Problem Solving with Dr. Cathy Jameson

"There isn't a single person, dental practice, or home that doesn't encounter problems. We all have problems. The difference between being successful or not lies in the ability to face those problems and work through them to find a healthy solution that brings resolution."

- Dr. Cathy Jameson

Today I'm interviewing my friend, my sister, and my mentor, Dr. Cathy Jamieson.

Heather-Dawn

Welcome, Cathy!

Cathy

Thank you, Dr. Lawson-Meyers. I'm so thrilled to be here and for your people and your wonderful assistants. Thank you for the invitation.

Heather-Dawn

We are so glad to have you here today. Could you just share a little bit about Dr. Cathy Jameson? Who is she, and what she brings to the world?

Cathy

Thank you. I'd be happy to. I've been in dentistry for a long, long time. My husband is a dentist, and he and I were married in undergraduate school at Oklahoma State University when I was behind him in school.

He gets accepted to dental school, and off he goes to dental school. So we married, and I went with him to finish my bachelor's degree in education in Omaha, Nebraska.

He was in school at Creighton University, in a private dental school. I had a great deal of school experience, as you know how difficult that is, but we really bonded during that time.

And I'm so grateful that I had a chance to see what it was like firsthand for someone to go through dental school and earn that very coveted degree.

That can help me respect who he is, what he does, and what all the people in the dental profession are engaged in doing every day, mostly for patients but also for themselves.

So I taught school to put him through dental school, then I went on to get a master's and a Ph.D. in psychology because I was working in his dental practice.

I helped him start his practice. I assisted in some work, mostly in the business office, and learned very quickly that the study of human behavior, which is psychology, is critical to whether we're talking about patients, our team, doctors, or whatever it is.

Then I went on some years later to get a second Ph.D. in management because that's what I do now and have been doing for some time. I started a company called Jameson Management.

We learned that for John to be successful in his practice, management was critical, but he didn't get much management training in dental school.

So we figured it out and found that we were very successful, and people started asking me, "Well, could you come and teach us what you're doing?" at John's practice and I thought, "Well, I'm a teacher; I guess I could teach this."

And that was actually the beginning of Jameson Management.

Now, we have consultants throughout the United States, and we've had consultants throughout the world, really. We have been in every state in the United States and have had the privilege of working in 31 countries. So we have a lot of experience.

We love dentistry. I'm a mom, and I have two kids. I have four grandkids, actually, and my husband and I live on a ranch in Oklahoma.

So it's a very demanding life but a life we love, and we love our profession of dentistry.

Heather-Dawn

But you know, when you do what you love, it doesn't feel like work because you're motivated to do it each day just a little better.

So I wanted to drill down and speak to you today about a topic that really makes a difference if you have been able to manage it or not in a dental office, but it's seldom spoken about.

This is a problem-solving topic. And I know you're the expert because you have a wonderful book that I've read, and I found this chapter and reached out and said, "Hey, we have got to share this."

Cathy

Good for you! Well, it's wise on your part because I think you and I can both agree, and everyone listening—all your wonderful assistants who are listening—can also agree.

There isn't a single person, dental practice, or home that doesn't encounter problems.

We all have problems.

The difference between being successful or not

lies in the ability to face those problems

and work through them

to find a healthy solution

that brings resolution

to the people,

the business,

or whatever's going on.

So problem-solving—the key word there is "solving"—is because that's always going to be the goal: finding a healthy, equitable solution to something that might be causing some difficulty.

Heather-Dawn

I think that's so true. Because when things go wrong or don't line up, we have a habit of blaming. Sometimes, even blaming and shaming. Let us know how you define the word "problem."

What does it mean when I say there's a problem?

Cathy

When you or I said that word, it probably meant something different to everyone who was listening because each of us has our own perception based on our own experience.

Your experience is different than mine.

Mine is different than yours.

And therefore, how we define something can be different. It's nothing wrong with that. But for the subject to be discussed today, let's seek clarity.

I'd like to refer to Chapter 21 of my book, which is about creating a healthy work environment because I'm very passionate about it.

We all work, you know, eight hours a day, four or five days a week, maybe more. And so if we're going to work, we might as well enjoy it, love it, and make it a healthy part of a fulfilled life.

Let's define "problem." I'm going to give you two definitions, if I may.

