On Generosity

[DentinBond]

---

Members don't see this ad.

Selfish businesses have to advertise (read: interrupt) a lot harder than generous ones.

Generous businesses are a lot more interesting than selfish businesses.

Many people believe that generosity is a zero-sum game. One person gives, another receives. I give you this, you take that, and the whole thing zeroes out.

But what if the truth is that generosity makes the whole Pie grow bigger?

 

[Silent Cool]

LOL, wut?

 

[sacapuntas]

I can read this in one of two ways...a you scratch my back I scratch your back thought process or a thought process that views generosity as a potential pyramid scheme (albeit one with a better outcome than Amway). Care to shed any more light?

 

[DentinBond]

Heavens to Murgatroyd, not a pyramid scheme, no!

I mainly wrote this because I come in contact with many young dentists who are treated poorly by their employer. Corporate, yes, but also group and small practices.

I don't understand it, except to surmise that these owners are engaged in scarcity-thinking. You know--there's only so much "Pie," so they greedily grab their piece and leave the crumbs to associates and employees. There are hundreds of variations but some are: sending all the PPO and DMO patients to the associate (but still paying on collection), hogging high-production procedures, hogging new patients...

It's not only wrong (we're all colleagues with the same degree and rights/responsibilities in front of the law), but ultimately foolish to behave in this way. My partner gave me his retirement timeframe recently. I'm working out the details of hiring a remarkable young associate. I view this as an opportunity to launch him/her into a stellar career and at the same time grow our Pie bigger. Which means more income for all of us, serving more patients who need us, figuring out new ways to raise the bar on ourselves...

This abundance-thinking also applies to staff. Pay them well, train them well, empower them to make decisions and expand their abilities...it may cost a little more than hiring cheap disposable drones, but turnover is even more expensive, and today's patients notice this kind of thing.

Mostly, I'm tired of hearing of young colleagues being treated poorly and every chance I get I plant the seeds of a better paradigm.

 

[DentinBond]

I'm also thinking of patients when I say generosity. Like...
-We have a fun, engaging referral program that gives patients a credit for referring someone new.
-We create online content that teaches prevention and educates patients, and we don't try to monetize it.
-We frequently have pre-dental shadows visit. Seeing what it does for them, and having all kinds of interesting patients with diverse careers, we'll connect a young patient with someone in the field they're interested in. Word spreads...
-Once, knowing a patient came to our office by bike, I saw her for an issue on a day that was inconvenient for me, rather than on the next day when I had time--but when rain was called for.
-I recently asked a nun, who teaches, how things were going in her school. She's normally full of jokes and laughter, but this time she was downcast. Told me a 14-year-old with no father had just lost her mother to an MI at age 45. I said, "How do you think she'd feel about no-fee dentistry until further notice?" Nun cried. We met the remarkable girl, who will probably become our next after-school employee. And I had a long convo with her aunt in the waiting room; have a feeling the whole extended family will end up coming to us.

I have so many amazing colleagues who do this sort of thing all the time. Thousands of variations. We really should write a book or share on a website or something. The thing is, when American dentistry was shunned by the founders of the American Medical Association in the 1840s, it may have seemed insulting at the time, but those buttoned-down Victorian docs did us a massive favor that's still contributing to our freedom 170 years on. We escaped becoming part of The System. We have autonomy (if we want it). We're largely free from bureaucratic stifling of creativity. We can be generous and there's no one to stop us.

We dentists can largely be unfettered capitalists--but we would be wise to be ethical, generous, socially responsible unfettered capitalists. That path creates a bigger Pie for all of us than if we go for straight-up greed and a race to the bottom on cost.