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On this episode, I am excited to welcome Art McCraken. Art is the Founder and CEO of Synapse Point Consulting, a highly-regarded firm specializing in leadership transformation and team dynamics. Art and his company have had great success in taking practice leaders and their teams to a higher level of performance than they ever previously thought possible.<\/p>\n
Art is a member of the nationally-recognized speaking and consulting network. His passion lies in leadership and helping teams to perform at a higher level. With extensive experience in organizational management and transition work across many business sectors, Art\u2019s firm brings an inspiring, fresh approach to effective leadership.<\/p>\n
Art joins me today to discuss a\u00a0strategy that every practice needs to develop with their teams to help transform it into a business of distinction. With his help, you can learn to become the leader that your patients and team wants to follow, with a clearly-defined vision and a mission to help them succeed in the evolving world.<\/p>\n
Welcome to Practicing with the Masters<\/em> for dentists with your host, Dr. Allison Watts. Allison believes that there are four pillars for a successful, fulfilling dental practice: clear leadership, sound business principles, well-developed communication skills, and clinical excellence. Allison enjoys helping dentists and teams excel in all of these areas. Each episode she brings you an inspiring conversation with another leading expert. If you desire to learn and grow and in the process take your practice to the next level, then this is the show for you. Now, here\u2019s your host, Dr. Allison Watts.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Welcome to Practicing with the Masters<\/em> podcast. I\u2019m your host, Allison Watts, and I\u2019m dedicated to bringing you masters in the field of dentistry, leadership, and practice management to help you have a more fulfilling and successful practice and life.<\/p>\n Hi, Art, it\u2019s good to have you here. Thank you so much for joining us.<\/p>\n Art:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Hello, Allison.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I\u2019m going to go ahead and officially introduce you. Art is the founder and CEO of Synapse Point Consulting, a highly-regarded firm specializing in leadership transformation and team dynamics with great success in taking practice leaders and their teams to a higher level of performance than they ever thought possible.<\/p>\n With extensive experience in organizational management and transition work across many business sectors, his firm brings an inspiring and fresh approach to effective leadership. Art is a member of the nationally recognized speaking and consulting network. I know Art personally and I also can say he is quite a cook, quite an artist, and quite a planker.<\/p>\n Art:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 That works, yep.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 You\u2019re married with three kids, right?<\/p>\n Art:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yes.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 You have two girls and a boy. I know that you lead some pretty cool retreats. I haven\u2019t been able to go to any of them but I see the pictures on Facebook and I know you have sent me some information and you do couples retreats. You\u2019ve worked with quite a few dental teams, right?<\/p>\n Art:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yes.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 You\u2019ve been in dentistry for a while too.<\/p>\n Art:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I have. It\u2019s fun work.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yeah, we\u2019re so happy to have you here. Thank you for taking your time to share your wisdom with us.<\/p>\n Art:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Thanks for having me.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Is there anything you want to say before we start?<\/p>\n Art:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I think you said it all. I\u2019m a diversified guy but my passion is leadership and helping teams perform at higher levels. I thank you for your gracious introduction.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Absolutely, I thought you were going to say planking was your passion.<\/p>\n Art:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 No, I\u2019m thinking of giving up planking and taking on Prancercising, but I haven\u2019t made the shift yet.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The leap, oh my gosh. Anyway, Art and I had a fun trip where we would just kind of plank all over the place. It was really silly. So anyway, I want to start with a question. Art and I have talked about how we would start off this call.<\/p>\n It\u2019s kind of a two-part question, but I\u2019m going to ask it the way that you had sort of framed it when we talked originally. Which was, why would someone want to be led by us? Right? That\u2019s the question. Why would someone want to be led by me? You would ask us, why would someone want to be led by you, right?<\/p>\n Art:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Right, correct. I think it\u2019s an important question to ask and throughout the content of tonight\u2019s broadcast we\u2019ll get into some of the dynamics that help us as an individual leader challenge that paradigm but also understand our responsibility. It\u2019s a question that we need to be willing to approach on a very personal level and understand the people around us. Recognizing that leadership is simply defined as just having impact and influence over another. People have an option to follow or to not follow.<\/p>\n The question that we ask ourselves is why would somebody want to be led by us? So it\u2019s an important question to keep in the back of your mind as we go through things tonight. Certainly consider that response carefully because to some degree throughout our life we\u2019ll all have an opportunity to lead and oftentimes we\u2019re leading, what we refer to it as accidental leadership, where somebody\u2019s following us whether we\u2019ve set out to have them follow us or not. So it\u2019s a good question.