Goals, Games, and Groundhog Day

Posted on January 22, 2019 by Edward Petty

It is a New Year and already we are knee-deep in its work.

But it is a NEW YEAR and it is important that you take time out to make new plans and then review them often.

Life Works in Cycles

Each year in Wisconsin, the leaves fall and then the snow falls. But by July the strawberries are ready for the pickin’. Every month, we can see the full moon. Each day, we can see the sunrise – if it is not cloudy.

In human endeavors, we seem to follow this natural rhythm of following cycles. After we finish the 9th grade, we are ready to begin the 10th grade. We are excited to finish when we get out of school for the summer, and then again, eager to start the new grade when we begin again in the fall.

These are all cycles.

What would happen if you stayed in the 9th grade, year after year? How would you feel?

Yet, in our work life we fall into the trap of doing the same thing over and over and over. This is not the first unique and special patient you have ever seen…this patient is a customer just like all the others — just another case. Today is not the first day of the rest of your life, it is just like yesterday which is the same as a long line of days that go on and on. And on…

We get beaten down by the tedium, working endlessly for some forgotten purpose, as if the assembly line we were on never stopped and was always the same.

This is a major cause of stress.

Groundhog Day Syndrome

You can’t do one thing forever, like in the movie “Groundhog Day.” In it, the main character visits a town in Pennsylvania where everyone watches to see if a groundhog can see its shadow. This is traditionally on February 2 (This year, it is on a Saturday.) The only problem is, for this character, the day keeps repeating and repeating, the same each day. It drives the character to suicide, but even that doesn’t work. Finally, he falls in love and wins the girl and has a new life.

Anything in life that begins, it seems, must end. It can start again, but it must end so that a new iteration can be created. It is the cycle of life.

Goals and Games

This is an important factor in what is called Gamification. With the advent of computer games, design elements are added in to make the game fun, challenging, and motivational.

But games are nothing new. Baseball is a game. It has a season and games and innings. It has cycles. Games have been part of human behavior since the beginning. The Olympics started in 776 BCE.

One aspect of games that can be overlooked is the fact that they are just an activity for play. Play is something we do naturally as toddlers. As we grow older, this activity becomes structured into organized sports and games, but at the core is the desire to have fun. To play.

We can lose this sense of play when what we do has no end and no beginning. Persistence is a good quality, but it can lead to an enforced dullness that buries our enthusiasm.

It is important to keep in mind that in business, as in sports, keeping the perspective of play is more effective than bearing down on one’s duties with serious gravity. Practices that incorporate some of the components of a game into their operations are more productive and have a better time.

What are your goals for 2019? For the 1st Quarter? For this month… or for today? Higher numbers? New team members? Community wide outreach program? New training and greater knowledge?

As soon as you make a goal, you start a new cycle and begin a new game. Try to win. But you could lose. Either way, don’t get too serious about it and just be grateful to be able to be in the game.

Set new goals and play. Play — to win. Have fun. Smile a little more!

The 3 Key Ingredients to Motivating Your Chiropractic Team

Posted on May 8, 2017 by Edward Petty

Most of your staff are not engaged in the success of your office. Most of them JUST DON’T CARE.

At least that is according to a 2015 Gallup report that interviewed over 80,000 working adults.

The report showed that there are twice as many “actively disengaged” workers in the workplace as there are “engaged” workers who like their jobs. The percentage of U.S. workers in 2015 considered engaged in their jobs averaged 32%. The majority (51%) of employees were “not engaged,” while another 17% were “actively disengaged.” (“Actively disengaged” means that they are actively sabotaging their work.)

But let’s say your office is different, which I am sure it is. You are motivated enough to read this article and I am sure that is reflected by your team as well. But all the same, take a look with me at the level of motivation of your office.

How was your last team meeting? Were you there? Was everyone sitting on the edge of their seat and contributing new ideas and plans on how to reach new goals in the office? Or, were most everyone pretty silent?

Sure, your employees smile and look busy when you are around, and often work hard and they do care. But really, how much?

