When Team Members Won’t Follow the Lead

Changes in a practice are necessary. At times, changes are thrust upon a team, forcing them to pivot. Other times, the practice owner is watching the horizon for economic, technological, or financial impacts that may also force change. Regardless, change is necessary at times and also desirable at times. So, it can be extremely disheartening to have a team that refuses to follow their leader into new changes. In this episode, Dr. Kuba and Bethany discuss the difficultly of change and yet the importance of it. They also discuss how to view and manage team members that may be resisting the revisions. They end with an important message for all practice owners and team members – don’t be a dingbat!  

Previous Episodes Worth Revisiting: 

How to Help Your Team Bear Fruit

Dental Practice Owners are Leaders 

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Transcript

0:01

Are you looking for a podcast where you can hear from real people regarding their real dental drama? If so, then

0:09

you've come to the right place. Join hosts Bethany Penny and Dr. Reena Kuba

0:14

as we dive into the solutions we've created and the mistakes we've made while managing dental drama.

0:22

Let's get started. Hello, friend. Hello. It is like fall. I know. We made

0:28

it to November. I'm just so pumped. And it feels like fall. So far, it does feel like fall.

0:34

Yeah. Halloween. We had a little bit of a nip in the air. It couldn't have been more perfect. Perfect.

0:39

It was perfect weather in Dallas area. Like it was a perfect Halloween. It really was.

0:44

Yeah. Yeah. So, what do you want to talk about today? Um, I think when you were kind

0:51

of, you know, when I was asking you like what are your clients dealing with and I feel like there was kind of this

0:56

resounding theme. There were several topics you had that I think are all fantastic things for us to explore. But

1:02

to me, the resounding theme kind of went back to culture. And I think the one that I want to focus

1:08

on um in this episode, if it works for you, is um kind of team resistance or

1:17

team trust. And to me, I kind of wonder, is it is it the team? Is it a rotten apple on the

1:25

team that's stirring the pot? Is it the doctor that's not really leading as

1:32

effectively as they could be leading? Um, so just trying to explore that and

1:39

go, are these kinds of things just going to happen from time to time and to keep it on our radar

1:45

or do we need to be more uh on guard for going, do I have somebody who's turning

1:51

sour or have I checked out and now my team is there for I just kind of some of the

1:58

examples you gave I kind of thought can we dive a little bit more into that.

2:03

I think especially here um I personally feel like you know in PE

2:08

summer is a huge busy like we're we're all fires all cylinders on fire

2:15

and now we're getting to the holidays and a lot of us are like it's hard to focus um because there's so much else to

2:22

focus on outside of the office. Um, so I think this is the time where it can be

2:28

easy for the practice owner slashleer to kind of not be on top of things.

2:35

Yeah. But is it not the practice owner, is it the team? And I think it would be I would like to kind of

2:41

dive into that a little bit if you can. How can we kind of a tease out um and then b what do we do about it?

2:49

Yeah, I think you hit the nail on the head that this can be something that comes and goes. It's an it's an issue of

2:55

team resistance or team not wanting to follow where the train's going. I think

3:01

that could be a chronic thing or that could just be like you saying seasonally where we we're just hitting a time where

3:08

or or changes are happening in the practice that maybe the team aren't on on board with. And um so yeah, I think

3:16

this is a good one to flesh out and I think I've got a lot of scenarios recently from this happening.

3:24

Um I'll give you a couple of those because I haven't even I haven't even said anything about these particular

3:30

scenarios. But um for example, I was coming from a team meeting this last week that um it's a very um very

3:40

progressive practice. um always something new, always

3:45

uh a new technology that we're incorporating. Just this doctor acquired

3:51

a kind of old school practice and has therefore kind of used the last several

3:57

years to push it into a very modernized progressive

4:03

um practice. He's just one of these people that's just not afraid to try something new. And so he and I were

4:10

touching base before the team meeting and just talking about how he he feels like

4:17

sometimes he's just having to drag those team members along. And the more that we

4:23

talked about it, um I you know, you mentioned the word culture. I think this

4:28

could absolutely be a cultural thing that he's just having to put take the time to put the right team members in

4:34

place that are all about let's grow, let's change, let's improve, let's push,

4:39

push push. And maybe he just doesn't have that on board. Um or doesn't have enough of that on board. Um but his

4:48

team, it's interesting because they would even bring up things that they talked about like a year ago. uh even in

4:54

the the team meeting that we were doing when we were talking about new changes, new new initiatives for this year

5:00

because he's the type of practice I come there and we've got a whole new list of things that we want to get done in the

5:06

next quarter before I'm back again and they go after it, man. They are they are

5:12

getting it done. And so to have team members that are always reflecting back on, well, a year ago we did this and

5:20

remember that one holiday we shortened our appointments to this. Are we not

5:25

doing that again? And and so anyway, even like an example like that where is

5:31

this a cultural thing or is this maybe a few people on the team that just don't appreciate change? Although I'm going to

