Dr. John Meis: Hey everybody! Welcome to this episode of The Strategic Thinker. I’m Dr. John Meis and I’m here with Spark co-founder Heather Driscoll. How are you doing, Heather?

Heather Driscoll: I’m doing great, Dr. John, how about you?

Dr. John Meis: I’m doing fantastic. What a beautiful time of year, and things in dental practices are going fantastic right now. So, what’s the topic for today.

Heather Driscoll: So today, speaking of timing, it seems like end of the year is always a great time for people to start working on a process to get more clarity. But, to take what they’ve learned and to apply it to hopefully set them up for even more success moving forward. We’re going to talk about clarity and vision today.

Dr. John Meis: Okay, fantastic.

Heather Driscoll: Alright, so let me get us going here. So, as always, we’ll start with just revisiting the Enterprise Value Matrix. So, it’s the foundation of what we do here at Spark, so Dr. John if you would describe the matrix and we’ll dive in.

Dr. John Meis: Yeah, so the matrix came from watching what created extra value. When we look at valuing enterprises, of course EBIDTA is one of the most critical items, but there are many other items as well. And, we found that they fell into 4 quadrants, the Cultural, Financial, Process, and Personnel quadrants. And so, we discuss these each separately, the processes, the thought processes, the mindsets to help people build even more enterprise value. 

Heather Driscoll: Wonderful. So, today we’re actually going to focus on the Process quadrant. And, one of the processes that I think gets very little credit and certainly is a huge accelerator for success is the ability to get clarity on your vision. So, we recently had the opportunity to spend the day with one of our longtime Spark members doing what we lovingly call a Vision Day. Dr John, do you want to talk just a little bit about the elements of that day, and then we’ll dive into some of the success that this practice has had in the one short month since we were there with them?

Dr. John Meis: Sure. The Vision Day generally starts with either creating or clarifying or strengthening or refreshing the cultural elements, the cultural foundation, of a dental practice. So, this is Mission-Vision-Values, making sure that they are in place, that everybody knows them, that they have the processes to keep those values and the behaviors that demonstrate those values alive in their practices every single day. You know, generally when practices are a single location we have the founder that’s in that location and generally they’re driving the values. But, once you start spreading out into multiple locations, driving those values and those behaviors into the people that you’re not seeing and working with every day is difficult. So, we help them understand how to drive those things into multiple locations, the ones you can’t touch all the time. 

Heather Driscoll: Absolutely, and so what we found, to your point, is that when the culture and the vision and the values aren’t either clearly defined or clearly stated or often revisited, there really is the opportunity for everyone to kind of create what they think is best. And, usually that’s from the people with the strongest personalities, and those personalities may or may not completely align with the vision and the values of the founder and the leader of the organization. 

Dr. John Meis: And, that’s really the challenge is that in every office, there’s going to be a micro-culture that develops. You go into any office and it’s a little bit different, even the same owner, even if they look exactly the same, even if the people were trained the same, they develop over time these little micro-cultures. But, if people don’t understand what the over-arching culture is, these micro-cultures can become something that’s not in alignment with the overall culture and that’s when we have problems. That’s when we have practices that go rogue. That’s when we have a lot of turnover. That’s when we run into those practices that we spend an inordinate amount of time trying to right them when if we had had all the cultural pieces in place wouldn’t have been necessary in the first place. 

Heather Driscoll: Absolutely. So, part of the Vision Day really is to help that leader get clarity about what they want for themselves and what they want for their organization. So, in this situation, again one of our longtime Spark members, really working towards the ability to kind of... he’s a practicing dentist... so the ability to allow him to spend less time at the chair and more time developing other people and developing these foundational elements of culture and vision and ultimately strategy. And so, we started the Vision Day - and we start every Vision Day - really by asking a few key questions, but one that I always think is taken for granted that’s a little bit harder than it is to answer than it is to ask, certainly I ask myself this on any given day. But, you always do such a nice job Dr. John of really asking people if we were to fast-forward 3 years from today, what are some of the things that would have to have happened for them to feel really good about their progress? And the question seems so small, but when someone really has to step back and formulate some solid answers, a lot more challenging than you’d think.

Dr. John Meis: Yeah, I learned that question from my friend Dan Sullivan from Strategic Coach, and one of the things I’ve found in using it is that people know, they know, they can answer it, and their answer may be, if they thought about it for an hour or a day, they may have a more complete answer, but for the most part the things that are rattling around in their head are right there, so they can answer it right now. The most important things come out right then. So, it’s a really powerful question.

Heather Driscoll: Absolutely. So, what we found was that this doctor and enterprise leader was hoping to spend less time at the chair so he could spend more time developing other doctors and really creating an environment that would allow him to be the leader full time and not having to have so much of the financial success depend on his productivity. So, let’s talk a little bit about the results they’ve been able to get in just one short month after having that clarity.

