Leadership: Positive Change Management through AI

AI - Appreciative Inquiry is a philosophy and methodology for promoting positive organizational change through creating meaningful dialogue, inspiring hope, and inviting action – it builds relationships and unleashes learning!

Although the literature speaks to compelling evidence for improving communication and increasing staff member’s involvement in decision-making, there is little guidance on how to implement changes in communication with-in the office environment.

Setting the Stage
What if we set a goal to improve our practice work environment and enhance quality patient care?

What if we had goals like:
1) To improve communication and collaboration between staff
2) To enhance staff involvement in decision-making
3) To enhance awareness of cultural awareness and sensitivity to patients, families and other staff by the day, by the hour, by the minute!

Here is a Project
To discover your practice’s “positive core”
To combine AI – Positive Change Management results with previous results – begin by collecting benchmark data, reporting examples of positive or inspiring performance data and stories at the end of each day within the office, on a practice blog as it may relate to patient’s interest, and at staff meetings 4 times per year. This “positive attitude change” coupled with online CE resources and tools, email contact, etc. brings about powerful positive change, improved staff morale and patient care.

What is different?
Most change management models guide individuals to search for problems and then to identify options to “fixing it”. In contrast, AI is a strength-based approach to change management that guides organizational members to discover what is already working and then design ways to do more of what works as a foundation for change. By focusing on the positive – what already works well in the office, AI supports futuristic thinking. Practices grow in the direction toward which they focus their attention and repeatedly ask questions about.1

“Unconditional positive questions” ignite conversation and action based on peak experiences, best practices, and noble accomplishments.1

According to Stravros et al, “Change requires action, action requires a plan. A plan requires strategy, a strategy requires goals and enabling objectives. Goals and objectives require a mission. A mission is defined by a vision. A vision is set by values. And the AI approach starts by focusing on the strengths of the organization and the stake holders values.” 2

It is a shift from problem analysis to positive core analysis. The old paradigm, “where change begins with a clear definition of the problem” was painfully slow, always asking people to look backward to yesterday’s causes, rarely resulted in a new vision, and was notorious at generating defensiveness.

The Appreciative Inquiry cycle goes in 4-phases.
1- Discovery – What works? What gives life to your practice at its best?
2- Dream, Imagine – What might be?
3- Design (strategize) – Determine what should be.
4- Delivery/Destiny – Create what will be

Discovery Phase
During the Discovery Phase the staff conduct interviews with all involved, and then interview each other about positive stories within the office, eventually summarizing them into what you see as the practice’s “positive core” attributes based on these stories.

They ask questions that are designed to bring light to the practice’s positive attributes in a chosen topic in order to discover what works. They do this through what’s called “powerful flow” questions reflecting first on past experience (backward), then exploring what about the experience worked (inward).

For example,
Backward Question (Anchored in a past experience)
Can you describe the situation when you collaborated with other staff when all parties treated each other with respect, and appreciation and everyone’s expertise was needed to make a difference? Or, can you describe a time that you consider a highpoint experience, a time when you were most engaged and felt alive and valued in the office?

Inward Question (reflect on what worked)
What was your contribution? What was it about you, your co-workers, the office that made it special? What did you most value about the other staff members? Without being modest, tell me what it is that you most value about yourself, your clinical work, and your practice?

Forward Question (built on past, imagine what might be)
What 3 wishes do you have to improve the vitality and effectiveness of communication and collaboration within the office? What is the one thing that if done well, would make the most difference to improve collaboration at this office? What factors give life to your office when it is at its best?

Dream Phase
Strategic Shared Collaborative Vision of the practice:
Take a look at the positive stories gathered form the Discovery Phase. Look at the “positive core” of these stories and say what it would look like if the “positive core” grew 10X more? What would be the practice’s greatest potential for a positive influence and effect in the world?

As these dreams are shared, compelling ideas are put forward, summarized, and then, become the basis for some action.

Design Phase
What does it mean to have staff involved in decisions, what decisions, who is involved here? What all is there for the stakeholders to decide? Here the rubber meets the road –
Articulate values publicly
Invite action + staff enthusiasm for their work
Propose Provocative Propositions and Principles

Delivery/Destiny Phase
Staff focuses on maintaining AI’s positive approach to improvement. The staff make a habit of noticing what is better every day, every hour, minute by minute, every conversation. Staff identify what they are doing right, and what others do well. By building ever widening circles around them, first person to person, then group to group, the destiny phase of AI ever broadens into the community…Good news stories are used as “possibility perspectives” to bridge the best of what is with the collective aspiration of what might be.

