How is Your Chiropractic Head Game?

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chiropractic goal driven to strike out batters.

The Hidden Game of Practice Success
‘Baseball is 90 percent mental. The other half is physical’ – Yogi Berra

Hello Sports Fans!

For my 13-year grandson’s birthday, I bought him a book on sports: Ninety Percent Mental: An All-Star Turned Mental Skills Coach Reveals the Hidden Game of Baseball by Bob Tewsksbury.

I haven’t finished reading the book, but I know the subject – how the mind affects performance. I figure any tips I can give to my grandkids, the better chance they will have.

And I figure this also applies to myself, and perhaps to you.

In my book, The Goal Driven Business, I cover the 5 Engines to practice success. These are:

  1. Clinical outcomes and service
  2. Leadership
  3. Management
  4. Marketing
  5. Personal Power

No matter how competent you are as a chiropractic doctor, healthcare provider, or business owner, how inspiring you are as a leader, how consistent and enterprising you are as a manager, or intelligent as a marketer… if you don’t have the positive energy to make things happen, your practice will falter.

Personal Power is the “Hidden Game” of practice success.

The first chiropractor Dave and I worked with had multiple doctors and together saw over 2,000 visits per week. (I still have the stats!) A recurring theme he would tell his associates was that practice success was an “inside job.” This meant success was dependent upon their mental attitude.

But one’s mental attitude is dependent upon something much deeper. You can always “fake it till you make it,” which might sometimes be necessary. But it is not authentic.

What is authentic is your happiness. Happiness underlies your mental attitude. Your Personal Power comes out when you are happier.

So, how do you become happier?

Using Your Signature Strengths In Your Chiropractic and Healthcare Practice

One method that has been proven to improve a person’s happiness is to focus on your strengths – what you are good at – and less on what you are not so good at.

Martin Seligman, Ph.D., is a strong proponent of Positive Psychology. In his book Authentic Happiness, he discusses common virtues that all people in all cultures have agreed upon over time. These virtues can be translated into specific Character Strengths. Each of these strengths has 3-5 subcategories for a total of 24-Character Strengths.

We all have a different set of more dominant strengths, which Seligman calls our Signature Strengths. For example, one person may be strong in humor, gratitude, and fairness, while another person’s Signature Strengths could be creativity, curiosity, and gratitude.

“I do not believe that you should devote overly much effort to correct your weaknesses. Rather, I believe that the highest success in living and the deepest emotional satisfaction comes from building and using your signature strengths.”

I cover this in practical detail in my book, The Goal Driven Business, and it is part of our upcoming Management and Leadership Training course, our 11-week intensive training especially for practice managers beginning on Sept. 18.

We all have our confusions and apprehensions — our mental monkeys that get in the way of our happiness and limit our Personal Power. You see this in your patients and staff, and I am sure you notice it now and then in yourself.

But a legitimate goal is to be happy, and in so doing, you can unleash your power and win at the “Hidden Game” of practice success.

By focusing on what you do best, and allowing your team to pick up all the rest, you can go a long way at winning the “Hidden Game” of practice development.

Having your team pick up “all the rest” requires good management. So I recommend you consider our Management and Leadership training for your manager this Sept.

Stay strong in your strengths,

Ed

You can take a survey and discover your Signature Strengths at
www.viacharacter.org

For more information about our Management and Leadership Training. www.GoalDriven.com/mba

Image: Wikipedia

The Biggest Factor in your Chiropractic or Heath Practice’s success?

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You might say it is clinical expertise. Or motivation? Or marketing Or …philosophy.

After visiting chiropractic offices nationwide for over 30 years, I can tell you that none of these factors are the most fundamental. Important, yes. But sooner or later, they all get derailed and sidetracked because of one factor — management.

HOW GROWTH TRAPS YOU AS A CHIROPRACTIC AND PRACTICE OWNER

Growth creates its own barrier. As you see more patients and your visit volume grows, so does your administrative and marketing duties. In fact, they grow about twice as fast. But for the most part, they aren’t noticed as you are busy with patient care. After a while, tasks backlog and pile up, staff get confused, and the floor cares in and down goes your practice.

As you grow, you run into a mostly invisible organizational barrier. This creates a big dilemma: How can you be at your best as a caring, empathetic doctor focusing on delivering the highest quality outcomes possible to your trusting patients — while at the same time managing a growing business.

You can’t.

You need a trained, Goal Driven manager to take care of the practice administration for you.

IT’S THE MANAGER!

But you don’t have to take it from me.

Michael Gerber pointed this out in his famous book, The E-Myth, in the 1980s.

And recently, after analyzing hundreds of businesses and thousands of business people, Gallup scientifically came up with the following conclusion:

“Based on our largest global study of the Future of Work, Gallup finds that the quality of managers and team leaders is the single biggest factor in your organization’s long-term success.”

A PRACTICAL MBA FOR YOUR PRACTICE MANAGER AND YOU

There are no intensive training programs for practice managers in the chiropractic profession. There sometimes are some short classes at seminars on various “management” subjects, but nothing formal or comprehensive. And nothing for doctors to be trained as CEO’s, though some chiropractic colleges offer two-year MBA programs for $20,000 or more.

Over the last year, we have been building a training program for practice managers.

The program is primarily for managers, but doctors will also receive training as Clinic Directors. It is an 11-week program with 30 short classes taught in live webinars over 11 weeks. It includes round table discussions with the managers, weekly homework for the manager graded by me, a private manager’s club, and many other innovative teaching procedures.

The outcome is a Goal Driven practice manager and practice Clinic Director who knows how to move their practice forward to achieve its fullest potential and comfortably stay there.

Over the next several weeks, I will post articles and videos on practice management and leadership for you and your practice manager in addition to the usual Tuesday emails.

If you are interested in this program, just reply to this email, and we will contact you.

I am only accepting a maximum of 7 offices as this is the first Founder’s Round for charter members. So don’t wait if you are interested. The class is filling, and once we are full, that’s all I can take.

MANAGEMENT SUPPORTS EVERYTHING IN A CHIROPRACTIC AND HEALTHCARE PRACTICE

You can attend seminars and learn new adjusting techniques, buy new therapy equipment, and purchase all the advertising you can. But when the rubber meets the road, you need people and systems to support you. Who will train and coach your team, write up and practice new procedures, and handle the growing administrative responsibilities?

If you have a trained manager and you have been trained in our new Fast Flow CEO Method, the admin tasks will be managed proactively and responsibly.

And you know what? Managers want to be trained. They want to improve and be more valuable to the practice.

WHEN YOU NEED A PRACTICE MANAGER AND WHEN YOU DON’T

If you are operating comfortably at 40-50% of your full capacity, you have the time to be the practice manager yourself. If you want.

But if you are growing, operating at 80% or more of you full capacity, or if you have a large practice, with multiple doctors, providers, or ancillary services, you are losing revenue if you do not have a trained Goal Driven practice manager taking care of practice administration.

MANAGEMENT TIP FOR THE WEEK.

Do what you do best.

And delegate all the rest.

Ed

The Best Leadership for Your Chiropractic and Healthcare Practice

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Improving productivity through greater engagement.

I try to base all my practice and business recommendations on observations I have had and also on the research from those of others.

Dave Michel and I have an advantage: we are not doctors and therefore are not biased on any particular type of clinical practice. We are managers and not doctors, so we don’t advise that you do it “our way.” We look for what works and what is best for the patient, the practice, and the owner.

