We Are A Team!

– By Dr Nav Ropra. 

To help to reduce volatility in a practice have meetings either daily or weekly where all staff get a chance to express suggestions or grievances they may be feeling rather than acting them out.

Meetings are ideal for the team to all get involved in implementing new ideas and ways of making the practice more effective and efficient.  Remember to include your Mission Statement and the individual values of the team members so that everyone feels included in the process.

The practice environment can sometimes mirror the family dynamic and bring up childhood memories which may not have been resolved.

It is therefore vital that the principal dentist, or the team leaders are able to be grounded in themselves, otherwise the meetings may end up as a free for all.

Ideally, meetings are structured and without blame or finger pointing, and you can use opening sentences like;

‘When you do this.. I feel this..’ ‘What I heard you say is..’

In my experience, feedback is only useful if it makes a contribution to the other person’s life and they can say thank you to the person giving the feedback. Anything else is just projecting our stuff onto the other person wanting to change them and be more like ourselves.

‘..feedback is only useful if it makes a contribution to the other person’s life..’

Whenever there is a problem in the practice, go for creating a solution.  Don’t be stuck with the problem, create a solution and learn from it. It is said that insanity is doing the same things over and over again expecting different results.  Do things differently so that you can expect different results and keep growing in the process. Learn from the feedback!

Practising in between Performances

The basketball player or the golfer or anyone who is a professional practices in between their performances.  So why don’t we?

I have found that if we have a low day or not have as many patients to see and have idle time, a great way of mastering the skills of dentistry is to be grateful for the idle time. Then, use it as an opportunity to flawlessly practice each component of patient care. Decide what you are going to say and practice your lines so that your clarity on what you are doing and why you are doing it, is conveyed to patients.

‘Whenever there is a problem in the practice, go for creating a solution.’

Master your skills and work with your staff so that when the phone does ring and patients attend, you are effortless in your services.

Patients too can become inspired and will be grateful that you have treated them.