The Dangers of your Dental Business Being Vague

07 Nov The Dangers of your Dental Business Being Vague

An interesting day on Friday having been invited to speak to dental practice owners about their ‘vision’ for their practices and to kick off day one of the Dentinal Tubules Dental Business Club.

When Dhru Shah originally invited us to speak on this subject, I can honestly say that I was a bit disappointed. With all of the practical things that we could have talked about, like accounts, spreadsheets and websites for example, yours truly gets the potentially vague subject of ‘vision’ to explore….for a whole day!

However, I do know that every ‘vision’ conversation that I have had with dentists, both practice owners and associates (where disbelief has been at least temporarily suspended) has resulted in some very real and practical ideas.

Our workshop on Friday was no exception to this and produced some surprisingly constructive outcomes for everybody, even the most sceptical in the room. We started by talking to Dhru about his vision for Dentinal Tubules, the highs and the lows. Sure enough his passion, clarity of thought and dogged determination to see out his vision for Dentinal Tubules has been the only real constant throughout the past eight years. This resonated with everybody in the room, myself included and then it was just a case of having a conversation that started ‘big’ and slowly drilled down into things that will make a difference today, tomorrow, next week and beyond.

Here are five questions that we explored on Friday and all noted that until each answer is clear and each of your team can answer them in their own words, then as dental business leaders there is still work to do. Without clarity about these five questions, you run the risk of your team being vague and inconsistent about how your dental business can help the people and the community that you serve. Without clarity about these five questions you run the risk of your team making up their own answers to their essential understanding of your dental business…now that’s the real danger of being vague;

1. What is the real purpose of your dental business?
2. Who are your patients?
3. What makes you different?
4. Why do your patients choose you?
5. What do you want to be known for?

 
When all of your team fully understand the answers to these questions, there are no more reasons or excuses to be vague. When the door of your surgery is closed and you are focused on your patients, the best that you can hope for is that every member of the team understands why the business exists, how they are meant to behave and has the autonomy to get on with it. This all starts with your vision, not by being vague. If you would like help exploring your vision, how to apply it and for your team to understand it, come and join us at our last workshop of 2016.

“Tip top day. Awesome and brilliant. Most appreciated. Lessons to apply to my business too.” Dhru Shah, Dentinal Tubules