After viewing hundreds of practices, I distilled down the essential elements of what we saw that were most effective and least effective. I then integrated research from other business scientists and laid out a simple growth and practice development plan that was not based on any one doctor’s personality.

Jim Collins is one researcher whose information we incorporated into our work, Eliyahu Goldratt, Stephen Covey, and scores of others, including Michael Gerber.

MICHAEL GERBER

Gerber’s book, The E-Myth, states that, from his experience as a business consultant, people who start a business have three roles: the entrepreneur, the technician, and the manager. By his definition, the technician would be the doctor or health care provider who would also have the role of business owner or entrepreneur.

Most doctors focus on being doctors and making a living as business owners or entrepreneurs.

The manager role is short-changed. It is a difficult role to fulfill as who has time to manage and see a full load of patients. You are paid for providing service… not for managing. Right?

In a practice, the “manager” is really the CEO, or Clinic Director — whatever term you care to use.

This role breaks down into three major functions, all supporting the delivery of clinical services and generating income for the practice and business. These three functions are:

  • Leadership
  • Management
  • Marketing

A good portion of these functions can be delegated using the Goal Driven System, as discussed in the book, The Goal Driven Business.

I want to zero in on leadership.

LEADERSHIP

Gallup states that it has done extraordinarily comprehensive and long-term studies on leadership. They report, “The most effective leaders rally a broad group of people toward an organization’s goals, mission and objectives. They lead. People follow.”

In their studies, they have found that people need or seek the following from their leaders:

          • Trust
          • Compassion
          • Stability
          • Hope

This is what your team wants from you as their employer and Clinic Director.

One of the biggest challenges in all offices is a support team that loses its motivation and is no longer engaged. If you can develop these 4 feelings in your team, their motivation and production will improve.

The big challenge, which is not usually resolved in most practices, is how to be an effective leader and take care of a full caseload of patients.

MANAGEMENT

This is where the function of management comes into play.

The function of management is THE lever, THE Leverage Point (Principle 13 in The Goal Driven Business), that allows leadership to function and a practice to reach its full potential.

I will reveal new information about this next week, but for now, consider the 4 needs employees seek from you as their employer. Write them down on a piece of paper and consider them your goals in your role of Clinic Director.

Seize the Future through Trust, Compassion, Stability, and Hope.

Till next week,

Ed

Strengths Based Leadership – Gallup, 2008
E-Myth Revisited, Michael Gerber

Reach and Maintain Maximum Cruising Altitude in Your Chiropractic or Healthcare Practice

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A chiropractic or health care practice flying high.

As a chiropractic or healthcare business owner, you ultimately have 1 of 3 destinations you want to achieve.

  1. Cruise at Maximum Altitude. Reach your full operational capacity, stay there and cruise, accumulate wealth, and enjoy the ride.
  2. Cruise at Maximum Altitude and Expand. Reach your full operational capacity, then clone yourself and bring on other doctors, providers, or heaven help you, other offices.
  3. Attain Maximum Altitude and Sell. Reach your full operational capacity and sell your business.

Operating at full capacity would be adjusting and treating as many patients as possible comfortably with full staff support. It would be your maximum production level where you, and all the doctors and providers, were fully booked.

Getting to your full capacity is one thing. Staying there is another altogether.

There are several reasons why it can be so challenging to maintain your maximum capacity. Some causes are apparent, some hide in plain sight, and some are difficult to recognize, accept, or overcome.

Here are a few:

  1. You are a chiropractic or healthcare entrepreneur. You like the challenge of growth. But you get bored easily. After you reach the top of the mountain, you look around for another challenge, and in the process – oops! You stop doing what worked.
  2. Passion, Inspiration, & Fast Marketing. You can often achieve high production because of sudden inspiration from a recent seminar or tapping into a new marketing niche. In either case, passion doesn’t last forever, and fishing holes are soon fished out.
  3. Your team is not ready. You don’t have the team in place to support the higher volume.
  4. Doctor AND CEO. You don’t have the time and energy to provide high-quality care to more and more patients AND manage your business at the same time.

Other snares, barriers, landmines, pirates, and even false prophets block your growth, pull you down, or lead you astray and keep you from hitting your maximum altitude, but the above four are common.

Here are remedies to the above 4 hurdles:

  1. Yes, you are an entrepreneur — but keep doing what works. It may need some adjusting now and then, but if you were calling the new patient after their first adjustment and treatment when you were growing and doing well – keep doing it!
  2. Generate your own inspiration weekly. Read, watch videos, go to where you go for spiritual revival, and talk to positive colleagues. Talk to your coach(s)! You could go to a hospital or talk to nurses and see what happens to people who didn’t see you! Remember, the Power comes from above down and then inside out.
  3. Invest in building your team. It takes time to build an expert team. Ensure you hire right and then regularly coach your team.
  4. Systems. The dilemma of being an expert doctor while also a competent CEO is solved by implementing systems, especially management systems. Michael Gerber discussed this in his book, The E-Myth, a standard text for most owners of service businesses. My book, the Goal Driven Business, expands upon it.

Apply these 4 remedies now — and when you do reach your full capacity, you will have a much easier time staying there.

If you are looking for a guide or a flight instructor to help you reach your cruising altitude, let me know!

Seize Your Future,

Ed

Three Phases of Chiropractic Care are Like 3 Goals for the Patient

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chiropractic, goal, driven, chiropractor, petty, michel

It was a warm summer day when I was driving my Kawasaki Intruder south down Highway 101 in Oregon near the California border when the fog rolled in. Although I had gloves on, they didn’t help. Hitting a cold fog bank on a motorcycle, the wind chill hits you hard. I was cold, but when I noticed that the front wheel was shaking because I was shaking, I decided that was enough. I found a roadside motel and called it a day.

After a two-hour shower just to warm up, I settled into a chair in my room and started reading some material from a client’s office. It talked about the 3 Phases of Care for patients. I knew about these phases, though never paid much attention to them, and I don’t expect many doctors I worked with paid much attention to them either.

Then, it hit me: these Three Phases of Care are like three goals of care:

  1. Relief – Goal 1
  2. Correction-strengthening – Goal 2
  3. Maintenance-Wellness — Goal 3

Then I had this kinda mind-blowing experience: Could these three goals for patients also apply to three goals for a practice? This was a mind-altering question, and after the room stopped swirling, the answer was obvious – YES. The three goals for a patient were similar to the three goals for a practice.

  1. Profit — Goal 1. (This comes from immediate production from marketing. Not enough cash flow is painful!)
  2. Service — Goal 2. (The best quality at full capacity comes from a strong practice where all major issues are corrected and in alignment.)
  3. Higher Purposes. — Goal 3. Our why, our mission, our reasons for Goals 1 and 2.

From this experience, we named our seminar series in 2008 – 2010, The Three Goals. And it was from this that I later named my book, The Goal Driven Business.

3 GOALS FOR YOUR CHIROPRACTIC AND HEALTH ORIENTED PATIENTS

I think to be agreeable and to give patients what they think they want, doctors often focus on relief care, and once the patient feels better, the patient leaves. Trying to convince patients to stay longer can seem like pressuring the patient, or it just takes up too much time.

Yes, educating your patients on correction and wellness does take more work. But your patients want this. They just don’t know it. They are symptom oriented – trained and treated by a medical system rather than an actual health system.

The hardware store thinks it is selling a hammer to a man. Yes, but they are also selling something that puts a beautiful painting on a wall at his home that makes his wife happy. The hardware store is selling… a hammer, a hung artwork, and happiness.

