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Unleashing the Power of Teamwork in Dental Practices: 5 Effective Team-Building Strategies for Success

By Jamie MorleyJune 20, 2024

Have you ever wondered how you can truly unleash the power of teamwork in your dental practice? Teamwork is something that is often talked about by not only you but also by members of your team. It is often the thing that team members want from each other.

Yet it is difficult to actually put your finger on what this is and how to cultivate it.

In this blog post, I'll explore how harnessing the power of collaboration can transform your dental practice and share five effective team-building strategies.

What is teamwork?

There are several different definitions of team work even if you look at different dictionaries definitions. 

The one used by Google from Oxford Languages is:

‘the combined action of a group, especially when effective and efficient’

Another one provided by Dictionary is:

‘cooperative or coordinated effort on the part of a group of persons acting together as a team or in the interests of a common cause’

And then there is from Collins dictionary:

‘the ability a group of people have to work well together’

Andrew Carnegie the well know business consultant describes it as follows:

“Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision. The ability to direct individual accomplishments toward organisational objectives. It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results.”

Click the following link to an article in Entrepreneur with lots of quotes on teamwork.

These definitions cover three mains areas:

1. Working together

2. Efficiently and effectively

3. For a common cause

This helps us uncover and understand why teamwork is so important.

Why is teamwork important for a dental practice?

If we look at the above definitions of teamwork I cannot help but be drawn to the negative side of things when it comes to this question. If the people in your dental practice are not working together effectively as a team what will they be doing? They will be working:

1. As individuals

This means they will be only focused on their own job with no concern for the other jobs that everybody else has to do around them. They will also not care about what any of the other team members are feeling or thinking about the tasks that they have to do. They will not be concerned with the impact this may have on the broader practice. They will prioritise their tasks before any others and before tasks that are potentially more important to the broader good of the practice.

An example of this could be a dentist not understanding that a nurse is prioritising the care of a particularly nervous patient for the practicalities of providing the right instruments at the right time. Vice versa a nurse not understanding what the dentist needs at any given moment to provide the right support for the dentist.

2. This will lead to inefficiencies and ineffectiveness

We all have a system and context around us and they interlock with each other when we come to working as a team. If we don’t interlock as a team then we will continue to rebound away from each other before we can finally combine and move forward together so as to make things happen.

3. Being able to achieve the common cause of your dental practice

If individuals are not working towards a common cause then this common cause and goal will not be realised.

In his book the 5 Dysfunctions of a Team Patrick Lencioni describes teamwork as follows:

“It is teamwork that remains the ultimate competitive advantage, both because it is so powerful and so rare.”

Teamwork is something that cannot be copied. By having real teamwork within your practice you will really have a competitive advantage.

Here are 5 effective team building strategies

1. Understand each other & recognise difference

One of the behaviours that is present when there is a lack of teamwork is everybody being out only for themselves and not caring about other members in the team or taking into account their point of view.

When people start to understand that we are all different and that it is not personal, this can create a big shift in how the team works together. Creating time, space and tools that enable people to do this is one way of helping people to understand each other and recognise their differences.

Personality profiling tools such as Everything DiSC can really help with this. It helps create a conversation around difference in terms of style and to see how individuals can communicate and act very differently. This leads to an improvement in how individuals communicate with each other. Individuals start to trust each other as a result of this understanding.

When we know more about the broader lives or people and the context of their lives it helps us once again to understand and to develop trust with this person.

If we don’t do this we will soon stop communicating with this person in any way. This will lead to things not being said which leads to resentment and also means that challenges with regards to how things are done in the practice are not being resolved. The end result is that you are not moving towards your common purpose.

2. Develop and live values

In order for a team to operate effectively and to be a good team there needs to be a common understanding of what is most important and some principles of what is expected of each other. Some standards that everybody buys into and accepts.

Without clear values then I believe you will see the following: team members in constant discussion, debate and bickering about what is the right thing to do in different situations, often continually referring back to the practice principal or leader for every decision as they are not clear on the principles to make that decision, unable to move fast and effectively as a result. 

