Dr. John Meis:
Hey everybody, welcome to this episode of the Double Your Production Podcast. I'm Dr. John Meis here with my partner, Wendy Briggs. How you doing, Wendy?
Wendy Briggs:
I'm doing great. Dr. John, how are you this morning?
Dr. John Meis:
I am doing fantastic. It is a beautiful day here, and we are deep in the preparations for our annual Champions of Dentistry Summit. And so it's a very exciting time of year for us.
Wendy Briggs:
Yes, it sure is very busy as well. But I thought today would be an interesting conversation. There's been a theme that's come up as we've prepared some of our lectures and our information for the summit, especially as we get to celebrate some of our members. And so let's take just a few minutes, Dr. John, for anyone who's unfamiliar with us and some of our tribal language and talk about the Japanese term kaizen. It's actually a term I learned from you years ago.
Dr. John Meis:
Yeah. So the word Kaizen as I think of it, and I'm not sure what the literal translation is, but I think of it as taking something that exists, tearing it apart and putting it back together so that it's better. So either the result is better or it's more efficient or it's less it's more efficient time wise. It's more efficient cost wise. Maybe more fun to do may look better. But so really tearing things apart and then very thoughtfully keeping the pieces that are core and making it better.
Wendy Briggs:
Yeah, I love that. The actual Japanese translation, because I looked it up,
Dr. John Meis:
Oh, here it comes. Okay.
Wendy Briggs:
renew for good, renew for good. And so that's essentially what you just described, right? So renewing a process or a system or a way of doing business, in a, you know, transforming it to something better is exactly what it means. And they said that sometimes when we translate it into English, it's referred to as continuous improvement, which again is very, very similar to what you just talked about. And so obviously this can refer to, as you stated, refining business processes to raise quality standards, cut costs, and or reduce wasted time. So I love this term and I think it absolutely applies to so many of our members and so many dentists and professionals in dentistry are trying to do, right? Continuously make things better.
Dr. John Meis:
Yeah, it's so true. We understand that we are in a very, very, very challenging environment. We have reimbursement that's declining. We have costs that are increasing. And the only way for the practice to stay par is to become more efficient, which is why we wanted to talk about Kaizen today, because it is one of the ways, one of the tools that we have that can help practices become more efficient.
Wendy Briggs:
Yeah, I think sometimes we get so entrenched, right? We get entrenched in the way we've always done things in such a way that it can close our mind to a new way of thinking or a better way or more efficient way. And so I love the fact that we talk about Kaizen so much. And we actually internally do it with our company too. When we have systems or processes that need to be refreshed or renewed, we will actually take on a Kaizen. And I think that's so helpful for dentists, especially when they're wearing the CEO hat. or any leaders in the practice to understand, you know, why it's so important to renew for good, you know, from time to time, even things that, you know, we can come and trench to say, hey, this is the way we've always done it. We're not interested in making a change. Well, there may be some compelling reasons why we should be open to a new way of thinking.
Dr. John Meis:
Absolutely. And so ways of getting new ways of thinking are exposing yourself to other industries, exposing yourself to other people in our industry. And so at our annual Champions of Dentistry Summit, we have an exercise called the Big Idea, and everyone gets to share their biggest idea of the year. And so you get all these influences from all these practices, all these tremendously and it starts to build this pile of thoughts and processes and different ways of doing things. You know, you just have influences from so many different things. So when you
Wendy Briggs:
Yeah.
Dr. John Meis:
are, yeah, when you're constantly working on how do other people do it, how do they do it in this industry or that industry, it really builds the muscle that it takes to go through this. And really, there's a seven-step process, isn't there, that we use. When we're when we do a Kaizen, we're kind of in the middle of one right now I am I have a new executive assistant starting here shortly and we're thinking rethinking that role Because that role does so much more than just that and so we're in the process of this right now So shall we walk through the seven steps?
Wendy Briggs:
Yeah, let's do that. So the first step
Dr. John Meis:
Okay
Wendy Briggs:
really is to identify a situation that can be improved, whether that's a system or a process or a job description, whatever that is. That's the first step, identify a situation that can be improved. And then the second step would be to analyze the current situation. And often that involves getting feedback from the team.