5:38

argue a little bit there and say for those team members I I do see where they're kind of going, but what did the

5:45

data show us? Like are we constantly just doing something new and reinventing

5:50

ourselves when the need is not there? Yeah. Um and there's something to be said for

5:57

gleaning pearls from the data. We tried shortening these appointments and and you're you know it could be it could be

6:03

that where they're like this worked. Why are we changing it? or it could be where it worked for one or two employees and

6:10

they're like, "Well, I wanted to get done early because that's what ended up happening and if we're changing it, then it may not get done early." So, I think

6:16

that is it's hard to tell. Um, I think for me there there was a time I think

6:22

for a long time where I was like, "Let's do this, let's do this, let's do this, let's do this." And, you know, I I feel

6:27

like I had a team that uh and I still do. I think that is still very much on

6:33

like, "Okay, let's do it. Let's do Because I think the ones that weren't capable yet have been weeded out and we

6:39

we do have the ones that are like okay but I think I find myself now going why

6:45

are we doing this again? Yeah. Why are we incorporating that? Why didn't we take like did this not work a

6:52

year ago? Is that why we're talking something different? So, I think in my office, I might be the one that's like

6:59

going, "Wait a minute. I you know, I'm I kind of I don't want to I don't want to

7:04

just keep doing things just to do them." Yeah. So, I guess it begs the question, how

7:10

long has he been at this? Like, has he been doing this? Is this like year five or six now where he's constantly having

7:17

to have reinvented himself and tried to make improvements and that's the train he's on? Does he need to pause and be

7:23

like, "Wait a minute. We we're we're set. We don't need to keep." Or is it,

7:29

"No, these are all still good changes." Um, but I don't blame the team for

7:34

saying a year ago we did this if if there's some validity to it, right?

7:40

Is it is it just that they don't want to change or is it like this worked and this is why and can you listen to me for

7:46

a minute because Yeah. So I balancing it out where it's not change

7:53

for the sake of change, but it's change that makes sense and it's not stagnant for the sake of

7:59

stagnant. It makes sense too. It's like balancing all of that. And I

8:04

think perspective is important on that where the practice owner may see it from a certain vantage point and then he's

8:11

got these you know key people that are seeing it from their own vantage point and all of you know change has to make

8:17

sense for all all parties involved all roles all jobs so um I guess that's

8:24

where I ask then a couple of questions one is it has anything changed in that

8:30

um because I think sometimes the resistors are not uh accounting for the

8:36

changes. So like in our office for example um we are out of network with a lot of

8:42

things. So we were doing it this way. You are correct. A year ago we did this but don't forget we've made these

8:48

changes and so that doesn't necessarily make sense here. Yeah. Sometimes it's the opposite. Well I will

8:54

say something like hey guys we need to XYZ. And they're like no ma'am that doesn't make sense anymore. Like what do

9:00

you mean? We've done it that way for the last four years. What do you mean? Well, yeah, but the last four years we had these

9:07

insuranceances or the last four years we had four of us at the front desk. Now we've got two. That's not going to work

9:13

anymore because the dynamic has changed. Last year we um you know I don't know

9:20

something with the software. You know last year we had uh local med that was doing our online scheduling. Now we have

9:26

modento and with that change we did this with weave different. So it's like there's all these little things. Is it a

9:34

personnel change, a software change, a uh insurance change? Like so it is like

9:41

you are kind of always reinventing. Yeah. And then you've got to stop and go, wait

9:46

a minute, are we comparing apples to apples? Is everything the same as it was last year or has something changed?

9:54

Yeah. And what I think has to always center us and thankfully what what uh

10:02

this client of mine and did and I did in our team meeting is come back to what keeps us centered. So

10:10

it's like the functionality of how we schedule appointments or how long we

10:15

schedule appointments or how we answer the phone or whatever the case may be.

10:21

All of that is going to I almost view it like an ocean where there's just these

10:26

waves that we're having to kind of follow due to changes in the current,

10:31

you know, and so those things might be constantly we're we're tweaking and changing

10:37

slightly. Maybe not a total massive change, but we're we're editing at all times. But what's got to keep us

10:43

centered is what is our mission? What is our what are our values? What have we

10:48

decided that this practice and this team are all about? And if making this change

10:55

to the way that we schedule appointments allows for better efficiency, which is one of our core values, is a smooth and

11:02

seamless process for patients. So, if our appointments enhances that core value, then it's the

11:11

right change. No matter how Sally feels about it, no matter how our hygienist

11:17

Donna feels about it, like it doesn't matter how they feel. If we can clearly show if you bring it back to the core

11:24

value, making this change is going to support that core value, then ultimately

11:29

it's the right change. And I think when you can get team members that are like,

11:34

okay, yeah, I can see how that makes sense. then you've got a team that's following you in your vision and in what

11:42

you want to accomplish with your practice. If you've got people that are like, I don't care what it does for

11:48

efficiency. I like it this way. Well, now you've got a denter. And those are

11:53

the ones that can actually derail the whole mission because they care more about what is this change doing for me

12:01

rather than how is this change enhancing the practice. So, I think one key thing you said there that is um easy to forget

12:10

and I think uh I think most of us owners do forget and I think that's an

12:17

excellent analogy that it's an ocean wave. Yeah. And you are correct. The ocean is always

12:24

having waves. That's the nature of the ocean regardless of what ocean you are. Right.

