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Putting It Into Practice
The Three Steps to Implementing Any New Idea
does the following scenario sound
familiar? You spend a weekend at a
continuing-education workshop that
really sparks something within you. You
understand that what you’re learning
could make a big difference in your prac-
tice. You get excited and you can hardly
wait to get back to the office and start
implementing these new ideas. So, you
come back and assemble the team and
give them a “this is the way it’s going to
be from now on” pep talk.
Then reality bites back. Before long, you
start coming up against obstacles. Where
do we find the time? How can we change
old habits to new in a sustainableway? The
team, which never had the chance to get as
excited as you were to begin with, begins
to lose its enthusiasmand starts coming up
with objections. “This isn’t working,” they
say, and, before you know it, you’re being
held back by the anchor of the oldways.
A lot of dentists have experienced this
many times, to the point where they
eventually anticipate the difficulties of
introducing transformative changes in
the practice, and so start to hedge their
bets. They still get excited by new ideas,
but when it comes to implementation,
they try to cherry-pick. “Maybe if I just
do this part and this part ...”
But, of course, the parts they choose to
implement are usually the
easiest — the ones that offer
the least resistance and
are likely to cause the least
t h e c o m p l e t e d e n t i s t
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b y i m t i a z m a n j i
disturbance — and, not surprisingly, they
don’t bring the hoped-for results. That’s
because (as we all know in our hearts)
it’s the parts of the strategy that you are
most tempted to skip that are probably
the most important.
3 Steps to Getting
Implementation to Stick
A lot of things in life — in fact, most things
worth doing — are like this. Whether
it’s schooling, or athletic excellence or
making a marriage work, a cherry-picking
approach seldom works. You have to
commit fully. There are many great things
that are possible in a dental practice —
any dental practice — but they all require
impassioned effort. They require what I
call “end-to-end implementation.” That
means no shortcuts, no half-measures.
They also require an engaged and
committed team. There are a lot of great
clinicians who haven’t made the leap to
being great dentists running great prac-
tices because they haven’t mastered this
part of the equation. They can’t deliver
great care because very few people know
what they’re truly capable of, including
the people around them.
Having an enthusiastic team aligned
with you onwhat you’re trying to achieve
is the secret to unlocking success in just
about everything in the practice. That’s
why every successful implementation
strategy is ultimately about achieving
total team buy-in, and that usually comes
down to three key steps:
step 1:
Get them excited. They must be
excited about the result you’re aiming
for, excited about the possibilities for
the patients and the practice. And,
most importantly, they must be excited
about their role in making it happen.
Remember, it can take an entire weekend
of sustained, off-site instruction at a
workshop to really get you committed
and energized about something new. It’s
not fair for youor the teamto expect them
to get that same feeling from a 30-minute
debrief when you get back. You need to
take the time to get them to understand
the “why” before they can fully commit
to the “what” and the “how.” (There is a
great TED talk on this subject by Simon
Sinek — it’s worth Googling.)
What it takes to get them to this point
dependsonwhatitisyou’retryingtoimple-
ment. Simplemeasures canbeaddressed in
a well-thought-out staff meeting. For more
complex matters, you may need to spend
a day with the doors closed and devote
focused time to your plan. For anything
really significant, you need to get away. A
major change in thinking requires a change
in environment, whether that means
taking the team with you to a workshop
or away to an off-site “team retreat” when
you get back. I know I do my best creative,
long-term thinkingwhen I amon vacation.
Just getting away from the office environ-
ment — an environment where I am used
to solving today’s problems — seems to
open my mind to bigger possibilities. I’m
sure you have felt that too, and so have the
people on your team.
Keep in mind that these are the people
you are counting on to carry out your
mission. It pays to take the time at the
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BONUS DIGITAL CONTENT: Visit
for a digital version of this issue; click the icon for a bonus video, discussion thread and/or RST file.
Excitement is not enough — you also have to
give people a reasonable path to success.
