The Incisal Edge

Put down your smart phone…

The more I watch the way people behave with mobile devices the more uncomfortable I become. I was secretly pleased a couple of years ago when my son justified his use of a Nokia (non-smart) phone, “Makes and takes calls, sends and receives texts. What else do I need?”

I have regular conversations with dentists and practice managers who face resentment at best and mutinies at worst because team members aren’t allowed to keep their phones with them (and on line) at all times, on the pretext of “what happens if someone has to get hold of me?” which really means, “but I’ll have to go without Instagram/FB/Snapchat/Twitter/etc.” (Perm any 3 from a multitude).

This comes from The Economist via “Memex” (the blog of John Naughton which I consider to be essential reading).

Distraction is a constant these days; supplying it is the business model of some of the world’s most powerful firms. As economists search for explanations for sagging productivity, some are asking whether the inability to focus for longer than a minute is to blame…..

….Distractions clearly affect performance on the job. In a recent essay, Dan Nixon of the Bank of England pointed to a mass of compelling evidence that they could also be eating into productivity growth. Depending on the study you pick, smartphone-users touch their device somewhere between twice a minute to once every seven minutes.

Conducting tasks while receiving e-mails and phone calls reduces a worker’s IQ by about ten points relative to working in uninterrupted quiet. That is equivalent to losing a night’s sleep, and twice as debilitating as using marijuana. By one estimate, it takes nearly half an hour to recover focus fully for the task at hand after an interruption. What’s more, Mr Nixon notes, constant interruptions accustom workers to distraction, teaching them, in effect, to lose focus and seek diversions.

The Monday Morning Quote #515

“It’s easy to make it lousy.

It’s difficult to make it right.”

Ben & Jerry.

The Binge Listen #1 – Don’t Tell Me The Score

I came across the “Don’t Tell Me The Score” podcast a week or so ago and have listened to the eleven episodes whilst wrestling with wood over the past couple of days – one great advantage of the ear protectors that I employ whilst using the chain-saw is that they both isolate me and keep my headphones in place.

The premise of this BBC Radio 4 podcast is that sport can teach us a great deal about life. Presenter Simon Mundie interviews at length his guest, who has direct association with sport as a player, coach, writer, or scientist. I particularly enjoyed Ben Ryan on Motivation, Mike Brearley on Leadership and James Kerr on Legacy. There are lessons to be learned from each and every episodes and I thoroughly recommend it. More books to read! If they are as good as “Legacy” then I’m going to enjoy myself.

Available from all good podcast sources and the BBC website.

PS – One small criticism – Simon I do wish you wouldn’t keep mentioning England winning the Rugby World Cup in 2003 as if it was the greatest achievement in history – or indeed a surprise. Whilst it sticks in my craw to say it they were the best team both in the tournament and during the year leading up to it, so victory was deserved.

Jim Lovell’s Perspective

Sometimes we (well me definitely) get up ourselves and think that the world, or even the universe revolves around us. At those times I try to remember the words of astronaut Jim Lovell who 50 years and a 12 days ago was privileged to see our world as it “rose”. The photograph “Earthrise”, taken by his fellow crew member Bill Anders, has become justly famous.

In a few months in late July, I look forward to revisiting The West Cork Hotel, 5km from where I now live, where my brother & I watched the moon landings on the black and white telly in their TV room – (TVs in hotel bedrooms being some way in the future, in Skibbereen anyway) and raising a glass to the memory.

Lovell said in a recent interview, “We’re so close to the Earth that our worlds are only as far as the eye can see. Right here, this building, our worlds exist within these walls. But suddenly, when you get out there and see the Earth as it really is, and when you realise that the Earth is only one of nine planets and it’s a mere speck in the Milky Way galaxy, and it’s lost to oblivion in the universe — I mean, we’re a nothing as far as the universe goes, or even our galaxy. So, you have to say, “Gee, how did I get here? Why am I here?”

It helps me keep some perspective. We are so very small but are capable of great achievements when we work together.

What to do when…..a Corporate Opens Nearby – Part 2

What to do when a corporate opens nearby. First Published in Private Dentistry…2 of 2

6 Expand your offering.

What is the corporate doing that you could be doing – and be doing better? Now is the time to take those course that you have been postponing. Invest in yourself, your skills and those of everyone in the practice. Where are your “blind spots”? What skills are you, your associates and support team lacking? Get out there and get refreshed, it will do everybody good.

7 Up your business game.

Get out of any business comfort zone you may have been enjoying. Set personal and business goals. Make sure your financial controls and monitoring are as good as they can be. Brush up your sales process by ensuring everybody understands the importance of every stage of the patient journey. Refresh your internal marketing.

8 Ride with, and learn to avoid, the punches.

People will leave, the unexpected ones, the ones that you have moved heaven and earth to help. That will hurt; you’re a human being, of course it will hurt. There is a possibility that there will be a fall in new patients calling. Accept it, use it as a chance to look backwards at patients who you haven’t seen for a couple of years and reactivate them.