Dr. John Meis: So, I have one piece of information to add here. 

Heather Driscoll: Okay!

Dr. John Meis: Very common that the founder of a group is practicing, often they’re very productive, and that was the case with this doctor, extremely productive at the chair 5 days a week, working hard producing a mind-blowing amount of dentistry, but so consumed by that that he really was, he had all these pieces that weren’t necessarily working as well as they should, and if he were able to fix those he wouldn’t have to practice at all. But, he felt he had to practice, he felt the entire profitability of the practice depended upon him, and to some degree he was right. So, in the Vision Day, we guided him that he should focus less on his own personal productivity and focus more on the productivity of his associates. So, that’s one of the things we talked about, so there are other things as well. So, let’s see what happened.

Heather Driscoll: Alright. And, I think that was a really great point because I think productivity is one of those things that feels really good because, first and foremost, you’re helping patients. But, it’s easy to measure, right? And so, you can look at a report several times throughout the day and you can see the fruits of your labor, whereas some of the other things that are ultimately leading up to long-term progress and results, a little harder to quantify, don’t feel quite as significant in the moment, so kind of easy to minimize the impact that they have. 

Dr. John Meis: Yes. One of the beautiful things about dentistry is that you sit down, you take something that’s broken and you fix it. It’s done. And, as you shift more of your time to leadership, the things that you’re working on won’t necessarily hatch for years sometimes. So, it is a different mind frame and the immediacy is not there, but the impact is so much greater when done right. 

Heather Driscoll: Yep, absolutely. So, the first thing that happened, and this happened actually that day, was that they redefined and decided to re-communicate their core values. So, to your point, sometimes we think this has to be this laborious process, and what’s really true to who you are and what you believe comes to your mind pretty quickly when you’re forced to make the decision. So on that day, they redefined their core values, and since then they’ve actually created really very nice internal marketing pieces to communicate the core values to all of the team members in all of their locations. And then, beyond that they’ve started to talk about specific behaviors that show up every day that represent the values that they’ve defined, so that their walk is actually matching their talk and they’re really, truly behaving in a way that very clearly says, “Yes, this is who we are and this is how it should show up on any given day.” 

Dr. John Meis: Very good. And as they get further and further in this over time, when they add this to their onboarding system, when they add this mindset to who they hire and who they attract, they’re going to find that they’re going to attract people that have those similar core values, and they’re going to find that onboarding them you can get them into the mindset of how we make decisions and how we think about things much faster when you have this all laid out and communicated carefully. 

Heather Driscoll: Definitely. So, the next thing that they’ve done, which is super exciting, is increased the production per visit of their associate doctors. So Dr. John, you spent a good amount of time with this high-producing owner/doctor just talking through the benefits of why this should be a focus area. Do you want to touch on some of what you guys discussed and then I’ll share some of the numbers?

Dr. John Meis: Sure, so some of the things we discussed is #1: this particular doctor at any hour during the day, he could tell you how much he produced. He focused on his production and driving his production up. That same amount of effort for other doctors, and I believe they have 7 other doctors maybe? 8?

Heather Driscoll: 7 or 8, yes.

Dr. John Meis: So, that same effort, if he could just get them to go up a little bit, it takes all the pressure off him. And, now he’s down to 4 days. So, all he had to do was help his doctors and the number we came up with, if he could increase his doctors by $20,000 a month, he could take a day out of the chair and not feel it financially at all, right? And now, his associates are earning more, so they’re happier, they’re more likely to stick. And he’s happier because now he’s less overwhelmed, and now he has some time to work on some of the administrative things that have just been delayed because he’s so focused on his own personal productivity. 

Heather Driscoll: Yeah, absolutely. And, he is such a great doctor, and honestly a really good teacher. And so, in that short one-month period, I’m just going to share 3 of the 8 doctors. One of them went from $658 production per visit last month to S745 this month. Another one went from $628 to $757. And, a really big jump, a young doctor, she’s just been with him a little more than a year, she was at $279 production per visit last month and this month she’s at $466. 

Dr. John Meis: Yeah, that’s fantastic!

Heather Driscoll: So, really incredible progress! And, when you think about that from a patient-care standpoint, really what that boils down to is the consistency of use of processes probably, more than anything. Just having a consistent way that we evaluate a patient’s needs and communicate those needs and then give them the same opportunity, every patient, every time, no matter what their insurance or lack of insurance, give them the same opportunity to move forward with treatment. 

Dr. John Meis: And really, doing it the same way, having each doctor getting closer and closer to doing it the same way, consistency is integrity. And so, those are such big steps. Wonderful. So, you think about what happens with those doctors, they’re earning more, that makes everybody happy. What do you think happened to their confidence level? 

Heather Driscoll: Yes.