Answer the question, “What would our practice look like if it were designed in every way possible to maximize the qualities of the “positive” and enable the accelerated realization of our dreams? Harness the synergy of group cooperation! Realize the dream in alignment with its principles. Create new levels of partnership.


Use of AI by Others
Appreciative Inquiry has been used by the US Navy, US Department of Health and Human Services, MacDonald’s, BP, John Deere, GTE, Save the Children and World Vision among others. AI is just now beginning to be used in Heath Care, for example, in hospitals in New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Indiana, and the UK. This is its first sighting in dentistry.

“I would like to commend you more particularly for your methodology of Appreciative Inquiry and to thank you for introducing it to the United Nations. Without this, it would have been very difficult, perhaps even impossible, to constructively engage so many…” – Kofi Annan UN Global Compact Leadership Summit in 2004

“Morale has improved dramatically, relationships have grown tighter, teamwork has significantly improved – and equally compelling – sales and profitability outpaced the rest of both organizations. A holistic “appreciative approach” has truly become the way of life for this organization.” – Jim Gustafson, VP and General Manager, ELECTRICjob.com

“The Appreciative Inquiry approach unleashes tremendous power, tremendous enthusiasm, and gets people fully engaged in the right way in what we are trying to accomplish. It’s not that we don’t deal with the negative anymore, the value of AI is that, in anything we do, there’s a positive foundation of strength to build on in addressing those problems.” – Jim Staley, CEO of Roadway, 2003

The Structure of the AI Process
The staff interview each other, one-on-one, and define the topic of inquiry (i.e. staff involvement in decision making or optimum patient experience, then find positive stories or patient success stories that illustrated staff involvement at its best).

Collect these stories and share them.

How to use AI
Always begin with what is really going well with regard to the project or goals? Practice the “positive”, appreciate mindfully and practice on a daily basis.

(Pause and notice: What things are already changing again? What are you discovering? Who have you involved? What are you learning?)

Appreciative stories are retold in huddles, blogs, websites, staff meetings and patient email. Morning huddles are accompanied by “positive check-ins”. What can we do more of? What do you want more of? And what can you do better?

This requires follow up and monitoring. Is this a job for ______________, the same person who begins by collecting benchmark data? What data?

Days/months outstanding patient billings*
Daily Cash Report per Pt./day
Days/months outstanding Insurance billings*
Daily/monthly Cash Deposit Reports
Production: $/day/provider
Procedures/hour/provider
New patients/month
Daily/monthly Laboratory Expenses*
Daily/monthly purchase of dental supplies*

* This information is being tracked nationally through the ADA Dental Market Index, the first index of this nature in dentistry.

You have to take measurements to manage!


AI Requires a New Way of Thinking
A New Set of Skills
AI flys in the face of what’s wrong and how to fix it. The AI change management model works on what works or has worked well in the past (recalling excellence) and then identifying what was involved, who was involved, what was done, how it felt, and how they can make this “best practice” happen again. Sadly, getting people to be positive is a challenge.

Adapting AI to Meet Practice Needs
We are now trying to work toward the positive end, not complaining, just trying to look for the positive. We are looking for success and trying to figure out ways to multiply it.

Good Things Are Already Happening
People are using its principles to build morale. Being able to create positive verbal shifts there is more collaboration. Practice it on a daily basis; the image of our future guides our current behavior.

Changes Are Spreading
We can start our staff meeting off with, “Let’s look at what we are doing really well… what are some of our best features?
Who is doing “it” well, and invite that person to show the others.

You May Ask
Why do people get so excited and want to participate in Appreciative Inquiry? Why does participation so readily lead to positive results, such as, innovation, productivity, employee satisfaction, and profitability? What creates the space for people to be their best at work and for personal transformation? And what are the conditions that foster cooperation throughout a whole office?

The Answer:
Freedom to be known in the relationship, all so often people are related to as their role rather than as human beings, i.e. “That’s the front desk, the CDA, the hygienist, etc. who does that kind of thing”.

Freedom to be heard with sincere curiosity, empathy and compassion.

Freedom to dream in community, i.e. unleashing the dreams of all involved

Freedom to choose to contribute, i.e. to volunteer in the community

Freedom to act with support, and break through years of apathy and distrust

Freedom to be positive, its simply not the norm to have fun, be happy, or be positive!

