systems of your practice.

Acquiring these skills represents learning and growth opportunities that allow team members to contribute value to the workplace and in the process of doing so, guarantee their employ-ability in addition to their employment.

“Learning patience takes a lot of patience!”

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Tim Hansel

Essential Skills

Commitment, hard work and the desire to succeed (although important attributes), in and of themselves are insufficient to achieve quality or excellence in the provision of treatment, service and care to patients. 

Team members must develop knowledge and skills in specific areas in order to achieve high standards and provide for a healthy and productive work environment.  These include:

 1. Job Skills Which Include Systems Management Skills

2. Patient Service & Consultation Skills

3. Leadership and Self Management Skills

4. Problem Solving Skills

5. Teamwork and Communication Skills

The acquisition of knowledge and skills in the areas enables staff members to work together more effectively as well as participate in the ongoing process of improving the systems of your practice.

Acquiring these skills represents learning and growth opportunities that allow team members to contribute value to the workplace and in the process of doing so, guarantee their employ-ability in addition to their employment.

“Learning patience takes a lot of patience!”

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Tim Hansel

Recall System Management – The Unsung Hero Of Dental Practice Performance

About 15 years ago, I realized the attention we had placed on recall system management was not only contributing to hygiene department growth – it was also contributing to dentist chair productivity. I came to understand that recall system effectiveness directly contributed to overall dental practice performance and played a key role in dental teams being able to reach their goals.

From our experience, we also know that recall is often the last system attended to as far as office area responsibilities are concerned. This is not due to neglect but rather due to:

• A shortage of office staff resources.
• Day to day demands of serving patients and dealing with interruptions.
• Dealing with open and broken appointments requiring immediate attention.
• Lack of coordination and prioritization of key office systems.
• Limited systemization or tools to support staff to properly manage recall.

These factors lead to office teams continually being at the effect of their schedules. It is far too common to see schedules managing office teams versus office teams managing their schedules. For many dental office staff, it seems impossible to get ahead of their daily or weekly schedules.

From our perspective, it is possible to break free from this stressful way of working. An effective recall system can provide a fully scheduled hygiene department months in advance. Keep watching this space! We’ll be talking about the actions office teams can take to minimize this type of scheduling stress in our upcoming blog entries.

Good Staff vs Great Staff

What separates the good from the great? A great staff person:

Demonstrates thoroughness, attention to detail and consistency related to job performance (maintains high standards of individual job performance).

Follows the systems and policies of a practice or follows procedures to change and improve them.

Demonstrates the ability to effectively service, interact and communicate with patients (maintains high standards of patient service).

Demonstrates the ability to effectively work with others including providing others with immediate, honest and responsible feedback related to problems, issues or concerns (maintains high standards of teamwork and communication).

Accepts personal responsibility for the quality of their working relationships and the influence of their conduct (communications, actions and attitudes) on the workplace.

Acquires the necessary knowledge and skills to satisfy job expectations and achieve self-development goals.

Maintains high expectations (of self and others) related to the goals, objectives and standards of a practice.

Open and Direct Communication

The effectiveness and growth of a team is dependent upon open, direct and responsible communication.  This type of communication involves dealing with problems, issues and concerns as they occur in a direct and responsible manner.  This serves to minimize the escalation of problems, issues and concerns into conflict which can damage working relationships and undermine the operations of a dental practice.

The timely and effective resolution of problems, issues and concerns among team members is essential to maintaining your productivity and ability to service your patients.

It takes time and effort to develop open, direct and responsible communication in a dental practice – it is not an easy task.  In upcoming blogs we will discuss the steps teams can take to achieve these goals.

10 Things a Leader Shouldn't Do

1.     Not Follow Through With Promises, Commitments and Responsibilities
2.     Cut Corners / Not Pay Sufficient Enough Attention to Detail
3.     Chronically Loose Composure, Overreact or Demonstrate Moodiness
4.     Shuffle Responsibility for Mistakes and Blame Others
5.     Feel Victimized by Situations or Circumstances
6.     2^nd Guess the Intentions, Integrity or Commitment of Others
7.     Allow Issues, Concerns Or Problems To Escalate Into Conflict
8.     Engage in Gossiping, Sub-grouping or Making Others Wrong
9.     Attack Others Under the Premise of Being Honest and Telling the Truth
10.   Refrain from Telling the Truth Because It Is Risky To Do So

"Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anybody expects of you. Never excuse yourself."

