Plan to Succeed

No one truly plans to fail, but when you fail to plan, that’s when you start to see failures showing up. Opportunities for culture and growth slip away and fall through the cracks, and dentists are often instead left in survival mode. Instead of building a thriving, profitable, and fulfilling business, they’re on the defensive, reacting to daily chaos. If you want better control over your time, your finances, and your team development, you need a plan! 

It may sound challenging to get started, but planning isn’t as hard as you think! All you need to begin is the right framework: the SWOT Analysis. Performing a SWOT Analysis enables you to think clearer about your practice by forcing you to look at its different areas through the lens of these questions:

• What are your strengths?
• What are your weaknesses?
• What hidden opportunities exist in your business?
• What threats exist that could put your business at risk?

At ACT, we believe a healthy practice revolves around three pillars: Aligned, Smart, and Healthy. You can’t have one or two — you need all three pillars if you’re to be successful. These pillars don’t just happen, either; Kirk tells us they require thought, which is why it’s crucial to perform a SWOT Analysis on each pillar to discover how they measure up:

• Aligned. Does everyone know the practice’s vision for the future? Do you have strong communication rhythms? Are you holding weekly meetings and leadership alignment time? 
• Smart. Do you have the best practices, systems, and processes in place to achieve your vision? Are you tracking KPIs? Do you document processes and systems? Does your team follow your systems? 
• Healthy. Do you have the right people in the right seats to be able to run your systems? Do you have core values? Does your team know those values and keep them alive and well? How well do you handle conflict or difficult conversations? Does the team trust one another?

From there, you can focus on improving the areas in each pillar that will be the most impactful. This step enables you to create your Outcomes and Goals for the year! Your Outcomes are typically high-level things you’re looking to achieve, and instead of speaking to how they will be accomplished, they’re typically fueled by emotion. For example, “By the end of this year I want to feel confident that my business is profitable, and that we are using data and not feelings to make decisions.” 

Conversely, your Goals are lower-level, and tend to deal with how you’re going to make things happen: “By the end of this year we will have selected 12 KPIs to track and report on weekly, and the team will understand what each one is measuring and why they’re important.” With your Outcomes and Goals developed, you can start breaking them down quarter by quarter, and that’s when you’ll really see them come to life!

Ultimately, you cannot fix what you cannot see, so if you want to create clear strategies, you need the honest assessment that a SWOT Analysis brings. Identifying and addressing the real issues in your practice will empower you to lead with intention instead of through reaction. There’s no better time to start planning for your upcoming year than right now! All you need to do is set a time to start a SWOT Analysis. Take those results and use them as a springboard to identify a few clear outcome statements and let them guide your focus for the next year! 

To learn more about ACT and how we can help you build a Better Practice and a Better Life, reach out to Courtney!

Tune in next time and find out how to make your practice stand out above the rest!