It’s a beautiful thing to run an organization that is self-managing, high-performing, and always improving. Building a group dental practice that operates this way depends on a few vital factors.

Preventing the Loop of Constantly “Putting Out Fires”

Most dental practice leaders spend a lot of time fixing problems, addressing concerns, and handling the daily issues of the practice, taking time away from long term growth projects. This leaves them with the feeling that they are “putting out fires” all day and not actually getting where they want to go.

We designed the Spark Strategic Plan to provide a roadmap of daily actions to help group practices go from “putting out fires” to proactively fixing the root cause of those problems and achieving important goals, growing in value quickly.

Here is a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the Spark Strategic Plan:

Develop a Clear Vision + Chart Your Map

Developing a clear vision is the first step in the Strategic Plan. Even if you aren’t sure how to get there, developing the ideal vision is the first step to developing the big picture mentality needed to go from working on your business rather than in it.

When you have a clear vision for the future of the organization, you can begin to take the steps needed to go from tactical thinking (actions to take) to strategic thinking (desired results).

Creating a “map” of where you want to go is the next step in the Strategic Plan. Once you’ve developed the clear vision for the company, it’s time to fine-tune every single thing your business does so you can achieve your big picture vision.

Strategic thinking happens when you align all of the actions of your practice to the desired business goals stated by your company’s vision. Strategic thinking means aligning all of your business activities with that vision.

How to Get the Whole Team On Board

Wouldn’t it be great if your practice and everyone working in it was on board with your vision and business goals?

Everyone from hygienists to admin assistants to doctors need to know what the long term map looks like for the business and how it applies to their specific duties. This will allow everyone to work in harmony toward the greater business goals.

A key ingredient is getting everyone to buy in and shifting the team to a proactive and empowered mindset.

Can you imagine how much more quickly you’d reach your organization’s goals if everyone on the team is thinking of ways they can improve their daily performance?

The ideal scenario is one where team members manage themselves to higher and higher performance, with each of them helping to keep the whole team accountable every day.

Not only is this possible, this is the environment that our Spark members actively create and encourage in their own businesses. This is what allows for growth and high-performance from everyone in the practice.

Building a Self-Correcting Team Culture

Now that we know having a self-managing organization is key to growth, how do we cultivate this in the workplace?

Building this requires communicating the company vision, setting high standards for team performance, and then providing team members with the support they need to reach those standards.

Part of this support is making it very clear what the desired outcomes are for the practice and then having team members actively participate in setting the workplace standards. Collaboration is vital. This way, everybody is aware of the responsibilities of all the other team members and how they can expect everyone else to behave.

When everyone knows their responsibilities and the consequences for their actions, they can quickly self-correct. For instance, if someone is showing up tardy to work, they will know how much this impacts the performance of everyone else, and behavior will likely change.

They will also most likely be reminded of their responsibilities by other team members to get back on track. This environment helps team members who fit the organization to easily and quickly change their performance to match the behavior that the entire group expects.

This environment is vital in all organizations. Even the most responsive team members need leadership. They need to know the Strategic Plan and what their role is in executing that plan.

Paying Attention to the Right Numbers (and Ignoring the Rest)

How do you know what information you should be acting on and what you can safely ignore?

There are key metrics that dental practices can track that the Spark team has identified with the biggest impact in driving growth and revenue. If you don’t know these numbers it’s akin to driving blind. Before long, you’re going to run into some obstacles.

When you have proper measuring tools in place you can safely ignore the noise and effectively deal with problems. In some cases you can know about problems before they become unmanageable and safely plan for the future.

There are key numbers we can look at to see why a dental practice is having growth challenges and to know exactly what to do to fix those problems. That’s why it’s helpful to have a team on your side who has already overcome these challenges so you can be confident you’re making the right choices to achieve your strategic objectives.

The Strategic Plan is one of the profit-driving systems Spark builds within dental practice groups and DSOs to increase their value and help them reach their goals quickly. With this plan in place, organizations can move out of the “putting out fires” loop and into bigger practice results.