What would your office be like if the motivation, creativity, and level of pro-activity was always very high at “10,” or even ranged from 7-10? If they felt that it was “their” business, where they took responsibility for the quality and quantity of outcomes, and regularly worked to improve the business – and themselves?

I have been reviewing the subject of motivation for some time, from my own experience over the years and from what social scientists have reported.

I have incorporated certain principles into a new system of business management that are specifically designed to unleash everyone’s innate motivation – including business owners like you!

Motivation is the foundational in a chiropractic office, or dental office, acupuncture – even with therapists and other service firms. It is a bedrock for any healthy practice and business.

Here is one very useful principle specifically about motivation and how you can use it to generate more engagement – and productivity — with your team.

3 Goals System of Business Management: Principle #5

Self-Determination and Motivation

Everyone wants their own sandbox to play in.

You do. This is one of the reasons you went to school – and why you started your business.

We all want to have something that we can call our own where we can create and demonstrate our competence. What we get in return is feedback that we can do something good, that we have power, that we can make something beneficial happen, that we can … make a positive difference. If only to ourselves, we can say: “Look what I did. I did this. This is my creation.”

You can see it in children, for example, when they bring you their colored scribbles on crumpled pieces of paper to proudly show you their great work of art. This is their sandbox.

Of course, we all work for money. But we also have deeper motivations that if tapped into and nurtured, can be very powerful. By harnessing these motivations, and then linking them with others who have a shared goal, we can create a dynamic team driven business that is very profitable.

This has been explored by social scientists who have studied what has come to be called Self-Determinism Theory. I have also seen it in action. Essentially, it states that we all have innate drives and inherent needs that motivate us to be more self-determined rather than determined, or controlled by, outside forces.

External motivation, like the fear of being fired, can only motivate us so far. Threats, criticisms, negative reinforcement may produce short term action, but in the end, they demotivate, or worse.

The level of employee motivation has a tremendous influence over the success of your business.

An unmotivated staff, one that only becomes engaged to the level of “I will perform just good enough so that I don’t get fired or criticized,” will weigh the office down.

Self-Determinism Theory (STD) has three components, all of which easily apply to your business. These are:

Autonomy
Competence
Relatedness.

And by the way, while reading this, consider how this also applies to you as well!

Autonomy

You do not want your treatment plans second-guessed by a clerk in an insurance company. Neither does your front desk want you breathing down their necks about where all the patients or practice members are, or why they used the blue pen. You should train and educate your team, but then get out of their way and let them succeed or fail.

Think of helping a child ride a bicycle. Sure, they will need your help for a while. A push now and then. Perhaps some training wheels. But you will have to let them fall down a few times and allow them to get the courage to get back on the bike and succeed. You can continue coaching them to improve, but you must let them go.

Even if you see employees appearing idle, or having brief personal discussion with another employee, back off. Tolerate minor errors. Give your team some rein. Come back around later to coach them and train them to improve. Mostly educate them on the mission of the office and of their roles, and get them to understand what outcomes they are supposed to be producing. Once they see that the statistics measure their performance, they will be more self-directed and want to do all they can to win the game!

We all want to be free to create our own enterprises, even if we work for someone else. As long as what we do is in line with the purpose or mission of the business and our role, there should be no problem. This helps us demonstrate our competence, which is the next element of Self-Determined Theory.

Competence

Doing a good job, all by itself, is its own reward. It pushes away self-doubts and shows us, and others, how good we really are. It is positive reinforcement.

And the better we can do a good job, the better the results will be, which demonstrates to us just how awesome we truly are! Plus, as we increase our skills, we also will find that our duties are easier to perform.

Your team wants to improve their skills. Help them do so.

Sign them up for seminars, webinars, give them monthly reading assignments, and give them a coach or three of them. But this has to be done in conjunction with your supervision. You will need to guide them through the training so that they see how it applies to their roles and the business as a whole. Quiz them on what they are learning and have them give presentations to the team on what they are learning. The old maxim applies: “to teach is to learn twice.”

And where possible, make sure they earn certificates and can wear pins or insignia that testify to their competence. This goes along with Game Theory – people win at one level and then want to go to the next level. They want their “badges.”

