The pain of detail Opinion


with Dr John Barry F


or the last four weeks, I have been spending a full day a week personally sorting out a practice I set up more than a year ago.


The pain I refer to in the title is the


pain I felt when I realised that, despite having a really detailed set of systems in the practice, they were not being adhered to in the way they had been laid out. This is exceptionally frustrating because, when our staff do not follow our instructions to do things the way we want them done, the business suffers. What did I discover and what help is it


to you my readers? The first thing is that we must never assume that, when we give an instruction, it is heard correctly, inter- preted properly or implemented correctly. The second thing is that, unless our staff


have been in place for a long time and have a proven track record of being effective, we cannot assume they are doing what we want in the manner that we want it done, or even that they have the skills, knowledge or experience to do the job. Over the years, I have seen staff who


looked great on paper and who talked a great game, demonstrate that they either really did not understand the task or were too lazy or distracted to do the job properly. I struggle with this as I like to believe


that everyone is at least trying to do their best. Unfortunately, it’s not always the case as I have learned to my cost. So, in


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this case, I had to go in and do my own observation of what was going on. This involved sitting in reception, watching and listening to the way patients were greeted, conversations between staff, phone handling and the general aura of the place. I was far from impressed, considering


I had invested a lot of time and effort, not to mention resources and money into getting this started. It hit me like a train that it’s only the beginning of a process to get something started the way you want it to and that we, as business owners, have to continually look at the detail of what is going on and continually modify and train. I have had to part company with one


staff member who really did not want to be there (this is what I refer to as a graduation ceremony and, to be truthful, hire slowly and part company fast if it’s not working). We spent three days (and counting) going back over with everyone the concept of the patient journey and every step in that journey, as


® Contact John by emailing johnbarry@thedentalplan.co.uk


Column


well as many more training sessions on the telephone handling process. In a relatively short period of time, the


whole ambience has changed. The clutter of clutter has disappeared and the attitude of the remainder of the team, including the new member, has lifted the place. Even patients are now saying how nice it is at the clinic, which is making me feel a lot happier as they are the only reason we can exist. I hate failure and this is why I felt it was


so important to share with you that we all have to go back to basics sometimes, no matter how experienced we are, to look at the detail and to alleviate the pain.


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