Why?
Because relationships thrive where there is an appreciative eye! – When people see the best in one another, share their dreams and ultimate concerns in affirming ways, and are connected in full voice to create not just new worlds, but better worlds.

Discussion
Appreciative Inquiry offers numerous advantages to the old way of doing things, diagnosing and correcting the problem. AI primary strength is in improving relationships between co-workers. Although AI potential for positive organizational change, its effectiveness within the dental industry remains largely untested.

Summary
AI has potential to unleash and sustain positive organizational change. Bring it on, day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute!

“There are only two ways to live your life. One is a though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle” - Albert Einstein

“If only the world’s religious leaders could just know each other, the world will be a better place.” – Dalai Lama

Author’s note: This discussion paper for the dental audience was largely a re-edited version of an earlier paper. The original source material was:
Sullivan Havens D. Wood SO. Leeman J. Improving Nursing Practice and Patient Care Building Capacity with Appreciative Inquiry. JONA Volume 35, Number 10, pp 463 - 470 2006










1 Ludema JD, Cooperrider DL, Barrett FJ. Appreciative inquiry: the power of the unconditional positive question. In: Reason P, Bradbury H, eds. Handbook of Action Research. London: Sage Publications; 2000:189-199.
2 Stravos, J. Copperrider, DI., Kelley Di., Strategic inquiry appreciative intent: inspiration to SOAR, a new frame work for strategic planning. AI Practitioner. November 2003: 10 – 17.

Why Coaching?

A study of 100 executives receiving executive coaching between 1996 and 2000 found that:
- "Seventy-five percent of the sample (participants and stakeholders) indicated that the value of coaching was 'considerably greater' or 'far greater' than the money and time invested." Page 7.


- "When calculated conservatively, ROI...averaged 5.7 times the initial investment in coaching." Page 7.

- An overwhelming 93% said that they would recommend coaching to others. Page 8

Reference: "Maximizing the Impact of Executive Coaching: Behavioral Change, Organizational Outcomes and Return on Investment." Joy McGovern, et al. The Manchester Review. Volume 6, Number 1, 2001

Developing Emotional Intelligence Produces Dollars & Cents:
- A study of 62 CEO's and their executive teams found that: "the more positive the overall moods of people in the top management team, the more cooperatively they worked together - and the better the company's business results. Put differently, the longer the company was run by a management team that did not get along, the poorer that company's market return." Page 15.

- "For every 1 percent improvement in service climate, there's a 2 percent increase in revenue." Page 15.

- "...interviews with 2 million employees at 700 American companies found that what determines how long employees stay - and how productive they are - is the quality of their relationship with their immediate boss. 'People join companies and leave managers', observes Marcus Buckingham of the Gallup Organization...." Page 83.

- "...consider an analysis of the partners' contributions to the profits of a large accounting firm. If the partner had significant strengths in the self-management competencies, he or she added 78 percent more incremental profit than did partners without those strengths. Likewise, the added profits for partners with strengths in social skills were 110 percent greater, and those with strengths in the self-management competencies added a whopping 390 percent incremental profit - in this case, $1,465,000 more per year. By contrast, significant strengths in analytical reasoning abilities added just 50 percent more profit. Thus, purely cognitive abilities help - but the EI (Emotional Intelligence) competencies help far more." Page 251.

Reference: Daniel Goleman, Primal Leadership: Realizing the Power of Emotional Intelligence (Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2002).

Going from Good to Great:
- "Yes, leadership is about vision. But leadership is equally about creating a climate where the truth is heard and the brutal facts confronted. There's a huge difference between the opportunity to "have your say" and the opportunity to be heard. The good-to-great leaders understood this distinction, creating a culture wherein people had a tremendous opportunity to be heard and, ultimately, for the truth to be heard." Page 74.

- "Leading from good to great does not mean coming up with the answers and then motivating everyone to follow your messianic vision. It means having the humility to grasp the fact that you do not yet understand enough to have the answers and then to ask the questions that will lead to the best possible insights." Page 75.

Reference: Jim Collins, Good To Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don't. (New York, Harper Collins Publishers, 2001).

The Goal of Coaching:

Put you in control of your own practice by improving your ability to lead an efficient, enthusiastic team who share your vision of providing the highest level of patient care. Coaching provides the structure to help you harness the full potential of your practice to enrich your life - professionally, personally and financially.

