CAD/CAM international magazine of digital dentistry

36 I I practice management _ communication CAD/CAM 3_2012 Collaborating and connecting in the dental spaceAuthor_ Shane Hebel, Canada _Communication skills are an integral part of our daily lives. How we communicate defines who our friends are, what our families think of us, and how our businesses are perceived by the com- munity at large. Typically, when you think about communicating, you think about it in relation to your friends and family. We spend countless hours thinking about how we speak to other people, whateffectithasonthem,whetherweshouldhave saidsomethingornot,orifotherpeoplethinkwe’re upset with them or frustrated based on our words and actions. _Oh wait! Actions. That’s another part of communicating thatmanypeopledon’tthinkabout.Howyourbody moves in rhythm with the way you’re talking can have a major effect on what people perceive you to be saying. Our bodies and mouths move in a dynamicthatwedon’tyetreallyunderstand,butour subconscious selves do. Have you ever gotten that feeling that even though someone was apologising to you, they didn’t really mean it? Or that someone wasreallyupsetwhentheytoldyouthateverything was fine? Why do you think that you get those feelings?Somethingaboutthewaythatthatperson is communicating with you—other than with their words—is telling you that. Asecondaspectofactionsisyouractualactions. We’ve all heard the saying “actions speak louder than words”. Well, it’s true. If you say one thing and do something completely different, that’s a form of communicating. If you’re always consistent in the way you approach a problem, or situation, that’s also a form of communicating. How you conduct yourselfbothpersonallyandprofessionallyisaway to communicate the person you are and what you stand for. The most important part of that is that people actually take notice. _When bad goes good In 1995, Tylenol had a problem. Many bottles of its medication had been tampered with and would prove to be dangerous or fatal if ingested. Right away, the company recalled its entire product and