Monthly Archives: April 2018

When You Come to a Roadblock

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How long do you try before you realize it’s simply time to give up

As children we are told to “try”, “don’t give up”, and “just keep on trying”. I know I heard this growing up and I’m certain that most of you heard this as well. As a result of these words, it takes me time to finally put my hands up and announce, “I just can’t make this work!” It could be as simple as my throwing up my hands during dinner preparation to state– “I have tried to open this jar for the past 5 minutes or so and my hands are red from trying, so I’m just going to have to give up and go to other ingredient alternative for my dish.”

The same applies to working hard at educating patients to understand the importance of flossing, maintaining a healthy mouth or simply being on time for their scheduled appointments. How many times do we have to have these discussions and how many different ways do we need to try and get our points across?

“When will others get it?” The answer is, in many cases it just will never happen. Again, for many of us (present company included) it’s an upsetting reality check to realize that our passion, our patience, our dedication and our sincerity is just not getting across—we just can’t break through.

It’s quite common for me to hear these things from fellow colleagues who contact me for guidance and advice when it comes to dealing with this very subject. It’s usually regarding the team members that are resistant to even “listening” to suggestions, much less agreeing wholeheartedly to make the changes that are recommended.

Getting stuck and receiving “push-back” is very common and for the most part when a client or team member offers nothing more than “ok’s” and “yes’s” you can probably assume that they will not agree to making any changes. Now as the old adage goes, “for every action there is a re-action”, which to me is where all the non-compliance begins. When you offer your advice, does your doctor agree with your suggestions? Does he/she support the direction you want to take? And is the team totally aware of the fact that the doctor is in total agreement to the change or changes that you are diligently working on correcting?

If the doctor/leader does not support the changes that are suggested by an advisor/coach or consultant, then you can rest assured the team will never buy into anything. I’ve said many times “just enrolling someone to help with team or practice management isn’t going to make everything right.” You must get total

support from the practice leader or you will continually be hitting the wall. How long do you want to pursue this exercise when you know after time that the owner/employer is just not going to bend at any cost?

Having experienced these types of frustrating and psychologically daunting situations over my 5 decades in the dental profession, I have come to use them as both a learning experience, and as an extra incentive to strive for success. And in the end, it has served to make my successes even more rewarding.

She Did It!

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Taking responsibility and honoring our mistakes

Why is it that some people just cannot admit that they have been wrong or have made a mistake? 

We see this type of behavior all the time within dental practices.  Clinical team members blaming the cleaning service for broken equipment. An Administrative employee accusing the patient of not informing the front desk of an insurance carrier change, when in fact it was never adjusted in the system.  Even the doctor can be guilty of this when they blame an ill-fitting crown based on the incompetence of the lab. 

Why is it so difficult to recognize and honor our mistakes?  Is it easier to throw someone else under the bus than to stand up and admit to a mistake and fess up to the fact that it happens to all of us? 

Granted, mistakes on a consistent basis or making the same mistakes time and time again is a significant cause for concern, but on occasion we all “slip up”, is a sign that we are all human.

How might we correct this?  What can we do as a team to ensure that we take total responsibility for our own actions?

I believe that we should revert to the “elephant in the living room” concept. This implies that we all know it’s an issue, yet it is never addressed properly so it becomes an ongoing situation.  As a group we need to publicly give each other permission to not only make a mistake now and then, but to admit it and claim it.  Passing the blame to someone else or even more upsetting, passing the blame on to another team member, is downright unacceptable. 

Perhaps this is a character flaw which almost relates to a sign of immaturity and insecurity.  As kids we never wanted to be punished for mistakes that we made since we hated for our parents to be angry with us, possibly causing us to lose some privileges like our allowance or some freedoms.  As adults we don’t want to have to answer to a disappointed employer, fellow team member, or patient, possibly losing respect and credibility.  This can be quite hurtful to many of us in the dental profession and I include myself.

Once the “playing field” and team rules are spelled out with everyone coming from the same place with the same standards, much of this petty and unnecessary dynamic should diminish greatly.