As the doctor, are you selling just a hammer, or are you also selling happiness?

3 GOALS FOR YOUR CHIROPRACTIC AND HEALTHCARE PRACTICE

Unfortunately, the habit of only treating symptoms carries over to practice management. We don’t take the time or feel we have the time to invest in ourselves, let alone our staff. Constant training, coaching, and sometimes counseling for yourself and your team are required to become stronger and more in alignment with the goals of a healing office. In the end, this improves income, service, and practice freedom.

For happier patients and a happier office, apply all 3 Phases of Care, or Goals, to your patients and to your practice.

Ed

I can show you how this is possible. Read the Goal Driven Business and contact me!

REMINDER: New ABN form mandatory starting June 30, 2023

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picture of a woman

Just a reminder that the NEW ABN form released earlier this year is mandatory beginning June 30th, 2023.  To clarify this only pertains to medicare patients that begin care after June 30th, 2023.

For your convenience we have included in this blog the forms in English and Spanish and helpful information for implementing the new form.

New ABN Form and Implementation Instructions

ABNEnglish_01312026_508 English version of the ABN effective June 30th, 2023

ABNSpanish_01312026_508 Spanish version of the ABN effective June 30th, 2023

2023-04-20-ABN-Form-Instructions:

2023-04-20-NEW-MEDICARE-ABN– Helpful tips from Lisa for the use of the new Medicare ABN effective 6/30/2023

Script-for-ABN-form– Script for explaining the form to the patient

As always, Lisa is available if you need further assistance with anything Medicare related.  .

Born in the USA

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born in the usa, chiropractic, chiropractor, 4thofjuly

On July 4, 1776, 13 colonies declared their independence from the tyrannical rule over them by Great Britain. The Declaration of Independence was ratified on this day by the 2nd Continental Congress, establishing the United States of America.

Chiropractic was born in 1895. And like America, has been independent and free ever since, helping people become free from poor health and poor health solutions.

To each of you – chiropractors, support professionals, and other independent health care providers — I believe you all make a larger difference than you know.

Happy 4th to you all!

Ed

5 QUOTES

  • We never know how far reaching something we may think, say or do today will affect the lives of millions tomorrow. B. J. Palmer
  • For you have been called to live in freedom. Use your freedom to serve one another in love. Galatians 5:13
  • With freedom comes responsibility. Eleanor Roosevelt
  • Those who desire to give up freedom in order to gain security will not have, nor do they deserve, either one. Benjamin Franklin
  • Every generation inherits a world it never made; and, as it does so, it automatically becomes the trustee of that world for those who come after. In due course, each generation makes its own accounting to its children. Robert Kennedy
  •  “Let Freedom ring.” Martin Luther King

Ed

Independence Day Discount! Almost free!

For more freedom in your practice, seize my book The Goal Driven Business.

$8 now until July 12th. ($3 for Kindle version.)

Plus, you will receive 10 practice-building tools to grow and develop your practice. If the information in the book is applied, you WILL increase your profit, improve your service… and achieve greater freedom. Buy a bunch and give them to your colleagues. Let’s help more people!

How to Be a Health Patriot – Don’t Be a Colonialist!

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July 4th weekend is coming up, and here in the United States, it’s a pretty big deal.

It should be.

July 4 is Independence Day, a federal holiday in the United States commemorating the Declaration of Independence from Great Britain. It was ratified on July 4, 1776, establishing the United States of America.

Reading the Declaration of Independence and the history of how it came about is sobering. Times were very rough, and those who worked and fought for independence were brave and sacrificed a great deal.

Britain had established colonies in North America. And as enumerated in the Declaration of Independence, they treated the people in these colonies unjustly.

A colony is defined as: “an area over which a foreign nation or state extends or maintains control.” It seems to me that big corporations have captured healthcare institutions, both private and public. And therefore, healthcare has been colonized.

Every year, especially these last few years, I think of you and your dedicated staff – chiropractors and other independent healthcare practices – like the revolutionaries of 1776.

You are the HEALTH PATRIOTS, and so are your teams and your patients. I recommend that you take some time, now and then, to acknowledge this. It’s an honor but also a responsibility.

“The Rights of the Colonists” is a 1772 essay by Samuel Adams (not the beer lol!), a Bostonian revolutionary leader. He wrote:

It is in the interest of tyrants to reduce the people to ignorance and vice. For they cannot live in any country where virtue and knowledge prevail.*

I suggest one of the best methods of growing your practice is through education. Teach your patients, your team, and seek knowledge yourself. Give them your wisdom, your experience, and help them become independent and, ultimately, interdependent.

Use your table talk, personal newsletters, thorough report of findings AND progress reports, and heck, even the old fashioned spinal care classes.

We are awash in corporate marketing and influence. * Fight colonialism through education and question everything. And encourage your patients and team to do the same.

All of us at PM&A want to thank you for your courage and generous care of your patients and community.

Respectfully, let’s Seize the Future! (Carpe Futurum!)

Ed

ALSO, seize my book The Goal Driven Business. Almost free! ($8.00) for the next 2 weeks. ($3.00 for Kindle version.) Plus, you will receive 10 practice-building tools to grow and develop your practice. If the information in the book is applied, you WILL increase your profit, improve your service… and achieve greater freedom. Buy a bunch and give them to your colleagues. Let’s help more people!

The photo above is taken in the Boston Public Garden next to the Boston Common with a statue of George Washington behind me. The Boston Common was used as a training ground for colonial militias and served as a gathering place for political rallies and public gatherings during the pre-revolutionary period. It is also close to Lexington and Concord where “The Shot Heard Round the World” occurred on April 19, 1775. I was sightseeing before I attended RFK, Jr.’s announcement nearby for his run for President. RFK, Jr. said that this is one of the reasons he picked this location to announce his presidency — which he did on April 19, 2023.

References:

Pharmaceutical companies spend around 68% of their $30 billion ( a year) medical marketing budget on persuading medical professionals of the benefits of their prescription drugs, with the largest payer being Bristol-Myers Squibb https://www.fiercepharma.com/special-reports/top-10-pharma-drug-brand-ad-spenders-2022 According to Vivvix

The pharmaceuticals and health products industry in the United States spent about $373.74 million on lobbying efforts in 2022, https://www.statista.com/statistics/257364/top-lobbying-industries-in-the-us/ Statistica

Pharmaceutical companies contribute significantly to medical schools and hospitals for research grants and continuing medical education classes. Pharmaceutical and medical device company contributions accounted for 28% of continuing medical education funding in 2017. https://www.healthcaredive.com/news/pharma-medtech-spending-accounted-for-28-of-cme-funds-in-2017/528598/

Of Harvard’s 8,900 professors and lecturers, 1,600 admit that either they or a family member have had some kind of business link to drug companies — sometimes worth hundreds of thousands of dollars — that could bias their teaching or research. Additionally, pharma contributed more than $11.5 million to the school last year for research and continuing-education classes. 2008 https://content.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1883449,00.html

The U.S. taxpayer indirectly supports Big Pharma by funding research grants to universities and other institutions, which are used by pharmaceutical corporations to develop products to sell back to taxpayers. https://www.ineteconomics.org/perspectives/blog/us-tax-dollars-funded-every-new-pharmaceutical-in-the-last-decade

Samuel Adams (1906). “The Writings of Samuel Adams: 1770-1773” azquotes.com

In Chiropractic and Health Care Clinics, Intention Makes the Difference

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The Goal INTENDED Practice

Coming back from a chiropractic seminar, the flight attendant got on the public address system and made a standard announcement about our arrival, and thanked us for choosing their airline.

