You may have heard the quote; “The only thing that is constant is change!”  It is true, change is inevitable but not always positive or successful!  The reality is that some work cultures support positive change, while other cultures sabotage change. There are many factors involved, such as team workload, other current changes in progress, team beliefs about change, clear communication about the change, benefits of the change, appropriate training, coaching and support provided during the change, etc.

I have the privilege of helping dental teams nationwide create a happier, healthier and higher performing culture that they will enjoy coming to everyday.  This always involves making changes.  I often observe team members roll their eyes and let out deep sighs of frustration when they hear there is another change heading their way.  They stress and worry about how it will affect them and how long it will last.  This article is dedicated to learning how to rise above the pain of change and make it a positive process.

Change for many of us is often scary.  The fear of change comes when we start the assumptions of “what if” thoughts!  How many times have you been afraid to make a change because of saying to yourself, “But what if this happens”? You just “what if’d” yourself right out of action. Think about this. It’s a biggy! How many times has fear stopped you? The ironic part is that fear is really only a negative prediction of the future. In most cases, what we worry about doesn’t happen. What actually happened, we didn’t even think about or worry about, and yet we still survived. Its proof that worry is a total waste of energy and time. If we can learn to evaluate the real danger, as opposed to the perception of danger (what if), we will get a more realistic viewpoint and we will be less afraid to make the change. Imagine how much happier you would be right this second if the fear of “what if” had no impact on your decisions. What would you do or change? What would your life look like right now?

Change requires us to have courage to face our fear of “what if” in unpredictable and unknown!  Regardless of how dysfunctional, unhappy, unproductive or toxic the current culture may be it often feels safer to keep the status quo.  The known almost always feels safer than the unknown.  That is why it is imperative that the value of the change be clear to those asked to make the change.  It is essential that the value and benefits of change rate an 8 or above on a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being high.  Otherwise, the chance for the change to be positive and sustainable is limited.

I have found 5 essentials to help dental teams rise above their fears and embrace change as a positive process.

• Trust in leadership
• Clear and consistent direction
• Structured plan
• Adequate training and practice time
• Realistic workload

The number one essential necessary to embrace change is trust in the leadership.  If the team members trust their leader(s) they will be more willing to step into the unpredictable and unknown.  Leaders can build trust by embodying the following traits:

1. Model the waddle is the number one leadership principle – in other words lead by example
2. Have a clear and consistent direction
3. Be transparent by communicating to keep the team in the loop as much as possible
4. Be open to suggestions and feedback
5. Address any obstacles, fears or concerns the team may have about the change

The second essential is to communicate a clear and consistent direction.  It is important to use a decision strategy to avoid fly-bys and emotion driven decisions in the heat of the moment.  I teach the following four strategic steps:

• What’s in the best interests of the patients, practice and the team – not any individual and long term
  • Think about 10 months and 10 years instead of next 10 minutes or 10 days
• What is practical and realistic based on time, people and money currently available
• What is the precedent being set
  • Is it fair, if we can’t do it across the board for everyone on the team it will feel like favoritism and divide the team
• What is the level of passion we are willing to support the decision
  • Will we support it when push comes to shove even if it may result in losing an employee or a patient

Set your team up to succeed by communicating the change clearly and concisely.  I suggest the following communication process:

• Clarify expectations
• Ask questions to make sure everyone understands
• Write objective down in bullet points if more than a couple of things
• Identify equipment and supplies necessary
• Schedule adequate training and practice time
• Set realistic expectations for completion time and date
• For more involved longer tasks schedule a check in

The third essential is for leadership to work with the team to develop a well-structured plan.  If you want the team to embrace a change, ask for their suggestions and feedback on how to implement the change.  If you want the team to have ownership, give them authorship as well.  A well-structured plan is well thought out and clearly defined.  I teach teams the R.I.S.E. Implementation Process to help them work together to create a well-structured plan.  R.I.S.E. is an acronym for Review, Implement, Sustain and Evaluate.

• Review
  • What is it we are currently doing
  • What is working and what is not
  • Keep what is let go of what is not
  • WIIFTT – What’s in it for the team if we make the change
    • It is important for the value/benefits to rate an 8 or above on scale of 1 to 10 or it is difficult to sustain
  • Implement
    • What are we going to change
    • Who is going to do it
    • Who are we going to do it for
    • When are we going to do it – including time, sequence and flow
    • Where are we going do it – very specific location
    • Why are we going to do it
      • WIIFTT if we make the change – there must always be something in it for the team for the team to sustain the change
    • How are we going do it
      • Practice verbal skills
      • Practice role playing – yes, I know it’s awkward and it’s effective
      • Practice the entire physical walk through – never test it out for the first time on a patient
    • Create standard operating procedures
    • Schedule the roll out date
  • Sustain
    • In order to sustain it is important for the new change to become a habit
    • It takes a range of anywhere between 17 to 257 days to form a habit depending on the difficulty with the average being 66 days
      • Give any new change at least 60 days to get comfortable before considering any changes
    • Be precise and consistent to form a habit much sooner
      • Same sequence and steps for every team member every time
    • Support the change positively in words, actions and attitude
  • Evaluate
    • Is the process still working effectively
    • If not, what is the value and benefits in a change
    • Any change takes ongoing tweaking

The fourth essential is to schedule appropriate and adequate training and practice time.  I have found that the most positive and successful changes happen when the team has time to train and practice.

For new team members have clearly written weekly goals for the first 3 months.  Review the progress with the new team member weekly.  From 3 months to 1 year change to clear written monthly goals and review monthly.   Having clear written goals helps manage the expectations for the new team member as well as existing team.

For existing team members, meetings are the perfect opportunity for training and practice time.  Utilize your team meetings to:

• Review and update systems and protocols
• Implement new ideas
• Monitor process of yearly goals
• Practice, practice, practice
  • Verbal skills, role playing and physical walk through

Team meetings are most effective when you:

• Schedule often enough
• Schedule time enough
• Schedule when most can attend
• Get feedback from the entire team
  • Encourage solution focused suggestions on how to overcome potential obstacles

The fifth essential is to be realistic with the workload.  It will be very difficult to get the team excited about embracing something new if they are already swamped and consistently running behind.  It is important to evaluate whether there is adequate time, money, and people to successfully implement the change.  Don’t firehose your employees with changes.  Implement only one or two new changes at a time.  Even the most committed employees will become resistant to change if they are consistently overwhelmed.

Cultivating a culture with these 5 essentials will help you rise above the pain of change and make it a positive process.