12:30

But things like the current will change it. The moon will change it. Climate change if you believe in it will

12:37

change it, right? Like there's all of these different things. And I think for most of us owners, at least let me just

12:43

speak for myself. I'm going, it's the ocean. Everybody knows it's the ocean. It's not my ocean's different from your

12:50

ocean. Like the ocean is my dental practice is we, you know, like what how

12:56

hard could this be? Yeah. there there there's a million dental practices like how hard is this?

13:02

Yeah. But I think what most of us lose sight of then is there are these little inflections and we have to keep up with

13:09

that tide and a lot of times we don't because we're like well it just is. I

13:14

set this. This is what I've set. This is what it is. This is what it's going to be. And I think for me that was probably

13:21

one of the biggest lessons I've learned is going you're right. Like I still remember in my mindset it was like okay

13:28

I know I had already heard the staffing would be the hardest part of this this whole project called my business right

13:36

and I know that but everything else how hard could it be like you send your claims

13:42

you do your dentistry we were well trained on that you get some chairs you get some etch you get some composite

13:47

like really how hard could this be you market like whatever and I think that for me has been the number one thing

13:54

about an owner going, "Man, this looks so easy when you're not in the owner's seat." And those of you um that are

14:01

newer owners, and frankly, even those like me who've been owners for a while now, and it's still astounding how

14:07

you're like, "How the hell is this so difficult? Why is this so hard?" Um, and it's because of those little current

14:15

changes. And I think that I start going, damn it.

14:20

Like, what changed? why is this not working now? And reminding myself and

14:27

going, you're not sitting on a football field that's like a slab of concrete. We

14:32

are the ocean and it's going to change. And so there are things that work and suddenly it doesn't work

14:38

and it's we didn't switch oceans. It's just the current is different. And so to

14:44

anticipate that, I think that could be one of the best things owners could do for themselves is to switch that mindset

14:50

of going, "This will change. This will because the ocean just does."

14:56

And if I've just kind of brushed it off as like, oh, it's this pool of water.

15:02

It is, but there's a lot of things. And I think for me, that's helped calm me a lot

15:08

over the years. It's taken years but it's like okay don't act like it's the

15:13

end of the world that you're a failure if you are suddenly you know finding yourself in this current it is going to

15:19

happen expect it anticipate it prep for it hopefully it's not going to be like a

15:25

hurricane blah blah coming through and it might be from time to time it might be co was a hurricane blah blah

15:31

absolutely but it's not always going to be like that but it's it's not going to be like this quiet little pond and if you're

15:38

expecting expecting quat little pond which I was for years and then like when a current would go through

15:44

Yeah. No. And so I think of um a colleague of mine that is about to start a practice

15:52

and she she basically made some like well yeah well when I learn the

15:57

marketing then I'll just do the marketing. And I kind of looked at her and I was like, "Wow, you are in for it

16:04

because you seem to think that it's just like take a marketing class, put

16:10

together a marketing plan, and then that's your marketing." And I'm like, "You think it's that easy? You think

16:15

it's a pond? The marketing is a pond. I'm going to do ABC. You know, I'm going to add one, two,

16:22

three. That's going to equal six, and we're set." Yeah. Man, you're in for a rude awakening. Yeah. because you have thought that

16:27

marketing was a pond when it is really an ocean. Yeah. Um and I think that's how she views the

16:33

business alto together. She's been an associate now for four or five years and she's about to start her own and I think

16:38

she really is I think she really does look at her owner doc as that guy's an idiot. Yeah.

16:43

And if he can do it, I can do it. Which you can. Yeah. But I think he is so um the owner is so

16:50

makes it look easy, right? And now she is like okay like this is a

16:55

no-brainer. I can do this. You can, but I don't think it's going to be the simple straightforward thing you

17:01

think it's gonna be. Yeah. Um, and even like talking about you,

17:06

like she knows of you because I talk about you a lot. I'm like, well, do you want Bethy's info? Nah, I think I'm

17:13

good. Yeah. Okay. Off you go. I'm the idiot who can't

17:18

figure this pond out. I need so much help from Bethany to keep my pond filled

17:23

with water because that's all it needs is just water and I'm an idiot. You're right. You don't need a Bethany

17:30

to help you. You've got the hose and you're just going to fill it yourself, right? You know what I mean? Anyway, all of

17:36

that what I'm getting at is I think that's one thing you just said that if I I need to remind myself of that more

17:42

often that this we are in an ocean. It's going to go up and down and there's things that are going to affect it and I can't just sit back and go, "Oh my gosh,

17:51

there's a change now." No, you fool. There was going to be a change coming. Always, always, always. That is what running a

17:58

business is. So, if you ever sit and think, "I've got this." You're a fool. Your little dingy is about to capsize on

18:04

you, you know? Like, don't be a dingy. Um, that needs to be the title of this.