Dr. John Meis:
sure. So when we identify something to fix, my big suggestion is pick something small as you do this. You'll be able to pick bigger things as you go along, but pick something that may be a part of something bigger. Don't try to do your new patient process, for instance. That's like seven kaizans picking each part of it. Otherwise, it just becomes too big and too complicated. And the second is to analyze it. So, you know, one of the things that we do for our clients is help them with the data and help them understand the analytics of that. So that's one way of analyzing it. And you mentioned about including the team. So let's talk a little bit more about that. So, let's talk a little bit more about that.
Wendy Briggs:
Yeah, you know, it really comes down to analyzing the current situation, what isn't working and what is working, right? We don't want to throw away the things that are working well, but we certainly want to have open dialogue and conversations about what's not working. And we all bring our own unique experiences to the table whenever we're talking about any type of process or system. You know, As a hygienist, I bring my own unique viewpoint. An assistant may see a process or a system completely radically differently. So I think that's why we wanna identify and analyze and involve everyone on the team. We often say that people support what they help create and that's why it's important to get the team involved.
Dr. John Meis:
Yeah, and as you said, depending on your role, your perspective, how you see any particular thing that you're analyzing is going to be different. And so if we're going to have a solution or an improvement that works for everybody, we really need all the roles involved as we go through this process. So
Wendy Briggs:
Right.
Dr. John Meis:
the next step is once we've, we know what we want to do, we know where we're performing now. Now we can brainstorm on how to improve it. And this is for me the most fun part. It also can be the hardest part because we all have somewhat of a limited ability to change or think outside the box, right? We all have a way that we do it. That's the way we've always done it. And there's a lot of inertia towards that. And so really helping the team to... Get creative and throw out all different ideas as you do this brainstorm is really kind of fun.
Wendy Briggs:
Yeah, and it's so critical as well that we recognize, you know, it needs to be having, we need to come at it from a place of, you know, having that mindset in place. This is a Kaizen, we're seeking continuous improvement. We're gonna renew this for good. And what that means is nothing's off the table and we wanna have a spirit of collaboration, not a spirit of conflict when we brainstorm. So being welcoming and accepting of all ideas, it doesn't mean that we're gonna choose those ideas, but this is just a brainstorm session. So it should be open to all. ideas and suggestions at this point. And that leads us to step four, which is then we take all of those ideas that were brainstormed and we plan how to implement the new and improved system, whatever that solution may be.
Dr. John Meis:
Yeah, very, very often the entire group can come to that solution. Occasionally a subgroup is necessary to come to the solution, but very often the entire group can come up with that solution. And when that happens now, you know you have everybody on board because, as you said, people support what they help create. So now we can begin to plan. How is it that we're going to implement the solution or the change? And so that means. starting date. That means clarity on who's going to do what. That means clarity on how we're going to measure our results. That includes how are we going to problem solve along the way because our solution, there may be things that we learn in that solution that we need to tweak. So the plan has to have all those things in place for it to have a chance of having great success.
Wendy Briggs:
Right, after we've discovered what the plan is, that leads us to step five, and that is to execute the plan. Often the most difficult part of all, right? Executing the new and improved plan can be challenging. I think the likelihood of success is higher, certainly if you've involved the team, but if this is a circumstance where it's not appropriate to involve everyone. that's going to be part of the hurdle. And you always do such a great job talking about change management and how is the leader of the team, you have to sell the change. So if there are team members that were not involved in creating this plan, when it comes time to execute, you need to be very, very clear on why we're making the change and what's in it for them in order to have support with execution.
Dr. John Meis:
Yeah, absolutely. And human beings are habitual creatures. And so when you try to execute something new, something different, there is always some, I would say, some upstream paddling that needs to be done initially. And often some accountability conversations to help people stay on track. People need a lot of encouragement at that time. And so to get this. moving in the direction that we wanted to. But we can't just execute the plan and then sit back, can we? We've gotta then assess the results. Did this have the improvement that we were hoping for? And if not, well, then we can go back to brainstorming and go through the cycle again, come up with another solution.
Wendy Briggs:
Right, I love to see practices that are doing this at the highest level. And you know, it's interesting, you mentioned the summit and how we're deep in the prep for that. You know, we often have a gala and an awards dinner and we celebrate practices for certain accomplishments in this awards dinner and it's always super fun. And it's interesting because as I was going through the list of awards this year, we have quite a few practices that we're celebrating for a 10 year milestone. And some people that listen to the podcast may think, well, gosh, that's crazy. Why would a practice need consulting for 10 years? They may be really horrible. You know, they must be really horrible.
