Dr. Z had a high-profit, low-stress practice, with a well-trained team. Everything was going great… then, two staff members left in quick succession, and the office went into a tailspin. He couldn’t understand why the practice was now in total chaos every day.
We were talking at lunch during one of my seminars. After asking Dr. Z a few questions, I knew exactly what had caused this problem. It wasn’t that two of his team members had left—it was that he didn’t have a plan for handling such a change. Every good business leader knows that there will be staff turnover and makes sure there are systems in place to deal with it quickly and effectively.
I explained to Dr. Z that, as a business, his practice would go through many cycles and he needed to be prepared for the resulting changes. For example, in this case, he had no team training plan in place. When two experienced staff members were replaced with two new employees, the practice suffered a huge skills and knowledge gap overnight. Rather than immediately going through intense training to get them up to speed ASAP, the new team members had to muddle through—making mistakes, taking too long to perform tasks, and sometimes stepping on others’ toes. The disruption was so great that the practice was still struggling two years later.
As one of our new clients, Dr. Z has already begun reshaping his practice to cope with future changes, which are inevitable. With more procedures, materials and technologies at the disposal of dentists today—not to mention insurance issues and other external financial factors that affect practice success—the ability to anticipate change and adapt to it has become more critical than ever.
No matter how smoothly your practice may be running, remember that chaos always lurks just below the surface. If you plan accordingly, you’ll stave off chaos no matter what changes come your way.
Additional Resource
Got chaos in your practice and not sure what to do? Learn more about our Practice Performance Analysis by clicking here.
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