For some reason, a literal avalanche of practice administration and management courses came across my desk this week. I used to attend. There was the occasional pearl of wisdom, a kernel of insight gleaned, but in all candour, I learned more from a good server at a quality restaurant than I did from many save perhaps Bob Barkley; however, that was a lifetime ago.
Instead, I frequent the Harvard Business Review and newsletters from the Ritz Carlton Leadership Centre for how to effect change in my practice. I don’t need an feng shui master to suggest sight lines or an aromatherapist to suggest vanilla or lavender candles…I can go to a spa and reframe my office interior to effect a facsimile. Rather, I need insight into paradigm changes and to that end, the HBR is a magical archive of wonder and information.
I called this entry Original Sin for a reason. There was such hope for the Obama presidency. Visionary foresight was supposed to be the hallmark of the first term based on his speeches and his books; the kind of things we’d like to see from executive directors of the CDA and the provincial organizations and licensing bodies. But as Frank Rich points out in the New Yorker – know what, read the article –
Then read Rolling Stone’s commentary
The original Original Sin article was taken down. My daughter who blogs in NYC suggested I was being tangential and way too controversial. I agreed for an hour,then rethought it.
Let me ask you a question. The inane law about a dentist not treating his or her spouse – a violation of which could lead to a suspension of one’s licence for five years….is it still on the books? Why? How long should it take to remove an inanity from the law. A day, a week, or a month……what process is required to eliminate insanity and stupidity that is not only illogical, but draconian.
The point of this entry is not tangential. It’s time leadership in dentistry, let alone in this country was transparent, proactive and when confronted by “utter nonsense”, they should act with the dispatch of the Navy Seals who took out Osama bin Laden. Corporate dentistry is bad enough with it’s eminence based market driven approach to science. With the impact of the economy on dentists across N. America, with the glut of “new and innovative game changing” technologies coming to a sales representative close to you, surely to goodness, leadership at all levels of dentistry needs to revamp, restructure and reframe. Best place to start is with social media and ensuring that all dentists are part of the process and connected. T’would be hard to ineffectively lead when the errors and missteps are front and center and accessible for all to comment.
