Don’t complain. Just train
“Over the long run, superior performance depends on superior learning.”
— Peter Senge
As the Clinic Director of your chiropractic and healthcare practice, you instinctively know that if you are not continually improving the service to your patients and potential patients, they will go to practices that are.
In fact, if you do not provide the BEST outcomes and service in your area, patients and potential patients will look for other practices that are the best, or at least better than you.
The BEST health care practice wins in the long run.
So, how do you get to be the best?
By constant improvement!
This was the concept the Japanese pushed in the 1970’s with their cars. They called it Kaizen.
Speaking of Japan, there was a study that showed how many hours employees trained over a 6-month period. Japan spent an average of 364 hours, Europe averaged 178, and the U.S. a paltry 42.* I discuss this more in my book, The Goal Driven Business. (pg 156)
The formula for improvement is simple: study and train.
The purpose and goal of training is improvement. This is why professional athletes and musicians constantly train. They do this for improvement and, ultimately, to bring about a good return on their investment.
Improvement has a definite ROI! A study by the Associate for Talent Development found that companies offering comprehensive training programs have 218% higher income per employee compared to those without formalized training.*
But what are the best methods for training — reading, listening, podcasts, seminars?
USING THE LEARNING PYRAMID TO TRAIN YOUR CHIROPRACTIC TEAM
The Learning Pyramid* illustrates the percentage of knowledge retained through various learning methods. Here are the typical percentages associated with each method:
- Lecture: 5%
- Reading: 10%
- Audio-Visual: 20%
- Demonstration: 30%
- Discussion: 50%
- Practice by Doing: 75%
- Teaching Others: 90%
This model emphasizes active participation in the learning process. Teaching others or practicing by doing, leads to higher knowledge retention rates compared to passive methods like listening to lectures or reading.
If you take your team to a seminar, do it for camaraderie and the sense of being part of something bigger. It can be motivational. But then, ensure that they take notes from one of the presentations and then teach it to the rest of the team at the next staff meeting.
Another angle is to have team members select a chapter from a book you all are reading (from your Lending Library!) and then have them teach it to the rest of the team a month later.
Train on your procedures every month. For example, you could demonstrate how you would like a patient to be positioned on a therapy table. (Get it recorded for future reference!) Then, have a staff member demonstrate the procedure back to you. You can also pair people and role-play the procedure. Do this for any of your office procedures. For those of you in group practices, doctors can practice their procedures.
BALANCING INFORMATION WITH PRACTICAL APPLICATION
The idea is that there are two sides to the learning coin: the information side and the practical application side. You can’t learn how to throw a fastball from reading a book. You must find a baseball and someone brave enough to catch your pitches and practice throwing hundreds of times. However, a book may have useful information on improving your throwing technique from those who have done it more than you.
It is best to go over the idea of training and improvement with your team first so they understand what you are doing and why.
Keep training fun. Your manager should ensure that training occurs every month.
And like Clarence Gonstead said:
“Practice. Practice. Practice. Never stop.”
“Our future will be our results.”
Keep training,
Ed
P.S. Who was Clarence Gonstead, D.C.
References:
ROI on training. An Evidence-Based Look at the ROI of Investing in Training (mentorgroup.us)
Clarence Gonstead https://www.gonstead.com/
The Learning Pyramid the learning pyramid – various percentages of retention. (thepeakperformancecenter.com)
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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 book, The Goal Driven Business.
The Goal Driven Business
By Edward Petty