I don’t think I have ever heard a more monotone announcement delivered with less interest. The speaker seemed more intent on getting to their next task than the one they were currently doing – speaking to the passengers.

INTENTION

It can happen. We can become busy with our techniques, procedures, and dialogues that we lose track of why we are doing them. Sometimes our drive, vision, and intention to do our jobs becomes diluted during the day.

And when this happens, for whatever reason, you will see it in your practice numbers the following week – sometimes sooner.

Lynne McTaggart has conducted numerous experiments and studies on the healing power of intention. She says:

“Intention appears to be something akin to a tuning fork, causing the tuning forks of other things in the universe to resonate at the same frequency.”*

If this is true, then the quality and intensity of your intention affects the rest of your teammates and patients, both active and inactive.

Elsewhere Ms. McTaggart says:

“We need to realize that we are observers and creators, and in every moment that we are observing our world, we’re constantly remaking it at every instant.” **

THE TRANSHUMANIST FUTURE OF HEALTH CARE

At the recent Parker chiropractic seminar, I listened to David Sinclair. A geneticist, he and others have researched different approaches to longevity. According to Sinclair, recent studies demonstrate slowing down and even reversing aging. This is accomplished with the use of lifestyle changes, vitamins, repurposed drugs, and new drugs that are being developed.

David Sinclair speaking at Parker chiropractic seminar in Orlando, Florida in June of 2023 attended by Ed Petty of Goal Driven Business.

Also at the seminar was Nita Farahany, who discussed new developments in neurotechnology. She discussed new technology used to eavesdrop on not just our brains but our thoughts.

Parker comes across as very conservative, unlike some of my conspiratorial friends! But between the lines, the potential for future mechanization of health and humans was evident. In Ms. Farahany’s book, she talks about Transhumanism.

“Transhumanism is a cultural movement aimed at solving the “tragedies” of the human condition – namely aging, our physical and physiological limitation, and suffering.” * As AI advances, the idea is to “upskill” humans to keep up through genetic and electronic manipulation.

While there may be positives to creating superhumans, the risk is losing our humanity and perhaps independence. I was impressed that Parker had these speakers.

THE VITALISTIC FUTURE OF INDEPENDENT HEALTH CARE

We will have to stay vigilant. Artificial intelligence can only produce a sequence of actions, but only a living person can have intention. This is why AI can never replace the role of the healer.

Healing requires intent. And this is your specialty – dealing with the vital power of life.

ACTION STEPS

So, what is intention? It is the decision that you will achieve a specific goal. It is your determination and drive to create the end you have in mind.

Here are a couple of action steps to help keep intention strong:

  • Discuss this with your team: What do you think when the phone rings or before seeing the next patient? “Oh boy, I get to talk to someone and make their day better.” Or, “Heck, another interruption.” This applies to everyone in the office – doctors and staff.
  • Morning Case Management Meeting. One method of supporting strong intentions is starting each morning by reviewing who is coming in and the plan of action, the intention, for each patient. This is a Case Management meeting 15 minutes before the day begins. You can also set realistic goals for new patients and office visits, goals that everyone sees and agrees to.

Then, enjoy your day.

With Intention, Carpe Futurum! (Seize the Future!)

Ed

A happy photo of Ed Petty, of www.Goaldriven.com and Petty, Michel and Associates, www.pmaworks.com, attending Parker Chiropractic seminar in Florida, in June, 2023.

 

References:

*www.azquotes.com

** www.azquotes.com

The Battle for Your Brain: Defending the Right to Think Freely in the Age of Neurotechnology, Nita A. Farahany

Chiropractic Training Doesn’t Cost – It Pays

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“The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.” Alvin Toffler


I just returned from a Parker Chiropractic Seminar.

There were some excellent topics and knowledgeable and informative speakers. I met some wonderful chiropractors and staff, attended a few classes, and learned new things. And, as always, was thankfully reminded of old things.

Some doctors brought their staff. This can be expensive, I know. But it is worth it.

Employee education is essential. First of all, it pays off. Case studies of individual companies show that financial returns vary between an increase of 30% to even as much as 7,000%!*

Stats show that companies invest in employee training. For example, on average, smaller companies (from 100-999) spent $1,678 in 2022 and 67 hours per employee. The total spent on employee training in the U.S. in 2022 was 101 billion.**

This means that even if it costs $5,000 to take your team to a training seminar, you should see an extra $1,500 in collections on top of the money you’ve already spent.

People want to do their best but need the knowledge to do so. I often refer to the Self-Determination Theory, which, through research, has shown that all of us have an inherent desire for advancement and improvement. Good training supports this intrinsic goal.

Providing training for your staff shows that they are an integral part of providing patient care and achieving practice success. It demonstrates your respect for their value as team members.

The world is changing mighty fast — as you know. The Parker seminar had two keynote speakers discussing critical social and health-related issues that are rapidly developing and will impact practices. I will report on this next week. Staying current with evolving technology and social trends allows you and your team to stay innovative and in better touch with your community.

Parker has great classes, but there are many other practical seminars. In the fall, most state associations have conferences with training programs within driving distance of your office. And beyond seminars, there are online courses, books, and your personal teaching.

I often encourage doctors to assign staff to read relevant books, sections of books, or specific videos and bonus them for doing so. The staff can present what they learned at a team meeting so everyone learns.

It is easy to feel we don’t have the time or the money to invest in training – for ourselves or our staff. But with deliberate practice and coaching, training improves performance and income.

Like chiropractic, training doesn’t cost – it pays!

Seize the future through study and training,

Ed

References:

Toffler: “Rethinking the Future: Rethinking Business, Principles, Competition, Control & Complexity, Leadership, Markets, and the World” (1998m Rowan, Toffler)

Hiring, Retaining, and Engaging Staff Post COVID

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The Goal Driven Practice by Gallup

I remember listening to Bruce Lipton talking in San Francisco at a Life West seminar about how chiropractic was so advanced that cellular biology, specifically epigenetics, was just starting to catch up. My thought listening to him was that, while chiropractic was perhaps ahead of its time, its management was still in the Industrial Age.

Michael Gerber of E-Myth fame and many other consultants emphasize the importance of procedures. Procedures, systems, and routine methods that bring about consistent results are the “best practices” businesses strive to achieve. This is the basis of the franchise model.

But while procedures are important, people are more important.

Therefore, the most vital procedures are those that you use to help your people become more competent and motivated. These are leadership and management procedures.

Leadership and management have always been important. But we are in the 2020’s now, long past the Industrial model of assembly-line procedural work. We are past the Information Age. And now, past COVID.

The world has changed, and how we run our practices must also change. The old model of the dominating doctor and his secretary, or “girls,” hasn’t worked well over the last 20 years. And now, we have seen many offices struggling to find, retain, and engage qualified employees and doctors.

Just as my book, The Goal Driven Business, was being published, I became aware of another book that Gallup just recently published called It’s the Manager. Not to brag, but much of what they explain is also covered in my book, especially for practices. What I like about Gallup, aside from validating my information, is the stats from the hundreds of studies they have completed.

It is now vital that you take on the role of Clinic Director or senior manager, which is different from doctor or business owner, and develop your leadership and management skills.

In short, you need to create a Goal Driven team of employees, doctors, and patients – all working together to achieve positive goals. This is a holistic, even futuristic, model of business.

