Kaizen is a philosophy or practice that focuses on
continuous improvement of processes and systems.
As a doctor or practitioner in private practice,
it is typically up to you to work out the systems that will
govern and run your business, as well as focus the work
of your employees.
As Ray Krok put it in reference to McDonald’s,
“The system runs the business and the people run the system”.
The universe and your practice naturally trend towards entropy,
and only effective systems can reverse this progression.
A practice without systems is inherently unsustainable
for a number of reasons, and most of them have to do with
the unpredictability of the human mind without specific direction.
To give you some examples, consider these questions
with regard to your own practice.
- How long would it take you to train a new office manager
or employee if they quit tomorrow? - What percentage of the calls into your clinic from prospective patients
are now in your marketing database? - How many issues do you have to constantly remind your staff about?
- Which systems for your business are in your head?
- How much is your time worth?
As the income producer of the practice, if you are consistently
spending time dealing with systemic issues, your time could
(and should!) be used much more effectively.
Your role as the entrepreneur is to establish the initial systems,
and then we recommend partnering with your staff to improve
the systems as needed following the Kaizen model.
These opportunities for autonomy and mastery might even
make them happier in the workplace!
Kaizen principles originate from Japan and, when used
in the business context and applied to your practice,
refer to activities that continually improve all systems,
and involves everyone in the practice.
If you need an example of the effectiveness of Kaizen
you have to look no further than the car industry,
and I highly recommend this podcast from NPR’s
This American Life about the first joint venture
between Japanese and American manufacturers:
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/403/nummi
Here is our Four Step Process for effectively systemizing you practice:
- From new patient procedures to cleaning duties,
write down every task that needs to be completed
in the practice - Break down each task into simple steps that ensures
this task is done perfectly every time - Categorize these tasks (Admin, Daily Flow, Doctor, etc)
and file them in your new procedural manual - Provide incentives to your staff to come up with improvements
to the systems, however small
Find out what incentives are best and get your questions answered
on our next free call (the first Thursday of every month)!
Remember, this is a process and will take time,
but the time to start is now… and tomorrow you will
start feeling how much better your life and your practice
are from positive change!
Thank you for being here as part of our
Holistic Practitioner Community.
James Maskell
CEO
