Synergize within your dental office for growth!!

This habit is the truest test and manifestation of everything else we have covered.  To make this lesson work we will have had to have mastered the others.  It combines the Win/Win skill and the skills of empathetic listening into principle centered leadership. This is a skill that I often struggle to live myself.  

There are examples of synergy everywhere in nature.  Cases where the sum of parts is far stronger and more valuable than the part individually.  One great example of this in the wild is crocodiles.  They by no means work or reside together.  In some cases they will even devour each other.  The one example where they work together is if a wildebeast is caught by one in the water.  Now, normally one would think they would guard their food as most other wild animals do.  But in this case, one crocodile can tear apart the wildebeast to eat it on their own.  It takes at least 2 working together to accomplish this task.  One to hold while another grabs the animal and spins its body to tear it apart.  Perhaps this is a gruesome example, but without working together, they might not survive.  It is about the only example in the wild I am aware of where a carnivore shares its food, because it has to.  

How powerful would it be if we were to combine our different perspectives about business and life to achieve better results?  What normally happens in this circumstance?  One person thinks their way is the best way and forces that opinion on others.  Look at our current political system to see evidence that this method doesn’t work.  This is why our political system is very broke.  Both sides think they have the only and best method and neither are willing to hear what the other has to say.  What if they combined philosophies and actually demonstrated the lesson of “Seek first to understand and then to be understood?”  How radically different would the outcome be?

This is where I personally struggle at times.  I often want to surround myself with people who think differently because I see the value of their different opinions.  In many cases I even enjoy hearing their different opinions.  I am not very good at taking their opinions seriously as I too often think I have the right answers.  I personally need to value and respect their different opinions and even try them.  I might find their ideas are better than my own.

The next time their is a conflict within your office, try to live the Habit of Synergize.  First approach the circumstance with the end in mind.  Not your preconceived outcome, but a happy ending where everyone works to find the best solution.  That is what I mean by the starting with the end in mind.  Then approach the challenge with a Win/Win outcome.  Empathetically listen to their concerns, truly wanting to understand their thinking.  Then synergize together to find a solution that would have been much better than any one person’s solution.  There is no doubt that this is very difficult to do and live.  There is also little doubt that it will greatly enhance your relationships within the practice and your personal life.  As an outcome of this process we will all greatly deepen out connections with each other and have far richer lives.  I think I will go home and try this with my wife!!

Darren Kaberna

Connect with Darren on Google+

http://www.acceleratemypractice.com/

See the video below and contact us if you have questions or would like to learn more about our services.