Why Coaching:

Because the vast majority of the solutions offered for stress management have not worked well, particularly the most popular one - getting away from it all to the lake, the club or a sun holiday. Have you ever noticed that two or three hours after that well-deserved break, when you are back at it, you feel like you haven't had one? There's a very specific reason for that, unfinished business; this eventually will cause burn out, I guarantee it! Because it is not what you get done, it is what you didn’t get done that it is that you stress over. Coaching will improve any aspect of your practice and make it work for you rather than have you working for it!

If you could identify exactly what you want and what you need to make it happen, why wouldn’t you? How would your life change if you could achieve your dream practice?

OK, it's time to start believing. That's it. Realize right now that this can happen to you. And that’s just the beginning…

Results:

Coaching is a very effective developmental tool for leadership in your practice producing financial and intangible benefits for the practice/business. Decision-making, team performance and the motivation of others will be enhanced. Many of these variables contributed to annualized financial benefits:

• Increased Productivity
• Increased Employee satisfaction and retention
• Increased Patient satisfaction
• Increased Work output
• Increased Work quality
  

Prepare Yourself:

Because coaching is a relatively new development technique, people may not understand how the coaching process can help them become better business professionals. The sooner you understand the process, the sooner you will see the results. Most coaches offer a free sample session to establish rapport because chemistry and background are important, as well, coaching is “experiential”.

Q & A for the ADA's New Dentist

• First, some general advice you often give to new dentists.

I would suggest that dentists should choose to practice where they want to live when they retire. The reason for this thinking is that only about 6% of dentists can afford to retire in a manner to which they have grown accustomed, so they may have to keep working. And the reason they may have to keep working is that a similar percentage of dentists do not recognize the importance of practice management both from a macro and micro level, the ultimate result being a practice not realizing its full financial potential. Micro management is the day-to-day running of the office efficiently with a satisfied staff, and macro management is the dentist taking an ongoing and active role in understanding the financial aspects of the practice as a business, having a plan.

• What are classic pitfalls of inefficiency in the dental office?

One common mistake in monitoring efficiency in the dental office is not relating your expenses to a percentage of your production. For example, there is a world of difference between staff wages and benefits at 20% of production vs. 36% of production. This is a measure of productivity; productivity is the “end game” of efficiency. Know your numbers!

• What common mistakes should new dentists avoid, and how?

A couple of answers:

Make sure your staff is happy. There is nothing like staff who are working for you because they love what they do and because they feel valued. Have staff meetings regularly. Define your ‘vision’ of your practice to your staff and have your staff define ‘their’ vision for you. Work collaboratively to realize your collective visions by establishing goals. Consider hiring a dental coach to facilitate this process.

New dentists should recognize that their practice is an investment, like any other investment and should realize a return (ROI) at least equal to and preferably greater than a passive investment into real estate or the stock market, for example. Before you purchase a new practice analyze it from an investment perspective, i.e. understand the numbers. If the numbers indicate a likelihood of a lower return than you can be guaranteed elsewhere, then why not just be an associate, invest your money passively and not worry about the management of a dental office? Why, because you want security and something to sell in the future. So, once the practice has been purchased, manage it actively, know your returns and recognize that your practice is a business and that practice management is also BUSINESS management.

• Is there a commonsense aspect of increasing productivity that dentist might already know — but not actually do? What would you recommend?

Most dentists already know and recognize that procedures per hour is an important dynamic to productivity, but few recognize that it is the most important clinical dynamic that is within their control. Further, there is no evidence that speed of procedures actually compromises quality of care. There are, “How to Do a 35 Minute Crown Prep” videos and literature out there, however, most dentists don’t take ownership of the fact that they may be part of the problem.

• Any other words of wisdom that you’d like to offer.

My parting comment is rather radical but worth considering and that is regarding one of the most missed opportunities in dentistry - the transition from one practice/one career to many practices/one career. By years 10 –15 you have already depreciated most of the value of your assets and you have built up a significant portion of your goodwill. You can only capture the goodwill value of your practice when you sell. Selling your practice more than once can be an excellent way to leverage your return on your investment into your practice.
Note: This does not necessarily mean you would have to move your family from your community as you could sell ½ of your practice or commute to a new area outside any restrictive covenant. Further, this strategy allows you to capture the value of your practice while it is “peaking” and not sell when you are retiring and typically have slowed down.