Beware of getting dragged into a price war with the new business who will be using loss leaders and offers to attract new patients. There’s no such thing as a “free” examination, just a consultation with someone who isn’t qualified to give a full opinion. A price war is a race to the bottom, keep your eyes upwards, make quality your mantra in everything that you do.

9 Wave goodbye / Welcome back

Let patients “leave” with your blessing, they’ll be back. Be understanding, be helpful, offer to share notes and radiographs. Keep them on your database (with permission) so that they get the regular newsletter, the news of the people, the offers, the inside track.

In my experience the best way to drive business to a private practice is an NHS corporate opening across the road. When they come back, and if they don’t return you really do need to take a long hard look at yourself, welcome them, listen to what their experiences have been and what they have learned. Then learn from them. Delight in their return, welcome them home.

10 Celebrate your independent success on your terms.

The patients who attend are coming to see you and your colleagues. The help you give is what you think is appropriate not set down and governed by a spreadsheet. The targets you set are your targets, flexible enough to be realistic for your patients.

The history of post-war Britain is for successful small firms to be swallowed up by large ones and for the intrepid owners to move on and start again. You cannot take on the “big boys” on their terms so don’t try to do it. Discover your niche, work at it, celebrate it.

Look at the big picture, you aren’t competing with the corporate you’re competing for the discretionary spend with holidays, cars, gym membership and consumer goods. Put health and individuals at the heart of your business, be honest with yourself, your team and your patients and you will resist this and other challenges.

What to do when…..a Corporate Opens Nearby – Part 1

What to do when a corporate opens nearby. From Private Dentistry…

Part 1 of 2

“You’ll never guess what has happened now!” said Dr Jim Misery, one of my less upbeat clients, “GleamDent, has opened a 5 surgery practice round the corner.”

“Where Dr Shocker was until he died?”

“Yes, that’s the place, they have opened up the whole house, put in new surgeries, thrown loads of money at it and there’s a big sign out the front, saying, “New branch of GleamDent opening next week! Free whitening offer!”. “What are we going to do? They’ll take all our patients, I just know they will! I should have sold out when I had the chance.”

It hadn’t been a great start to the week for Jim, he arrived at the practice to find a letter from Julie, his senior receptionist, telling him that she was handing in her notice and taking the two weeks holiday leave that she was owed, starting that day. The letter concluded by saying she was going to be working at GleamDent’s new branch in Smith Street – about 150 yards away.

During the rest of our call I concentrated on calming Jim down and getting him to focus on a plan that would resist the unwelcome neighbour. He hadn’t had to cope with anything like this before, fortunately I had. Here are the lessons.

1 Don’t Panic!

Avoid the temptation to despair or to take any rash decisions. It’s understandable that you feel threatened but treat the presence of a competitor as a wake-up call. Take this time to ask yourself why you came into dentistry in the first place and what you really want. Now is your chance to operate on your own terms, to express your authenticity and finally have the practice you wanted.

This is a huge opportunity. All those ideas for change, all the tolerations you have been suppressing, now is the time to examine them and, where appropriate, to introduce them.

Concoct a plan. You are the David to the corporate Goiliath. Include flexibility and the opportunity to amend things quickly should you need. You can be light on your feet, can innovate and respond rapidly to threats and react when things are not working as you wish.

The only constant is change, accept it and become the change you want to see. Not at an indecent rate, all change should be gradual, controlled and measured, but appropriately.

2 Concentrate on your own game.

Be aware of your competition but remember, you can’t undo anything that has happened in the past or anything that they will do – that’s their business – you can only control what you do.

Start with a SWOT analysis of your business. Strengths and Weaknesses are internal elements, Opportunities and Threats are external.

What is working? What do you do really well? Why? What could you do better?

What doesn’t work as well as it should? What are you going to do about improving?

What could you do more of? What do you need to start doing? How are you going to go about that?

Finally, what external elements are threatening to slow or stop your progress?

3 Get some help.

Use an external coach or consultant to take a long hard look at what you’re doing, how you’re doing it, to interview your team members and to act as a sounding board for your thoughts and ideas and then welcome their thoughts and plans. They have done this before and will know what works. Fortunately Dr Jim had me and I had been there and done that before.

Ask a few friends and family members (or even a professional) to “mystery shop” them asking about prices, treatments and availability. Then get those same people to do the same to your practice. How do you shape up?

4 Take a look at the new kids on the block;

….and every other kid around whilst you’re at it. Examine their online presence, is their website any good? Does it do anything that yours doesn’t and does that matter? What can you learn. One old mantra for success is to “Adopt, Adapt & Improve”, keep it at the front of your strategies.

Walk the streets, literally. Go and have a look at the other practices in the vicinity. Then take a good look at your own. Take photographs or video of you and them and examine them on a big screen. What do you see? What can you improve quickly and easily?

5 Differentiate yourself.

Get absolutely clear about what it is you do, what it is you offer, what makes your practice unique. This is the core of your marketing.