Business owners throw staff into their jobs and expect them to produce with little or no training. Without exception, the offices I have seen that provide more training and coaching for their team — do better. Companies spend an enormous amount on employee training. $161 Billion in the U.S. last year (trainingindustry.com). And, it pays off.

One study showed a comparison between car companies and how many hours they trained their new employees: Japan spends an average of 364, Europe averages 178, and the United States – 21 (Pfeffer –The Human Connection).

And you can guess which country has cars with the best frequency of repair record.

Children want to be super heroes and wear their capes.

Don’t we all!

Relatedness.

This is the feeling of being connected – and there are two aspects to this.

Family. First, “relatedness” is the feeling of not being left out of the “loop” and of being included. Staff meetings help with this as does the general work environment. This is the sense that we are in this venture, job, and profession together. That we are part of a family.

Keep your team involved with your decision making. Give them some of the issues you are dealing with and encourage their input. They are stakeholders – it is their office too!

Greater Purpose. The other aspect of relatedness is that people generally want to be associated with a greater purpose. The more that each member can connect to the greater purpose of the group and make it their own, the more motivated they will be. Taking it a step further, if employees have higher goals of their own that coincide with the organization’s and they are allowed to pursue them within the organization, there would be no reason for employees to work anywhere else.

Train your team, let them own and creatively improve their own areas – and help to do the same for the entire office. Nurture camaraderie and a spirit of family – and always remind them – and yourself — why we are doing what we are doing.

Do this, and not only will your business be more successful, but you too will be more motivated and have more fun in the bargain.

# # #

Self-Determination Theory: Basic Psychological Needs in Motivation, Development, and Wellness. Ryan, R. M. & Deci, E. L. (2017) and Why We Do What We Do: Understanding Self-Motivation Paperback – August 1, 1996

© Edward W. Petty, From the upcoming book: “Three Goals: A New Practice and Business Building Methodology That Is Simpler, Faster, And More Effective and Fun than What You Are Doing Now.” By Edward Petty, due to be published sometime before the Singularity. © May, 2017

Your Perennial Waiting List Chiropractic Practice: Like Daffodils, Your Patients Keep Coming Back

Posted on April 21, 2016 by Edward Petty

petty michel and associates on creating a full office

Daffodils from Linda’s back yard in Wisconsin, 2016

Spring is finally with us and the flowers and trees are beginning to bloom up here in the northern Midwest.

What is amazing to me is that I start seeing flowers pop up where I must have planted them, or someone did, a few years past. Pop, pop… a daffodil here and tulip there, some lilies and Astors and I don’t know what! Who planted these?

Growing, developing, and sustaining a chiropractic practice corresponds in many ways to the laws of nature or the laws of a farm. What makes these plants bloom are many things – the warmer weather, some biological clock, water, of course, and sunlight. Maybe some organic fertilizer now and then.

They also have something else. Something that has allowed them to weather the snow and the cold and the storms so that they are here now… waving to us in the still cool of early spring.

A few years ago I wrote an article about roots and patient retention. I know… seems like an odd comparison, but it’s not really. The thing with roots is that they are not seen and not always appreciated. I made the analogy of having a good root system in your practice – which would be the loyalty your patients have with you. I discussed methods to create and improve this relationship in the article, Chiropractic Root System

I just reviewed the article and realized that I omitted a key component in creating great patient loyalty, patient retention, and patient referrals. It is actually pretty obvious and something I see in the offices I visit.

But first, let me include here some survey information from the 2010 Customer Experience Impact Report (CEI) for North America by Rightnow Technologies* that will help make my point.(My underlines and bolds.)

“WORD OF MOUTH IS MIGHTIER THAN THE SWORD
Consumers aren’t only demonstrating their power with their wallets, but they are influencing those around them as well. Whether a consumer has a positive or negative experience, their friends, family, colleagues and networks are sure to hear about it and what they are saying carries weight.

Customer service is the most influential thing a company can do to increase customer advocacy.

55% (up from 53% in 2009) of consumers recommend a company because of its customer service, compared to products at 49% and price at 42%.

But those who have issues are also voicing their opinions and it can have a severe impact on a company’s reputation and ultimately bottom line.

