The Core of the Matter – The Why, What, and How of Defining Core Values for Your Dental Office
Why should you invest time in defining core values?
A positive, nurturing culture can make an often pressure-filled day in the dental office tolerable, if not enjoyable.
Therefore, it is particularly important to get everyone in the practice thinking about the same goals and doing things similarly for the same purpose. These actions will go a long way in helping to achieve the culture we all desire.
Mutual core values are integral to creating or reviving a positive workplace culture. Core values are a framework to build a solid culture and a reference point for the dental team on all levels, from the Doctor/ owner to all team members. An appealing, positive culture can attract good employees and keep great employees!
What Are Your Core Values?
You can find many resources on “culture-related” topics. Articles, blogs, coaches, webinars, seminars, and retreats are abundant and readily available for dental practices but can be logistically and financially out of reach.
One practical way to get the whole team on the same page is to collectively develop a set of core values that are unique and individual to your team.
The process of naming the core values for your team begins with looking for and sorting through a list of values. There are many resources for core values on the internet, including “core values” card decks, which individuals can use for the sorting exercise. Producing and printing your own “cards” is possible, supplying a deck for each team member. This is helpful to simplify the sorting / prioritizing process. Distribute the lists or cards to your team and ask them to rank and return their top values or make the process an exercise at a team meeting.
Once you have the data, compile the results.
Emphasize that every value could be impactful to an individual for varied reasons. Reinforce that there are no wrong answers. Each person should begin by dropping the values that are the least important to them.
Continue to sort and rank values until everyone has cut the number to ten and then to five. This can be a difficult exercise, but it gets to the center of what is the most important to each team member. Explain that the values are not exclusive; all the listed values will be important and desirable to one or more of your team members.
Get Your Team’s Input
Once the team has made their choices, ask for team members to share and give reasons for the choices made. Make it clear to the participants that this meeting is a no-judgment zone.
For example, one person might highly value wealth or financial security. The reason behind this might be a very rough childhood and the family that lived in a car for a time. To others, wealth and financial security might be shallow or selfish values, so sharing and understanding perspectives is particularly important and will aid in team bonding.
You may finish with 10, 15, or more values depending on the size of your team. Rank and review those top values with your owner/doctor. They should have the final input on the values the practice will own, define, and emphasize.
Call an all-team meeting to introduce and define the top values. This meeting should be open and unrushed to give the group time to break out and unpack the core values. This is a high-participation exercise; sharing is paramount, so find a way to involve everyone and write all the defining words and ideas out for each value.
Explore both positive and negative examples of what each value looks like in action. Work as a team to pull ideas together into a working definition. Tie in other values the team highlighted but did not make the “top five.”
For example, commitment means supporting a unified, productive, and fun-loving atmosphere by supporting, communicating, and encouraging each other while reaching mutual goals with patience, grace, and accountability.
By incorporating the other values that the team felt were meaningful and important to them, the whole team can buy into implementing those values in day-to-day work life.
As a finishing step, ask the team to affirm and commit to upholding these values and keep themselves and others accountable. The team should be able to readily list the core values and the essence of the definitions.
How Will You Integrate Your Core Values?
Now that the team has unpacked the core values and taken ownership, the next step will be deciding how to integrate these values into the fabric of the daily activity and culture.
Keep the core values visible and in front of the team. One way to do this is by visually displaying them.
For instance, please print them and display them around the office. Be creative and present your core values on uniforms, tee shirts, and custom buttons for your team and patients. Consider commissioning an artist to incorporate them into a wall hanging or mural so that your team and your clients can see them every day.
Highlight core values in morning huddles, team meetings, coaching moments, and reviews. Refer to and connect the core values to everyday activities at every opportunity. Give shout-outs freely and often to those who show these values with your patients and each other. Use exercises and games that relate to your core values in future team meetings to reinforce them further and show how they apply daily.
Try Using a Team Communication Exercise
A communication exercise might be:
Have the team squeeze the toothpaste out of a sample tube while discussing modes and tones of communication. Squeezing out the toothpaste when there are negative words or body language as they see or hear them. After a time, ask the team to put the toothpaste back in that tube.
The toothpaste stands for how we communicate – harsh, snarky, angry words, gossip, negative responses, or body language is “squeezed out of the tube.” Like toothpaste, it is possible to put a part of the toothpaste back in the tube, but the tube will never return to its original condition.
Apply this principle to communication. “Squeezing the tube” by spreading gossip, contentious words, and negativity has the same permanent effect on the hearers. Those words can never be unheard, and their effects are entirely undone, thus affecting your culture and relationships.
Ideas for team building and core value exercises are available from websites, books, blogs, and the internet to show and apply core values.
Continued reinforcement of your chosen core values throughout the daily routines will unite the team. Have fun and be creative.
Patrick Lencioni said, “If everything is important, then nothing is.”
Momentum is inevitable, with defined core values as the compass for your team. It would be my pleasure to share some more core value examples and exercises or answer any questions. Feel free to contact me via email.
About the Author
Beverly Kicinski, MAADOM
Beverly Kicinski is the operations manager at North Penn Pediatric Dental Associates outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She oversees fifty employees and the daily responsibilities of this growing multi-location practice, which includes pediatrics, orthodontics, and a pediatric laser center.
Bev’s passions include implementing systems to improve communication and enhance a positive and productive culture. She has been a member of AADOM since 2024 and received her Fellowship in 2023. Beverly also earned her AADOM Mastership in 2024.
Her multi-tasking and systems mindset stems from her “on-the-ground training” while managing six children and coaching women’s high school volleyball.