What can leaders in the dental industry learn from settlers of catan? Last month, Our team at Emitrr spent some time at my place in New Jersey and for those of you who don’t know, we all enjoy board games. We thought Settlers of Catan was a safe choice to bring, as it’s easy to learn, and everyone would be able to play. While we did not end up playing a lot while we were there, I personally had a lot of takeaways from the game which I felt can be applied to the world of dentistry. Specially for leaders in the DSOs (Dental Service Organizations) None of us had given a lot of thought to what it takes to win the game as most of us had never played it before. But as we played more, we spent more time thinking about effective strategies and it started becoming clear that the things you need to do to win in Catan are really similar to the things you need to do to win in your career. With this in mind, we thought to share our learnings and the similarities the game has with the world of dentistry. Below are the biggest takeaways for DSO leaders pushing hard to take the industry forward: 1. Always have a plan When you start playing Catan, it’s easy to just jump in and start buying things, settling where you can, and building some occasional roads. But like with any game, if you want to win, you need a plan. Maybe you’re going to amass as much brick and wood as possible to get your settlements out quick and go for the longest road bonus. Or maybe you’ll focus on ore and grain so you can get development cards and cities. Or maybe you’ll try something else. The important thing isn’t that you have the best plan, it’s that you have a plan and keep improving by implementing a better plan each time. It’s the same in dentistry. For a while, you can just go with it and react to the situations you’re presented with. But once you get past a certain stage (let’s say once you grow beyond 5,10, 50 or 100 locations), you’re going to really benefit from having a plan, a process and operational excellence. Again, it doesn’t need to be the best plan, or an extremely detailed one. It doesn’t even need to include the next dozen steps: just the next couple is enough. But having a good understanding of where you are in your plan to grow the DSO, manage multiple locations, as well as a goal for where you’d like to be and how you’re going to get there, will help a lot. If you don’t have one, sit down with a notebook and write for half an hour. You won’t regret it. 2. Make compromises to boost future prospects Of course, obsessively sticking to your plan and not being flexible isn’t good either. Thats a sign of a fixed mindset and not a growth mindset. Just the way in dentistry, In Settlers too, you often come across situations where you need to make a compromise in your existing plan. You need two ore for your city, but the best trade you can get is an ore and a wood. A lot of the time, it’s going to be a good idea to take that trade. It might not immediately give you a big benefit, but by developing some good will with other players (read: teamwork in dentistry), you’ll increase the chances of more profitable interactions in the future, and they could pay off big. Not only that, but the compromises you make might open up unforeseen opportunities when you’re not expecting them. It’s the same when you’re dealing with people, technology in your dental practice. You’re going to need to make compromises. As dentists, we are always contemplating investing in technology to make our lives and processes better. Sometimes the tradeoff may not be so obvious but it definitely is well worth it if it saves you time and offers your patients a good experience, even if it is not immediately ROI positive. Similarly, learn to let go of things as a leader and trust your team, let them fail a couple of times to grow faster in the long term. The compromise you are making here is a short term compromise of time. 3.Think carefully about investments (read: think long term) This is important in any game, but Catan can contain a lot of deceptive situations: they look like there’s an obvious choice, but that choice can have repercussions that you might not expect. Obviously games that include other players and a lot of social interaction are going to be especially hard to predict, but taking an extra moment to think about what the results of your action will be can be a game-changer. Similarly in the world of dentistry, when you are making investments (vendors, software, supply), make investments by thinking carefully about them. How?
- Invest into software, supplies that you feel are poised for innovation. This will insure you are partnering with people who innovate and you become a leader and not a follower.
- Ask your vendors for the product roadmaps or future plans.
- Partner with young, dynamic and agile teams. Making large organizations move for your benefit is going to be hard but working with team hungry for growth will always help you grow and define the industry.
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