WEBSTER DICTIONARY DEFINITION: The first one is a classic definition from Webster. And, according to Webster, a problem is something that is difficult to deal with, something that causes trouble or worry, etc., or difficulty understanding something, so there is a distinction.

It can be something that's causing a problem, or, as this author suggests, it can be just that we aren't on the same wavelength. We don't understand something, and that can be problematic.

It's possible that I don't understand how someone is reacting to something. I don't understand someone's attitude towards something, or I don't understand how to do something in practice, which can all lead to difficulty.

And last but not least, Webster says the problem is a feeling of not liking or wanting to do something.

Now, that's a pretty difficult one if somebody doesn't want to do something or likes doing something. As leaders, it's hard to get somebody to do that and do it well.

FREE DICTIONARY DEFINITION: I like the definition of problem from the Free Dictionary. Free Dictionary has a very constructive view of this word, "problem," which I believe is very constructive.

And this dictionary says a problem is a question to be considered solved or answered, and I love that thing.

It's a very affirmative way to define a problem because they're not just talking about the situation.

They're talking about getting through it and it is better on the other side, to be considered.

In other words, we need to think about it and figure out what our goal is, which is a solution, as I mentioned earlier, and whatever the question is, whatever the situation is, let's answer it.

I think the key word here for us to think about is RESOLUTION.

Sometimes when we hear about problems, we put up barriers;

we get defensive;

we get nervous;

we want to back away,

and that doesn't do any good.

Again, I'm going to say what I said earlier: the difference between being successful and not being successful in almost any situation, and certainly in dealing with the problem, is the ability and willingness (I'm using the word strength) to face that problem and work through it.

We'll keep working on this deal until we find a solution that works for everyone.

But what about blame?

Now, the other thing that you said, Heather, that I've really liked to piggyback on is the word "blame." You're very correct.

Oftentimes, something isn't going right in the practice, and we may not have taken the time to figure out what's going right or what's going wrong, we just think something's going wrong.

So it must be her.

It must be them.

It must be the doctor.

Someone's doing something wrong.

And let's get together in the sterilization room and talk about it. Because surely it's not me; it's got to be someone else.

And so they blame. 

"Oh, it's not me. Heather isn't doing what she's supposed to do." "This is why we're always running behind schedule because Jan in the business office doesn't know anything about scheduling; she's just doing a terrible job."

Blah, blah, blah, blah.

Instead of blame, how about we look for RESOLUTION?

And so we just reach out to look at the problem with the goal of saying, "Hey, let's get to the core of this."

Let's dig deep.

Let's find out what's going on.

Let's have a conversation about this.

 Does everybody agree we have a problem here?

We've run behind on three out of every four appointments, and we call that a problem.

Let's all agree that it is, then let's find out what's causing it and work through it.

So this thing called blame gets us nowhere. Blaming is absolutely useless.

In fact, blaming is considered a TOXIC BEHAVIOR in our industry by psychologists and organizational psychologists.

In our case, in a dental practice, toxic behavior is because, number one, we're only putting someone down.

We're only reaching out in a hurtful way.

There's no solution going to be had, and we run the risk of antagonizing any other parties that might join with us to solve a problem.

So there's absolutely no benefit; in fact, I'm going to use the word again: it's toxic.

So I'm going to suggest to all of our good listeners that when you start to reach out and blame someone else for something, stop before you do that.

And consider: Is this person wrong, or is there something going on that is less than effective?

Almost every time I or we discover that people in a practice are at odds with one another, whether it's the clinical team at odds with the business team or vice versa, or the hygienist at odds with the clinical assistants, or two people, you and I, at odds with one another.

We have problems most of the time but not always if you look carefully, peel the layers of the onion, so to speak, to get to the core of what's going on.

It's not that I get up in the morning thinking I'm going to go to work and make Heather miserable. I know I sound like Pollyanna, but I just don't believe that's true.

I don't believe people get up in the morning with the purpose or goal of having a miserable day and making everybody else miserable. I just don't believe that, and I'd like to not believe that. So that's what happens, and that is so ineffective.

So what we need to find out is that it's not the person doing something wrong; there may be a glitch in the system.

And when I find out if there's a glitch in more than one of the management systems that will inadvertently pit one person against another or a whole division of the practice or department of the practice against another, I'll go back to the scheduling issue.