Imagine the result of 66% of a company’s frustrated customers on a mission to discourage others from buying from that company. Consumers aren’t just complaining when something goes wrong, they are determined to have their presence felt by the company at fault:

79% of consumers that had a negative experience with a company told others about it
97% used word of mouth as their preferred method to share their experience

WHAT MAKES A GREAT EXPERIENCE?
Consumer expectations continue to rise, but their requests are reasonable and within reach. Put simply, consumers want easily accessible, accurate information to make well informed buying decisions. And they want to be respected, treated well, and have their issues resolved in a timely fashion.

Of those who decided to stop doing business with an organization,

73% was a reaction to rude staff
51% reacted to unknowledgeable staff
55% were because of issues that weren’t resolved in a timely manner.”

Finally, it all comes down to this:

“WHEN YOU HAVE A BAD EXPERIENCE, YOU DON’T GO BACK.
This has been a mainstay result from the Customer Experience Impact Report (CEI). The fifth annual report cited that 82% of consumers have stopped doing business with a company as a result of a negative experience.”

So, it is not “time” or “money” as the primary reason patients drop out of care. Simply put – their experience was not AWEsome enough!

This is why Google Reviews or any legitimate review has such a strong impact on referrals. It is Word of Mouth marketing.

But how do you create it? Is there some fancy form or new procedure? A Dx code perhaps? Well, there are forms and procedures, but these are 20th on the list. The first 19 have to do with excellent communication and service. Communication that is genuine and caring.

In the article about increasing patient retention and the root system, I do give a few ideas on how to improve your service and, in turn, retention and referrals. But… so apparent to me now, I left something out!

Time and time again, where I see an office struggling to get new patients… I also notice a low morale office.

The low morale may not be obvious. In fact, studies show that the majority of employees (70%) are really not engaged in their work, but simply go through the motions.** This is so common that blasé, disinterested employees or time crunched, rote professionals seem to be the cultural norm.

But I routinely interview staff and work with office managers and hear THEIR side of the story, at least part of it.

If a team member is disgruntled, disaffected, discouraged, or in any way “dis”, the quality of service they provide to the patient will be affected. Let’s put it another way: if your team is anything BUT happy and cheerful and truly looking forward to their day with YOU and the patients, you have a problem.

There are many studies that show the cause and effect of employee morale and customer service. But I have personally observed it many times myself.

The offices with the HIGHEST patient retention and most patient referrals are the ones where the support team and doctor, or doctors, have a great relationship with each other. In fact, aside from the now and then stress points, you could say that they truly like and admire each other and respect each other’s good work.

Adding to this, these offices also have dedicated a continuous effort for training and education. Webinars, seminars, internal trainings, coaching (Hi there!), and books – one of the most overlooked training tool.

Now, what hampers all this is the stress of running a business. Doctors like to “doctor.” Chiropractic, or whatever good care you provide, does not fail. Doctors can always improve, and should, but it is usually the support organization that finally jams up on itself like railroad cars banging into each other, or even jackknifing.

As many of you know, I am working on a practice CEO training program. After a certain point of practice growth, it becomes difficult to continue to grow the business as a doctor. There is just too much to do. This is why you now need to learn and implement some fast flow procedures as a CEO, procedures which are very different from a doctor.

The CEO is a leader. John Maxwell*** lists five levels of leadership. At the first level people will follow you because they have to. At the second level they follow you because they actually like you! You have a relationship with them. At the third level they see that you get real results for the organization. Fourth… you are helping them become leaders! The last level is many orders of magnitude above the others… they follow you because of what you represent. Think of Martin Luther King, Gandhi, etc.

Practical Steps to Take to Improve Morale, Customer Service, Patient Retention and Referrals:

Improve your communication with your team. That’s it. If it is good enough for your patients and for your family and friends, it is also good enough for your team members. As the doctor, of course, you are very busy. You are here for the patients and we are here for you. But… as the CEO, you are here for us. Please listen to us, help us get better at helping you and the patient. Schedule time to do this each month with your veteran team members. A few minutes in the office, or even a lunch now and then. It will pay off! And besides, it is only the decent thing to do.
Plan events or projects to improve everyone’s competence. Schedule the team for training and coaching (Hi, again!) …or have them propose learning activities. Help them become leaders. Help them become expert. Lots of study and training and coaching.

