Dentaltown December 2017 - 125

in the VISION process can and should be broken up
into bite-sized tasks. In my office, we take one hour
per week away from treating patients to work on our
breakthrough board. My leadership team and I are
always listing new tasks that need to be accomplished
in the practice. For example, if we're going to design a
new marketing campaign to target students at our local
college, we would need someone to figure out a good
offer that might attract those students; someone to
draw a mockup of a marketing piece; someone to work
with a printer to get the marketing brochure, flyer or
postcard printed to our specs; and someone to deliver
the pieces to the prospective new patients in whatever
way we choose. Those are four distinct tasks that can
be placed on that board and can be worked during that
weekly hour by any members on our team who would
like to choose them.
The beauty of this system is that all our team members
can pick and choose whichever tasks appeal to them
during this weekly hour. When they picked the task
it became something they now own, and that makes
all the difference in their effort levels and motivation.

Rewarding a job well done
Finally, they need validation-they need to feel
like their efforts in the practice are being recognized.
Our validation piece is a bonus system developed after
studying how some of the most successful companies in
Silicon Valley managed and rewarded their teams as they
grew into giants of the industry. To some degree, these
companies still use boards, just like the breakthrough
board I described. In our case, we attach a dollar value
to each of the bite-sized tasks placed on the board.
Then, when the team members comes together for their
"bonus hour" each week, as they're working to make
the practice stronger and moving toward the shared
vision, they're also earning bonus money.
I know bonuses have a checkered past in our profession, and I am not a proponent of overtly money-based
bonuses that can sometimes create all kinds of trouble

for your practice if they are not closely monitored. These
bonuses are one-time payments that reward your team
for a job well done on a particular task. You can be very
conservative or very generous with your payouts, but as
you pay team members actual checks for their efforts
to make the practice better, you're validating them as
valuable members of your team. This will pay dividends
that will take you to your ultimate goal much faster
and will probably create a much better environment
along the way.

Conclusion
If you implement the "3V's" in your practice, you
will be turning over some of the office leadership to your
team. I know that turning over some of your practice
responsibilities feels strange; it's in your nature to be
the hero, it's in your nature to be the driver. That's what
has made you successful so far. I would just ask you
to consider how great it would feel to still be the hero
to your patients, but not have to carry around all the
worries and concerns of day-to-day practice operations.
If you can manage that, you can make your dental
practice stronger than you ever imagined-fireproof,
even. ■

Meet this featured speaker
at Townie Meeting 2018!
Dr. Chris Griffin will be one of the featured speakers
at Townie Meeting 2018, which runs April 11-14 in
Orlando, Florida. To discover more about the event,
or to take advantage of discounted admission
through Dec. 31, visit towniemeeting.com.

dentaltown.com \\ DECEMBER 2017

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Dentaltown December 2017