Cover of Rod Stewart
Driving home in the Dallas rush hour, bored and impatient, I heard Rod Stewart on the radio singing ‘Reason to Believe’ for millionth time. In his distinctive whisky voice Rod sings,
“If I listened long enough to you
I’d find a way to believe that it’s all true
Knowing that you lied, straight-faced while I cried
Still I look to find a reason to believe…”
I realized that those lyrics encapsulate a problem that virtually every one of my clients has. They lack a vision for their practices that unites staff, providers and patients. They lack a compelling vision that commands people to go out of their way to discover greatness at the workplace. They lack a credible reason to believe in either the providers or the practice itself. They have a job but not a great business.
Think that’s a stretch? Consider Duncan Syme, CEO of Vermont Castings. Vermont Castings made wood stoves and Syme’s vision was to make the best wood stoves in the world. Syme was renowned for his high standards and could regularly be seen standing on the production line and personally inspecting the product as it rolled off the line. By the 1970’s Vermont Castings became the fastest growing company in the wood stove industry with revenues over $29 million and net margins approaching 60%. Yet when Syme stepped away from day-to-day management in the early 1980’s and turned things over to a professional management team, things went bust. Customer service faltered, quality standards dropped and focus went off of wood stoves and onto other product lines.
In 1986 Syme had to return from retirement to get things back on track. This time he took a different approach to installing his vision for the company. Instead of personally presiding over the operation, Syme began a process of institutionalizing his vision. He created a written document that expressed his vision and creed for the company and made that the guiding point for operational decisions going forward. He sold his managers on that creed as the standard by which business was to be carried out. He transferred his vision in a way that could live in his absence.
What would happen to your practice if you were away for a month? What key employees in your practice, if they left, would take down the practice? What is the vision and the mission for your practice? What is your practice about, stated in a way that makes sense to a fifth grader? What will your practice look like in 5 years?
David Zahaluk, MD is a Dallas-based practice optimization expert and the author of The Ultimate Practice Building Book. His firm, Ultimate Practice Builder, takes physicians to the top 10% of their specialty – in income, time off and quality indicators - within 3 years… guaranteed. Learn more at www.UltimatePracticeBuilder.com.
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Tags: Business, Construction and Maintenance, Dallas, Materials and Supplies, Rod Stewart, Stove, Vermont, Wood-burning stove