Dr. John Meis: Right? Their confidence level has gone up. And, when our confidence level goes up, our performance goes up. They match one to the other.

Heather Driscoll: And, what do think happened to their team? Because, the consistency of your doctor makes it so much easier to be a really supportive team member, but when you’re trying to guess on any given day what they’re going to say or how they’re going to say it or the approach they’re going to take to patient care, it’s really hard to be an effective dental assistant or an effective hygienist or business assistant. So, that consistency really breeds confidence for everybody. 

Dr. John Meis: One of the frustrations I hear from a lot of group practice management people or DSO management people is, “Our doctors just are really comfortable and they don’t want to do any more.” And, I always challenge that because I think that most people have a bigger future in mind. And most people, if coached in the right way, can start to see a bigger future and will naturally be drawn to it. So, when I hear that from management people, I tell them that they don’t have a doctor problem, they have a management problem. Because, they really can do more, they really can help their doctors to see a bigger future, and help their doctors figure out the steps to get there.

Heather Driscoll: Yep, absolutely. So, a couple of other pretty good sized wins that they’ve had in the last month, we talked a little bit about the mix of patients that they were seeing. And, one of the things that we talk about when we try to help people get clarity with their vision for the future of their organization is their payer mix. And so, in some of their practices, they had been taking more of a government-based insurance than they really were comfortable taking, but they had also been presented with a couple of opportunities of retiring dentists who were not looking to sell their practices but were actually just looking to have a new dental home for their patients to go to. So, in the course of the last month, we helped them in creating a marketing letter that went out to these 2 retiring dentists’ patient base just saying, “Hey, you know what, we’d love to have you in our dental home.” And, getting a blessing from those retiring dentists, because those dentists had actually already reached out anyway saying, “We think you’re the best place in town, would you mind if we send our patients your way?” And so, while that probably would have worked okay, what we really did was just got a little bit more intentional about the strategy, and just proactively communicated with the patients. Because there’s capacity in a couple of his practices and the strategy really to change up the payer mix was a good one, and so this really helped accelerate that process. 

Dr. John Meis: So, these were... we call them “fold-ins”, where we take a practice that’s existing and get the patients to come to our location. These fold-ins sometimes require the doctor to come with for a period of time, sometimes not. But, generally these are wonderful opportunities. Generally people who know they’re retiring, their diagnostic assertiveness starts to go down, and so generally there is some delayed care for most of the patients. And so, these are really great opportunities to serve those patients, to get them kind of caught up, so to say, in their dentistry and improve their dental health. 

Heather Driscoll: Yep, absolutely. So the next thing, because now that we’re obviously doing more dentistry and going to be seeing more patients, one of the other things that they recognized they had a need for was dental assistants. And, it had been something that had been plaguing them for a while, so they actually committed to moving forward with a dental assisting school platform to really help kind of give them a little bit of head start on having an ongoing pool of dental assistants to choose from. So, again clarity on what the practices need, what resources they currently have, what resources they need, and then just making a plan and executing on it. So, pretty exciting stuff for one month.

Dr. John Meis: Yeah, that’s really fantastic execution. And, the one thing about Vision Days is it always ends with, “Here’s what we’re going to do and who’s responsible.” And so, when you have one person responsible for things, it’s amazing how easy the accountability is when you’re meeting regularly and saying, “Is this project on track or not on track?” It just keeps the accountability going and it’s amazing how much progress that you can make. 

Heather Driscoll: So, when people come to us and we recommend a Vision Day, it’s usually because they have a level of frustration or fear that they really can’t get though. And, sometimes people will really just say, “Can you do this for me?” Right? And that’s not so much our approach, although we do have opportunities to work more closely with people. But, really what we find is that a few simple processes, that really turns it into “done with you” instead of “done for you”, is the most effective approach. So, it’s always fun to see really people’s shoulders kind of sinking back down and a little bit more enjoyment in what they’re doing, and clarity can do just that. Clarity can provide a level of peace of mind and the ability to move forward, which I think is what we’re all hoping for on any given day.

Dr. John Meis: And, just to see the body language and the faces of the management team/support team in the room. They were super excited, maybe a little anxious, but super excited about the bigger future that they were going after. And, the doctor... you could just see the stress was draining out of him and he could see how he gets out of this situation that he had built into his practice. And, now he could see how, “Okay, now I can have what I want and have the practice do fantastic and serve our patients and our team have even more opportunity.” And, they’re super fun to do. 

Heather Driscoll: Really fun. So, nothing feels better than progress. And, every day is not going to be maybe that monumental, but a really a great amount of work for 30 days, and I know they’re on track to make the next 30 days even better. So, one strong process can really have incredible outcomes and long-lasting results. So, pretty fun stuff.

Dr. John Meis: Well, thanks everybody for being on this episode of The Strategic Thinker, and we’ll see you next time.

Heather Driscoll: Bye!

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