Its All About Growth

Build your relationships first….then your dentistry. ~ Bob Barkley

Its All About Growth

Posted on

If I were to select one word which is most closely associated with a successful relationship-based, Health-centered practice, it would be the word growth. What kind of growth?

Personal Growth.

Interpersonal Growth.

Care Team Member Growth.

Effectiveness and affectiveness of team growth.

Patient growth – in knowledge and sophistication of their attitudes and commitments toward dentistry.

And of course -practice growth.

Notice please than I did not mention a word about teeth or techniques. I didn’t mention a word about technology or what you must physically own to achieve growth. And that is because growth is not a material thing, it is a spiritual thing.

Growth can be promoted or it can be impaired by the way we think, and consequently the things that we do and say day-in and day-out.

And what we do repeatedly is driven by what we believe…what we believe about ourselves, what we believe about others and what we believe about the  purpose of dentistry.

In other words, dentistry is driven by our philosophy…our world view…our perspective of things, and therefore what it all means to us.

Avrom King said that it all boils down to these three questions:

1. Who am I?

2. Why am I here?

3 What is it that I am trying to achieve?

All three philosophical questions. All three lead us to answers which directly influence almost everything else.

If we do not understand who we are on a values, priories, and beliefs level – what Mac McDonanald recently referred to as “the deep structures of ourselves – we can not possibly lead ourself in any desired  direction predictably . And as a result, we can not lead predictably others anywhere either.

So, you can then easily see that in a world where our personal perspective is one in that we believe we have little personal agency, It is easy for us to assume we have minimal value. And in a world of minimal value, everything looks scarce, and everything starts to look scary.

If we believe the world is flat and that there is nothing that we can do about it, then we are likely to stay on shore, drown or feelings of disempowerment with a little too much wine and whining, and achieve little.

And we will attract toward us those who think and behave similarly – because like attracts like.

So you can easily see how one can create a practice in the exact image of what we believe. And it could be a version heaven or hell that we create.

And it all happened because we chose to grow – or not.

How much growth is happening in your practice? Can you see the green shoots of enthusiasm and creative change all around you – evidence of constant renewal? Or do you see an ossified structure struggling to maintain the status quo?

Who are you?

Why are you here?

What is it that you are trying to achieve?

Philosophy Matters.

And that is why L.D. Pankey and Bob Barkley constantly talked about it.

Paul A, Henny, DDS

Thought Experiments LLC, ©2017

Read more at www.codiscovery.com

 

Home Testimonial

“Thanks so much for your continuing efforts to promote and advance the concept of the relationship based practice.” – Jim Otten

Great Forum

What a great forum for sharing the wisdom we have been privileged to gain from those who came before us. Hearing that wisdom expressed in the language of today is so important. ~ Mary Osborne

Get Involved with the
Bob Barkley Study Club Now!

1213 Corporate Circle SW, Roanoke, VA 24018
(540) 774-1577 |

Contact Us