Broad vs. Deep

Tessa built her dental practice from a single chair into something that served 1,900 patients through a staff of six. She was the only dentist. She dealt with every cleaning that turned into a real problem. She also handled hiring, billing, and the evening hours she had added to increase revenue. She was carrying a whole practice on one set of clinical hands, and knew she needed another dentist.

She came to our session wanting to fix everything. The patient schedule had gaps. The front desk felt inconsistent. Billing leaked money that she never chased. She had a long list of issues, and she wanted to solve them all.

I had given her a simple spreadsheet two weeks earlier listing the practice's eight main functions and asked her to rate each one from one to ten. A “10” was running seamlessly, while a “1” meant it needed a complete revamp. I asked her to have her staff rate the same eight, on their own, before anyone compared notes.

The scores came back, and six of the eight showed room to improve. Tessa’s instinct was to chase all six at once. That instinct was the thing in her way.

What Tessa needed most was a second dentist, yet she couldn’t hire one. There wasn’t enough money, because the profit margin was thin. And there were no additional appointments, because the scheduling process left holes. So we looked for the two functions that would solve both at once. Billing leaked the money. Scheduling left chairs empty in a practice with a waiting list. Fixed, those two would free the money and fill the schedule.

She chose those two, not six. She set the other four aside for now and let the team focus where it mattered most. Solved, billing and scheduling would open the door to the rest.

The results came within months. Billing and collections improved, and the money began to follow. Adjustments to the scheduling process filled the gaps. Within six months, she had hired the second dentist, who took the chair beside hers. She stopped reaching for the long list, and didn’t miss it.

Broad touches many things lightly. Deep changes the few that matter. Less is more.

The Question

If you could improve only two parts of your work now and let the rest wait, which two would make the biggest difference?

"It is those who concentrate on but one thing at a time who advance in this world." — Og Mandino