practice leadership
TECHNOLOGY
in a Service Industry
“High tech is no longer enough. We’ll need to
by Joel C. Small, DDS, MBA, FICD
supplement our well-developed high-tech
abilities with abilities that are high concept
and high touch... High touch involves the
ability to empathize, to understand the subtleties of human interaction, to find joy in
one’s self and to elicit it in others, and to
stretch beyond the quotidian (customary), in
pursuit of purpose and meaning.”
– Daniel Pink, A Whole New Mind
Daniel Pink hit a homerun with this statement. I have seen the
destructive consequences of the mindless pursuit of technological
supremacy in a service-oriented business. It seems almost selfevident that a business in the “service industry” would rely on its
humanity as opposed to its technology as a key success factor.
Yet, I often see colleagues and clients spend their valuable (and
limited) time, effort, and resources developing a technological
stockpile with the misguided intention of creating a sustainable
competitive advantage in their marketplace.
Not long ago, I had the opportunity to visit with a young dental
specialist who had recently purchased an existing specialty dental
practice. He was seeking advice regarding upgrades for his newly
acquired practice. He had a limited budget for new expenditures,
and wanted to know if I thought that his limited resources would
best be spent for digital radiography or for a cone beam scanner.
I responded by asking him what he wanted to achieve by purchasing the technology. He replied that he wanted to improve the
quality of care that he and his staff could offer their patients.
I feel certain that he was surprised when I suggested that he
spend his remaining discretionary funds on developing his culture and his people. I suggested a retreat with his staff and hiring a professional consultant with expertise in leadership and
team development as a facilitator for the retreat. He admitted
that he was unable to see the value in my suggestion because he
and the previous owner of the practice shared a similar practice
philosophy, and he anticipated very little change as a result of
the transition. I assured him that even though their philoso22 NORTH TEXAS DENTISTRY | www.northtexasdentistry.com