The Impact of Shar ing Information
For the last five years, I’ve acted as a Senior Practice Analyst with Gems. During that time, I have been fortunate enough to talk with dentists from all walks of life and have evaluated virtually every type of practice, from the multilocation operations doing eight figures a year to the practice that can’t manage to crack through $200K in revenue. During the RoadMap to Success process, there’s one question that makes almost every dentist squirm. Now, it’s important to point out that I don’t derive any sort of pleasure from subjecting anyone to painful questions, but the fact is that these questions do more to shine a light on the issues and induce action than almost anything else during the onboarding process. The question I ask is, “Do you share your numbers with your team?” Not surprisingly, the most common answer I hear back is a very sheepish “No.”
irrespective of the direction of the change (brighter or darker), each change brought about an increase in productivity.
The researchers concluded that the light had no impact on production. Instead, the workers knowing they were being evaluated and knowing what was being measured led to the increased production. What does this have to do with your practice? Everything … because your team wants to help you succeed. (If they don’t, you have the wrong team.) But in order to make your practice everything it can be, they need input and direction; otherwise, you’re leaving them blindfolded, trying to hit a moving target in a dark room. It all starts with tracking; if your team doesn’t know what’s important to you/ your practice, they cannot improve on it. This tracking isn’t intended to be the way the “bean-counting, sweater-wearing” accountant does it … it’s supposed to be fun … to spur action, excite your team, and drive production. Once you start measuring and reporting on the factors that drive results, the team rallies around improving them. If you need a place to start, pick just one or two of the challenge forms found at InsidersCircle.com Site Map GG12 Elite Coaching GG12 Challenge Forms. You can pick from fluoride, DIAGNOdent™, worn enamel, or 10 other powerful options, each with the ability to add at least $50,000 (some may produce over $100,000 increases) to your practice every year. After at least a month or two of consistently measuring and reporting, continue that challenge form and add just one more (and so on). The researchers at Hawthorne Works also discovered that the increased production occurred only as long as the results were reported. When the reporting stopped, the increases did too — sometimes they even regressed. All this suggests that if you’ve done something before, don’t assume that it will continue in perpetuity without ongoing feedback and direction, and that is the power of Gems.
After digging a little deeper, there are a few common reasons (excuses) that people give for why they don’t share the practice’s numbers with the team:
• Because the dentists don’t know the numbers themselves
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Because they don’t know what/when to share
• Because they don’t want their team to really know how much money the practice is making (or not making)
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Because they don’t think it will make a difference
If you want to improve your results, you must look past these and share the numbers with your team. If there’s one thing we learn from kids, it’s that sharing can be hard. But research has proven that sharing information will have a significant impact on the results. This is referred to as the “Hawthorne Effect.” In essence, it says that whatever is measured improves, and whatever is measured — and reported on — improves exponentially. This phenomenon was discovered based on productivity research conducted with workers at the Hawthorne Works, a Western Electric factory operating outside of Chicago. After letting the workers know the company was measuring the impact light had on productivity, they discovered that
Remember … you are just one Gem away from the practice of your dreams.
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