Let's pretend that the practice is continuing to run behind schedule.

That's very stressful.

Patients don't like it.

Doctors and teams don't like it.

Nobody likes that.

And they're always hurrying, and that adds extra stress.

That's just one stress added to another, so when we run behind schedule, we start throwing daggers at the business people because they don't know how to schedule for this.

Businesspeople may claim that we scheduled exactly as they instructed, but then they throw in all this extra stuff, and blah blah, blame, blame, blame—it sounds familiar.

And it doesn't get anybody anywhere.

So again, there probably is a glitch in the scheduling system.

And if we find out what that glitch is and put our heads together more or get some help, it is more than likely that we can find a solution.

And that's really the answer.

Einstein says to stop talking about your problems and start thinking about solutions.

That's a good way to think about it.

Stop talking about your problems and start thinking about solutions. So there's a long answer to your question about the definition of "problem."

Heather-Dawn

It was well worth listening to because you hit the nail on the head in so many instances.

In the dental office, we don't have a water cooler, but we do have this.

So, I'm pretty sure a few of my listeners are going "Yep, yep, yep."

So are we at liberty to identify or say there's a problem?

Because, you know, if someone sees something wrong but it's not their job, they don't have the authority to say anything.

So who do you think should identify a problem in the dental office without stepping out of bounds?

Cathy

That is an excellent question. So I'm going to give you the idealistic answer.

As we develop our team in the practice, what we want to do is empower the people, meaning to give someone authority, power, or permission, if you will, to do something.

For example, let's say the person in the business office is having problems getting people to pay.

Okay, well, the doctor is back in the clinical area treating patients and may not know exactly what's going on in the business office.

We hope that you have good systems in place and that we can count on people to administer those systems.

However, if there are issues, we want the person who is experiencing those issues to bring them up.

We want them to bring up the subject because otherwise, we don't have even a chance to solve the problem.

If we never know what the problem is, we never have a chance to solve it.

And so, in my opinion, if anyone in the practice sees a glitch in the system, let's call it a problem or a glitch in the system.

I would hope that they have been empowered by the owner, doctor, or manager in that scenario to say, "I see a problem that we have."

Again, without blaming anyone, say I'd like to bring this up at the next team meeting.

We're running behind schedule by about three out of four patients or appointments, and I'd like to bring that up to decide what's happening.

And then let's schedule a time to work on a solution.

When we provide empowerment to people and give them the strength, permission, and authority they need, as you said, it makes them stronger. They become more confident if you will.

If you're looking for synonyms for the word "empower," consider authorized, entitle, and permit. Permission to bring up an issue and then encourage.

Now, that may sound like a dichotomy. It's not; I want to encourage people to bring up issues because I can't see them all.

And if I really have a team built on trust, then I know that nobody's going to bring up a problem because they want to belittle someone else. They don't want to cause more problems.

What they're doing is something that will help solidify the practice and make it better.

Help us serve our patients more effectively and have less stress.

So if we truly respect one another in a team and the practice is oriented towards that, that's nurture, and then everyone has, I would say, not only permission but also the right and, I would suggest, the responsibility, to bring up issues to make the practice better.

Heather-Dawn

I think you're so right because everybody is looking at the same animal from a different point of view.

And everybody has a different viewpoint that drills you down into things that are working very well.

Or things that are consistently not going well from your perspective and are awaiting someone else who isn't privy to what you're seeing.

Maybe this will stress you out; it may make you feel overwhelmed because, as you say, nobody wants to be in an environment that is stressful, where you see things going wrong and you don't feel empowered to do anything about it.

So I think this topic of problem-solving is crucial, and based on what I've heard you say,

Anyone can take the initiative to say, "Yes, we have this; how can we fix it?"

And that basically is how you would define problem-solving: identifying the problem and then being able to sit down and flesh it out to determine what has gone wrong.

And as you've said, it doesn't necessarily have to come from the top. It just has to be an environment in which people feel free to share their wins but also identify challenges.

Cathy

How should I bring it up? My communication skills about that also make a big difference.

This is where you must be careful not to use blaming language.

You want to stay away from statements that we call "you" statements. For example, "Heather, you don't ever schedule us properly.