I can hear Dr Jim sighing, “not marketing again”, that’s because he still doesn’t get it. He thinks that marketing is about advertising, about promoting yourself as something that you are not. He’s wrong. Marketing is about being yourself and sharing that. It’s about discovering what’s at the core of you doing what you do and letting the world know.

Everybody in every business should be marketing themselves and the business for every minute of every day. The chances are the corporate will have the same paint job as the other practices, the same signage, the same website, price list, uniforms and ways of answering the phone. Almost certainly the people who work there will have been taught what to say when they answer the telephone, a script memorised. It’s unlikely they will be trusted to speak their own words with the same meaning or they will have been encouraged to be their own authentic selves.

This is where you start to make inroads, where you stand out, where you become the distinctive “Jim Misery” brand. (Jim gets self conscious when I say these things but trusts me enough to go along with it because he knows it works).

Part 2 tomorrow

Jan 1st 2019 – the “bracing dip”

9.30am Castlehaven Parkrun at Rineen. After nearly nine months nursing an Achilles Tendinopathy (everybody told me it would be a slow recovery – and they were right) I started running again recently. It’s good to meet up with locals & visitors; runners & walkers to enjoy the woods and the hills that make this run unique.

10.30am Drop off the De-fib in Castletownshend (once again offering a silent prayer of thanks that it wasn’t needed for me – or anyone else). Home for a bit of breakfast.

11.30am Check the tyres and cycle the 10km to Glandore. Descend from ReesAcres at just over 300 feet to sea level at Rineen, back up to 300 feet and then down again through Union Hall.

1pm The annual immersion in a chilly Glandore Harbour – so good I did it twice. 90+ swimmers and €900 raised for the RNLI. Mulled wine and the bike in the car for the return, home for a hot shower.

No better way to start to a New Year.

The best is yet to come, with edit…

My first posting on this blog was on 14th May 2008. To date there have been 1,558 published entries spread over those 3885 days, that works out at one every 2.5 days or thereabouts, (another 3885 days will take us to 22nd August 2029). To quote Andi McDowell that may be “a fair run”, less than many but a lot more than some. I hope to increase the frequency and always strive for quality.

For the most part, this blog has been about my work, thoughts and influences. I have attempted to include links to sources that I hope my readers will find interesting, informative or even entertaining.

There has been some, but less, about the other “stuff” in my life. I’m going to change that to a certain extent to include more of my personal activities, beliefs and influences.

In the opening entry I described myself as:

Alun Rees, Professional Coach, Dentist, Speaker, Writer & Broadcaster.

Dentistry is not a career you can dabble with, so I have not been registered with the General Dental Council (GDC) since the end of 2013, therefore I am forbidden from describing myself as a dentist (so ~~Dentist)~~, my medical contemporaries who have retired from practice are allowed to keep their place on the medical register but marked as “retired”.

The other descriptions still apply and I am more active than ever with all four. Coaching can be something of a fluid activity and certainly takes in elements of Consulting, Mentoring, Advising and Training depending upon what is appropriate for the needs of the individual client or clients. Whilst I work mostly with Dentists I do apply the same principles to other walks of life and to life itself and I am not tied to dentistry.

I went on to say:

In this blog I will include:

Observations from my working & personal life.
Links with other sites & blogs that I hope you will find of interest.
References to my mentors, teachers & other individuals who have inspired me.
Reviews of books that I have found influential.

I hope that I have fulfilled all those promises to a greater or lesser extent.

I concluded:

I will be delighted to hear from you so please feel free to post.

Alun

That definitely still applies.

I said in the title of this blog, “The Best Is Yet To Come” – it’s pointless feeling any other way. If you feel that your best is behind you it’s time to change something in your professional life. (Perhaps you need a coach?)

Happy New Year – to continued success and happiness.

What does success mean to you?

These wise words from Ralph Waldo Emerson defined success thus:

“To laugh often and much;

To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children;

To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends;

To appreciate beauty, to find the best in others;

To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition;

To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived.

This is to have succeeded.”

Too much time wasted on one man.

Having some “free” time this morning before the Wren Boy run at the local GAA ground, I was browsing The Guardian online and completed “The Donald Trump Quiz of the Year”.

The object is to answer 10 questions on “The Donald”. Here’s the link.

Being a competitive sort of individual I was disappointed that I started badly but I really couldn’t imagine Trump admitting to “a bad hair day”. I was correct with the other nine answers.

The paper concluded, “I worry that you have not quite managed to break free of Trump’s vice-like grip on the world’s attention. You have been thinking about him too much. Remember, that’s what he wants.”

Our civilisation seems to be controlled by narcissists, encouraging the rest of us to either join them in their self-centred universe or be subjugated by it.

The Brexit politicians and the 45th President are not people who appear to put “service before self”, they take little or notice of what I think – perhaps I have been guilty of paying them too much attention.

The Incisal Edge

Put down your smart phone…