Kelly Damer explains why dental practices get stuck saying "we've always done it this way" and what it costs: wasted time, errors, low morale, lost revenue. She walks through how to actually change things: start small, involve your team, train them, celebrate wins, limit yourself to one initiative per quarter. One practice outsourced their 60+ day accounts receivable and cut their AR above $250,000.
Chapters
Okay, close your eyes and imagine your dental practice like this. You have 14 clicks just to confirm one appointment. There's post its everywhere. When you have software that you pay for paper routing slips, when your practice management has automation built in, you suggest a better way and someone says, but this is how we've always done it in dentistry. Tradition can be a strength, but it can also be a trap. Today we're tackling the mindset that keeps practices stuck and how to lead your team into smarter, faster and better systems without starting a revolt. Welcome to the Next Level Practice podcast. I'm Kelly Damer and today's episode is for every doctor who's tired of trying to introduce a new system, only to be met with crossed arms, blank stares. Listen, we get it. Change is uncomfortable. But clinging to outdated processes in the name of comfort is costing you time, energy and growth. In this episode, we're unpacking the psychology of resistance and giving you practical strategies to shift your team, or maybe yourself from We've always done it this way to let's find a better way. Here's what we're unpacking in today's episode. Why resistance to change is human but not really helpful. The hidden cost of outdated systems. How to introduce new tools and tech without team pushback. Real examples of practices that made the leap and what changed and the mindset shift every leader must make. Listen, I get it. There's comfort in the known, right? And our dental teams are busy. They're fast paced and focused on patient care. Old systems feel safe, especially when you have team members that have been around for a long time. They feel safe even if they're inefficient. But comfort zones are productivity killers in disguise. And what's familiar isn't always the best. Here's the true cost of the status quo manual processes. They drain time, they drain energy, they drain morale. You probably also have some team members who are more open to automation, new technologies, and then you have some people who are clinging to the past. So you're also creating a little bit of a rift with your team as well. The outdated systems lead to errors. They need to be reworked. There's dropped balls, tons of time wasted. And your best team members get frustrated when they can't do their best work efficiently. And there's a reason why your teams are resisting change, right? Some of them maybe your methodicals have a fear of failure. Hi, that's me. I'm a methodical. I have a fear of failure. Maybe there's just a lack of clarity on what we're looking to do here or there's no time to learn something new. You're so busy putting out fires all day long and working in the business, there's no time to work on the business. Another thing that we see a lot of practice owners do is they have too many new initiatives happening. One per quarter is a very good goal for you to have for your team. Don't do more than one per quarter. The other thing that your team might be holding onto and resisting change is past trauma from changes in the past that just didn't stick. This isn't laziness, it's just change fatigue. And as a leader, it's your job to make it easier. Here's how to break through the this is how we've always done it mantra. Okay? First things first. Paint the vision. Start with context. Don't just explain what's changing. Explain why it matters. Okay? Explain why it matters. Show them how this benefits them. Right? Maybe you have daily goals in place and a new piece of technology or a new process that you want to put in place is going to be an easier, simpler way for them to get from A to Z and achieve their daily goal. I would also really recommend starting with painting the picture of having a fresh perspective, coming in fresh and having a new perspective when it comes to changes. Right? If you keep hearing like, we've always done it this way, this is the way we've always done it, I would really have a conversation around the need to have a fresh perspective. Right? It's like, hey, there's this new process and procedure that we're looking to put in place. It into the benefit is it integrates really well with our current processes. But there might be one tweak, one little thing, one little nuance in that new system that's fallen out of the old system. And. And as we know, the difference between 99% and 100% is everything. That one little nuance could be the difference between 40% case acceptance and 67% case acceptance. So having that fresh perspective to say, yeah, we've done this, this integrates well, let's see if there's something missing is very different from, we've already done it this way, period. End of story. We're not going to dig any further. The next thing is to start small, pilot the change, maybe with just one team member, one department. Show results before you start scaling. Make sure that there's alignment to your vision. With that, involve the team. Let them test, review and give feedback. Their ownership is going to be what Drives buy in. The other thing is that they can 100% sniff out. If you're the doctor owner and you're wavering on this system, if you don't buy in as well, they're not going to buy in following you because then it just leads back to that change fatigue that hasn't worked in the past. Celebrate wins. Track time saved, show fewer errors, highlight the smoother workflows. We really want to catch our team in good behavior and celebrate those wins. Don't just drop the tech in their face, train them on it. Tools are only powerful when your team knows how to use them confidently. And if you're someone who's always buying the next piece of technology and then you're wondering why it's not being utilized, it's because you need to spend some time training on it. Now, I want to talk about Dr. B, because he's who comes to mind when we talk about that always done it mindset. Right. Dr. B had AR just piling up. He has a designated person to collect, but that person has other responsibilities as well. And that person was always doing the other things before working on the ar. And that's a very inefficient business model, right, because we're doing all this work to close the case, produce the case, and then we're just not collecting the money on it. Dr. B really started to sound like a broken record with him and his coach. It was like, I've got a person on it, they're making progress. And then the coach would check their dashboard and AR was still showing above 250,000. Finally, we decided to outsource collecting this 60 day plus AR. And we were able to get the AR down. And so it was like, okay, sometimes you have to just completely change the process, your perspective, the approach and automation is a great way to do that. A lot of times though, it starts up here in your mindset shift. The other doctor that comes to mind is a doctor who, you know, fresh to some of the methodology, started to implement. And again, a lot of the systems fit really well with what they're currently doing, which is great. We want to see that and we also really want to dig in and see is there something that's dropped out that we're not doing that can really make a difference in our patient experience and care. This truly is a leadership shift. Right. Because you're not just changing a system, you're changing a culture. And it takes patience, it takes clarity, it takes asking the question, could we be doing this better? So let's recap. This is how we've always done it is a symptom, not a dead end. Leading with change means leading with vision, not just instruction. When your team understands the why, they're going to be far more open to the how. If you want to streamline your systems and get the team to buy in, book a free session with me. We'll uncover the bottlenecks, surface your biggest opportunities, and create a game plan that brings your team along for the ride. I'm Kelly Damer and this is the Next Level Practice Podcast. Thanks for listening. And remember, every time you improve gets you one step closer to the practice in life you actually want.