You don't seem to know what we're doing back here at the back, and you're trying to cram things in, and you run us around like chickens with our heads chopped off. And you just don't seem to really get it."

That's you, you, you, and that's a putdown in this case to you, the scheduler, in our little example.

And that's not going to make you want to solve this problem; that's going to turn you against me or make you defensive.

A "you" message is also called a "put-down" message.

And when someone is put down, they almost automatically become defensive.

When someone becomes defensive, the lines of communication stop, so we're not going to get what we want—the resolution, the solution.

So we want to turn that around and say it in what's called an "I" message.

Like, what am I seeing happen?

How's it making me feel?

What's going on that's making me concerned about this, and what are the negative effects?

So I might say, "Team, I have a concern. I have found over the last two weeks that we've been running behind schedule for about three out of every four appointments."

Now there's the concrete behavior that is causing me to feel concerned.

"So when we do that, it causes the doctor to be further stressed."

"We're hurrying when we don't need to be hurrying, and patients are also very upset because they are on such tight schedules these days."

So what I'm describing is the concrete negative impact of what's happening, or the behavior, if you will, on me, the team, or the doctor on the patients. It was on everyone in this case.

There was a concrete negative effect that caused me to feel this way. So I bring it up like that. And when I do that, most of the time people are going to be more receptive.

So you mentioned identifying the problem.

The first thing that anybody needs to do is to pause.

Here's the most important question I've ever learned, and it was taught to me by my mentor, Dr. Thomas Gordon.

And it's whether it's in my family, with my husband, with my children, with my team, with my patients, whatever.

If I'm upset about something or something's bothering me or just stressing me, if I pause for a minute, take a breath, and say, "Is what this person is doing or is this situation having a concrete negative effect on me, on my performance or our performance, or on the practice as a whole?"

Now in the example, I just gave him a running schedule.

If I ask that question, "Am I running behind schedule for three out of four appointments?

Is that having a concrete negative effect on me as a dental assistant, on the doctor, on the patient, or on the practice?"

The answer would be yes.

And if the answer is yes, then we have a problem.

It's a real problem.

We have the right and, in my opinion, the responsibility to bring that up with the goal of bringing a resolution.

You can probably hear me say those words a lot. I'm not going to bring it up and throw it in someone's face.

I'm going to bring it up because we want to solve the problem.

If everyone agrees that, yeah, this is going on and this is not good, this is a problem, let's work this out.

If we don't, we run the risk of people being at odds with one another.

We run the risk of people being antagonistic toward one another. That's when teams start to not get along so well, and that's not happy for anyone.

Heather-Dawn

Well, you know, the more skills we have under our belts, the easier it is for us to navigate.

And one of the early modules in DAME—Dental Assisting Made Easy—is a whole module on communication that speaks to "I messages" because you're absolutely right.

If you do not coach that correctly, they can't hear the problem.

Because they've already felt their hearts racing and the back of their ears burning because you're getting ready to blame.

Cathy

And I just want to pat you on the back for setting communication skills at the outset of your course.

I believe that communication skill is the bottom line to success, whether that's with a business or whether it's with a personal job within the practice or personal responsibilities, or whether it's with relationships.

How we communicate makes all the difference in the world. 

So good for you for setting that. And I don't know; I think you agree with me that the study of communication skills is probably a lifelong endeavor.

And the more we study, the better we get; the better we get at communicating, the better the relationships get.

Heather-Dawn

Communication and the way the message is delivered are extremely important.

But let's say now that we're looking at the message being sent and everybody is agreeing that yes, there is a problem. What are the steps?

How should we move through this process of problem-solving?

Cathy

So, let's go over the problem-solving steps.

I'll give you the classic sense of problem-solving.

Let's say that you're doing a composite restoration. Well, you do step one, step two, step three. But that's a classic quote from Dr. Nash.

He says, "In composite restoration, there's either excellent or poor, and there's nothing in between." Well, the same is true with management systems.

There are about 25 major management systems in a dental practice, and then there are a lot of sub-systems too. We don't realize this when we're scheduling, reducing broken points, scheduling no-shows, and scheduling.

Yes, finances, sometimes for some practices; injury management communication; team building; infection control hygiene; oh, that goes on and on and on.

There are so many things we do. Well, problem-solving is the same way.

So you want to have your system and your procedures in place.

