There has been a lot of speculation about Elon Musk’s desire to buy Twitter.
Some are probably legitimate, some are completely wrong, and some of it is pure “tin-foil hat” conspiracy theory.
But on the surface, there is a part of Mr. Musk’s stated purpose that reflects directly onto your practice and that is “unfiltered information”.
Now I’m neither supporting nor condemning Mr. Musk nor Twitter. My point is that he STATES that when information is selectively filtered, your ability to make a decision using ALL pertinent information is limited.
Think of this in your own practice. If there is a patient complaint about something that happened at the front desk, do you get ALL the information from both the patients and the staff members involved?
If you said “yes”, I’d challenge you to reassess that assumption.
People are notorious for only providing information that supports their narrative. It’s not good or bad, it just is. And it’s because the vast majority of people only look at things from their perspective. Therefore, you have to look at all information from the perspective from which it comes.
And that’s why Mr. Musk’s offer to buy Twitter is so interesting. A lot has been said about “filtering” or “fact-checking” information that is posted on Twitter. Many are in favour of this. Many are not. Proponents say that “fact-checking” prevents erroneous information from being disseminated while detractors say that “fact-checking” stifles alternate opinions and theories.
Regardless of your opinion, for you to manage your practice, you need to receive ALL the information even if it’s contrary to what you believe.
Far too often we meet practice owners that are thinking about selling and have ideas about the value of the practice that are wildly optimistic or even pessimistic.
When we start drilling down into “the numbers” we find that many of these practice owners are basing their valuations on “things they heard” or “something they read on the internet”. But the biggest errors come from using data that’s just plain wrong.
Often, this is because the systems needed to get valid, reliable data to the practice owner were “filtered” by a well-meaning employee (office managers in particular) that wanted to “spare the dentist from all bad news”.
Sadly, this happens far more often than you might think.
The solution is to follow Mr. Musk’s lead and demand that ALL information gets to the practice owner – good AND bad.
Because without all the information, you’re operating in the dark and that’s a very dangerous thing to do.
Will you be thinking about selling or stepping away from your practice in the near future or sometime down the road? To learn more about the numbers and systems you MUST have call 703.298.1690 or click HERE to schedule a Discovery Call NOW with Stan Kinder for the best options whether selling or retiring.