On the other hand where there are aligned values team members know what the expected standards are and live those out. The whole team hold each other accountable and are not reliant on the leader to keep people aligned to the values. They are able to be agile as a result, moving fast and effectively. They waste considerably less time in disagreement on what is right and what is wrong. They can get on with focusing on the success of the practice. Values also give a confidence and strength to do the right thing in difficult situations such as we are faced with currently. So, the importance is not to be underestimated.

How do you go about creating those values for my practice?

You have to get the whole team involved in some way. The first thing is to understand the current values of the team. What are the current values of the people in the practice? What do they understand the key values of the practice to be? Then you have to work out if these are the right values for the future of the practice? How do they align with your own values?

Combine these elements to gain clarity with your team about the key values. This takes time and patience to figure out, especially to get down to a small number which the whole team agrees on. Maximum of 3 for it to be easily and consistently communicated and to really mean anything in terms of direction. Any more than this and it doesn’t really give any true guidance. Open discussions with constructive conflict will really be required for it to truly mean anything to the team. It is difficult and takes time but it is worth it. It is possible and even likely that some individuals may opt out and leave the practice if they really don’t believe in the values yet everybody else is on board with them. That is ok….

I wrote more about values in general in a previous article.

3. Have regular team meetings

This is a very practical thing that for many practice owners or leaders can seem like a waste of time and money. As a result they are often forgotten about or not done.

Do not underestimate the power of regular team meetings where people actually get a chance to spend time with each other and to speak with each other outside of the typical working day.

There may be some people who meet up outside of work and get to know each other that way which occurs organically. There will though be many people where this doesn’t occur and creating a place where they can get to know each other, understand differences and reflect on the living of values will have a tremendous impact on everyone. 

I would recommend a full day at least every 6 months. Often the agenda of the meeting will end up talking about actions or things to do with regards to the practice. Perhaps a new process or products or some training on some thing. Whilst these are valid it is important to give dedicated time to developing how everybody works together as a team.

As an example the team can spend time on creating their values. They can also then take time to reflect and review how well those values are actually being lived. They can also spend time getting to know each other through various possible exercises. Even something as simple as pairing people up and then taking it in terms to ask each other about how they like to be communicated to is often very powerful.

4. Encourage rituals 

Encourage rituals where team members organically spend time together outside of the work environment. If somebody suggests taking another team member out for a coffee or a drink, to really encourage this type of activity. When it comes from them organically it has been shown to be more powerful in creating connection between team members.

Ideally team members will start to create rituals such as going for lunch together every Wednesday or Tuesday morning coffee or post Thursday drinks after a late clinic.

You have to allow this to happen from the team. You can ask them to thing about what could they do to get to know each other a bit more? Don’t tell them anything, just ask the question and get them to think about what they can do, rather than it being instigated but the leader.

5. Allow people to be vulnerable

You want to create a psychologically safe environment. You may think that this sounds all very soft and nice but actually it isn’t. It is about encouraging people to do the following:

• Speak up
• Admit mistakes
• Be themselves 
• Ask for help

Most importantly when they do this you as the leader must ensure that there are no inter-personal consequences for this person. This means that you yourself must not respond in a way that makes them feel ashamed or stupid or embarassed. You must listen genuinely. It doesn’t mean you have to do it, but listen to it actively and really try to understand what that person is saying. You must also ensure that fellow team members do the same. To not join in with any sarcastic comments or when somebody is being laughed at but to interrupt that automatic response.

Google did some research called which they called Project Aristotle where they were looking to find out what made the highest performing teams. You can read an article in the New York Times on it here. The single most important factor for a high performing team was psychological safety.

Amy Edmonson wrote the Fearless Organisation where she speaks about her research and goes into considerable detail on this topic. 

I wrote a previous article about creating a safe environment which goes into this concept in more detail.

Summary

Teamwork in a dental practice is extremely important. It is often one of the few things that everybody in the practice agrees upon. Without it you will be highly inefficient and ineffective in achieving what you want to achieve. With it, teamwork can give you a real competitive advantage. 5 effective team building strategies are as follows:

1. Understand each other and recognise difference

2. Develop & live values

3. Have regular team meetings

4. Encourage rituals

5. Allow people to be vulnerable

Find out more about how Fitting Leadership can help you and your practice develop your teamwork

Click here to book in a call.