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yeah, that is a good question. I wasn\u2019t even thinking of it that way, but that\u2019s cool as a background, just kind of keep it in the back of our mind. You do have some key elements or some ideas about how we can help shape the desired outcomes and progression of our business, yes?<\/p>\n Art:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yes, certainly. One thing that we might start with tonight is a framework for some of the core components that can help write business outcomes. We hear oftentimes buzzwords like mission statements and vision statements and purpose statements or we\u2019ll hear the term culture thrown around quite often and team. These are all elements of human capital management.<\/p>\n It\u2019s interesting that the bulk of the companies that I\u2019ve done work with, I won\u2019t classify it as primarily found in practices, but across all different industries, one of the common elements that is missing in an organization and even at those organizations that are performing at a high level is oftentimes a vision is very vague or unclear. There\u2019s certain confusion and lack of cohesion around a common path.<\/p>\n If we look at the framework and some of the terms that I want to cover tonight, vision would be one of those. What\u2019s the difference between vision and mission? Strategy and what strategy is. Then culture and how that plays into this whole picture, and ultimately, the outcome. Then what\u2019s the team dynamic? What can it be and what can it not be? Then we will hit some of those terms and general ideas.<\/p>\n But I think the first one I would like to address is vision. I\u2019d like to give you a real clear example, a concrete example, at least in my own mind\u2019s eye I look to as a prime suspect in what a true vision statement can really be and what a vision can drive.<\/p>\n If we look back in the history of American people and we look at what happened when this country was founded. Originally the Pilgrims came to America on assignment from King George of Great Britain. King George decided that I want to expand my empire and so I\u2019m going to send some people over to America to figure it out, set up shop, and help us establish another section of our empire.<\/p>\n Well as soon as they left the shores of Great Britain and headed on their way to America they were sent with troops and supplies. They got to the American continent and it was almost immediately that they were cut off from those supplies. In fact, the troops started to try to take those supplies back. Then America quickly became not the extension of the empire but the black sheep of the empire, really a banished ground that King George was no longer willing to support.<\/p>\n So the groups of people that were here had set up some self-governing bodies within their individual states and colonies. Started to manage themselves and try to use the resources wisely that they had and remain. It wasn\u2019t too long after that that they started to perish. In fact, it got bad enough that the supplies were so low that nerves and the tenseness of those people became very active, almost to the point of pushing them into battle against each other.<\/p>\n So as representatives of these groups of people came together to discuss the challenges that they had in hopes to come up with a solution, they came together under a common purpose and that was everybody was mad at King George. They didn\u2019t like what he had done to them, they were mad. They felt like it was an atrocity against them. So the common ground that was the foundation of the Declaration of Independence really became a statement of distain and a statement of being completely fed up with their former ruler.<\/p>\n So they came together and that Declaration of Independence became a declaration of war, a very brave statement for a group of people to make in a somewhat decimated state. So the outcome of that once they had spoken their mind and taken the big elephant in the room and put it out there and said, \u201cWe\u2019re willing to fight for our rights.\u201d Those rights were indicated or the desire for this group of people was placed in the Constitution.<\/p>\n If we look closely at the words of that Constitution, it became the goals and aspirations and the rights that this country would protect and fight for for many years up until today. Oftentimes when the country is confused and we\u2019re looking for a point of reference we go back to that Constitution, which if we look at the parallel, that became the vision statement for this country. It hasn\u2019t changed very much, a few amendments here and there but all and all it\u2019s been used as a foundation and as an element of decision-making when we have questions or concerns or are confused about something. So it\u2019s stood the test of time but it was something that the country came together and was willing to fight for and protect and still remain in that mindset today.<\/p>\n So that\u2019s a great example of what a vision statement is. It really becomes an internal document of an organization that should be derived from the owner primarily. You can have a team vision statement but an owner must be willing to write down what it is they hope to achieve. Something as simple as:<\/p>\n \u201cI want to maintain a 30 percent profit margin on all cases that I preform or all services that I charge out.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t want to work on Fridays.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI want to be a practice that does cash only and doesn\u2019t contract with any insurance companies.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI want to be involved in the community at X level.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI want to provide a type of environment for my employees that has these factors in it.