18:11

Don't be a dingy. I think of like Archie Bunker. Dingbat. Did you ever watch that? He called his wife Dingbat.

18:19

Don't be a dingy. Um, so I think trying to figure out where is are you about to

18:26

get capsized? Is it really a hurricane or can you do little things and keep

18:32

going without like creating your own hurricane? Right. Um, what were we talking about? I would

18:38

also say too connected to this is I think a lot of times the practice owner

18:44

whether they started off thinking it was a pond and they finally realized they're in an ocean or whether they know they're

18:49

in an ocean they are seeing every little potential wave they're like oh no the

18:55

current has changed oftentimes practice owners not all the time I I will say

19:01

that but oftent times practice owners are the first to feel the changes or to

19:07

see financially, oh gosh, my advisor said, "What happened to your bank

19:13

account?" You know, or so they're receiving all this information. I guess like the captain of the ship,

19:19

they're the first ones to feel that the wave doesn't feel right yet. The crew hasn't quite caught on yet.

19:26

That's it. Now, the crew is down there just rowing. They're like, "I got one thing to focus on, and it's this paddle, and I'm going

19:32

to be in time with the person in front of me and the person behind me." And so they're so micro focused and laser

19:39

focused on their their one role or their one task, it would be impossible for

19:46

them to see and to appreciate what the captain is seeing up on his or her perch

19:51

because they're down in the trenches literally just rowing. And so a lot of times I think when a practice owner is

19:58

perceiving change and they're like we've got to pivot. we need to start actually going in this direction rather than

20:05

where we're at or we need to make this minor change like instead of rowing three beats per se per second we need to

20:12

go to two and slow it down in this particular moment whatever changes they're perceiving they're oftent times

20:19

the first that are kind of leading out in some of the changes or anticipating

20:24

or just going hey you know what I feel like we've got a better path here I feel like if we just made these few edits we

20:31

would get out of choppy waters and we would actually be in this smoother part of the ocean. So, I'd like to go do

20:36

this. And the team's like, "But we had a plan and we were rowing this direction."

20:42

And so, the team can sometimes oftentimes will naturally resist

20:48

the plan. Either they flat out start an argument and they're like, "Captain, you

20:54

stupid idiot." Like, we're rowing in time. Just get behind us and just

20:59

follow our lead. we want you to just stick with the plan or they will resist

21:05

like no I'm going to drag this rudder and I'm gonna fight every little change that that captain is throwing at us

21:12

which then slows down the entire team and I see it all the time. So, give me

21:18

some dental examples of what you're seeing so we can kind of tie the analogy back into I'll give you one example of of a

21:24

different practice that I was with recently. And so,

21:30

in looking at this, let me give you kind of the nuts and bolts of what we're we're spotting

21:38

potential storms, potential problems. So, when I first talked with this practice owner, um her concern was we

21:45

have a capacity problem because we have new patients calling in. We can't get

21:51

them in for five or six months. We are, you know, if our if a recall patient

21:57

falls off, we can't schedule them back for five or six months. Um we just have

22:03

a real I mean, it's a good problem, but it's a problem. and I know ultimately

22:08

it's going to slow the practice down if we can't solve this problem. So I'm

22:13

like, "Okay, what have what are some of your solutions?" She was like, "I don't even know. I mean, somehow I guess I just have to kind of cut off the flow.

22:21

Like maybe I need to turn off new patients and just not take new new patients for a while, which to me is the kiss of death, by the way." Um, and so I

22:29

was like, "Okay, whoa. Let's let me get into your system. Let me look all of

22:35

this." And so once I looked um it's a pedo practice and she was

22:42

running one column of hygiene uh just 30

22:48

minute appointments all the way down one column of hygiene. And I said well okay tell me about your staffing. So to

22:55

manage that column of hy hygiene she has a hygienist and a hygiene assistant for

23:01

that column. And then I looked over at her columns and I was like, "Okay, you've got you, the doctor, have two

23:07

columns." And you have two assistants. Column one is what? Column one is treatment. Okay, so treatment all the

23:14

way down. Um, and then what's column two? Well, it's hygiene. It's hygiene

23:19

for um littles. So like five and under, five years old and under. And I was like

23:25

start I was just starting to question like this is not making sense to me. And so one of the things that she and I

23:32

talked about was, I mean, do you feel like your team is like stretched to the limit? Because when I look at your

23:38

schedule, I see actually a lot of capacity that we're not taking advantage of, particularly in that hygiene column.

