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Chapter 5 |
As individuals, we truly are what we believe. Our actions and our abilities derive from a complex system of beliefs that have been programmed into us by our experiences, and our environment.
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n much the same way as the daughter of a Buddhist will most likely grow up to be a Buddhist, and so with the daughters of Muslims, Christians, and Jews, we almost always grow up believing the way we were raised.
A major challenge most of us (especially females in our society) face comes from the lack of a successful role models to teach us the beliefs of successful people. Because dentistry is an industry dominated by females (even though more dentists are male, the dental office is almost always female dominated), there is a scarcity of success oriented beliefs in the industry.
Therefore, we have assembled here for you those beliefs that are central to all successful business systems, and have collected them here. These are the guiding beliefs that shape us as members of the Apollonia Family.
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Chapter key § Beliefs About Dentistry § Beliefs About Success § Excellence in Dentistry § Running the Show § Consumer Friendly § Priorities |
When you truly understand and know in your heart that these beliefs are true for you, your professional and personal life will know now bounds.
The power to take action is the power to make change. We live in a world where everyone watches color television, yet most suffer from dental disease. Is it because those who manage television have more success oriented beliefs than those who manage dentistry? If so, we can change that.
As in all areas, this is not an exclusive or an exhaustive list. Your daily experiences can and will add to this collection!
§ Dental disease causes more pain, infection, and illness than most any other disease of mankind. Virtually every American is affected.
§ Effective preventive and treatments for dental disease have been known for decades.
§ Dentists are responsible for solving the problem of dental disease.
§ Dental disease does not hurt until it is severe, so people often don’t know they have it until it is very far along and difficult or impossible to control.
§ People do not spontaneously want dental care unless they know they have disease, and know it can be comfortably, predictably, and affordably controlled.
§ To be comfortable, predictable, and affordable, dentistry needs to be organized, consistent, and efficient.
§ If people know about comfortable, predictable, and affordable dental care, they will want to have it. Fear of pain, failure, and cost keep them away from dentists.
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The greatest revenge… is
massive success. |
§ On the whole, dentists have NOT done a very good job of making dentistry comfortable, predictable, and affordable. Generally, they have made it painful, iffy, and expensive. This is the essence of poor marketing and product management.
§ Most dentists blame the patient for their reasonable reluctance to buy painful, iffy, and expensive services before they have advanced, painful disease (“It’s all your fault, you should have…..”). We simply acknowledge the challenge, and pledge to solve it through better management of our marketing and product.
§ Dentistry, properly managed, should be one of the most profitable industries in America.
§ Comfortable, predictable, and affordable dentistry is one of the most valuable products on earth. Those who can do this should be amply rewarded.
§ A dental practice, properly managed, should have no trouble competing with other industries for the public’s money, for talented people, and for the investment capital necessary to succeed.
§ Because dentistry is an industry dominated by females, we much teach good management skills to women, if we are to succeed in controlling dental disease.
§ Good management skills include the ability to change the way you think about your career, and to change the way the public thinks about you.
§ Most goals are easier to achieve when a further goal seems within reach.
§ The things that really matter to success in any endeavor are rarely urgent, complicated, or difficult. Feelings of immediacy, difficulty, and complexity are signs that you might be pursuing a poorly crafted strategy.
Reasons come first, answers second. |
§ 80% of success is “why”, 20% is “how”.
§ There is no such thing as failure, so long as the game isn’t over.
§ Practice is the mother of all skill.
§ Life is a process, not an outcome.
§ If you are committed, there is always a way.
§ The past has nothing to do with the future.
§ We only get to keep what we think we deserve.
§ It’s not what happens that determines our lives, it’s what we do about what happens.
When you are green you grow, when you are ripe you rot. |
§ If I am alive, there must be something important for me to do.
§ Emotion is created by motion.
§ Physiological states create emotional states.
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I
don’t sing because I’m happy, I’m happy because I sing. |
§ Muscles fire neurotransmitters that alter your mood.
§ There is a reason that “groove” and “grave” are such similar words.
§ The more you measure something, the better it gets.
§ Success leaves clues. Everything we need to know has already been developed by somebody.
§ Patients may not be able to judge the quality of the outcome, but they can judge the quality of the process.
§ Patients can tell the difference between sloppy and careful, organized and haphazard.
§ Patients value confidence, decisiveness, and clarity.
§ Confidence, decisiveness, and clarity are flavors of certainty.
Because
we rely on team members new to dentistry…..
.......we have a greater need for training, support, and supervision than other dental practices. |
§ Predictable success is the mother of certainty.
§ Predictable success is the result of competence and skill.
§ Organization and practice are the mother of competence and skill.
§ A profitable dental practice is built on the capable delivery of predictably successful dentistry, gained by organization and practice.
§ A practice model owned and driven by non-professional team members is more likely to succeed for most dentists.
§ Patients respond to frankness and humility better than to arrogance and deception.
§ All patients want and can afford dental care that will produce predictable success for them, and is delivered at a fee that produces abundance for us.
§ There are many “best” treatment plans for any given clinical presentation, taking into account the life and priorities of the patient.
§ The level of skill of any dentist or hygienist in or organization should impact their personal income, an not the excellence of care their patients ultimately receive.
§ The performance of facilities, marketing, sales, finance, and team building, are all as important to the success of our mission as clinical care delivery.
§ Each team member must be able to assess their own performance and know where to seek help in improvement.
§ Communications and operational systems are a crucial part of any well conducted activity.