That’s it!

What Does Your Future Look Like?

Some say that tomorrow's dental industry will become more polarized, with the more successful practices working, acting, and looking radically different from the less successful ones. This is pretty important in light of a 2004 CNN study that found that only 43% of American workers were happy with their employer.

Leadership is often the quality that separates the great practices from the good ones, where are your going with yours? To advance into the future with confidence create a business vision by involving your entire team in the process. Please note that ultimately, handling stress, teamwork, working in a professional manor towards patient satisfaction and service is our goal, the higher purpose to which we serve. Yet, we have to arrive in the future financially sound and to provide dentistry of the highest quality, the dentists themselves have to be financially fit. What to do?

Did you know that in 2010, demographically speaking, there will be more baby boomer dentists selling there practices than is any time in history before or sense. It will be a peak year in supply; it will be a buyers demand market placing downward pressure on the value of dental offices. What else do we know? We know some good news and we know some bad news. Let’s take a look at some good news first. According to a study on ‘The Economics of Dental Practice – Present and Future’ by H. Barry Waldman and Steven P. Pealman released late last year in CDA Journal, the good news is “The combination of increased practitioner income, increases in proportion of the population reporting visits for dental services, decreases in the number of dental school graduates, decreases in the dentist-to-population ratio, and increases in the numbers of female students and practitioners (many of whom report significantly fewer work hours than their male counterparts), portends favorable economics for the dental practice.”

The bad news is that “the cost of dental care is “felt” in a greater extent than for other health services. Current and future funding arrangements for dental services could be vulnerable to economic downturns, efforts to control business overhead costs and continued minimal government support… Compared to other health services the reliance on 1) out-of-pocket funding for a major share of dental expenditures, and 2) limited government support of dental services raise questions regarding the infrastructure of dental economics.” The details of these findings are in the report, November 2006, Vol. 34. No. 11, CDA, Journal.

The Introspective Leader's Advantage

Your leadership style is influenced, in part, by the natural role you tend to play. Perhaps you're a mentor-type, a great talent-spotter, or a clinical perfectionist. Whatever your style, throughout your career you've probably heard that you have a reputation for demonstrating certain qualities.

If someone pointed your style out to you, there'd likely be a flash of recognition. Chances are, however, unless you've asked, no one is spelling it out for you. This means that it's up to you to stop and think about what your natural leadership style actually is. Leaders who take the time to truly understand their natural roles and how those roles affect those around them have an advantage over those who don't take this inward-looking journey.

Finding your Role - Once you've identified the role or roles that you believe you most naturally fill, it's useful to test them by looking for objective supporting evidence. Start by listing a few of the ways your chosen role might manifest itself at work. Are these actions that you come by naturally? If so, great; If not, ask yourself why not. What is limiting your ability to fill the kinds of roles you would like to fill?It's possible that your selections are slightly off course. If there is no patient demand, it is possible that the role you'd like to play isn't aligned with your abilities. In that case, you need to reexamine the range of roles you identify with and assess whether your aspirations are clouding your perceptions of your strengths and weaknesses.

Is it the Right Role for You? - At the extreme, an increased understanding of your role can help you determine whether your position offers the alignment you need if you are to be satisfied over the long term. Consider the dentist - we'll call him Paul - who, in 2004, bought into a large practice.

Paul was flattered to be at the head of such a large practice, even to qualify for the loan. But many of his colleagues felt that he would be happier as an associate (his longtime position prior to his current position). He does not know if he is doing a good job as owner, he has not had the benefit of any business training. He has been taught he is a dentist, not a business person.

At leadership levels, the opportunities to let natural roles emerge often are limited by the regular demands of a wet-fingered dentist or by situational circumstance, such as key staff out on maternity leave, an intense periods of work resulting from new procedures, or an accounts receivable problem. All these things factor in to the mix of required and voluntary things you do each day. It's true that the day-to-day demands of a dentist can easily obscure the kinds of avenues a leader might prefer to pursue. The struggle is to try and find the balance to free up time to do more of the kinds of things that make your work ultimately rewarding.