23:45

If we have both a hygienist and a hygiene assistant running one column of

23:50

hygiene, we should have time to to add.

23:55

Um and in talking with that through that she would love more capacity

24:03

and has mentioned such ideas before but there's strong resistance because they don't want to work harder

24:09

right strong resistance from the hygienist in particular and so I said well that's why you've

24:16

brought me in because I am a change initiator and if you haven't been able to get that done I will help you get

24:22

that done. Um and so we she and I along with the schedulers who

24:30

the schedulers also believe that there's plenty of capacity. They're like I feel like we've got time to spare um in

24:37

watching the flow of patients. We're seating very much on time. We're just missing ahead of schedule. Like we're

24:42

running very very very efficiently. We think there's time and they're having to be the ones turning people away. So

24:47

they're getting the brunt of not being able to schedule. So we came up with um

24:54

very mild changes to the schedule that would start pushing in a direction of

24:59

more capacity. Specifically, we wanted to pull the column the hygiene column

25:05

from doctor side and move uh because in addition to not wanting to run a second

25:11

column, the hygienist did not want to see kids that couldn't behave, which is why the five and unders were on the um

25:18

doctor's side. So, I said, "We need to change that. We need to put at least four boards over on the schedule. They

25:25

should be able to sit in a chair at that point." Um, and if they can't, if there's some behavior thing, then okay, we could still keep those in the second

25:31

column, but we need to clean up that second column because in doing that, we make the doctor available for more

25:37

hygiene checks. If we're tying her down with her own hygiene column, we're actually shooting ourselves in the foot.

25:43

Now, she's less able to quickly turn out those hygiene exams. So we shifted that over, did a little bit of um horizontal

25:50

booking for siblings and things like that. Very mild, minimal changes. It was not a full second column for hygiene.

25:58

And so in team meeting, I presented this idea. Do we have any concerns, any resistance? I was fully expecting verbal

26:05

resistance from the hygienist. She did not verbally resist. Um but afterwards

26:12

after I had left it's this kind of punishing the doc of

26:20

uh resisting those changes. This is not going to work. How am I supposed to do this? You haven't

26:25

accounted for this. This is why we do this. And I guess let me go back. I'm being very unfair here. Maybe the

26:31

hygienist has some real concerns in that. Okay, doc. You want me to be the one to do this, this, this, and this.

26:39

And how is that going to work? Yes, I have a hygiene assistant, but she talks too much while she's dismissing the

26:45

parent. And so then I get stuck having to turn around to room and she can't take X-rays on the littles. And so then

26:51

I'm going to end up doing that, which means then she can't scale. And then whatever it may be, right? Like she may

26:57

have some legitimate concerns and things as to why it is that way. sad she didn't

27:03

mention it while you were in the meeting, right? Um and so I think this happens all the

27:08

time in my practice where you'll be there and you'll suggest something and um then I will you'll leave and then I'm

27:16

like, "Okay, now I just got assaulted with XYZ from these people." Yeah. Um but it is what it is. And so then I

27:23

have to take that feedback and go, "Okay, does this make sense or not?" And a lot of times I can uh because you and

27:30

I have already talked Yeah. about this plan and you're about to roll out this plan. Um, if I don't

27:36

understand it or if I'm like, "No, this is a valid concern." The other day we had one that was a valid concern. Oh, I

27:42

had said, can't we add in more columns on holidays? Because at the moment, I've

27:49

got three of us docks and four hygienists, and it's not going to be like that forever, but we had uh the

27:55

holiday school holiday in October, and that's usually we're running on all cylinders, and we were bored because we

28:02

didn't have enough patients for the number of providers. Now, if I had been my usual level of providers, we would

28:08

have been slammed and and dying. But we had, I think, three extra people helping,

28:14

right? So, I was like, "Well, let's add in columns for Thanksgiving break, Christmas break, because we can handle

28:19

it. We just saw that we can." So, you and I were like, "Let's do all of this." Well, my hygienist did go, "Whoa, whoa,

28:25

whoa, whoa. You're forgetting we're going to be a hygienist down. One's going to be out on maternity." And I was

28:30

like, "Oh, yeah. I forgot that. So, we're not we we are going to be back to the normal number of hygienists." Okay.

28:36

But we still have doctors, right? So, what are we doing to fill? Maybe we're not going to fill two full

28:42

30 minute each appointments, but maybe we'll fill two with 50 minute each appointments because I still think we

28:48

can handle that, right? Um, so anyway, it was there are things that I didn't want to shut her down

28:54

automatically and be like, nope. Because she did have a valid point, right? If my first go-to had been like, she

28:59

just doesn't want to work harder. I was like, no, she she does because she knows we get bonused off of

29:05

Yeah. She's a pusher naturally. Yeah. So, but if she's pushing against, I do have to stop and say, "Wait a

29:11

minute. Are you really pushing out of your own inconvenience or do you really have a

29:16

point here?" Yeah. And I think you taking in that feedback,

29:23

using it to help you then either edit the plan or is it just feedback for the

29:29

sake of I don't like the change and you can navigate that. So if there's sound reasoning behind it, then it's like,

29:36

okay, no, I can take that. But there may be times where there's sound reasoning, you're like, you know what, I'm still

29:41

going to push forward with this plan and I need what which category was this hygienist in?