Step one, step two, step three, and step four—and how to administer those steps—and then the commitment to do that, the commitment to follow up and follow through.

If we leave out steps, since there's either excellent or there's poor in any of our management systems, we decide to inadvertently leave out some steps, we're gonna have some glitches.

Problem-solving is done in the same way.

It's a system.

The first step we've already alluded to is to identify what the problem is in the first place.

First of all, state the problem.

I might even want to focus on some things that are working. We're doing these things well, but then what's not working for at least one of those four appointments?

We're scheduling it right on; it seems to be consistently great. We schedule it excellently, and we always seem to follow up nicely.

However, I'm going to talk about what is working because we want to solidify anything that's working and working well.

We want to pause from time to time and pat ourselves on the back, not braggadociously, but to recognize and celebrate the things that are working well so that we can solidify so that we keep doing more of that.

What isn't working and why isn't it working?

But there's also what's not working, and we want to figure out why. Because most of the time, if you have any system and the practice is not working, it's going to lead to stress, as you mentioned earlier.

Stress is not necessarily bad. It can be very exhilarating stress, it's what you love to do.

But when something begins to debilitate a person either psychologically or physiologically, it is termed distress, and distress is responsible for about 80% of the illnesses being treated throughout the world today.

So we want to identify, and I will say this very strongly, what's causing the stress; that's called a stressor.

Are their expectations being met, or are they not being met?

Are there any barriers within our organization that are preventing us from finding a solution?

That may be getting in our way, because if we don't get rid of the barriers, we're going to keep butting our heads against the wall, and we're not going to ever find a solution.

So we will identify the barrier or barriers and try to either get rid of them or go around them, or at least identify what they are.

And remember the question, "Is what's going on having a concrete negative effect on me, on my performance, on anybody else's performance, or on the practice as a whole?" If the answer to that is yes, you do have a problem. 

That's when we want to dive into it again.

You might even want to identify the cause of the problem.

Is there something going on that's causing this?

You might want to look at that pretty carefully because if you don't deal with the cause, you may not be able to work through it.

But one of the most important parts of this step, step one of problem-solving, may take longer than anything else—the definition of the problem.

And here's the key element: You want to define the needs of each party or of every party. In this example, we wanted to find out the needs of the clinical team.

We wanted to find out what the needs of the business team, as well as the doctor and patients, were.

You've got to define the problem in terms of the needs of each party or all parties because if you don't and you come up with a solution that does not meet people's needs, it isn't going to work.

Heather-Dawn

I remember listening to something about really identifying the source of the problem.

An example was cited about one of the guests at the Ritz Carlton who complained that the breakfast was always served late, and they were blaming the kitchen.

After they picked it apart, they realized that the recommended number of bedding allowed for each room was three, but they cut it down to two to save money.

And because those maids had to be going through the rooms and stopping on each floor for a longer period of time, even though the food left the kitchen, the elevator system was so slow that the food was delivered late.

So they thought the source of the problem was the kitchen, but after closer examination, they realized it had nothing to do with the kitchen at all.

So I think identifying the source of the problem is crucial; it's key, and if we stay away from people and look at what's happening, what the systems are, it will more than likely drill us more closely and more specifically to what the challenge is.

Cathy

That's so true. That is an excellent example because it's like wrapping a solution around something that really isn't the problem in the first place.

And so that's oftentimes what we do in our practices is throw out a solution and see if it'll splat on the wall and stick.

And it doesn't because it wasn't addressing the real issue anyway.

My husband used to say, "I scheduled time with my team to communicate." So we're always on top of things.

However, if there is an immediate issue, we will schedule a special time to get together and converse about it.

We're not going to wait until we put something on the calendar to talk about it next month if it's something that's bothering us right now.

So that's another important part of problem-solving: what is the immediacy of it?

And do we need to pause just a little while to really address this issue before we move on?

So that's all part of Step 1.

And I believe that the better you are at defining the problem in the first place and according to the needs of the parties, the easier it will be to generate alternative solutions in the second aspect or step.

Okay, so when we talk about the solution, we get a lot of clarity about what the problem is?

• What's going on?
• What are the very concrete negative effects?
• What are the specific issues causing problems, and how can those be clearly defined?

Then have everybody agree on them.

The second step is to generate alternative solutions.

This is where you brainstorm.

