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CAD/CAM international magazine of digital dentistry

I 37 practice management _ communication I CAD/CAM 3_2012 spent a huge amount of time and money figuring out what went wrong and in making sure that no onebecameill—allattheexpenseofitsbrandimage. Thecompanydidtherightthingandstoodbyitsval- ues.Here’sthekicker—whileitthoughtthatposting this recall would destroy its company image, it ac- tually bolstered it. People found it extremely ad- mirable that the company was more than willing to tarnishitsownreputationandspendhugeamounts of money to stand by its values. They stood by Tylenol.Tylenolhadcommunicatedtopeoplethatit was an ethical company and that communication was heard loud and clear. Some people and companies don’t care what other people think of them. In fact, some actually thriveontheirinabilitytocommunicateandthedis- likepeoplefeelforthemasaresult.TakeParisHilton, LindsayLohanorKimKardashian.Thesethreewomen areallcelebritieswhocommunicateaterribleimage and are famous for it. They succeed because people don’t like them and are just itching to figure out what they’re going to do next. _Communicating However, a terrible image is not what most peo- ple (and especially companies) want. People natu- rally want other people to like them. They want to be seen as people who stand by their values,can get their point across, and can do so without projecting the image of being mean, frustrated or impatient. As something that many people strive to do, com- municating effectively has been discussed exten- sively in our society. Countless seminars and train- ing programmes have been conducted that deal with communicating with people. Even more books have been written on the subject. So why is how we communicate so important? Good question. Communication is important be- cause it gives others an idea of what we think, who we are, and what we stand for. This is extremely important in your personal life. It’s even more im- portant in your professional life. How others per- ceive you can have a huge impact on how smoothly your office runs, how many new patients you get, and how easy doing business with other people is. Communicatingisatthecruxofhowwefunctionas a society and your ability to function well from a communication standpoint will have huge impacts on your personal and professional life. One thing that has already been mentioned is how solid communication leads to a smoother in- ternal business process, bringing in more patients (orretainingreturningpatients),andworkingtoge- thermoreefficientlywithothersinthedentalspace. _How? Let me break each of those aspects down for you to show how increased communication skills can help you in each of those areas. The first major area that is going to affect how you communicate is your internal business pro- cesses. How you communicate internally within your office can have a huge impact on how smooth your operations are, how happy your staff are, or even what your monthly expenses are. All of these things can be improved by communicating more efficientlyandeffectivelywithinyourorganisation. Huge mistakes can be made in business through a failure to communicate or a lack of understanding among team members. Take Morgan Stanley as an example.Recently,theymadeaUS$2billionblunder thathasledtoincreasedsurveillanceofallUSbanks by the government, an investigation into the com- pany, a huge drop in their stock price, and the resig- nationofsomeofthetopperformersandmanagers atthecompany.Whywasthismistakemade?Some- onemessedupbecauseofalackofcommunication.