When you measure your progress you can look ahead to predict and make the changes you need to. Plus you can celebrate the milestones you reach. Here are some key performance management aids I can recommend through experience:
One Page Plan
A ‘One Page Plan’ captures and measures the key performance drivers for your dental business, usually on a monthly basis. You may have heard these figure referred to as ‘key performance indicators’ (KPIs).
Because a One Page Plan involves setting targets to aim for on each driver, the process of collating a monthly One Page Plan promotes improved performance. There are some fundamental performance drivers for dentists - your patient recall rate, your new patient generation and conversion rates and your treatment conversion rate to name a few.
If these rates increase, the success of your dental business improves. But you need to ensure the drivers you track are specific to your vision. So start your One Page Plan by breaking down your vision. What are the measureable elements of your vision? What are the everyday activities which drive these elements? How can you measure these activities?
List these measurements. Get your team involved in identifying them and how you will measure them. Getting your team involved encourages particular team members to adopt responsibility for particular measurements, and running and improving the systems associated with them.
Project Plan
Following your vision setting and team sessions, a number of projects and activities will have been highlighted.
Set up a project plan so you can keep track of what needs to be done in terms of strategies and systems around each of your six business areas:
- Sales
- Marketing
- Financial
- Clinical
- Team/HR
- IT
There is project management software available, but I have seen a simple Excel spreadsheet work for many businesses, with separate worksheets on each of the above business areas. Record the details of every project within the business area, covering:
A description of the project.
- Action required – there is likely to be more than one action required per project.
- The person responsible for each action.
- When each action is due for completion.
A good practice manager will run with the projects and actions you identify through your planning and strategy sessions.
They will delegate tasks effectively to others in your team and get your input as projects dictate. They will manage your project plan, reporting to you on progress on a regular basis. A straightforward way to do this is to adopt a red/amber/green visual key for your projects and actions. Red for actions not yet started, amber for those in progress and green for actions completed. They will share an updated project plan (minus any sensitive points) with your team on a regular basis.
Communication systems
Make sure you have the necessary communication and meeting systems in place to enable performance management and the review of your measurement aids. These should include:
- A regular meeting with your practice manager to review project plan progress.
- A monthly team meeting with include the review of your One Page Plan for the month before, which effectively becomes your agenda for the meeting.
Job descriptions
Once your measurement aids are working well, your project plan is progressing and your team members understand the systems they are responsible for, you can attach systems and plans to job descriptions.
This makes each team member accountable for the appropriate systems, measurements and projects associated with their role.
Tying all this in with their appraisals ensures team members achieve their goals and continue to assist you in improving the performance of your dental business.