I’ve had the pleasure of introducing The Marshmallow Challenge to a couple of dental teams in the last few working days – in Helens Bay, Northern Ireland on Friday and again in Solihull, West Midlands yesterday. It is a great ice-breaker and also filled with useful metaphors for teamwork, collaboration and lateral thinking (it also
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Preamble (well, actually, ramble) I spend a lot of my time nowadays advising clients on their exit strategy: when is the best time to sell? how soon before I want to sell do I need to start preparing the practice and educating myself? what will my business be worth? what will likely be my exit
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When you are recruiting team members, hiring suppliers or considering a business partnership, think about these characteristics: DRIVEN – they have a point to prove, a quest; LEADER – they know how to create environments in which people around them become self-motivated; COMMUNICATOR – they are articulate; GET STUFF DONE – they just do. Apply
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A couple of approaches to business for you to think about today. The Populist Approach Figure out what is selling like hot cakes and jump on the bandwagon. Advantages: market already clearly defined; popularity guaranteed; average skill required from support team; easy to get started. Disadvantages: what’s so special about you? popular markets can quickly
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Here’s a list of reasons why you could give up, throw the towel in, sell up and go: The threat of litigation; The burden of compliance; The meddling of Government; The squeeze by insurance companies: The scarcity of good clinicians and team members; The irritation and dilution of competition; The behaviours of your most troublesome
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My quarterly workshops begin with a round-robin of updates from the delegates on their wins (and their challenges) from the last 90 days. This is always an opportunity to take an overview from my sample of independent practice owners and feel their collective pulse – thus allowing me to spot any trends emerging in the
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Problem 1 – same stuff – different day I have a sense that there are dental teams out there who are waiting for some direction; for the leader to tell them: where we are heading and what’s in it for them? You cannot expect any team to keep their levels of enthusiasm and energy high
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One of the greatest continuity errors in the history of film-making appears in The Wizard of Oz, when Dorothy meets The Scarecrow. During their dialogue, her pig-tails alter their length from one camera angle to the next, growing from shoulders to mid-chest and back again – and yet the film was released to the general
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I recently polled the members of my private Facebook group – The Extreme Business Forum – asking them for three favourite subjects that they would like me to cover in a series of one-hour tutorials I’m putting together. The clear winner was a request for any information on how to make teams work. Second, tips
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The Future of Practice Ownership Over the weekend I was asked to deliver a session on “Marketing in Independent Practice” to delegates at The British Undergraduate Dental Research Conference 2019 (Manchester University). It was rather a privilege to be the only non-clinical speaker on the curriculum and I was pleased that, of the 300 delegates,
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