Author: Debra Miller

When we think about transformations, we often visualize instances of rapid metamorphosis. For example, the caterpillar’s transformation into a butterfly, or the chemical reaction that occurs when you burn wood log in a fire. The end result is practically unrecognizable from the starting point.

However, transformation isn’t always such a rapid upheaval. For example, the concepts and technical underpinnings of the internet were developed in the 1960s and 1970s. It took until the 1990s for the “friendly face” of the World Wide Web to appear and make the internet accessible to everyone. Thirty years after that, our world has been transformed. The internet is integral to our daily lives and businesses. It’s been a 60+ year process. 

When you were a new endodontist, fresh from your residency, you knew that you still had a lot to learn … both clinically and about running a practice. But at what point does that need to learn and grow stop? Is there a professional threshold when you should not expect any further improvement in your practice?

Many doctors wake up one day and realize it has been a while since there was meaningful growth in their practice. They have built up the practice to a certain level, and now it is stagnating. Nothing is horribly wrong, but neither is it improving. Every week, month and year is just sliding by in a familiar pattern.

This plateau is a common state in endodontic practices. Sometimes we call it a “comfort zone”, which reflects that the practice is at least doing well enough for the doctor to manage all the primary responsibilities of life: paying their bills, paying down their debt, home ownership, family stability, etc.

Endodontics is a very advantaged profession. After the initial investment and effort to get started, within a few years most doctors can have enough referral relationships and cases coming in to support a relatively above-average lifestyle compared to much of the population.

At that point, the urgency and motivation for continued growth often tapers off. Of course, some people are naturally motivated to keep pushing for the next level of success. But most people settle around what is already working for them. They reinforce the predictable path, which becomes more ingrained and habitual. Eventually growth stops completely, the doldrums take over, and higher expectations are thwarted.

Uncertainty is the opposite of predictability, and endodontists are generally inclined toward the latter. Clinically, doctors strive for predictable outcomes. When it comes to the team and practice operations, predictability is also favored. For example, the schedule should be appointed consistently, and teams should follow standardized procedures that adhere to the doctor’s expectations.

When uncertainty comes in play, the perception is often that there is some level of risk involved. Risk perception can invoke wildly different responses. In urgent situations where you feel compelled to act and the stakes are high, you can experience an adrenaline response tied to the “flight or fight” impulse. It’s a survival instinct where you must either get through it or get away from it.

However, in less urgent situations, the response to risk and uncertainty is often avoidance and delay. A good example is when the doctor is feeling stressed and not enjoying the practice. Obviously, something needs to change because when it is your practice and your profession, spending the rest of your career in a state of stress is a recipe for exhaustion and burnout. But doctors often procrastinate taking action because they can’t pinpoint the exact cause of the stress, or an easy-to-implement solution. It’s usually a mixture of factors. As a result, faced with uncertainty like this, many doctors delay taking action and allow the problem to persist far longer than it should.

There is a myth that business success is only possible if you abandon your values and become a cold heartless profiteer. Certainly, news headlines play into that narrative with stories about companies behaving in undesirable ways: compromising personal privacy, exploiting market monopolies, firing thousands of employees to save a few bucks, offshoring operations and destroying a local economy in the process, etc.

Business itself is not inherently to blame. But whenever decision-making in a business is corporatized and distanced from the real-life communities of their customers and employees, businesses can become less human, less caring, and less rooted in values that make the world a better place.

Intelligence has been in the news a lot recently, specifically with respect to “artificial intelligence.” The technology is interesting, but it remains to be seen whether AI responses are truly intelligent or simply mimicking our expectations of intelligent responses.

AI can easily generate content that meets our preconceived notions of intelligence … grammatically perfect responses filled with facts and figures. But there have been some well-publicized AI errors that indicate these systems still have a long way to go. They can regurgitate and synthesize information, but appear to lack the vital critical-thinking skills that we also expect from intelligence.