As this happens, a lighthearted sense of pride and confidence will grow in your office. Synergy will improve. Staff will be engaged with the patients more and the patients themselves will also become part of the synergy.

Your practice will become well-nourished and strong, like perennial plants and trees that flower each spring.

Your patients will keep coming back.

# # #

Learn to look after your staff first — and the rest will follow.Customer service can make or break a business. If you treat your staff well, they will be happy. Happy staff are proud staff, and proud staff deliver excellent customer service, which drives business success. – Sir Richard Branson (Virgin Companies)

=====================

Chiropractic Root System and Patient Retention

*Rightnow Technologies. Download the report here. http://media.stellaservice.com/public/pdf/Customer_Experience_Impact_North_America.pdf

**http://www.gallup.com/poll/181289/majority-employees-not-engaged-despite-gains-2014.aspx

*** John Maxwell, The 5 Levels of Leadership

Your Most Important Set of Chiropractic Office Procedures

Posted on January 18, 2016 by Edward Petty

An Introduction to the Practice Development Process of Continuous Improvement

A key difference between a successful and profitable chiropractic business and a roller coaster type practice can be traced back to procedures and systems.

Many practice problems occur because procedures are not established, consistently followed, and regularly improved. This has been the secret to franchising. Starbucks may offer new products and services now and then, but for the most part, they follow their checklists and manuals of successful procedures. The local New Age coffee shop down on the corner with the unemployed guitar player usually lasts for about a year before the owner’s savings and inspiration dry up, along with the last cup of coffee.

Of all the categories of systems in your office, what would you say would be the most important?

☐Patient Accounts (Billing/Collections) Systems
☐Marketing Systems
☐Front Desk Systems
☐Therapy and Clinical Support Systems
☐ Doctor Systems
☐ Business Systems (Payroll, Financial Planning, Taxes,)
☐ Leadership
☐Office, Practice Management Systems

My guess is that you usually keep most billing procedures in place as… obviously, you need to be paid. And, you will usually keep most front desk procedures in place. These deal with patients and patients are obviously in the office, or not. And you, of course, follow your clinical procedures.

Your marketing procedures come and go, at least they do in most offices. They are just not consistent. This is why I put together the Marketing Manager System in 2000. The biggest error in most offices with their marketing is that it simply isn’t done consistently.

But the most important category of systems is not so obvious. These are the management procedures and systems. Why are these most important? Because they keep all the other procedures in place and are continually being improved upon.

Why do you think CEO’s are paid so much money? Because they are in charge of the management of a business and are able to increase its bottom line by the millions. They have procedures that they follow and insist that others do as well. These procedures all add up to systems.

Over the years, Petty Michel and Associates has been very successful at increasing the revenues of practices. One of the reasons is that we implement what we call the Practice Development Process. It is a monthly system of management that gradually works to objectively improve the business, repetitively over and over. It integrates into your current systems and does not take that much extra time. But in the end, it saves you a great deal of time, extra work, and lost revenue.

To learn more about the 3Goals Practice Development Process: 3Goals PDP

The 3Goals Practice Development Process for Chiropractic Success

Posted on January 18, 2016 by Edward Petty

Four steps to continuously develop and improve your practice

The Practice Development Process is a simple, yet powerful practice building system that can help take you and your business to its full potential of a systematized, team driven and profitable business.

It transforms your practice. Month by month, it helps move your practice to a more profitable service oriented business that runs at near full capacity – with less ups and downs that demand your time and extra work.

It is based upon the idea of constant improvement.

The principle of constant improvement in management science has been a major factor in the success of large manufacturing corporations around the world. The success of the Japanese automobile manufacturing rests heavily on a process of constant improvement called Kaizen (kai = change, zen = good). Motorola developed its own program called “Six Sigma”, a process of continuous improvement.

We have adapted these processes to be applied in practice management and call it the 3Goals Practice Development Process (PDP).