\u201d<\/p>\n It becomes a statement of again goals and aspirations but most importantly it forms the foundation and definition for future strategy. Strategy, as we identify what that is and how it kind of falls into this whole picture, strategy is the decisions that we make that will differentiate us from our competition. They also are the decisions that we make in conjunction or in alignment with the vision that we\u2019ve developed. Once we\u2019ve developed that vision, it\u2019s important that we share that with our team and that we ask for active participation in achieving the items that are indicated in that vision.<\/p>\n I told you that I would give you an indication of what\u2019s the difference between a vision statement and a mission statement. A mission statement is the statement that\u2019s on the wall that everybody would expect you to say and do and act like. Oftentimes we\u2019ll read them on the wall of an establishment and we\u2019ll just kind of think to ourselves, \u201cYeah that makes sense. Yeah, that\u2019s the way this company should act and treat me as a customer.\u201d But it really doesn\u2019t mean much.<\/p>\n We\u2019ve seen good mission statements but in the end the vision statement is really what drives the decisions of a business. It\u2019s that internal statement of effort and activities that will help achieve both short-term and long-term goals. So that\u2019s the differentiation between the two and a good idea of what vision is.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cool. So you\u2019re suggesting that the owner\u2014I\u2019ve heard both ways and there was actually quite a little debate on Facebook at one point where one dentist and\/or team member was saying it should come from the doctor or the leader. The other people were arguing it should be a team event. I\u2019ve done it both ways. You think it could be done either way but the owner has to have\u2026<\/p>\n Art:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I think you absolutely have to have a vision that\u2019s derived from the owner.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Okay.<\/p>\n Art:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 You can have a supplementary vision that\u2019s been put together as a team but this comes back to accidental leadership or expected leadership. This an area when I do key stakeholder surveys with some of the businesses that I do coaching for, oftentimes there will be confusion as to the direction we\u2019re headed as a company or what does the owner really want?<\/p>\n I know what my responsibilities are, I know how my success is measured, I know the metrics that they\u2019re tracking against my performance. But at the end of the day, I really don\u2019t know where we\u2019re going and why. So that challenges a couple of different paradigms but most importantly they\u2019re looking for somebody to set the pace on where we\u2019re going as a company and what are we willing to protect.<\/p>\n There\u2019s a concept to consider again that deals with culture. If we look at the very simple definition of culture, culture is just the way we do things around here. It\u2019s the work ethic that we embrace. It\u2019s the way we interact with each other, the things that we celebrate as a group. It may be a culmination of the ethnic backgrounds in a certain area. But there are certain components that come together to create this environment of how we do things.<\/p>\n There are two different ways to look at culture. There\u2019s culture by design and there is culture by default. Culture by design would imply that we have an awareness of the culture, we are willing to protect it, we\u2019re willing to enhance the culture, and certainly we are doing things on purpose and not by chance.<\/p>\n Culture by default would be the exact opposite. It would be determined by the whims of each day. We would have employees that would come and go that may influence the culture. It starts to get into some of the human capital dynamics of a business, but it\u2019s left to chance. It often changes and you\u2019d have one experience one week and a different experience the next week. Lots of confusion and lack of clarity around who we are as a group of people and how do we interact with each other?<\/p>\n So culture is important. At Harvard, there were two studies, I guess two scientists, with Harvard that wanted to do a study on culture and the impact on the return on equity and ultimate profitability of companies. They studied these companies over time and they looked at these common factors of culture by design and culture by default. What they found was those companies that understood their culture, that at least had some reason to be concerned with it and paying attention to it and working on it, would experience between 400 and 800 times greater return on equity and greater results than those that didn\u2019t pay attention to culture.<\/p>\n That\u2019s one of those buzzwords that we hear out there in the business world now, but it\u2019s very real. Culture by design will reap, it will produce great, great rewards if we choose to pay attention to it. When it deals with key stakeholders, if we talk about the key stakeholders of your business, it\u2019s not just the investors that have a physical stake in your company.<\/p>\n As an owner you\u2019re a stakeholder, you\u2019ve got employees that can be stakeholders, customers, patients. You might have key vendors that you work with on a regular basis, you may have some community involvement. But there are many people that you can touch the lives of or that are impacted by your business and we consider those key stakeholders.<\/p>\n When interviewing these key stakeholders, it\u2019s important to understand and ask them about their experience in the culture. What are they feeling? What are they sensing? What are they experiences they’re having on a regular basis? And be sensitive to look at those experiences and compare them to the cultural outcomes that you desire. If they are non-congruent, then we have work to do.