Gaining a Deeper Understanding of your Role – If we work with the mind set of a dentist as a CEO - we'll call him Paul II - whose clinical schedule is so intense that it crowds out most of the chances he has to step back and reflect or to mentor younger members of his staff, as he would like. The daily demands of Paul II play to his strengths as an intense perfectionist, and practice builder. But they don't allow him to be the people mover he also would like to be. Paul II knows that he is good at envisioning and articulating a long - term strategic view. He knows he is good at motivating and mentoring younger staff, if he only had the time. He knows that his time is invaluable in their eyes. In rare free moments, he meets with these people, answering their requests for general guidance and pep talks. Yet Paul II finds it difficult to incorporate that mentoring into what is already an overloaded schedule. His typical workweek is six days. Does Paul II have "an issue" delegating work? It's possible. More likely, the structure of his “control” isn't optimal. His practice is running him rather than the other way around.

Recently, however, Paul II has made some progress in incorporating more of his would-be role as mentor and visionary into his job, despite the organizational circumstances. His practice has begun offering a coach facilitated “SOS” Staff Meeting to help develop a “vision” and to help get his staff to be more accountable and responsible for their own success in the practice. He has now built into his schedule staff meetings designed to allow his staff input and time to develop strategies that they can collectively commit to as goals. This provides quality time between himself and his staff that they crave (and, by the same token, to allow himself to "indulge" in the kinds of mentoring behaviors he rarely has time for otherwise).

Becoming a Better Leader – Paul II is well aware that he needs to address the design and structure of his team. In the meantime, he has found a way to make his working life more enjoyable in the short term (Staff Meetings) and to send a message that he wants to leave a “Vision” for the long term.This CEO/dentist, Paul II, is also a good example of the benefit of having an increased understanding of one's own natural roles. He has begun to identify others' natural roles as well and, in doing so, is better able to temper the advice or counseling he gets and gives. He is also better able to set appropriate benchmarks for his staff with the understanding gained from staff meetings that actively discuss the roles that dominate his team now. Paul II is constantly seeking people (advisors and or coaches) who will instinctively help the team gel to become more effective.

The point is, at work, if you see something heading your way that doesn't play to your strengths, you can divert it or avoid it. However, you'll be rewarded if you bring people into the practice who can handle the kinds of things you're not great at." Are you managing your practice on the fly?

Adapted from Harvard Business School Press from Your Leadership Legacy - Why Looking Towards the Future will Make you a Better Leader Today by Robert M. Galford and Regina Fazio Maruca. Copyright 2006 Robert M. Galford and Regina Fazio Maruca. All Rights Reserved
http://www.management-issues.com/2007/1/30/opinion/the-introspective-leaders-advantage.asp

Are You Ready For Take Off?

What is “Dentist-to-Dentist” coaching?

Like an athletic coach working with an athlete to improve performance, a dentist coach works with you, the dentist client, to improve your performance.

Unlike the athlete’s coach, the dentist coach works YOUR agenda, and begins where YOU want to begin. Coaching is about you as a whole person: your values, your goals, your practice, your balance, fulfillment and life purpose. Coaching does not give you the answers, rather it helps you figure them out for yourself and facilitates you getting what you want. Nor does a coach expect you to see things from the coach’s point of view. It is your point of view that the coach tries to help uncover. If your are seeking clarity and empowerment, then a coach will assist you to find your power.

Think of coaching as a private conversation you are having with yourself, (only it’s the coach), that is designed to help you get what you want. It does this by coaching your whole person and not just the “dentist/clinician.” In this process you learn to advance your goals towards the fulfillment of your life’s purpose. One of my prime objectives of coaching is to help you discover the skills and the confidence to create the practice of your dreams, quite literally, and to empower you with some coaching tools and techniques that you can bring to your practice with the self-assurance of a leader and a visionary.

Of course, you and your coach have to build trust and rapport to help you bring forth what you want out of life. This is done by your coach asking powerful, creative, “out of the box” questions, by being non-judgmental, by being intuitive and curious and by helping you resist the temptation of your own “saboteur” that tends to oppose change and succumb to the status quo.

If you are curious and want to learn more about the coaching experience, I offer a complimentary 30-minute telephone sample coaching call. You can reach me, Coach Dan Kingsbury, DDS, at 888-881-2263 or dan@abmdds.com.

Today's dentist has to have more than horse sense...

Today's dentist has to have more than horse sense and ambition, more than cutting edge instruments and cutting edge technology. Those of you who are thesavvy ones, those of you who are going to forge ahead in today's competitive workplace environment, are going to need to do so with a drive to sharpen your business acumen.

Your focus should be to work both in your practice, and on your practice.