The Practice Development Process has four steps:

Access
Plan
Supervise
Document

Integrate This Process As Part Of Your Team Meetings. The first two steps, Assess and Plan, are usually done before or during the first staff meeting of the month. Supervision goes on during the month to ensure that the plan gets completed. At the end of the month, successful procedures are documented in a practice playbook for future training and assessments.

Your Consultant and Coach. This process is best done with your practice and business coach. Each month, the two of you should work through step 1 and 2. During the month, your coach may also be able to help with the implementation of the plan.

THE 4 STEPS OF THE PRACTICE DEVELOPMENT PROCESS:
1. Assess and Review. At the end of the month, look over the statistics and note what areas improved and what areas didn’t. Then check what was actually done, or not done in each area. Use your departmental checklists from your Practice Playbook if you have started this.

Many business owners still manage without looking at objective indicators. They manage by emotions, mistakes, fear, “bright ideas”and other flighty factors that ultimately hold a clinic back, or often just burn it out.

Effective clinic managers, like an athletic team coaches, base their actions first on actual outcomes and performance monitors. These are your daily, weekly, and monthly practice statistics. PM&A has developed a specialized form of review which is called Practice Analytics System which we display on our client’s personal Practice Dashboard’s.

This assessment also includes reviewing checklists of the key procedures and whether or not key duties were done.

2 Plan. Work out the key areas you want to work on in the next month. Pick just one or two areas that will make the biggest difference and make a list of a few action steps that will help improve the area in your office you have targeted. Get the actions assigned with a date on when they should be done.

3 Supervise. Regularly monitor the implementation of the action steps with yourself, your team, and your consultant. Provide help where needed to get them done.

4 Systematize. You do not want to keep inventing the wheel, so at the end of each month, document any procedure that worked well.

List all successful activities for each department and “lock them in” as standard operating procedures. Keep what works, throw out what doesn’t. Start with just a checklist of key procedures. Later, you can write or videotape a description of each procedure. It is from this that you will do your training and “coaching reviews.” Use your playbook often: refer to it and practice.

Gradually, you should have your own system of practice management and patient management and have it outlined simply in your Practice Playbook. For example, the “Smith Chiropractic System of Patient Management.”

IMPLEMENTATION SCHEDULE
Week 1. First Week of the Month: Do Steps 1 & 2 – Assess and Plan
Week 2. Supervise. Coordinate upcoming activities. Study and Train. (Optional: Separate Marketing Meeting)
Week 3. Supervise. Coordinate upcoming activities. Study and Train.
Week 4. Supervise. Coordinate on upcoming activities. Celebrate and party for a great month! Add to Practice Playbook.

REPETITION
Do The Practice Development Process Every Month.
The success of this process derives much of its power from a simple principle from Aristotle.

“We are what we repeatedly do.
Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”

This often referenced quote is from a series of lectures he was to have given at the Greek Lyceum on ethics (300 B.C.). We could say, then, that continuing to do the Practice Development Assessment, and all of your procedures and systems, is ethical and leads to excellence. The contrary would also be true.

GOALS AND CONSTANT IMPROVEMENT
It is important to keep in mind WHY we are doing the PDP each month.

It is assumed we all want to improve, that improvement is possible, and that we have higher purposes and goals. Our patients do. That is why they see us and we help them improve and get closer to their goals at each visit.

By consistently working the 3 Goals Practice Development Process each month you, the practice, and each team member will also get closer to the higher goals each of you share.

3 Goals Management Introduction

Posted on August 6, 2008 by Edward Petty

3 Goals Management System

How to Achieve Financial Abundance and Practice Freedom
A unique practice development strategy and process created by Petty, Michel & Associates

An Introduction

Goal Driven
We all have goals. When we were younger, they might have been brighter than they are now, they might have been clearer, or seemed closer. Maybe yours still are. Or, maybe, they have become dulled with wear and tear, with disappointments and frustrations.

But we are goal driven creatures and our goals stay with us. The better we can define these goals in concrete terms, the more likely we are to achieve them.

What All Doctors Want — The 3 Goals
Ultimately, all doctors would like to create a practice that allows them to provide the highest quality care to the most people for the most profit.