                                                                                          Henry Ward Beecher

Leadership and Self Management are Synonymous

Practicing leadership leads to greater freedom and personal satisfaction.  Along with greater freedom and personal satisfaction comes greater responsibility.  Key attributes involved with demonstrating leadership and self management in the dental workplace include:

• Maintaining high expectations of self and others.
• Modeling consistency and follow-through.
• Acknowledgement and correction of mistakes.
• Acting honestly and responsibly when dealing with issues and concerns.
• Accepting personal responsibility for ones conduct and influence on the workplace.

The acceptance of personal responsibility for ones conduct and influence on the workplace has a very real and very powerful impact on the overall success of a dental practice.  This influence in and of itself can hold a practice back or propel a practice forward.

These attributes contribute value to the dental workplace and cannot be dictated as a condition of employment. They are learned and are most powerful when aspired to for their own intrinsic value.

"The most dangerous myth about leadership is that leaders are born.  That’s nonsense; in fact, the opposite is true.  Leaders are made rather than born."
                                                          

                                                                                  Warren Bennis

Believe in Your Team

The quality of communication and teamwork within a dental practice is a direct reflection of team member attitudes towards one another. 

As a result of the accumulation of problem situations over time, it is very easy for teams to develop negative attitudes towards one another without even realizing its occurring.  One day things are great, next day (or so it seems)  not so great as far as working relationships are concerned.  These type of attitude problems are commonplace and can develop into reactive vs intentional working relationships.

In order for teams to create positive work environments and succeed, it is important for team members to develop proactive or intentional attitudes towards one another.  This means that when one starts traveling down the road of losing confidence and trust in your team members, that you take a moment to remember the people you work with in a way that you would want to be remembered should the shoe be on the other foot:

• The people I work with are capable.
• The people I work with are committed.
• The people I work with can handle the truth when responsibly shared.
• The people I work with have something unique and valuable to contribute.
• I can count on the people I work with to provide me support when I need it.

Taking the time to reenforce these views in times of challenge can have a significant influence on the quality of working relationships in a dental practice and a teams ability to succeed.  They play an important role in extending other team members the benefit of the doubt when dealing with problem situations.

Team Spirit

In order for a team to be truly successful, it is important for team members to be committed to the success of their team in addition to their own success.  Successful teams understand that individual aspirations for success and team goals are interdependent and not mutually exclusive.

It takes the individual commitment of a group of people towards a common goal to function and accomplish as a team.  It takes the individual commitment to the success of a team superseding ones individual success, to excel as a team.

From this viewpoint, every team member shares the responsibility of either serving patients (external customers) or providing service to someone who is serving patients (internal customers).

“When a team outgrows individual performance and learns team confidence, excellence becomes a reality.”

                                                                                         Joe Paterno

Self Management Philosophy

Systems of management based upon authority, power and control have exhausted their value and are predisposed to producing mediocre results.  Much of what we want from our work environment and working relationships is reflected in the self management philosophy statement outlined below. 

 “People are creatures of integrity and want to do a good job; belong to something bigger than themselves; break bureaucratic chains of alienation; experience joy in work; and be recognized, trusted, treated with dignity, and delegated authority and accountability.”

“People do not want managers anymore - people want leaders.  And the leaders they want are not the paternalistic or autocratic models.  Many of today’s workers want a manager / leader who adds their own unique perspectives and skills to a self directed - participative environment.  They want a manager who helps, not one who controls.

“Management commitment means fanatical trust in people’s integrity and obsessive intolerance for anything less than the full and continuous application of management principles and practices.”

Making Cultural Change Happen - H David Shuster

The type of working environment reflected in these statements represents an ideal vision of a self managed work environment.  Realizing this type of working environment and the benefits involved represents a responsibility shared by all team members. 

The Changing Role of Leadership

The model of “leadership from the top” is based upon a system of authority, power and control that has exhausted its value and is predisposed to producing mediocre results.

In order for dental practices to be truly successful (provide healthy and productive work environments and high standards of treatment, service and care to patients), leadership is required at all levels of a practice.  Leadership is no longer the sole responsibility of the dentist, office manager or other staff members who have decision making authority.

The opportunity for leadership is not restricted by ones position or authority.  Leadership represents an opportunity for all staff members to grow as individuals and contribute value to the workplace.

The Importance of Policies

Although policies generally have a tendency to be interpreted as authoritarian in nature, if well designed, policies provide guidelines that are vital to the success of a dental practice and the satisfaction of a group of people working together.   Policies represent an integral part of an overall management system. 