We have been building new courses to train doctors and their managers in leadership, management, and marketing principles which we will pilot later this summer. (Replying to this email lets me know if you might be interested. I will keep you in the loop.)

But let’s start creating your Goal Driven Dream Team now.

Let’s begin with a recommendation from Gallup:

“Gallup recommends that organizations immediately change their culture from old will to new will. These are the six biggest changes that we discovered: [I only include the first change below.]

“Millennials and Generations Z don’t just work for a paycheck — they want a purpose. Their work must have a meaning. In the past, baby boomers and other generations didn’t necessarily need meaning in their jobs. They just wanted a paycheck. Their mission and purpose were their families and communities. For millennials and Generation Z, compensation is important and must be fair, but it’s no longer their primary motivation. The emphasis for these generations has switched from paycheck to purpose – and so should your culture.”

Seize your future,

Ed

Music Is Therapeutic for Chiropractic and Other Health Offices

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guitar players playing good vibes goal driven to create musicGood Morning Doctors and Health Professionals!

Sending this out early in the morning…

No nuts and bolts this morning, just some music.

Some good vibes.

Music is therapeutic – for the body, the mind, and the soul. It improves patient outcomes as well as employee performance. And, customers like it and can be more agreeable to what you advise.

I did the research! (Some of it is below.)

But never mind the research, just listen to music that you like, and that your team and a patients enjoy.

Here is a video (just listen, no need to watch, but great to watch all the same) with musicians from around the world -performing Ripple, lyrics by Robert Hunter and music by Jerry Garcia.

And have a good vibe groovin’ week!

Ed

Music Video Ripple, Playing for Change.

“Music can heal the wounds that medicine cannot touch.”

–Debasish Mrihda

==========

For follow-up research:

Music to Encourage Buying Products & More: Best is ambient, classical, not popular as this can be distracting. Also, faster tempo music customers lingered less and moved faster.

https://cloudcovermusic.com/music-psychology/encourage-buying/

https://www.psychologistworld.com/behavior/ambient-music-retail-psychological-arousal-customers

Music has been found to have a positive impact on employee performance in certain situations. However, it’s important to note that the effects of music can vary depending on individual preferences and the specific work environment.

Here are some studies that explore the relationship between music and employee performance:

  • A study published in the Journal of Applied Ergonomics in 2015 found that background music had a positive impact on the quality of work and efficiency of employees in a data entry task. The researchers concluded that music could help improve performance by enhancing mood and reducing stress.

  • In 2012, a study published in the Journal of Consumer Research examined the effects of background music on creative problem-solving. The results showed that moderate levels of ambient noise, such as music, can enhance creative performance compared to both low and high levels of noise.

  • Another study published in the Journal of Music Therapy in 2014 investigated the effects of music listening on productivity and mood in a workplace setting. The findings revealed that employees who listened to music while working reported higher productivity and positive mood compared to those who did not listen to music.

  • A study published in the Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology in 2019 examined the effects of different types of music on cognitive performance and mood in a complex task. The results showed that participants performed better and reported higher positive affect when listening to music they personally enjoyed.

Does music help us work better? It depends

“Listening to music has a positive impact on our health, by helping us recover faster when we experience stress and through the reduction of stress hormone cortisol, to help us achieve a calm state or homeostasis.” – Alex Doman

Music can improve health.

Research from the Royal Society noted that “group singing can improve physical and mental health, as well as promote social bonding.” An older paper by researchers from the University of California suggests that participating in choral singing “is associated with strong increases of Immunoglobulin A,” also referred to as immunoenhancement. They tested cortisol and immunoglobulin levels in saliva before and after singing in a choir, and found that performance singing “leads adaptively to levels of positive feelings and satisfaction.” The Healing Power of Singing – The New York Times (nytimes.com)

The Healing Power of Music

Music therapy is increasingly used to help patients cope with stress and promote healing. Richard Schiffman

April 8, 2021
 New York Times

Do What You Do Best and Delegate All The Rest!

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Doctors doctor.

They care for patients and earn their trust. They get results and sweat the details.

It is upon your services as a caring and competent doctor that EVERYTHING ELSE in your office exists. The phones, the computers, the software, the supplies, the emails to you, and of course, the support team and all of the details they deal with — the whole operation is just there so you can see and take care of patients.

The office is there for you, your doctors, and providers to improve the health of your patients. We all know this, but sometimes, we can get lost in the forest of “Everything Else.”

Everything Else is all the administrative details and the confusion and conflicts that need to be sorted out each day. Everything Else is everything other than seeing your patients.

When you deal with administrative functions, the capacity for seeing your patients shrinks.

It costs your business thousands of dollars when you spend time on administrative details that someone else could be managing.

But, if you don’t take care of the administration, who will? Staff are helpful, however they don’t know as much as you, and probably aren’t as motivated. Your license, debt repayments, reputation, and livelihood are on the line.

Most doctors find themselves in a kind of a trap.

It is a nice slogan, To Do What You Do Best and Delegate All the Rest, but how do you do this? Whom can you delegate to? Which team member should you delegate work to, and when do you have the time to train them? When do they have the time to be trained? And on what are you going to train them?

How do you break out of this trap?

There are real reasons why this is difficult to do, and there are also fake reasons masquerading as real reasons.

Many of these reasons are hidden or even counter-intuitive, and so it is difficult to breakthrough and take your practice to the next level. But if you know what these barriers are and get some help, you can break out of the trap and build a business that is less dependent upon your management of administrative issues.

Here are just 3 suggestions that can help you.

Give It Up to Your Team. Your team wants to be empowered to do more. This fact comes from Self-Determination Theory. (I discuss this at length in my book, The Goal Driven Business.) They want their own sandbox to work, and once they have conquered that, they want to level up and somehow learn more and or do more. Just like you!

Your Lab. Part of the Goal Driven System includes the Lab. This is your Goals Laboratory. The Lab is where and when you work ON your business, not just in it. This is when you take the time for yourself, or with your team, or your coach or coaches and colleagues. This is where you will review, analyze, study, train, and recharge. Lab Time is time you take for improvement. Here you are not the DOCTOR. Here you are a coach for your team, a student for yourself, and the Clinic Director/CEO to review how your business is working.

The Vital Few and Pareto. Only a minor percentage of your work each day is vital. This is according to the Pareto Principle, which states that around 20% of what you do produces 80% of the important outcomes. The key is to recognize your 20%. With this principle in mind, don’t be fooled – you have the time to go to the Lab and work on improvement. Improving your business, like improving your patients, is part of the 20%.

If you feel that your practice growth is stuck, if you feel that your business can grow more, consider the three recommendations above. Read the book The Goal Driven Business, especially the Chapter You Can’t Get There From Here. You can also give me a call and we can talk. Maybe I can give you some tips that might help.

Let’s help more people!

Ed

PS I thoroughly cover how to get out of the Admin Trap in The Goal Driven Business.

Got a practice question? Interested in our upcoming management training program? Need help about something? Let’s talk.

What Is Effective Chiropractic Practice Management?

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You would think that management, by now, as a subject, would be scientific. That corporations would employ skilled managers with their MBAs from prestigious universities that effectively applied administrative technology to nurture their companies.

Nah, it’s not like that.

A research study was conducted by Nicholas Bloom* and others aimed at determining how effectively management procedures were being used in U.S. companies. They found that only 15% of U.S. companies scored above a 4 on a 5-point scale. More than 30% scored a three or lower. Companies outside of the U.S. scored much worse.