<\/p>\n There\u2019s a cycle that was taught by Steven Covey\u2019s organization, the Franklin Covey approach to organizational effectiveness. It\u2019s a process that reverse engineers the outcomes and the gaps that exist between stakeholder needs and the results that we desire. As we look as those gaps and identify that they exist rather than trying something new, we go back into the architecture of our company and we look to see where the root cause of that problem is.<\/p>\n So we would move from results to culture or the behaviors that are happening and look for gaps there. If that\u2019s intact, then we move further upstream into processes and structures and system. \u00a0We look at the environment, understanding that there are people involved at each of these levels. If the processes are intact, we go to strategy and we look at the decision-making that\u2019s happening in the organization. How are those decisions being formulated or the building blocks of those decisions? Oftentimes if that strategy is weak, it will again move upstream into mission, vision, and values. That\u2019s the core foundation for changing the effectiveness of your organization.<\/p>\n As you work backwards now and look forward in that process, we plug those gaps and we start to strengthen those areas again in principal strategy, processes, culture, ultimately creating a better alignment between the stakeholder\u2019s needs and the results that we\u2019re getting.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I don\u2019t know if it would take too long or if there\u2019s an easy example that you can give, but can you play that out? So like some result is happening and it\u2019s not what you want, right?<\/p>\n Art:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yes, let\u2019s think about a stakeholder name. So if we use the patient as an example. We\u2019ll use a kind of customer service as a general concept in this, the customer, stakeholder, or patient has a specific expectation of customer service. Maybe through a survey you realize that their experience in that environment is poor. So you identify, okay, my desire as a business owner is to have great customer service. When I establish that there\u2019s a gap between the needs of my stakeholders and the results that we\u2019re actually getting, I\u2019ve got to try to figure out why that\u2019s happening and where we\u2019re falling short.<\/p>\n So the first place I would look as I work backwards or I reverse engineer what\u2019s happening is I would look at the culture and the behaviors. Are we incenting the right behaviors? Are we promoting and setting the example for the appropriate behaviors? If the culture is broken, that\u2019s a place to fix immediately and oftentimes ending in a greater result.<\/p>\n If the culture is one that the general mindset is customer service is priority number one, then let\u2019s look at some of the things that might be causing that. Oftentimes when a group of stakeholders, internal stakeholders, so say the team gets a survey back that\u2019s adverse. It\u2019s adverse to their own paradigm or the lens that they view their world through. We oftentimes will see this where we\u2019ll get these surveys back and we\u2019ll disagree with them.<\/p>\n We have to understand that perspective is relevant to the person that voiced their perspective. We have to be willing to honor those perspectives and understand that it\u2019s what they see, feel, hear, and touch, and we have to believe that that is what\u2019s happening and compare that to our own perspectives. If we\u2019re in denial that things are not happening the way that we would intend them to or we believe that the culture is well established and that customer service is priority number one, then let\u2019s try to drive deeper and see if there\u2019s something else that\u2019s causing this gap in results and stakeholder needs being met.<\/p>\n So the next place we would look to is processes, the structure, and the systems. We may have an external billing company that is being rude to our customers on the phone. That is maybe the precipice of these complaints or these challenges that we\u2019re getting or this poor reputation. We may have a poor flow in the office or we may have too much paperwork at the front desk. There are certain things that aside from the cultural norms and how we interact with people, there may be a system or process that\u2019s causing that stress. So we look at the environmental factors.<\/p>\n If we haven\u2019t been able to identify anything there that\u2019s causing the breakdown, the next place to look would be at our strategies. What are the decisions that we\u2019re making? And oftentimes if we have a system that\u2019s broken, it was the result of a decision or a strategy that was made to go with that system or to implement that system. So maybe we need to look at our strategy and how we make those decisions and why we would have made that decision in the first place.<\/p>\n If we\u2019re unclear on that, then let\u2019s go back up to the very top of the cycle and that is, what is our vision? What are the values that we embrace? And what is our mission? If we can look at that and again go back and make sure that we\u2019re well-founded in each of these areas, we may find that the vision was a little unclear or there wasn\u2019t a specific value set that we established that caused us to make decisions appropriate in our strategy work to put the processes and systems in place that would help drive stakeholder results.<\/p>\n So it\u2019s just a way for you to troubleshoot and see where those challenges are coming from. Oftentimes, it may not be the result of the people. It could be a system breakdown. There\u2019s an acronym that we use oftentimes in helping coach communication. It\u2019s an acronym that you can take and use right away, and it\u2019s one that does two things. It will help you troubleshoot where the confusing and contention is coming from but it will also help you create cohesion, collaboration, and clarity.