Oct 17, 2018
The Mission-Centered Organization
This is the simplest, most impactful and practical principle in the quiver of Participation Age arrows.
The Mission Centered Organization
We should teach everyone that “The mission is the only boss we all have.”
Everything lines up when you fully embrace that simple, but powerful “rule”. To build a great practice and create a happy and loyal patient base, the Mission is the boss.
Following are a few implications of being a Mission-Centered Practice:
- To be Mission-Centered is to not be centered on other things.
The average Factory System dental practice is either Boss-Centered or Department-Centered, or a combination of both, many times with no connection to the practice’s objectives.
- To declare the Mission as the boss is to place ourselves under it.
If the Mission is now the boss, I’m not. I work for, and serve at the pleasure of the Mission Statement.
What Else is Affected By Becoming Mission-Centered?
Following are a few other implications of the power of being Mission-Centered:
- Functions vs. departments. In the Factory System hierarchy, departments and their boundaries are very important. In the Mission-Centered organization, functions can replace departments, both in your language and in a practical sense. Let’s stop guarding fiefdoms and work together to serve the Mission Statement.
- Roles and responsibilities Instead of Titles
We can also emphasize roles and responsibilities, instead of power titles (supervisor, manager, etc.). This helps keep us Mission-Centered; I’m not a supervisor in the marketing department, I’m a Creative Writer in the marketing function that only exists to serve the Mission.
- We must all know the Mission Statement intimately
If we all exist to serve the Mission Statement, that is now the one boss that can hire and fire anyone and everyone. We must all become as intimately acquainted with the Mission Statement, and spend as much time socializing with it as we did before with our human bosses.
When we all serve at the pleasure of the Mission, it levels the playing field in a way that nothing else can, and invites everyone to keep us focused on accomplishing the only thing that really matters, our Mission.
Getting to Know the Mission Statement
- The podcast suggest six extremely practical things you can do to get started.
Our Mission, the one result we want to get for our patients, should be the driving force behind everything and everyone in the practice. We all serve at the pleasure of the mission. We don’t build departmental fiefdoms, but we use our functions to serve and support each other to fulfill the mission.