Management is primarily personality driven – a little like politics and show business. And sometimes, the mafia. Some companies do well because there is a dynamic genius at the helm. Others do well because they were there at the right time. Others appear to do well because of the money they borrow, steal, or collude with government regulators.

I know some very successful chiropractors who are good managers. But they were good mostly because of their temperament and not because of their conscious use of management techniques.

Unfortunately, most management focuses on supervision. It is a form of spectator-ism and policing. Like watching robots on an assembly line and reprimanding errors and deviations.

Good management focuses on improvement. First, keep things working, then how can we all improve it? It is servant based.

In my book, Goal Driven Business, I cover this as part of the Goal Driven System.

For practical purposes, management has two different functions:

1. Keep doing what works.

2. Continually look at how the procedures and systems could be improved.

If it worked yesterday, you should do it today and also tomorrow.

Then, improve it – little by little.

If you want to make a big change, when the entrepreneurial spirit hits you, do a trial run first. Don’t disrupt the systems that are working.

A good number of practice problems occur for one reason:

You stopped doing what worked!

This applies to the front desk, patient accounts, new patient onboarding, team management, and marketing procedures.

If it worked once, it would probably work again. Just improve it if it is outdated – and if that doesn’t work, revert to what worked.

I know – your workdays can get boring and sometimes you want to go and chase the shiny things. Fine. But keep doing what works until something proves itself to be better.

I will be teaching a management course later this year. If you are interested, let us know and we’ll get you on the waiting list. It will be for you and your manager. Each class will be small to allow for more personalized instruction.

Good management underlies all your activities – managing your patients, your practice, and even your life. And especially your future!

Seize the future with good management!

* Harvard Business Review, November 2012 Nicholas Bloom

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If your practice building efforts aren’t taking you to your goals, there are reasons — many of which are hidden from you.

Find out what they are and how to sail to your next level by getting and implementing my new book, The Goal Driven Business.

The Goal Driven Business By Edward Petty

Networking for Chiropractors and Health Providers

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 (This is part 2 following the last blog on the best known marketing secret.)

Networking is a marketing method that generates referrals from your direct efforts, from your patients, and from outside referral sources you have established. This is not only the most cost-effective form of marketing for new patients but helps to retain the ones you have.

YOUR PRACTICE IS A NETWORK

If you think about it, your practice itself is a network. A practice is a network of relationships created and sustained through communication and service. This is my definition, though yours could be similar.

Networking is simply creating a connection with another person in which you both share an interest in common and enjoy talking with each other.

Networking is getting to know people — who know people.

But I would also add – getting to know people you are interested in. Effective networking can’t be faked.

THE 4 COMPONENTS OF NETWORKING

I have seen 4 major components of effective networking:

  1. Genuine interest in people. The best health networkers are interested in their active patients, inactive patients, and people in their community.

  2. Genuine interest in the services they provide. The best networkers are excited about their services and what they can do for people.

  3. Give in abundance. Effective networkers are givers. They provide excellent clinical service as well as free assistance, such as health tips, special events, referrals to other providers or services, a book, or a smile. And they educate others about the health subjects their services address.

  4. Organization. A structured program needs to be in place to ensure net-working continues.

Venues for Networking

Table Talk. This is your private time with your patient. Be curious about them and how they are doing. Then, tell them about what is interesting to you about their health, about health subjects, and your services. Often, patients may see you for back pain but may not know that you also treat headaches and other issues.

Continue the Table Talk. Follow-up with your custom newsletters. I stress this routinely. You have hundreds, if not thousands, of people you have seen whose trust you have earned. You have started a relationship with them — why neglect it? This is why, for those offices on our new Mastery program (more about this soon!), we insist on sending out personal, customized emails for you monthly.

Social media is fine, but it is different. Posting a success story or an upcoming event is fast and easy. This helps with social proof and brand awareness. I have also seen it useful in short spurts for advertising, driving readers to a lead page, or making a phone call. But organically, few people will see your unboosted post. “If you have 2,000 Facebook fans usually only 2-5 people will see each post you publish” says Stuart Marler from Retriever Digital. (Mail Munch)*

Internal Events. In-house events from workshops on health to organic farming, barbecues, appreciation days, and yoga classes — the ideas are endless. And even if only 3 people show up, well promoted, you create the image that your office is an alive and vibrant health center.

External Events. There are the usual events: the Lions Club pancake breakfast, the local parade, the 5K Walk-Run, the art fair, the County Fair, and all the summer events that local communities host. These are great opportunities to meet new people.

Some doctors network with their church, or their local school affiliation as a high school coach, or with women’s groups like La Leche. Some doctors become involved with an ethnic group, and network with them. Se Habla Espanol? Often the connections are made via the patient.

You can also start creating your group. Visit the autobody shops and create a PI referral network. Or become the go-to source for local ballet, dance, and drama participants. Or, become THE motel chiropractor in town.

ORGANIZING YOUR NETWORKING

Organization. The biggest barrier to networking is a lack of internal structured organization supporting your marketing. I covered this years ago in the Marketing Manager System. Similar to the systems for your front desk and billing departments, you should have routine procedures, stats, and someone in charge of your marketing projects. And they need guaranteed time each week to work on the marketing.

Team. Each member of your team should be a trained and motivated networker – both in and out of the office.

The goal of networking. The goal of networking is the same as the mission of your practice: to help as many people as possible become healthier.

Stay interested and curious — give abundantly and educate.

Let’s do it!

Ed

Need some tips on how to improve your networking? Let’s talk.

* https://www.mailmunch.com/blog/email-marketing-vs-social-media

—————————————————-

If your practice building efforts aren’t taking you to your goals, there are reasons — many of which are hidden from you.

Find out what they are and how to sail to your next level by getting and implementing my new book, The Goal Driven Business.

The Goal Driven Business By Edward Petty

 
 
 

The Truth In Chiropractic and Health Care Marketing

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The Best Known Marketing Secret
 
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
 
Artificial Intelligence is all the rage. For good reason. It’s set to change the world as the Internet did, maybe more so, and in ways we can barely fathom.
 
Geoffrey Hinton recently quit his job at Google to speak freely about the risks of AI. He and two other so-called “Godfathers of AI” won the 2018 Turing Award for their foundational work leading to the current artificial intelligence boom. He now says a part of him regrets his life’s work.*
 
His immediate concern is that the Internet will be flooded with false photos, videos, and text, and the average person will “not be able to know what is true anymore.”
 
What is True?
 
You can fool people some of the time, but success in chiropractic marketing and practice is ultimately based on trust.
 
You may already send your patients scripted texts, prefabricated emails, and even automated educational or sales videos. You may have a testimonial service that posts positive testimonials for you.
 
Yes, the world is becoming more automated, artificially “intelligent,” and virtual.
 
But at some point, your patient, or potential patient, will start to wonder… “is this communication from Dr. Smith, chatGPT, or a robot in China?”
 
You are the Truth
 
What is the truth in marketing?
 
In this age of increasing artificiality: you are the truth!
 
Images and voices of people can be faked. You can record your voice, type in a sentence, select an image of a person, and that person will vocalize what you typed, in your voice. The future is going to be amazing in its ability for fakery.
 
But overcoming this is simple.
 
Show up and meet people. In person. In real life. (IRL) Person to person, create relationships and from these, generate referrals.
 
People want community. They want relationships. They want a real person.
 
