What can I stop, keep, improve or start? Examining change within our dental careers and practices
My article next month is on habit stacking – what it is and how we can create habits more easily and for the long term. But before we get to that, it makes good sense to work out which new habits will serve us.
I can think of so many good habits I could start to implement but it’s choosing the priority habits that’s important. If I can pinpoint what will really make genuine improvements by reshaping my days, that’s a huge motivator in itself. By ‘improvement’ I mean a new habit, a new process, a new skill, or just doing something more regularly.
One of the simplest ways to do this is to ask four questions - maybe relate these to your dental career or practice development: What should I stop? What should I keep? What could I improve? And what should I start? It’s a great way to audit some of the key areas of our life and also to look at potential change in context.
You could do a ‘Stop, Keep, Improve, Start’ exercise with others for maximum benefit. You’ll get more context and better understanding with other contributors. For example, you might think it’s OK to stop something in your practice – until you hear how someone else on your team values it. “Let’s stop playing music in the waiting area” might be countered by “I get told daily how relaxing our waiting area is.” Looking at each potential area for change is more valuable when it’s viewed from a number of perspectives.
Stop: What are we doing that no longer serves us? It might be a process that has become unnecessary, a meeting that has lost its purpose, or simply a way of working that we continue with because that’s how we’ve always done it. Stopping something can feel like a surprisingly difficult form of change. We’re often much more comfortable adding something than taking something away.
Keep: Not everything needs improving. What is already working well? What do we value about the way we work, communicate or care for our patients that we should make sure we retain? What can we learn from these positives and transfer to other parts of our practice?
Improve: This is perhaps where the idea of Kaizen, continuous incremental improvements, comes in. What works, but could work a little better? This doesn't have to mean a major overhaul. It might be a small adjustment to a clinical process, a communication habit within the team, or simply changing the way we prepare for a particular task.
Start: Finally, what have we identified that is worth introducing? It might be something completely new, or it might simply be the next small step towards an improvement or development we've already identified. Having curiosity and ambition could spark something really exciting for your future.
The important thing is that we don't need to tackle all four questions at once. Even choosing one thing to stop, one thing to keep, one thing to improve or one thing to start can give us something useful to work on. I like this approach because it takes some of the pressure out of improvement. We don't have to constantly strive to do more, be better or change everything – which honestly is just exhausting.
Sometimes progress comes from doing less. Sometimes it comes from recognising what is already good. Sometimes it means making a small adjustment. And sometimes it means having the courage to try something new. Next month’s habit stacking article helps to take us from the diagnostics to taking action.
About the author:
Dr Dhiraj AroraBDS MJDF RCS (Eng) MSc (Endo) PG Cert CE.
Owner of evo endo with three practices (limited to endodontics) in Twickenham, Gerrard’s Cross and Slough.
He is a passionate teacher and ambassador for all things endo.
Follow him on Instagram: @drdij_evoendo
This article first appeared in The Probe magazine