Success in every endodontic practice is the result of a series of factors: teamwork, systems, scheduling, clinical productivity, marketing, revenues, expenses, etc. How these factors come together ultimately determines whether the practice is effectively responding to opportunities and challenges … or falling short in some way.

There are multiple ways that a practice can under-perform. For example, it can under-perform in terms of daily enjoyment, team unity, or professional satisfaction. However, it’s no surprise that the most common measure of performance is financial. A business is a means to an income for the owner, and income supports the rest of their life and their family.

Referrals account for practically all productivity in an endodontic practice. Referral analysis and keeping track of referring doctor relationships is core business requirement. Here are some tips on what your referral analysis should include, and key factors you should focus on during your monthly referral meeting with your marketing coordinator.

There is a video on the Endo Mastery homepage called “Is it too good to be true?” in which some of our coaching clients talk about how the success they’ve achieved is so unbelievable, and how they wish they had done it sooner.

I think it is a common experience for many doctors to have a vision or goals that they procrastinate about making progress, for one reason or another. Procrastination is the silent killer of progress because lost opportunity costs are not visible in the present. It isn’t until the present becomes the past that we see what we should have done.  

I read this week that over 100,000 new songs are uploaded to streaming music services every single day. Meanwhile, Taylor Swift’s new album set a record for a billion streams in one week on Spotify.

Music is an example of a star industry where, out of hundreds of thousands of hopefuls, only a limited number rise above everyone else, shine brighter and have incredible success. It might seem like fickle fortune or just plain luck to end up as an artist who is famous and popular.

However, the “big 3” record labels (Universal, Sony and Warner) account for almost 70% of worldwide music revenues and most of the top stars in the world are aligned with them. Being signed to one of these labels dramatically increases the chances that an artist will become popular. That’s because the labels have robust systems in place for promoting and publicizing music.

A few years ago, a young couple in their early thirties finally decided to renovate their ensuite bathroom. They had a spa-like vision: deep soaking tub, double rain shower with body jets, quartz and designer tile, etc. They had been dreaming about this vision ever since they bought their 40-year-old house.

To save money, they were going to do as much of it themselves as possible. “Except for a plumber and electrician, everything else we can order from Amazon and learn from YouTube. We’re in no hurry, and it will be fun!”, they said. Furthermore, to inaugurate finally pulling the trigger on the project, they had ceremoniously demolished their existing boxy 1980s vanity one weekend. “We’ve begun!”, they exclaimed. 

Eight months later, practically nothing else had been done. They had an extensive list of items on their Amazon Wishlist, but nothing had been ordered. All their initial energy had subsided, and they were facing a stark reality: they didn’t know what to do first, how to organize and prioritize, or even which YouTube video to believe because there was a lot of conflicting advice from people of uncertain qualifications. Every question seemed to result in more questions, leading to “paralysis by analysis”, and their ability to get past that was limited by everything else in their life that they had to do (career, family, etc.).

They seemed resigned to the idea that “someday” it would be finished even though they had no specific plan or momentum. In the meantime, they had to accept a lot of compromises since their bathroom had just bare pipes where their vanity had been. They were brushing their teeth, shaving and putting on makeup in the kids/guest bathroom which created stress and congestion every day. 

Despite being committed to do-it-yourself, they were becoming more frustrated as the weeks and months continued to roll on. Finally, a neighbor stepped in and offered to guide them. This man had spent his career building and renovating houses, and he began to meet with the couple every two weeks for four hours.

Together, he helped them plan all aspects of the project, including what needed to be done in what order. The couple was coached through some key choices and advised against pitfalls to avoid. They were given instructions and standards to meet, and (most importantly) what to get done in the next two weeks. The coach helped them with buying lists for each stage, and in some cases had access to specialty tools they could use for some tasks. 

Four and half months later, the master bathroom was complete and as perfect as they had envisioned. They were so happy and had so much pride in what they had accomplished. And they understood what made the difference: “Once we realized we needed a coach, we could trust the process and actually make progress.”