29:48

Um, invalid concerns is what I would say. Um her concerns were we've always been

29:55

known for our you know smooth and easy appointments in and out. You know this

30:03

is going to make us look like a meal. You know just running patients in and

30:08

out. It was just old school mentality that this is the way I've always done

30:13

it. I've been a hygienist for 25 years. This is the way I think it needs to go. Um, and this is where I talk about, like

30:21

we were talking about with the ocean, the practice owner, the captain is seeing, I've got multiple problems that

30:27

I need to deal with for the long-term health of my practice. Still a relative, again, she acquired the practice. Um,

30:35

you know, she's several years in, but she's planning for the long haul. She's like, I've got to make decisions now

30:40

that ultimately are going to benefit my practice for the long haul. And so capacity,

30:46

she is right on the money. She needs to be thinking about capacity. If she develops a reputation early on being a

30:53

hard practice to get into, they never have new patient appointments. You know, don't call them because you'll never get

30:59

in with them. That can be a death blow to her practice a thousand% from patients saying it, patients getting irritated going, I'm

31:05

not going there because if I have to move my appointment, I can't. But also from referral sources. Referral sources

31:11

are like, oh, they don't don't call them. we're not referring to you anymore because you can't you're not seeing new

31:16

patients. Try to get back on that list of referral sources. You're done. Yep. Even if you call them back and say,

31:22

"Hey, we have a capacity thing now." It's too late. They've already in their minds, they're already like, "Oh, she's not

31:27

she's not available. It's over." Yeah. So, to me, the practice owner was absolutely spoton. Me looking at it,

31:34

I've looked at thousands of schedules in my 15 years, and I was like, there's a

31:40

plenty of capacity. No, just logically looking at the people that we have in place without

31:47

considering their skill set. Even if the hygiene assistant was the slowest person on the planet, which she's not, by the

31:53

way, she's a very skilled assistant. I would say you could still do this these very mild changes that we made. And in

32:00

my mind, the mild changes were a step to getting to more changes that needed to

32:05

be ma made. And so the hygiene is is just going from her little rudder. This

32:10

is the way I've always done it. this is the the timed paddle that I've always done and this this works. But she's not

32:17

seeing that the ocean has changed that that we are in a different current that she's got to Yes, that may have worked

32:22

for the practice owner that was retiring and didn't really care about the fact

32:29

that they were only going to she was only going to the island next door. Yes. This dog is like, "No, we're going to

32:34

that continent out there." Out there. And so yeah, your little rudder thing worked cuz you're just paddling next

32:40

door. You don't have that far to go. Yeah. Um Okay. So then that the next question is then are we looking at the hygienist

32:46

leaving and what are we doing about that? Yeah. So this is where we do have to ask

32:52

the hard questions of when you've got a situation where you're like hey I am the captain of this ship. I am trying to

32:58

lead us here but I've got a team member that keeps dragging her dang ore in the

33:03

water and and just pulling us backwards, pulling us off course. What do you do in

33:11

that scenario? And to me, and you know this well enough about me at this point,

33:17

I am the last one to recommend firing. I don't like it. It's a change for the practice. It's it's expensive to get rid

33:26

of somebody that you've trained and have to start back, you know, from ground zero. But there are times that if

33:34

through explaining and hey, just trust me on this, follow me on this. If

33:39

through multiple little attempts you've got a team member that won't follow you,

33:45

it is not worth it to keep them on the ship because ultimately the rest of the

33:51

team has to overcompensate for that person that keeps dragging their ore in the water. Um, we went on a trip to uh,

34:00

Broken Bow, Oklahoma. I took my kids before uh, school got back in session. So, I was on this canoeing I booked this

34:07

canoeing thing and so I had my little six-year-old in the front of my canoe

34:13

and the two girl my two older girls teamed up together and then my two boys

34:18

and so it was interesting because she had uh I I didn't get her an ore. I'm

34:24

like she's not going to know how to to do this. Um, but she sat in the front of the boat and she laid on that seat and

34:31

she would drag her hand in the water the whole way, which I thought was the cutest thing ever. But I could not stay

34:40

up with my other kids that were just paddling away, getting away from me down the river because I had this little kid

34:48

that open hand just dragging her hand in the water the whole way. It slowed me down so much that I was physically

34:55

exhausted by the time we got to the stopping point because I had been trying to overcompensate for that drag on the

35:02

canoe. Not to mention I had to like paddle differently cuz she if her hand was on the left side I had to put more

35:08

emphasis on paddling with the right side on C. Anyway, it was just constantly me having to compensate for her dragging

