Good intentions

The road to hell, so the old adage goes, is paved with good intentions and dental practices can be littered with the remains of

failed initiatives or good ideas whichsomehow never get implemented for more than a few weeks (or months if we are lucky). We really do mean to do the right things, introduce those new ideas learned at a course across the practice, get people to do things differently, but somehow old habits die hard and we slip back into the old comfortable ways of doing things.

 

To do so could spell disaster these days, especially if the old ways do not meet compliance standards. Dental practice owners and managers are required to embrace more change and new ways of doing things; the challenge lies not in understanding

what we have to do but in getting people to do it. The fact that change has become more frequent does not make all of this any easier.

 

By asking people to take on new ideas and ways of operating to comply with regulatory requirements, we are asking people to change. We are all creatures of habit, and find it natural to resist adopting new ways of thinking and operating, but owners and managers must lead their teams to adopt these new ways and sustain them, not just for business survival but also for practice growth.

 

Compliance is not just about putting new policies and procedures into place; how we lead our teams to take these on board and to embed them in what they do will determine the difference between success and failure. For those leading practice teams, here is a checklist for ensuring compliance throughout your practice:

 

 

You may have had a couple of practice meetings about CQC and compliance issues generally but you need to keep this alive in your team members’ minds, and give them a clear assessment of the impact of those policies and procedures on what they do on an on-going basis. You should be prepared to communicate this with people not just on a group basis but individually on an informal level and also at performance reviews and appraisals.

 

 

You may have given an objective and rational case and appealed to people’s logic when asking them to do things differently but logic rarely results in long-term behaviour change. In order to feel committed to the change you are asking for, people need to understand the emotional case for it. If they feel that it is yet another initiative doomed to go the way of others, or

to ease off once you have had a CQC inspection, they are unlikely to commit wholeheartedly to new ways of doing things. Make sure you are clear with them what the changes you want to see will mean not just for the practice but also for them.

 

 

Successful change starts from the top and leaders should be at the front of the change. Do you come across as positive and committed or do staff overhear you grumbling about what you are required to do these days? You must demonstrate through example what the sort of approach and attitude you want in your staff actually looks and sounds like.

 

 

Many change initiatives are imposed on staff rather than worked through with them. This is an undermining force in change. Rather than be pushed from the top, people need also to be encouraged and motivated to change the ways that they do things by their peers. Do your staff have pride, commitment, and purpose in what they do? Do you encourage them to feel that they have achieved something by completing the things you have asked them to do? Support and recognition including from their peers make it easier for people to take on board a sense of ownership of the way the practice has decided to do things, rather than believe they have to take on additional tasks imposed on the practice by some external body.

 

 

Have you considered how the changes have affected job descriptions, and the way that you measure performance in

performance reviews and appraisals? Have you thought how you can recognise and acknowledge the efforts of people who go the extra mile in terms of the new ways of working, or have supported others who have found the changes less easy? Or have you simply taken for granted that people have got on with things and have not acknowledged the efforts they have made? What effect do the changes have on the various people elements of your practice, individual and team roles,

as well as required job descriptions, competencies, skills, and behaviours, and training? Old habits do die hard but at the risk of mixing metaphors it is possible to teach old dogs new tricks. However, making change stick does requires all five of the success factors