How to Rally Your Dental Staff Around Technology Implementation

Change shouldn’t be a my-way-or-the-highway situation. Although, when it comes to improving your dental staff’s relationship with technology, change is a must.

You, like your team, are probably relatively familiar with technology. What’s daily life without smart devices, online engagement and app-driven services?

The how of change makes a difference. When the process of adopting new technology is swift, achieves desired outcomes and is beneficial to the user, that’s a big motivator in guiding your dental staff to embrace innovation in your practice.

The Time is Right

General labor issues and shortages across every industry — dentistry included — are stoking innovation. Perhaps you’re questioning how technology can fill staffing and workflow gaps.

While technology won’t solve the personnel issues many employees are experiencing, it can help improve your dental practice systems that are struggling due to staffing issues.

If you are willing to implement new and relevant technology, you’re not alone. According to an MIT Sloan Management Review study, managers embrace “digital transformation.” However, 63% agree that the implementation of new technology is slow ¹. Consider the value of being among the leaders rather than the followers.

The time to increase the pace of technology adoption and use in your dental practice is now. But you need a plan to make sure your team is on board with change.

How to Rally Your Dental Staff Around Technology Implementation

Plan for change

Reactive implementation often produces a reactionary response. The otherwise good results you hope to achieve are at risk of being lost before the technology has even launched.

Effective planning precedes desired results. Your technology implementation plan has the potential to succeed when you include your team in the process.

• Communicate the problem(s) that a particular technology will solve.
• Confirm your current challenges and problems through staff input.
• Commit to an agreed-upon timeline for phasing out “old” systems/technology and implementing new technology.
• Circle back regularly to confer with your team and compare before and after results of the new technology or system.

Promote anticipated results

The benefits of implementing technology will speak for themselves. It’s essential to maintain your team’s buy-in by emphasizing the positive results you’re experiencing.

It can also help to remind your team how things were before adopting or upgrading a particular technology. That reminder can create “ah-ha” momentum around ongoing innovations.

Ask these questions:

• Is the new technology capable of solving a specific problem or set of problems? How has it done so since implementation?
• What motivated us to seek a tech solution to the problem(s) we previously faced?
• How can we improve ongoing implementation and adapt our workflows around the new technology?

These questions can help keep you and your team focused on the results and benefits. Team feedback and input will also enable you to scale the technology in ways you might not have initially planned.

Prevent drift with ongoing training

New technology presents an initial learning curve as well as a continuous need to train around upgrades and scaled innovation.

Start your training around the resources provided by the technology developers. Their ground-level insights will enable you to maximize the solution’s capabilities from the start.

• Build ongoing training modules around positive and negative implementation feedback from your team.
• Create momentum by encouraging your team to use the technology without fear of mistakes, etc.
• Encourage an adaptive-learning mindset that trains your team to test the technology’s capabilities and apply their discoveries.

Resistance to change — even when it involves technology — can be overcome.

• Plan
• Communicate
• Train

This triad will help get your team onboard and fill any workflow gaps you experience now and in the future.

Discover more technology-related insights to support your dental team and workflows:

You’re in This Together, So Why Not Share Dental Practice Analytics With Your Team?

4 Reasons You Should Be Using Smart Technology In Your Dental Practice

Data Analytics Tools Are Fundamental to Your Dental Practice Technology Implementation

Not only is the Jarvis Analytics platform easy to learn, it also helps assure that you’re tracking the important metrics and staying on track with your goals as your dental practice grows and expands.

Experience Jarvis in action. Request a demo today!

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