Every time we talk to a potential new client we ask them ‘What are your top 2 challenges in the hygiene department?’. And then next we ask them ‘What are your initial and long-range goals for your hygiene department as a result of working with us?’. The cool thing is they’re all different.
Yes, there are some recurring themes but some doctors will say ‘A 20% increase in hygiene production’ or ‘Everyone on the same page and less stressful days’.
And here’s the thing, what matters is YOUR definition of success as a team.
When we do private workshops and coaching with dental teams, we often ask the team to give us specific definitions of success for what they’re trying to implement.
As you can see here, we were working on putting into place a proactive, progressive perio protocol. This is an exercise I highly recommend you do whenever you’re trying to implement something new.Ask your team this question. ‘We will know we’ve successfully implemented _________ when_________’. And then have everyone share his or her measure of success.
Not everyone starts at the same place. So for you it may be fully incorporating high-level bacterial and genetic testing, use of lasers and probiotics. For other teams it may be committing to diagnosing perio at it’s earliest stages and then working toward the next step in their perio program slowly but surely.
The key is to know where you are starting, know where you want to go and how you’ll know when you’ve arrived.
This involves several steps:
- Analysis of the current state of your department (or even a specific service you want to increase)
- First level goal for improvement- where you want to be in 3 months
- What will success look like-sometimes it’s tangible like an increase in number of adult fluorides and sometimes it’s not like decrease in stress or more consistency in treatment planning
Whatever it is you’re working toward, be sure to define what success will look like for you. And then celebrate when you get there!!
Stay Inspired,
Rachel
