Teamwork: Fact or Fiction? 

Cathy Jameson

Power Thought: Jameson Management 

How do you go about building and maintaining a strong team?  

How do you motivate that team to continue on a path of improvement?  

How do you establish longevity with good team persons and stop the merry-go-round of people coming and going from your practice?

Each person on the team is, in essence, a leader. Each person is responsible for supporting other members of the team and helping colleagues to maximize potential. As a member of a team, each person can build up the other people on the team - or tear other people apart. The former is, obviously, desirable. In addition, each person has a role in leading patients to make decisions. I think you will agree with me that in today's sophisticated dental world, a strong team is essential.

VISION: Start here. Make sure that your entire team is clear about the vision of your practice. Define the vision and be on a path of making that vision become a distinct reality. The vision is the overall view of your "ideal practice". What does that look like to you? Please refuse to accept anything less than your ideal. There is absolutely no reason to compromise.  

GOALS: Once you have a clearly written and acknowledged vision, get involved with the specifics. How are you going to make that vision become a reality? Goal setting and goal accomplishment are, really, strategic business planning. Here is where you integrate solid principles of business management into your practice's development.

Goals become the defined plan of action set forth with the intention of accomplishing pre-determined results. Your goals must be written down. "That which cannot be monitored cannot be measured."

COMMUNICATE WITH YOUR SUPERSTAR TEAM: Yes, you are--or can be--a superstar and each person on your team can be, also. Dr. William James, the father of American Psychology, says that the average person uses only five to ten percent of his/her potential. All of us have talent and potential that is untapped, un-nurtured, unused. So, as a team of leaders, be in the business of helping the other members of your team "unfold" in your environment.

HIRE SLOWLY - AND HIRE RIGHT. Work with experts in management consulting or in human resources to learn the very intricate skills of seeking, interviewing, hiring, orienting, training, and retaining quality team members. One of the reasons that there are so many turnovers in the dental profession is because the hiring and training wasn't done well in the first place.

By developing plans of action; by committing to "action"; and by holding effective team meetings, you will be well on your way to a critical concept of teamwork: ACCOUNTABILITY!  

Effective communication on a daily basis - about clinical issues, business issues and viewing the entire practice with a team's perspective will make all the difference. People understand their roles with a big picture perspective and strive to do their best. In order to develop a great team and in order to get things done in a timely and effective manner, each member of the team must be able to count on every other member of the team. After all, isn't that what teamwork is all about?

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The $10,000 Paper Clip

Katherine Eitel

Power Thought: Katherine Eitel and Associates

I recently presented a teambuilding program for faculty of a dental school.  We decided on an experiential exercise in the afternoon, called One Red Paperclip.  You may have seen a 20-20 television segment a few years back about a young man who decided to try to get a house by starting with one red paperclip and "trading up" for things of greater value.  It only took 14 trades to reach his goal.

We broke the group of 300 into smaller groups of 50 or less and gave them one "silver" paperclip and 90 minutes to organize, strategize, and compete to raise the most money for a charity of their choice.  They could use any resource:  cell phones, internet, strangers on the street.  Their job was to "trade up" their paperclip for something of greater value and then "re-trade" that for something bigger until they ran out of time.  In the end, they had to convert their final trade to money.  In 90 minutes, they had to be back in the room and present a pledge or actual cash.

It was fascinating to watch the process.  In the beginning there was a mixture of disbelief, chaos, even frustration about the lack of direction given and the enormity, even ridiculousness, of the task.  They struggled through the process of organizing, leading, and coalescing to form a strategic plan to accomplish the seemingly impossible.But at about the 30-minute mark, we started to feel the creative juices flowing and felt a substantial shift in energy.

Together, in 90 minutes, 300 people collectively raised over $10,000!  They, and we, were astounded.  More importantly, we all witnessed teams of people from different departments within the organization come together and accomplish an amazing outcome.  Each team had a completely different approach demonstrating that there is not just one good idea in a group but many.

This week as you come together as a team, in your business and in your family, understand there is more creativity in you and more ideas and resolutions to the challenges you face than you ever dreamed.  Make sure you are creating a culture where those ideas are expected, encouraged, and facilitated and where the expectation is that there is an answer for every challenge within the team just waiting to be heard and realized.

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