Policies provide structure.  Policies serve to operationalize the values and aspirations of a practice in necessary and pragmatic ways.  This includes defining expectations related to individual and team job performance that are necessary to realize a healthy and productive work environment. 

Although it should be expected that team members comply with policies, it should also be understood that policies serve as guidelines which can be improved upon to better meet the evolving needs of a practice.  It is important that teams maintain a constant view towards modifying and improving policies when necessary.

It takes time to learn and implement practice policies.  Mistakes and errors will occur as part of the learning process for all team members.  In order to accommodate for the learning process, it is important that team members adopt an approach that involves a balance between:

• Strong adherence to complying with practice policies and systems.
• High tolerance and flexibility for learning and mistakes.

Policy noun

1. A plan or course of action, guiding principle, or procedure considered expedient, prudent, or advantageous.

2. A plan or course of action intended to influence and determine decisions, actions, and other pertinent matters.

The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Third Edition Copyright © 1992 by Houghton Mifflin Company.

System of Management

The most effective way of managing a dental practice  is with a system, not people.  A system made up of policies and practices that result in effective management as well as ongoing development.

In this system dentists, management and supervisory staff are not responsible for the management of team members. They are responsible for insuring that management policies and practices are followed which includes demonstrating leadership in that regard.  Team members share the same responsibility.

In this system, all team members share equal responsibility for managing themselves in accordance with agreed upon policies and systems which represents the basis of a self management philosophy.

The Benefits of Patient Complaints

All organizations experience service problems and have areas in which they can improve. Successful service organizations:

• Understand where they experience problems in their service delivery.
• Consistently look to improve the service provided to their customers.
• Pro-actively seek complaints and feedback from customers.
• Train staff to effectively deal with service problems.

In order to encourage feedback from your patients, staff must be prepared to confidentiality deal with day to day service problems.  Most service staff are concerned about not being able to deal with particular types of service problems  or the possibility of a situation with a patient getting out of control (see my Complaint Handling Blog for tips). 

Complaints represent opportunities and signals from your patients that they are not happy and at the same time woo-able.  Only 4% of unhappy customers complain which means for every complaint you receive, 26 other patients experienced a similar problem without saying a thing.  Complaining patients give your practice an opportunity to put in a correction and keep their business.  95% of customers whose service complaints are dealt with quickly will purchase again.  Patients that do not complain typically vote with their feet.

Encourage complaining from your patients and support staff to actively seek out complaints without having to be concerned about being the bearers of bad news.

The Patient's Perspective

Although patients come into contact with different team members and different areas on a visit, from a patient’s perspective, it is all one continuous flow of experience that either leads to service satisfaction or service dissatisfaction.

Service excellence involves providing patients with one continuous flow of positive experience in their contact with each and every team member, in each and every area, on each and very visit. 

From a service perspective, it is essential to design a system so that every patients' experience is seamless between office, hygiene and restorative treatment areas.  This includes ensuring:

• Patients receive consistent attention during their visits.
• Patients are not dropped through cracks between office and clinic areas.
• Patients are not subjected to surprises or problems.
• Patients are kept informed about procedures throughout their visits.

In our upcoming blogs, we will talk more about the factors that lead to high levels of service satisfaction.

Taking Responsibility to Solve Problems

Problems and conflict occur as a natural part of day to day work life and represent opportunities for learning and growth.  Successful teams understand that problems and conflict occur in the workplace and they do not allow problems or conflict to undermine their commitment to their goals or other team members.

The success of a dental practice is dependent upon the ability to solve operational problems.  Problem solving requires that team members demonstrate composure and initiative related to correcting problem situations.  The lack of team member commitment or initiative towards problem solving results in creating a work environment where team members complain about how things could be or should be while waiting for others to fix problems or implement positive change. 

The resolution of problems and conflict through open, direct and responsible communication can serve as valuable learning opportunities as well as contribute to the development of positive working relationships.

 “Problems are only opportunities in work clothes.”

                                              Henry J. Kaiser

Supporting Patients to Make Informed Treatment Decisions

Supporting patients to make informed treatment decisions is one of the most important factors leading to the satisfaction of patients and optimal dental health.

Supporting patients to make informed treatment decisions involves effectively communicating findings and recommendations to patients, including comprehensive treatment options.  This process enables patients to take more responsibility for their treatment decisions as well as their overall dental health.

Supporting patients to make informed treatment decisions also plays an important role in the success a dental practice and satisfaction as a dental team working together.  Given choice and financial means, a significant portion of  patients choose comprehensive over other treatment options.  Supporting and educating patients in making informed treatment decisions is also emotionally rewarding for team members.