35:16

the the canoe down. And we think about that on a team and it is exhausting for

35:24

the team to have to pivot their movements. Oh, now I got to paddle on this side because, you know, Susie that

35:30

always resists us is is doing this now. So now I got to pivot this way. And

35:35

that's exhausting to the team. Not to mention, it slows the whole progress of the ship down. And so in those moments

35:43

when it's somebody that just can't get on board mentally, we got to have that conversation where

35:49

it's like you gotta go because it's you're not on board and this is tiring

35:55

for you. You're you're unhappy because you really just want to sit in your seat and row in the same direction you've

36:01

always row and that's not the way this ship is going. you're either going to have to change sheet seats and you don't

36:07

like that or you're going to have to row differently and you don't like that and it's just not working. And in those cases, I do think it's best for the team

36:14

member to move on, which happened to us not too long ago. And it, you know, I I really liked this

36:21

rower. Sweetest thing. And damned if she didn't bring that nice

36:26

steady row. Yeah. But we just needed more out of her. and she she saw herself off the ship, which

36:32

made me sad from a feeling standpoint, but damned if it wasn't good for her moving out of our way so we could move forward.

36:39

And I think she realized that. I think she realized she was the one slowing the boat down and she didn't want to be that

36:44

one. So, it was it was really a good situation. Yeah. The best it could be of a bad situation.

36:49

Um, for this hygienist, I guess to me my question becomes, are you just so stuck in your way that you're like, uh-uh, I'm

36:56

not I'm not gonna make it to that new continent. I am going to get off the

37:02

boat or if she's just like, "Y'all are a path of a pack of idiots. You're never going to get to that continent. My

37:08

rowing will get us there." Like, is is it her that's the delusion? So, what did you advise them? I guess my

37:15

thought would be like, if you're just like, "Hang in there. Let's see if this can work." And then you're kind of pausing and seeing can she change her

37:22

rowing or where where are we gonna be? Are we gonna give this a couple of months? Yeah. Um is she gonna create so much of a

37:29

storm that she's getting more water in the boat than you know than you are

37:35

going to ask her to leave? Might you consider like have y'all looked for another hygienist to see and we're not

37:42

able to find one yet? But there's actually another hygienist on the team that's there one day a week. So that was part of the capacity change

37:49

that they had made I think like a year ago. Um the doctor's like okay I can't

37:54

change the one hygiene column but I can run a hygiene heavy day on Tuesdays and

38:00

bring in an additional hygienist to run um an extra column. And this hygienist

38:06

the other days of the week she's in a corporate practice and so this is like a walk in the park for her. She's like

38:11

this is the easiest schedule I've ever had. Um, and so her perspective has been really helpful so that the team

38:18

realizes, oh, there's a life out there where, you know, a practice sees 50 patients a day,

38:23

two columns, they're just fine. Yes. So, I do feel like um that hygienist,

38:31

you know, is has the right mindset. I think that hygienist would gladly come over full-time to the practice. So, I

38:37

think there's essentially a backup in place. I think for the practice owner, she doesn't want that to be the change.

38:43

she wants it to work with the team that she has in place. Um, and so the advice

38:49

is let's push forward. Let's try this for a couple months. Um, and see how it

38:54

goes. I was recently there and um, the changes were just starting to take

39:01

effect and there had been just a lot of belly aching about the changes. And so

39:07

we set up some boundaries for that to go, hey, we're going to run a day. We're

39:13

not gonna pause and come up to the front and complain about how that shouldn't have been scheduled that way. We're not

39:19

going to take these little pit stops in the doctor's office and talk about how see how this schedule doesn't work. Look

39:24

at how it failed here. Now we're running behind. We're not going to do that. We incorporated an end of the day huddle um

39:32

during these changes. So it's just 10 minutes at the end of the day that the team gets together and they look back at

39:37

the schedule and go, "Okay, where were our tough points? where were our um areas that we maybe need to keep an eye

39:45

on for next time. That is your moment to communicate any frustrations that you

39:51

had about the day, but outside of that, we can't do it all throughout the day. So, even just putting those boundaries

39:56

in place, which is so annoying because if this woman has been in dental for a while, like you or whatever, she sounds like

40:02

she's an older person, so you know better than to sit there and belly ache all day and whatever. You can't help

40:09

yourself, I suppose. But like grow up is what I want to say. Like give it a minute. Um but I think it's probably you

40:15

think you know best and you're trying to save the team from the inevitable destruction that Bethany and this doc

40:22

don't see but I see it like okay ladies. Um which is hard then for other teammates too to be like who am I

40:29

trusting here? Um and I think the challenge of like you said if this other woman steps in this

40:36

one at the corporate the temp but she I'm sure is going to have her own set of issues that she could bring to the team

40:41

and change the dynamic even I think my suggestion was going to be what if she didn't came on come on

40:46

full-time would she be able to come in two days instead of the one day but even then at what point does it get to be

40:52

where she's blowing and going and seeing 20 patients and then this old one is seeing like eight

40:58

and is that going to cause issues of it's not fair or

41:03

the I can just see all the things that pop up and it's easy for this doc to be like you know what never mind let's just

41:09

stick with old Betty until she retires and then we'll but you can't afford to do that you're trying to get somewhere

41:16

and even though Betty brings a lot of really good things at this point either

41:21

I think that's where we just saw it where luckily our Betty saw herself off the team

41:27

um but I wasn't reliant on her and in this case you kind of are. I I don't know. I don't know. That's tough.

