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THE POWER OF PARTNERSHIP
March 4th, 5th and 6th
SOLD OUT!
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THE INTEGRITY OF WE
According to a number of philosophers, you and I
simultaneously exist in four interrelated domains. The
four domains are (a) "I", (b) "You and Me," (c) "Us"
(group, i.e. family or work unit) and (d) "We"
(community, i.e. neighborhood, organization, nation).
Initially, the charge is to master having integrity in the
domain of "I." Being able to give your word and keep it
because you said so. "I promise" becomes your
challenge. This was pretty much your challenge in
growing up, doing your school work and taking care of
your responsibilities. This was what college and most
of dental school was about - giving your word and
keeping it at the level of "I."
In order to achieve what you have achieved
professionally, you had to generate a high level of
integrity in the domain of "I." Finals, clinical
requirements, lab assignments, boards, and all that it
takes comes from you as an individual being able to
give your word to achieve a result and then
accomplishing it. And often in the times of
unsupportive circumstances and people.
Once you have developed this level of integrity,
intention and wherewithal, you then extended it into
the domain of "You and Me." In practice, generating
integrity in the "You and Me" domain usually occurs in
your early years. You find a front desk that supports
you, your intentions and your success. You work well
together and figure out how you and she can give your
word and keep it. You both set goals, you both make
mutual promises, and you both achieve coordinated
actions as planned. You develop the capacity to give
your word as "You and Me." Once this level of integrity
is reached, it is always matched by a certain level of
practice success.
However, if the practice is unable to expand its ability
to give its word beyond "You and Me," its success
plateaus. Basically these are the middle of pack or
below practices in terms of financial success. The
equation is straight-forward, the higher the degree of
practice integrity, the higher level of financial success.
The higher level of integrity above "You and Me" is the
level of "We."And the higher degree in the level
of "We," the more practice success will occur.
For the moderately successful practices, over time
they usually add an assistant and/or a hygienist that
joins the dentist and the front desk, so a fraction of the
total "We" is formed that can give their word and keep
it. But other staff members never join this core, so the
integrity never becomes full or complete at the level
of "We." These are the middle and slightly above
practices in their success.
In order to reach the next rung of success, the
challenge is to generate and maintain integrity in
everyone in the practice. This is where most practices
fall short. Only the very most successful practices can
make full "We" promises and keep them - where each
staff member owns the promise of the practice, where
each staff member can promise the other's promise.
Having worked with thousands of practices, it is clear
to me the level of success is always consistent with
the level of integrity. It's easy to tell when the practice
is at the level of a full "We" promise. "The doctor will
call you back today," and it happen as promised. The
patients are seen on time. The crown is back from the
lab as prescribed. All staff is on time for meetings. It's
really obvious, you can only achieve the highest level
of success when you are able to make and keep a
promise at the total level of "We."
What is required to bring the staff and yourself to a
level where "We" all can promise and "We" all can
keep our word? You won't find it in pearls, scripts,
recipes or tips. You won't find it in most of the practice
management materials, books and articles. You won't
find it in a room in Arizona, Florida or Seattle sitting
with hundreds of other dentists. You won't even find it
with some sharp consultant, sitting in your waiting
room with you and your staff addressing how to
improve customer service or deliver better intra-office
communication. What is needed to generate an ability
to make a "We" promise is authentic leadership,
rigorous management, and demanding ownership.
First and foremost, you must honor yourself as your
word. You must hold your word as superior ordinate to
your feelings, your moods or your circumstances.
Nothing is more important than holding yourself to
your word - nothing. And then you need to hold your
staff to the same demanding standard.
Let me reiterate, the higher level you have to
collectively give and keep your word as a practice, to
make a "We" promise and keep it, the higher level of
success you will enjoy. That's it. That's the real secret
of success. That's the 'key to the kingdom.' The level
of integrity is a direct correlate to the level of success a
practice can achieve.
If I were you, I'd be working on generating a practice
where each and every person could own the promises
of the practices and each other, and do whatever it
takes to deliver on keeping these promises.
Dr. Marc B. Cooper
The Mastery Company
MasteryCompany.com
REFERENCES
A Brief History of Everything - Ken
Wilber
Landmark Educational Corporation - The
Wisdom Course
The Power of Now - Tracy Goss
The Three Laws of Performance - Steve
Zaffron
ANNOUNCEMENT
The 2010 Mastery Conference is CLOSED at this time.
We have, however, started a 'Wait List' if you would like
to receive a call in the event a current registrant is
unable to attend for any reason. Please email us by
responding to this eNewsletter if you would like
to be added to this list. You will be contacted if/when
there is a vacancy.
COPYRIGHT WARNING: This is a public notice. Do
not repost copyrighted articles or materials from these
eNewsletters without Dr. Marc Cooper's and The
Mastery Company's permission. If you find something
interesting in the eNewsletter, post a brief description
and the web address. Brief quotes or extensive
paraphrasing of an article is fine if properly cited.
Wholesale copying without permission is illegal.
Dr. Marc B. Cooper
President and CEO
The Mastery Company
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