Sometimes you want to go
Where everybody knows your name,
And they’re always glad you came;
(From TV sitcom Cheers.)
 
Marketing in Truth
 
Marketing in real life is networking. Networking is getting to know people who know people.
 
The most immediate and obvious resource for networking is connecting with those people who know you, trust you, and probably even like you (lol). Your active patients, inactive patients, friends, and community members in business or in organizations, all add up to hundreds, if not thousands of people.
 
I recently saw a dedicated chiropractor I know promote a local BNI workshop. BNI stands for Business Network International. It was founded by Ivan Misner, who wrote the excellent book, The Best Known Marketing Secret. It is all about Word-of-Mouth advertising – networking.
 
Perhaps because of technology, or the COVID lock down, or possibly more nefarious reasons, friendly public in-person get-togethers have been declining.*
 
I think now, more than ever, networking is and will be a very effective form of marketing.
 
You can spend money on Facebook ads or advertise on other platforms. Now and then, go for it! But strictly speaking ROI, a structured and continuous networking plan can’t be beat. (Contact me if you want a few tips setting up your networking plan.) It may take time to develop, but once in place, it can almost run on its own, sending people to you who need your services.
 
In his book, Misner refers to a friend of his who says that we all are cave dwellers. We live in our cave houses, get into our cave cars, and go to our cave offices. I would add that we also live in our virtual media caves, whether social or Netflix!
 
His point is that there is a whole world out there if we just get out of our caves and meet people.
 
I have seen many different and effective forms of network marketing that work. I’ll go over a number of examples in the next newsletter to keep this letter short.
 
But consider this: AI will never replace you. And it will never replace the individual across from you.
 
And THAT…is the truth.
 
Stay Goal Driven,
 
Ed
 
 
References:
*77 percent of planners find it harder to attract attendees, while 73 percent report lower attendance. (Skift Meetings, 2022)
 
*https://archive.is/2023.05.01-091113/https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/01/technology/ai-google-chatbot-engineer-quits-hinton.html

Chiropractic Has Always Been Organic

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Chiropractic has always been organic. Earth Day, goaldriven

You can improve your marketing by aligning your services with positive causes in society.

A fitting example occurs this time of year.

Earth Day is on April 22 (Saturday). It promotes a healthy planet and stands for protecting the earth’s natural resources for future generations.

Earth Day had several early separate beginnings but was finally pushed home by a senator from the great state of Wisconsin, also its former governor, Gaylord Nelson. The first Earth Day was in 1970 and “brought 20 million Americans out into the spring sunshine for peaceful demonstrations in favor of environmental reform.”

But Senator Nelson was also a proponent of natural health and fought for chiropractic.

In a statement to Congress in 1963, Nelson said, “Chiropractic has become increasingly accepted as a safe and effective form of health care…I believe it is time that Medicare beneficiaries be given the opportunity to receive the benefits of this form of health care.” Nelson’s efforts helped pave the way for chiropractic care to be included in Medicare in 1972.

If you distill it all down, it is all about health: a healthy planet and a healthy body, naturally.

People want this – your patients and your community. They want a healthy planet and a healthy body.

This may not be apparent because of advertising and corporate news. There is a relentless pitch to your patients and community to eat cheap bad food, that a toxic environment is no big deal (“move along, nothing to see here”), and that drug stores are health stores.

But despite the billions spent on promotion and lobbying for bad food, bad medicine, and covering up the poisoning of our planet, the innate (and tribal) wisdom of us all prevails. The sales of organic foods and health supplements are booming. The natural healthcare industry, including chiropractors, acupuncturists, and integrative health providers, continues to grow. And there is increasing concern about how pollution causes deaths and illnesses, not to mention climate change.

I bring this up for two (2) reasons:

Reason #1: Marketing: Chiropractic and Earth Day

By aligning your office with Earth Day, eco-conscious consumers who value natural and sustainable products and services will see your services as a desirable alternative to medical practices. You are the obvious choice as health doctors.

Years ago, we put together some posters and pins related to Natural Health Week, coinciding with Whole Earth Week and Earth Day. Some offices still use versions of them! (Link below.) You can do something similar this Friday, next week, or all month. For example:

  • Hand out seeds to grow vegetables in the backyard. Include a coupon for a family member or friend.

  • Support a local health food coop and bring in healthy muffins for your patients.

  • Create a community clean-up drive.

  • Partner with environmental and health organizations. You can share events, newsletters, and create allied relationships.

But there is another reason I bring this up.

Reason #2: This reason is BIG. It will have to wait till tomorrow,
Wednesday, April 19.

But please stay tuned!

See you Wednesday!

Ed

Link to Posters and References at our blog.

 

Tribal Knowledge Can Improve Your Practice

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teams, management, chiropractic, knowledge

Mining the Underground Innate Knowledge of Your Team

You may not have run into this term before… maybe you have. It was new to me before I began putting together the notes for The Goal Driven Business.

In any case, it is a concept worth knowing and one you can use to improve your business. I’ll give you an example and then define it.

It was spring years ago, and I was meeting with a motivated practice owner who was already doing well. We were discussing marketing plans for the next several months, and some of our programs ended in June. We needed something that would work for July. So I said, “Why don’t we ask the staff for some ideas?”

We were scheduled for a team meeting anyway, which I attended. After the usual topics were covered, the doctor asked the staff for some ideas for marketing in July. Now, the doctor was relatively new to the community, and the team was long-time residents. Various ideas were thrown around, and one seemed to percolate and draw enthusiasm from the staff. A popular promotion that they had experienced as local consumers in their town was “Christmas in July.” Since their community was familiar with this promotion, they were sure it would work well if it were tied to a patient referral program.

Both the doctor and I thought it was a dumb idea. However, the staff was already in high gear planning the promotion by the end of the staff meeting. I suggested to the doctor that he let them run with it. He did, and as it turned out, it was a big hit. They had one of their best new patient and office visit months ever… in July.

At another office, some years later, I was helping the doctor work out her mission statement for the practice. She and her associate were hitting speed bumps trying to come up with a simple definition. I recommended putting it to the staff to see what they might come up with. At the next team meeting, the doctor discussed the idea of a global statement for the WHY of the office and its higher goals and asked them if they could work it out as an office mission by next week.

And that is what they did. The following week, the manager and staff presented the mission statement to the doctors. The doctor emailed it to me.

I didn’t really like it as it was long and too mushy, at least for me. But the doctor approved it and posted it in the reception area. The staff loved it. It fit their compassionate attitudes towards the patients and captured their existing relationship with them. They memorized it, and it was recited after every staff meeting. Their stats haven’t come down since. They are a happy and Goal Driven group!

In our consulting, we routinely encouraged the wisdom of veteran staff to be integrated into the management and marketing of the office. We didn’t have a definition for this knowledge, but it was effective nonetheless.

Here is the definition of Tribal Knowledge according to Leonard Bertain in his book, The Tribal Knowledge Paradox:

Tribal knowledge is the collective wisdom of the organization. It is the sum of the knowledge. It is the knowledge used to deliver, to support or to develop value for customers. But it is also knowledge that is wrong, imprecise and useless. It is knowledge of the informal power structure and process, or how things really work and how they ought to. … But more importantly, it is the untapped knowledge that remains unused or abused.

There is much more to this, of course. A valuable management and leadership skill is how to elicit tribal knowledge, decipher it, filter the practical from the impractical, and put it to use.