Most doctors want to do this with professional and personal integrity. Maybe most importantly, they want to be able to do this in such a way that they are not chained to their practice, slaving at their work at the expense of their personal and family lives.

This is a fundamental goal for all doctors, so fundamental that we call it Goal 2.

Even more fundamental, however, is basic survival and solvency. We call this Goal 1.

But nobody works just for money. Whether it’s saving the planet, helping your grand kids, assisting the poor, or funding your church, we all have higher goals.

Goal 3 are your higher purposes.

All three goals can and should be achieved, and with over 20 years of experience, we have put together a practice development system that allows doctors, and their teams, to achieve all three goals.

The 3 Goals Practice Development System is a step by step approach to help your practice grow naturally to its full potential and stay there.

Goal 1
Goal 1 is survival. In business, this means solvency. Are you making enough profit to pay your bills? To achieve Goal 1, solvency and survival, you have to move fast. It requires passion, energy, and an aggressively friendly approach to getting your services known and delivered. For the patient, you can think of Acute Care. For a staff position, you can think of 20 – 30% proficient.

Goal 2 and the Practice Development Process
Goal 2 is a fully functional, franchise-able, sale-able, and sustainable business that is very profitable. For a patient, it is a maximum spinal correction. For a staff position, it is 100% proficient and competent, rain or shine.

After you have achieved Goal 1, you can now start identifying those procedures that worked best. You can write these down on checklists. These checklists will become your Practice Playbook.

With more staff training, you can delegate more procedures to staff. As you continue to grow, you refine your procedures and continue to train your staff so that they become more competent.

Every 2 months, or as needed, you assess your list of successful procedures and add to them, or revise them. Every week you work on improving them, and train your team on them. Much like any athletic team, you practice and review your plays and procedures.

We call this process the Practice Development Process. It helps you to continually improve the practice and gradually take the office to Goal 2.

Getting Organized: The Baseball Diamond
To get to Goal 1, organization is not vital. Production, speed, and promotional activity is. However, getting to Goal 2 requires good organization.

Imagine a baseball team that stands around the pitcher’s mound with the pitcher. A batter hits a fly ball to the right field. The whole team goes to chase it. Once they reach it, they realize that no one is on the first or second base to throw the ball to in order to stop the runner. They are all out in right field.

Many offices operate this way. For example, in some offices the front desk does insurance, the insurance department does therapy, the therapist schedules appointments, and the doctor takes time off to buy office supplies.

Moving the office upward to its peak capacity includes all areas of the office improving: first base, third base, centerfield, etc. If you only have a few of the departments doing well, the other departments will hold down the entire growth.

Goal Three
Our greater goals give us meaning. These are the accomplishments we want to have said we achieved at the end of our lives. They are based in love, hope, and faith. They are for our heritage, our parents and those upon whom we owe so much; they are for our legacy, our children and their children; they are for our community and the fellowship we share with rich and poor.

Goal three is your “Give Back” goals, to your family, to your community, and to yourself.

All Three
This is your road map up and out of the roller coaster. These three goals form a sequence, but you have to keep all of them in mind as you travel up your road to success.

This is directed to a business owner, but also applies to team members and how they can improve their competency. It applies to patients, and how they travel from acute care, structural care, to wellness. It actually applies to many activities.

You have to be willing to shift between goals, and if you find yourself suddenly in the poor house, you have to lose your self-important attitude and run like a rookie again until you build your business back up to Goal 1.

Where many doctors fail is that they are not willing to shift, either up, or down, as needed. Having achieved Goal 1, they are two insecure to delegate their duties to staff and procedures, or work on improving themselves. Many doctors, having achieved Goal 1 who should be working on Goal Two, feel the need to keep doing what they did to get to Goal One and so, quickly find them selves back down struggling just to survive.

It is easy to get lost, but now, with the 3 Goals Management System, you have a road map.

We have seen too few doctors achieve financial abundance and practice freedom. Hopefully, with the tools provided in the 3 Goals Management System, more doctors will be able to reach their dreams and help others do the same.

For information on our coaching and management consulting programs. LINK

Observations

observations from our travels in the world of chiropractic

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