Teams will change as people join and leave or situations change in the practice. Dentist and CEO of Psynergy Mental Health, Ritesh Aggarwal suggests some ways to help staff adapt to change.
Change management is difficult as human beings generally fear change because it pushes us out of our comfort zone. However, this is the cornerstone of building confidence. The more we push ourselves out of our comfort zone, the more we increase our confidence. Eventually that will lead to a situation whereby we can then tackle the things we have found overwhelming in the past.
Although we fear being pushed out of our comfort zone as human beings, it’s the best thing for us. To do this in bite-sized chunks is even better because that builds confidence and resilience. It allows you to learn from failure, fail fast, fail forward as they say in the business world. It allows you to take on things that you would not ordinarily believe you can manage which creates a great sense of achievement.
Communication is key
Communication about change is super important. Having people informed about and prepared for what is going to happen, and being part of that change process, is essential. The owners of a business are not the only ones to drive the change. It has to be driven by everybody. People must buy into it. This comes back to the importance of having shared values and purpose. If everyone buys into the change, then it will go as smoothly as possible.
We’re having a big change in our practice at the minute. My Associate had to leave quite suddenly due to personal circumstances and that’s had a negative impact on a few of us in the practice, but also a positive impact as well. It means that I’m around the practice a bit more, which I have taken as a positive, although I’m not sure my staff do! I’m around the business a bit more because I need to be able to provide the clinical dentistry as well as also overseeing more things. So, I have included everyone in the communication about that change every step of the way. Everybody concerned has been involved, which is the essential part of a change.
Control what you’re able to control
When we’re talking about making changes to improve the mental wellbeing of our teams, it’s important to remember we can’t control everything. All you can do is control what’s within your power.
To be able to help create a place of psychological safety we need to start understanding what is happening in our teams and within their lives. They might not want to open up to you as a Principal, and that’s fine. It’s a slow process. However, we know that work life and personal life are intertwined. One doesn’t go without the other and our mental health is impacted by both. So, the more I can do personally as a business to improve the wellbeing of my team that’s within my control, the greater impact that will have on their life holistically.
That’s why it’s important to make sure staff feel able to have conversations on a deeper level, so they feel connected. Feeling connected helps engender an environment of trust and openness. When you’re in circumstances where you’re dealing with change and change management, if you feel you are in something together, that produces a really deep connection. You’re a part of that whole change cycle together, which is a powerful thing.
Accountability
Involving your team in decision making creates accountability. It’s not only the Principal who’s accountable for all the decisions taken. If we all get involved and we are all part of the decision-making process, we all become accountable.
As part of the change cycle, it’s important to measure the impact of change. The only way to do it is to repeat test. It’s similar to measuring the impact of change in a patient. We constantly do an examination based on risk for the next three months, six months, twelve months, two years, and so on. We’re looking for whether gum scores have improved; caries risk has improved, and so on. That’s how we measure it within patients.
It’s a similar principle with change. If we get people to buy into long-term strategies and long-term thinking and collect data over time at certain important intervals, we’ll then start to build evidence of change, good or bad. And if it’s bad, we can course correct. If it’s good, we can continue on that trajectory.
If the change doesn’t happen, then you need to adapt your mindset towards change management. I used the phrase before, ‘you are only in control of what you can control.’ If I cannot create a change or a cultural shift in someone’s mindset, I accept that I can’t create that, but that doesn’t stop me from doing what I need to do. All I can do is move forward and try to work with that person to continually try and change it, but they have to want to change.
If, however, change that should have happened within the practice hasn’t occurred, then we return to accountability. Who was accountable for those parts of that change management cycle? Was it the Principal? Was it the Practice Manager? Was it everyone collectively? So, if we all agreed it collectively, then we need to come back to having conversations about accountability.
There’s no harm or shame in having to go back two more steps to get forward. As long as we’re constantly striving to move forward, and moving forward together, that’s the important thing.
