Does Your Practice Have a Purpose
Culture or a Silo Culture?
The opposite of Purpose Culture is Silo Culture. Silo’s kill practices. They have a
corrosive effect on the entire operation. When dental practices have a Silo Culture,
every person in the practice does not believe or see how they are important to
the practice’s success. People think that success and yes, sales is someone else’s
responsibility. They believe helping customers and patients say “yes” is somebody
else’s job. They don’t have a direct line of sight to revenue. They don’t care about
the bottom line. Moreover, they think their success has nothing to do with the practice’s
success. In fact, they often think helping the practice become more successful
hurts them because they are spending time helping other people when they should
be helping themselves.
It’s important to remember that no one in your practice ever wakes up and says, “I
am proud to be overhead.” I have also written in the past that three deadliest words
of dental practice are “I’m just the.” If anyone feels as if they do not contribute,
this hurts the practice and makes its way to the patients. As a patient, I want to be
worked on by a hygienist who gets that they are not walled off from the heart of the
practice.
Silo Cultures not only stop us from adapting to change. They stop us from seeing
little picture when we are in a silo and tell ourselves the big picture is someone
else’s responsibility. Silo Cultures allows us to indulge in “not my job-ism.” They let
us get comfortable being box-checkers and clock-watchers and Silo Cultures let us
get good at measuring just how big our slice of the pie is. Not because we think our
slice might grow. However, because we want to make sure that slice is not shrinking.
There are two things that Purpose Culture and Silo Culture do share, however. The
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LEADERSHIP
Acceptance
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