<\/p>\n The acronym is GRP. It stands for goals, roles, and procedures. So if we have confusion or we have challenges, we start with procedures and systems. If we have systems that are not working, we take it another layer back. Do we have roles that have been misaligned or unclearly defined?<\/p>\n If you have two people working side by side that absolutely hate each other but they have the same goal that would be the G in this acronym, they have the same goal we can give them specific roles and they can achieve the goal. If we have a goal that\u2019s unclear and they\u2019re on different pages on that goal, then chances are we\u2019re probably never going to achieve the outcomes that we\u2019re hoping for and the systems really aren\u2019t going to matter.<\/p>\n So those three components or areas, that again, we can back into and see where the breakdown is and what\u2019s causing the confusion. We may have people that are on the same page with their goal, their roles have been identified, they know exactly what they need to do to achieve that goal, but the systems do not support the achievement of that goal. So we have to fix the systems and that may be a source of contention or confusion.<\/p>\n Those are two methods, or two systems that you can look at to establish, again, the gaps between stakeholder needs and the results that you\u2019re currently getting.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 You said the resource for the backing the thing out the gap is from something from Steven Covey?<\/p>\n Art:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yeah, it\u2019s a Franklin Covey approach. It\u2019s referred to as the Organizational Effectiveness Cycle. It deals with leading organizational change. You may be able to Google that and find it online. It\u2019s one of the systems that they\u2019ve used extensively in their consulting efforts and work with companies to help teams identify what\u2019s working and what\u2019s not, and how to reengineer the processes and the paths around new implementations or even existing organization modification to achieve the results that they desire.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cool, thank you.<\/p>\n Art:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Sure.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Did I get you off track?<\/p>\n Art:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Nope, that\u2019s good.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Okay, good. I don\u2019t remember what you were talking about before but I do have another question. I was curious how you see la vision and culture, how you see those things related.<\/p>\n Art:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Sure.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Or really I guess what I\u2019m looking for is how you, you\u2019re talking about culture by design and culture by default.<\/p>\n Art:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yep.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 How do you see that people create their culture by design? And how does that relate to business?<\/p>\n Art:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Sure, it\u2019s interesting, I just had this conversation with a client yesterday morning in a coaching session. What we were identifying is what\u2019s the natural progression of these terms and the concepts and methodologies? Vision will always be the primary or cornerstone or foundational piece of organizational success. If we have vision, then at least we have a starting point we know what we are working towards.<\/p>\n Culture, culture and strategy is kind of the chicken and the egg argument. I believe that decisions can be made when we talk about culture by design. Strategy is making a decision to do something. So if we have culture by design then oftentimes that would indicate that we\u2019re making choices to enhance and maintain a certain experience or way of doing things. But I believe culture would come directly after vision. Culture I believe, oftentimes, Chuck Blakeman talks about culture as being a well-represented or well-indicated as it aligns with the values of leaders and the values of the owner.<\/p>\n If you have an owner that doesn\u2019t pay attention to the metrics, that believes that people are a dime a dozen, then you are going to have a culture that oftentimes parallels low levels of success, not much attention to the results, and heavy turnover. You can see how the values and the beliefs of an owner often play out into the culture and shaping the culture. In fact, Chuck has argued that culture happens anytime you have more than two people assembled together. You\u2019re going to have some sort of common interaction and environment.<\/p>\n So when we\u2019re looking at culture by design what would that look like and how would that translate into this whole picture? When you\u2019re hiring, you\u2019re making decisions to look at somebody\u2019s skillset on one side of it. But the other side of it, you\u2019re looking for fit and you\u2019re gauging that fit based on maybe how they\u2019re going to interact with the other people on the team. Is their work ethic going to be up to par with what we expect? Are they going to be drivers? Are they going to be self-motivated? Whatever factors we have in our mind of what the right team member is.<\/p>\n Oftentimes when we go out and recruit we\u2019re looking for the right fit. In fact, one of my favorite instructions that I was given by an early mentor was, hire slow, fire fast. Take the time to find the right person and when we realize they\u2019re not the right person then move them on and help them find the right place for themselves.<\/p>\n Culture by design would certainly be an area that we would focus on the team that we have there because of the interactions. It would encompass the things that we celebrate as a group, the things that we join together on. So oftentimes it\u2019s interchanged with strategy. Culture by default is just letting things happen. Whatever happens, happens.