I try to keep these newsletters as short as possible. If you want to set up a time to discuss this subject more, just make an appointment (link below). No charge for subscribers to this newsletter.

Not everything can be put on job checklists. Job checklists are very useful, but there is a wealth of knowledge just under the surface with your team, even your spouse, that can be accessed and put to good use.

By creating a culture where it is safe to contribute learned experiences in team meetings, coaching sessions, and other opportunities, improvements in your practice can be made faster.

Seeking and honoring the tribal knowledge gained from the experience of your team respects them, whether the information is useful or not. This is the essence of creating a synergistic office – where team members help each other — to help more people become healthier.

Carpe Future (Seize the future)

Ed

Want to discuss how to uncover the Tribal Knowledge in your practice, schedule a short call with Ed here.

The Problem with Your Chiropractic and Health Care Marketing May Not Be What You Think

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There could be a hidden barrier that jams your growth and holds you back.

MOST OFFICES WANT TO IMPROVE THEIR NEW PATIENT ACQUISITION. That is, attract more new patients.

At least, that is what many chiropractors and other doctors will say.

Oddly enough, that is not always exactly the truth.

Michel Killen, in his book Sell Futures, Not Features, says:

“Do you want more sales? The question should really be “do you really, really, REALLY want more sales?” This might sound insane and even obvious. Of course you want more sales, who doesn’t want more sales? However having taught and coached sales for a lot of people for a long time, this is often an underlying problem that has a tendency to sabotage our sales driving efforts. …I believe that people are creatures of goal pursuit, meaning they take actions which suit their goals. This means that if a business is struggling with sales, it’s usually because deep down a part of them doesn’t want more sales. This is extremely upsetting and even distressing to a lot of people, because of course they want more sales, everyone wants more sales!””

Well, I couldn’t agree more.

CONSCIOUSLY, you probably want more new patients as you know you can see more visits and, of course, you could use the increased revenue.

SUBCONSCIOUSLY, however, there is another story entirely. The devil’s advocate pipes up and says, “with more new patients, you will come home late, miss dinners with your family, your staff will make more errors, and your notes will start to backlog. You won’t have time to exercise, and your Worker’s Comp insurance will increase.”

But because you are a strong-willed entrepreneur and a bit of a rebel, you charge ahead and spend time and money on marketing. But after a while, you notice that your numbers don’t significantly increase.

Why?

There is a bottleneck somewhere in your office, a log jam, a Capacity Constraint.

The Theory of Constraints, originally discussed by Dr. Eliyahu Goldratt in his book, The Goal, has become a management science that implements a business improvement system. Simplified, it is a process that goes after the biggest constraint in any production process. Once that is fixed, management hunts for the next largest bottleneck, which continues as a never-ending process of improvement.

We adapted this, by the way, for practice management, in our Goal Driven System. The primary goal of the Theory of Constraints is profit. However, to achieve this, we need to look organizationally for the primary roadblock.

These constraints can be difficult to recognize sometimes. Partly because they are hidden and partly because of “damn-the-torpedoes” bias on the clinic director’s part.

For example, the front desk coordinator has been with the doctor for a few years and does a good job. The doctor returns from a new seminar, or someone new in the insurance department is hired, and things change. The doctor notices a moment when the front desk assistant is not busy and assigns them extra work. This happens a few times, and soon, the front desk has become a clerical department, filing insurance, ordering supplies, verifying insurance, and doesn’t have time to ensure all the patients are scheduled. When the phone rings, they kinda grimace and hope it’s not another new patient because they have more paperwork to do. Three months later, the doctor notices that the visits are down and spends more money on marketing.

But what is the real problem? The front desk is plugged up! Sure, some extra duties can be delegated to the front desk, but carefully, and ideally done at separate times when patients are not scheduled.

I have been able to increase patient volume and new patients by helping doctors locate the stuck points, the blockages in the office and open the flows. It could be a clinical assistant that is needed, a scribe, or replacing a staff member that really wants to work somewhere else. Maybe the staff needs better training, or intake forms massively simplified, or just a friendlier and less serious clinical director.

Constraints are like being stuck in a traffic jam. They wear your team down. And they affect your motivation and desire for growth.

Physical constraints result in mental constraints.

The real problem in marketing is not always with the marketing. It is often with the management. Being the entrepreneurial doctor you are, you know enough to make marketing work. You can make it work better once you fix the management of your practice and find the constraints and remove them.

Then, watch your volume pick up and your marketing really work.

Seize your future,

Ed

Want help removing all your constraints? Make an appointment for a quick all and I am sure I can help you uncover a probable bottleneck or two and give a you a couple simple solutions that could help.

Does Goal Setting Really Improve Performance? Ask Science.

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young boy celebrating success
FOR THE WIN!
 
There you are, sitting at the team meeting at the beginning of the month.
 
What goals should you set for the new month?
 
And… does it really help? I mean, after so many months (and years) of goal setting, so many seminars, and books that say you should set goals — does it really matter if you set goals for this month?
 
And what kind of goals?
 
And, does your team really care?
 
And, do you? (lol)
 
Well, here’s the deal: YES, goals do matter.
 
Here’s some evidence from a study by Edwin Locke and Gary Latham, who summarized 35 years of empirical research on goal setting theory*. They found that setting specific and challenging goals led to significantly higher levels of task performance than easy goals or no goals at all. They found that goals:
  1. Direct activities towards goal-relevant activities and away from goal-irrelevant activities.
  2. Can be motivational or “energizing.”
  3. Affect persistence.
  4. Encourage people to use the knowledge they have acquired.
But goal setting is affected or moderated by many factors. For example, Locke and Latham found that feedback and commitment to goals were critical for goal attainment.
 
FEEDBACK
 
You and your team need to know how you did last month. You all need to know if you are heading toward your mission or away from it.
 
The clinic director or manager should individually meet with each team member and review how they did. This should be done in a friendly and collaborative manner, ideally each month.
 
The idea of employees being a TEAM also necessitates the concept of a COACH. So, the clinic director or manager must act as a coach and help individuals, and everyone achieve goals.
 
COMMITMENT
 
According to the Study, goal commitment is linked to the importance of the goal. In my experience, this is improved by:
 
  1. Examining the mission or why of the practice.
  2. Reviewing patient successes and outcomes.
  3. Allowing team members to participate in goal setting so that it is their goal, not management’s!
  4. An occasional group goal and game, with a deadline that may include a reward.
As part of the Goal Driven System, we emphasize 3 categories of goals:
  1. Production. These are usually monthly goals such as new patients, visits, kept appointment percentage, and case completions.
  2. Organization. These are important but not urgent goals, including training, catching up on backlogs, planning, and other activities. Because these are not always apparent, vital functions can become neglected. A checklist of duties helps with this, and then reviewing them monthly.
  3. Greater Goals: professional and personal. No one works just for production or organization, so setting goals for long-term achievements is essential. We aren’t just workers — we are dreamers and explorers. We like to adventure, and we like to play.
Goals are part of games, and games should be fun. We humans like games, from the Olympics to the most recent popular computer game. It is part of our nature.
 
My grandson just had his 7th birthday. He’s a big basketball fan. I gave him a couple of presents. The first one he opened and quickly tossed aside. The second present was a large book with photo’s of basketball players and their stories. As soon as the wrapping paper was off, he raised it over his head, cheering: “for the win.” And ran off with it like the wild boy he is!
 
So set goals and play the game.
 
Keep it fun and go FOR THE WIN!
 
Ed
 
 
*https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12237980/