41:33

It's challenging and and to me this is a challenge for practice owners because

41:39

it's like you do have to navigate these waters well and there's nothing easy about it. There really isn't anything

41:45

easy about it. But I would say the mistake would be for my client if she's only thinking about, well, we can pit

41:53

stop at that island and then blah blah blah. No, you you've got to be aware of

42:00

where your practice needs to be long term. You've got to be protecting the health of your practice today and you

42:06

need to stay on course for that destination. And if there is a

42:11

team member that's begging you to stop off at that island with their behavior, with their push back to the changes that

42:17

you're trying to make, I as much as I love people and I don't want anybody going off of a team, it is not worth it

42:24

to derail the entire destination for a team member.

42:29

Especially when you've got other team members that are like, "Yeah, hell yeah. I want to go to that continent. I've

42:34

been wanting to go there for a long time. Let's go. Let's do it." Because that's not always the case. A lot of times you've got multiple denters

42:41

and then you've got to be like am I the fool that thinks we can get to that continent and maybe what what am I

42:46

thinking? Am I just going there because everybody else says they're going there and that's why I'm going, you know? So

42:52

there's things to consider, but in this case it's sounding like everybody else from the front desk to the assistants

42:58

are all on board. And if it's this one person, then one person either somebody needs to

43:04

encourage her along and show her what's possible because maybe she's never dreamt that big, right? Or she knows what she's doing and she

43:12

just doesn't want to go. Yeah. And is she going to keep the whole ship from getting there? Yeah.

43:17

Yeah. And again, as a leader, you've got to be watching for that. And then I would say too to our team member team

43:23

members that listen to the podcast, don't don't don't be that person, you

43:29

know. Um even though change can be hard and there's nothing pleasant usually

43:35

about change, please don't fight the destination. Don't don't resist. Don't

43:42

make it miserable for the whole team. Like and I would say like a lot of times you

43:47

may not even realize you're doing it. Yeah. Yeah. Um, I think a lot of times you do because you want it your way. And

43:53

my challenge to you is to say, do you not trust the people you work with? Why

43:59

do you think you know better than everybody else? Especially when somebody like Bethany is

44:05

there looking at things and fair enough, fine. Like you're right. You you Bethany

44:11

don't know all the dynamics that you can't see on a daily basis.

44:16

But you didn't just roll over and go, "Hey, let's try this." Like, you have years and thousands of things that you

44:26

see. And this Doc has invested in bringing you in for a reason. Yeah. And yeah, Doc might be newer and so team

44:34

member, you might be like, "Oh, this fool doesn't know what she's doing." You're right. The captain doesn't know

44:40

everything. The captain hasn't been in every storm in every chartered waters. But you know what? Neither of you,

44:45

right? You've never been the captain, honey. So, keep perspective there. Yeah.

44:51

And if you are if you know you're going to be like, "Well, I know better and I don't know why they're doing this." Well, then you might be the one who

44:57

needs to get yourself off that ship, right? You cannot change your mindset. Yeah. Um,

45:03

yeah. Like to your point, don't be that person. Um, and and and you know, some challenge

45:09

yourself. Am I being that person? And I think if you know you're a pot stir,

45:15

admit it and quit stirring that part. Own it and then make changes. Yeah. And challenge yourself.

45:20

Yeah. Do you think you can't do it? Is that the problem? Yeah, that's a good point.

45:26

So, or are you just too cushy in where you are and you're not seeing the advantage to you to going to that

45:31

continent, right? Well, don't be so close-minded. You never know what you don't know. You don't know what's waiting for you at

45:37

that island. Right. You've just just because you've never been that way or thought about venturing out there.

45:43

Yeah. Um I don't know. Yeah. I don't know. Don't be that person. Don't Don't be that person. Don't be

45:49

Betty. Is that what we called her earlier? Don't be Betty. Don't be Betty. Don't be a dingy.

45:55

Dingbat. Don't be a dingbat. Thanks for joining the conversation today. We hope that you are comforted in

46:02

knowing that you are not alone, but we also hope that you're walking away with some really great tips and tricks to try

46:09

in your practice. We value your feedback, so please take a

46:14

few moments to rate and review the podcast. Finally, we want to make sure

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let us know what topics you want us to cover. As always, please know that we

46:32

are rooting for you today as you manage your dental drama.