<\/p>\n If we have somebody come in to work with us that maybe isn\u2019t the right fit but we needed that spot filled at the front desk and they\u2019re showing up to work on time, they\u2019re really not that friendly, but you know what they are filling that need and I don\u2019t want to have to go through the hiring process again. So we just allow it to exist. We know that it\u2019s not the right fit and oftentimes that misfit can influence the organization and oftentimes align the organization temporarily with their own personal culture and work ethic and attitude and view of the world.<\/p>\n So again, a culture by default would be allowing things that are non-consistent with our vision to take place and shape the experiences that people have with our business. Culture by design would be a congruency in following very closely with the vision that we had in mind making sure that we have the right people.<\/p>\n It goes into Jim Collins\u2019 discussions on having the right people on the bus in the right seats. We\u2019ll head in a proper direction if we can do that. So culture is driven by the people and it\u2019s driven by the values and beliefs of the owners and the people that associate with each other.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Thank you. Yeah, that helped. I like what you said about it being driven by the values. That makes sense to me. That would be the biggest thing is having them fit and be aligned with your values.<\/p>\n Art:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Sure.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Right.<\/p>\n Art:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yep.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Okay cool.<\/p>\n Art:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 So if we continue through the kind of the stair step of these terms and how they play into the practice, we talked about vision being primary or foundational. Culture being an early strategy or a fundamental, the unspoken strategies that help us achieve our vision. Then strategies in and of themselves, the decisions that we make day in and day out that have short-term and long-term impacts.<\/p>\n Some of those strategies might be the way that we approach our patient consults. It might be what are the key relationships we\u2019re developing in the community? It may be the way that we track results. Do we have a scoreboard, do we not? What is our method of delivery when it comes to case presentation? It could be in the way that we\u2019ve decided to answer the phone.<\/p>\n It could be in the technology that we purchase or that we adopted. It may have to do with, are we ahead of technology or are we behind technology? Where are we at in that whole picture? Strategy to use social media and marketing. A strategy to replicate leadership at different levels. Those are all active decisions that we\u2019re making in hopes that they will differentiate us from the competition and provide lasting impact and sustainability for our businesses.<\/p>\n Systems would be a subset of strategy. There are systems, you know, we have practice management systems, we have customer resource managers, we have tools, we have a website, we have pamphlets, different tools and resources which again are supplementary or complementary to the strategies that we\u2019ve put place, the culture that we\u2019ve adopted. If we have a culture of education, then we embrace education. Then strategically we would make decisions to bring educational components into the business and certainly provide systems and learning at many levels.<\/p>\n Then the last two components of that would be, what are the desired outcomes that we have? That\u2019s something that we always need to look at. What are the desired outcomes? Are they consistent with the vision? Have they changed? Again, is that foundation still strong? Then what are the present outcomes we\u2019re achieving?<\/p>\n Realize that a vision, it doesn\u2019t have to be set in stone. I used an example of one that hasn\u2019t changed very much but a vision can be revisited, it can be adjusted, certainly in the evolution of a business owner there\u2019s a life cycle. There\u2019s an environment that exists when you\u2019re brand new and trying to grow a business and practice. Then there are those of stability and plateaus and time to bring in a new partner or an associate. Then certainly looking towards selling a practice or retirement.<\/p>\n Each of those may take on a different set of goals and aspirations that are shaped or noted in that vision document. Sometimes when we make those strategic decisions it will provide an opportunity for us to step up and lead through that transition or lead through that change but also to solicit the teamwork that needs to be in place to drive the results against that new vision or path that we\u2019ve developed.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I\u2019m kind of going through that right now. It\u2019s interesting with the redoing my vision. I\u2019m kind of curious, I don\u2019t know how to take a poll but I\u2019m wondering if everybody on the call, I guess you guys can push *2. Does everybody here have a vision, believe it\u2019s important? If you do, if you are doing that, I\u2019m just curious if that\u2019s kind of a\u2014I don\u2019t know what you find, Art, but I\u2019m going ask you in a second.<\/p>\n Art:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Qualify that as a written vision. Not just in your head.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yeah, written vision. I have four hands, I\u2019d say about half of the people.<\/p>\n Art:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 That\u2019s impressive. I\u2019m happy to hear that. It\u2019s not often that I find business owners that have very clearly defined written vision that\u2019s been shared with their team. Their team is aware of their role and helping accomplish that and they\u2019ve bought into that vision.