Do's and don'ts for creating a culture of education

Creating a culture of ongoing education and information dissemination will build better teams -- and better teams build better practices. The challenge for practice leaders is that they're so busy with patient treatment that they often lack time for teaching. This is one of the reasons that many dental teams stagnate. And when a crisis such as COVID-19 emerges, they don't have the ability to pivot in new directions quickly to help the practice stay at high levels of productivity. As the practice leader, you must be a good teacher for the benefit of your team and, ultimately, your practice.

Set a specific goal for how often your team should receive new education. If you want your team to receive a consistent flow of relevant information, give them a blog, article, or link to something interesting once a week and ask them to be ready to discuss it with the entire group. For example, you could give them the information on a Tuesday and ask them to be ready Thursday to have a short three- or four-minute discussion about anything they learned that could benefit the office. This will help your staff to begin focusing on learning, self-improvement, and practice improvement.

Don't forget to find gurus or mentors. Do you know certain people or organizations that offer excellent information on a consistent basis? Then access this information, share it with the team, and continue to go to these gurus and mentors if they're useful to you and your practice. By regularly accessing specific individuals and organizations, you'll have a better chance of maintaining consistency.

Dr. Roger P. Levin is the CEO of Levin Group, a leading dental management consulting firm, and one of the most sought-after speakers in dentistry. Levin has authored 65 books and more than 4,000 articles on dental practice management and marketing. You can sign up for the Levin Group Tip of the Day.

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