Dr. John Meis:
Hahaha!
Wendy Briggs:
Maybe they're not good at execution. And in reality, when I look at the list of names on that 10-year milestone award, they are all truly exceptional practices. And I think that's why they're so exceptional is because they have a culture of Kaizen, continuous improvement, renewing for good. And they recognize that over the years, as they grow and evolve, they have new challenges that arise. And they've consistently made a decision to put themselves in circumstances where they're able to continuously improve. And so I think those practices are ones that really have demonstrated that this principle is a key element for a successful practice in the long run.
Dr. John Meis:
Yeah. And the process of Kaizen is not yet done, right? Because now we have to repeat it. And so very commonly, when we have one of our executive GPS days, and that's a day where we create a five year plan for practices, so they have a strategic plan, they know exactly where they're going, exactly how they're going to get there. Often we'll create a list of things that aren't working in the practice very well. And then we'll rank those in order of importance. And that becomes the Kaizen list, right? We'll start with the one that's most important and we'll go through this seven step process. When we have that moving forward and that one going in a good direction, then we'll go to the next one on the list and just work our way through this over time. And so, you know, I've heard you say many times Wendy that, that one of the struggles practices often have is they spend so much time working in the practice, focusing on production, that they don't spend enough time working on the practice by doing Kaizans, by doing good planning, by doing good team building, by building this really strong culture.
Wendy Briggs:
And it's so critical too, you know, you see a lot of comments or posts on social media from dentists and hygienists alike that are really, they're just venting their frustration about a particular circumstance. And almost always these are systems or process based frustrations. And that's the struggle, you know, when culture declines in a practice, it's because we don't have a process in place to improve those headaches. And
Dr. John Meis:
Yep.
Wendy Briggs:
over time they can fester
Dr. John Meis:
Yep.
Wendy Briggs:
and become. you know, a really toxic drain on team culture and cooperation. And so then we get to a place where nobody's happy. You know, all the teams are miserable, the doctors miserable, and going to work every day is a struggle. You know, it doesn't have to be that way. You can create a process by which your whole team is committed to continuous improvement, but it does take intention.
Dr. John Meis:
It really does. And it takes time. It takes meetings. It takes, you know, a consistent effort over time. But the payoff is tremendous. You know, right now, the biggest challenge that most practices in the United States are having is having enough workers. The dental workforce shrunk post-COVID, and so there aren't enough dental workers to fill all the openings. Now, this is worse in some parts of the country than in others, but it's a very common biggest challenge. Well, the best way to manage to deal with not having enough team members, number one, is to make sure that you keep the ones that you have. And having a good Kaizen process in place where we're working on the things that aren't working well, that we're doing it in a collaborative way, we're doing it with great teamwork, that's how we keep team members involved. If we don't do this, those frustrations build, they fester, as you say, Wendy, and pretty much some other practice is looking better to them than the practice that they're in. We want to make sure that we avoid that. We want to have really great, rewarding workplaces for our employees so that they stay and help us build really a legacy of improving the dental health of our patients.
Wendy Briggs:
Yeah, we love that. You know, we mentioned the summit several times. And for those that are listeners, we have listeners in more than 58 countries on this show. And so you might be thinking, well, we can't participate or we can't come to the summit. Well, the good news is we actually have a virtual ticket available this year. So we're gonna go ahead and post the link for that virtual ticket along with this episode. And for those that are listening that want information about that, it should be fairly easy for you to access the information. Now, if you're listening to this show, after April 27th, 28th and 29th, the summit for 2023 has been concluded. But the good news is there's always another great TTI event right around the corner. We've got another amazing event coming up in July, so we'll post that information as well.
Dr. John Meis:
Yeah, fantastic. All right, so that's a good overview of how you can use the Kaizen process to improve your practice, to improve the employee experience as well as the patient experience. So that's
Wendy Briggs:
all
Dr. John Meis:
it.
Wendy Briggs:
so important. Yep.
Dr. John Meis:
Yes, it really is. So that's it for this episode of the W Production Podcast. We'll see you next time. Thanks
Wendy Briggs:
Thanks
Dr. John Meis:
everybody.
Wendy Briggs:
everybody. Bye bye.
Dr. John Meis:
Bye bye.