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yeah. That\u2019s what I was wondering. I\u2019m starting to do a little bit of coaching and I always think this conversation is kind of like everybody knows that. You know? But I think you\u2019re right. I think a lot, and I would say even for myself right now, mine is not very clear because we\u2019ve had some transition.<\/p>\n Art:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Sure.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 So we\u2019re in the process right now of reworking it and kind of figuring out how everybody fits into it. Are they even aligned? Are they even in alignment and agreement with it?<\/p>\n Art:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Right. Well oftentimes even if it\u2019s written it hasn\u2019t been shared with the team. Is the team familiar with it enough that they understand either their role or their opportunity in that vision? They see their place in it. Just as you brought up Allison, you\u2019re in a place of transition and taking on some new ventures and you have a team that may or may not be in support of that. That\u2019s okay.<\/p>\n But in order to have a cohesive team that\u2019s engaged in a common goal, we\u2019ve got to have that vision that\u2019s been clearly identified and giving them the opportunity to say, \u201cYep, I\u2019m in,\u201d or \u201cnope, I\u2019m not. That doesn\u2019t fit my own personal vision for the future.\u201d And that\u2019s okay. In fact, that\u2019s the environment that we would hope that we\u2019re building a cohesive enough team that the communication is well founded in looking at fit and looking for future opportunities for contribution.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Nice. So I\u2019m curious if you had mentioned something when we talked about what ingredient must be present in order for business owners and teams to thrive?<\/p>\n Art:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yeah.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Is that something we\u2019ve already talked about?<\/p>\n Art:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I\u2019m going to throw the secret ingredient is leadership. People know about leadership. They hear about it. They try to understand it. There\u2019s been hundreds of thousands of books written on leadership. I don\u2019t think people have it figured out yet. Leadership again is having impact and influence over another. The secret ingredient I believe, and if you look at those organizations that are performing at high levels, it will be a leader that understands their role in replicating leadership.<\/p>\n There\u2019s two different models. My good friend Bob still talks about this. The two models, the traditional model of leadership it looks like a pyramid. The leader at the top, his function or his mantra is to make sure that everybody within the organization helps and succeeds. He may view his business as the ultimate measure of that success. But everybody that I hire and bring in to my business will ultimately help me succeed, help me retire, help me achieve my goals.<\/p>\n Oftentimes even at mid-level management or departmental management levels, oftentimes the traditional model is: I\u2019m at the top and anybody that I bring into the organization will never be as smart as me or know as much as me or care enough about this business, care about it to the extent that I do, and therefore will be contained within this pyramid. Well consequently, the top of that pyramid is you and you\u2019re the road block for further growth and expansion.<\/p>\n If we flip that model and we look at the opposite of what\u2019s traditional, it\u2019s called upside-down leadership. That is where Mr. Big now is at the bottom of that triangle with no cap on it. His sole purpose or sole function is to make sure that everyone within his organization succeeds.<\/p>\n When we look at leadership and leadership replication, I would say the secret ingredient is our ability to coach and mentor hearts and minds that value the people around them and truly look at an opportunity to mature the business through leadership replication. People that are willing to hire above themselves and hire people with greater skillsets than their own to recognize that they may not have all the answers.<\/p>\n I heard a great quote the other day. I was listening to one of Simon Sinek\u2019s newer presentations and he shared in his presentation, I wrote this down because I wanted to bring it to the script tonight. I think it\u2019s profound. He said, \u201cIf you don\u2019t understand people you don\u2019t understand business. We are social animals, we are human beings, and our survival depends on our ability to form trusting relationships.\u201d<\/p>\n His question was, \u201cWhat are you doing to help the person next to you?\u201d Effective leadership is being willing to help somebody succeed. If we have a culture of leadership and helping others succeed around us, the possibilities are limitless. It becomes a very fun environment because we\u2019re more focused on serving than we are being served.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yeah.<\/p>\n Art:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 So that\u2019s the secret ingredient in my own opinion. The common element that I see in businesses that are succeeding or practices that are seeing high levels of success versus levels that are not. It comes down to the culture of leadership that they\u2019re embracing or running away from.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Do you think dentistry is a hard, any more difficult than any other business just because of the way that it\u2019s setup? Where we\u2019re just like with patients all day and we\u2019re investing that time in people. Do you think there\u2019s any difference in dentistry than there is in any other business?<\/p>\n Art:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I don\u2019t, I think we can use the industry or the situation as an excuse to not lead. We chose to go into business. There\u2019s two levels of leadership. In fact, an interesting concept that is starting to emerge is what\u2019s referred to as entrepreneurial leadership or the executive entrepreneur. We see group practices coming on to the scene. We see less new startups or new practices being founded by a new grad out of school or even the transition rates are starting to go down. But at any level, we can choose to lead and make something better.<\/p>\n Again, I go back to my statement on we can use the industry as an excuse as to why we may be challenged with that or why that environment may be different but at the end of the day it\u2019s still a people business. We\u2019re asking volunteers to give us their heart not just their back.<\/p>\n We\u2019re looking for great outcomes, we\u2019re looking to drive phenomenal results, we went into business to achieve a couple of things. One of them was financial gain but the other one is freedom of time. If we\u2019re always attached to the business and we\u2019re always attached to the day-to-day functions and we\u2019re micromanaging it every single level, we\u2019re sure spending a lot of time doing things that are counter-productive.<\/p>\n So if we look at again the differences between leadership and management, oftentimes I\u2019ll find business owners that they went to school to be a dentist not a business owner. Or they didn\u2019t want to be a HR guy, they didn\u2019t want to handle payroll, they didn\u2019t want to deal with the benefits and deal with managing people. They just wanted to show up and do dentistry. That\u2019s what they love to do and there\u2019s nothing wrong with that. They know where their passion is. But understand that as a business owner it doesn\u2019t exempt you from all those things. At the end of the day they still need to be done.<\/p>\n So the difference between leadership and management, management is babysitting. It\u2019s very tiresome and it will weigh on your mind and eventually turn into a major annoyance and that will show up in the way that you interact with people. If you have to manage or if you have to babysit, you\u2019ve made hiring mistakes as Jim Collins would say.<\/p>\n Leadership on the opposite side is not babysitting, its providing vision and direction and helping a team succeed. So there\u2019s vast differences there. If you find yourself getting sucked into the management mode, get off that treadmill. It\u2019s a pretty tiresome treadmill but you have to change your paradigm and you have to start to bring leadership as an element into your business so that you can regain that passion that you once had. And that you can have people around you that understand the opportunity to lead and direct and to take responsibility on their shoulders and to think like a stakeholder as opposed to an employee.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Nice, I don\u2019t have any questions, Art. I thought that was great.<\/p>\n Art:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 No questions? Okay, let me leave us on a quote by Harold Whitman. I think this was appropriate in regards to our own personal journey that we\u2019re on and the opportunity that we have to make something great and to take control of the situation. Harold Whitman said this, he said, \u201cDon\u2019t ask yourself what the world wants. Ask yourself what makes you come alive. And then go and do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.\u201d<\/p>\n So with that quote in mind, I would challenge you to take on the challenge of leadership. Understand that you have the ability to impact and influence others for positive. Start with a vision, don\u2019t be afraid to pen it and write it down, have it free flow. It doesn\u2019t have to be a certain format. Just write it down and then share it with your team and ask them to support that.<\/p>\n If they\u2019re willing to engage at level, and make sure that it has components that bring value to them as well. Then from that vision, continue to make good decisions. The strategic decisions that will help you differentiate yourself. Then review often the results that you\u2019re getting and gauge them against what you desired at the beginning. If there\u2019s gaps, troubleshoot the gaps and continue forward. The more we look at the outcomes and results that we\u2019re getting, the more attention we\u2019re paying to the culture that we have and the focus on that design, the greater results that we\u2019ll get.<\/p>\n So I\u2019d encourage everybody to do that. You have a great opportunity. Thank you for being the entrepreneurs that you are. This is what drives this country. It\u2019s what the troops that go into battle when asked what we can do to pay them back for their sacrifices, they\u2019ll tell you, \u201cLive in a free land and continue to thrive and be entrepreneurs and make decisions that have impact to others.\u201d Thank you everyone for being on the call. Thanks, Allison, for having me.<\/p>\n Thanks for listening to Practicing with the Masters<\/em> for dentists, with your host, Dr. Allison Watts. For more about how Allison Watts and Transformational Practices can help you create a successful and fulfilling practice and life, visit transformationalpractices.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/div> <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On this episode, I am excited to welcome Art McCraken. Art is the Founder and CEO of Synapse Point Consulting, a highly-regarded firm specializing in leadership transformation and team dynamics. Art and his company have had great success in taking practice leaders and their teams to a higher level of performance than they ever previously […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_cloudinary_featured_overwrite":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[303],"tags":[309,305,304,307],"yoast_head":"\n![\"Allison's-Button\"](\"https:\/\/res.cloudinary.com\/transformational-practices-llc\/images\/f_auto,q_auto\/v1587010383\/Allisons-Button\/Allisons-Button.jpg?_i=AA)
<\/a><\/p>\nStrategies for Success with Art McCracken<\/h3>\n
CLICK HERE TO READ THE TRANSCRIPT (7,254 WORDS )<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n
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