Brainstorming means you just throw out all the possible ideas that nobody talks about.

Throw all the ideas out.

Some of the craziest ideas might be some of the best ideas.

So throw out all the ideas about ways we can solve that. And it's hard not to jump in and discuss them all, come to a conclusion, or give your opinion while also listening.

I want everybody to throw out solutions.

I want everybody to participate.

So it's also very important not to judge or criticize someone's idea.

So let's say I throw out an idea. And Heather says, "Oh, Cathy, are you kidding me?" That is the craziest thing I've ever heard in my life. We tried that one Sunday.

Remember, that's crazy. Don't even talk about that.

So if someone puts down another person's idea, that person is never going to throw out an idea again. I'm okay; I'm through. I'm not talking about this anymore.

If that's the way my idea is going to be received, then forget it; figure it out yourself. That's the way people will respond. So don't do that.

You may not like somebody else's idea.

But sometimes the craziest ideas are the best ideas—

you never know.

So be careful. Be respectful. Heather, if by of all the years I've worked with teams and I've talked to teams and analyzed teams and surveys of teams, the word that probably when I say what do you want most from a team?

Probably the word that emerges more than any other is the word "respect."

People want to be respected, and that means we respect people's ideas.

Just because I listen to your ideas or respect you for having an opinion doesn't mean that I agree with them.

It's okay to disagree. But I'm not going to say anything during this step while we are throwing out ideas.

Then the next step, step three, is to discuss the pros and cons of each idea, and we're not going to leave anybody out.

"Heather's idea was so crazy. We don't even need to talk about it. We're just going to skip over that." No, we're not going to do that.

We're going to discuss the pros and cons, not in a slanderous way. Like, we're not going to put somebody's idea down.

That's crazy. We tried that three years ago. That was stupid. It'll never work here. You know? No. You also have to be cautious about not using Yeah, but it's what I call the Yeabut disease.

Yeah, but that won't work here.

Yeah, but we're the city. They're in a rural area.

Yeah, but we're in a rural area. They're in a city.

Yeah, but we've been practicing for 20 years.

Yeah, but we've only been practicing what the Yeah, but yeah, but yeah, but the minute somebody starts saying, "Yeah, but," we shut down on the idea that we can do a solution that is like a negative.

The more positively you can think about something, the more likely you'll be to bring that to fruition.

You become what you think about.

So when you think about all the reasons something can't work, I promise you it won't.

But if you think about ways that can work, you're moving closer to a solution.

The fourth step is to then come to a consensus agreement so that everybody can agree on a solution.

We really believe we can do something that will work for us.

Let's have a consensus agreement as a team so we can really all jump in and put ourselves 100% into trying to work this out. It might be that we need some training.

So the next, step five is to design a plan of action. And I'm a big fan of goal-setting. And goal setting is really like strategic planning. It's like, okay, what is our goal?"

Our goal is to stop running behind schedule. Or we could turn that around and have it be positive. Our goal is to run on schedule or to schedule appropriately so that we run on time.

Say that in an affirmative, positive way. What is your goal? Then write it down. And this all needs to be written down because we got it. We want this written down and to be very specific.

Then brainstorm all the possible ways that you think we can resolve this scheduling issue. And again, come we've come to a consensus agreement.

So we're going to design the plan of action, what are we going to do step one, step two, step three, who's going to do what that's the third part who's going to do what?

What's the doctor going to do?

What are the assistants going to do?

What is the hygienist going to do?

What is everyone going to do?

What is each person's role and responsibility in this plan of action we are developing?

Then assign a timeframe.

When are we going to implement this—tomorrow? today? Next week? Again, do some timeframes for each step.

We're going to design the plan, and now we're going to practice it. They're going to put it into effect next week when the schedule begins to open up, whatever it may be, and assign timeframes.

We didn't just write this plan down, stick it in a drawer, and hope we remembered it. We wrote it out, then we paid attention to it.

Anyone who had a role or part in a plan of action can get a copy of that. And you can do this digitally, but you have to follow up and follow through.

Or you'll think again—three months down the road, you'll think, "Gosh, we had that great idea about scheduling.

And what became of that, whatever became of that? With all that stuff, we were problem-solving, and we're still running behind schedule.

So as you're putting the plan of action into effect, you're implementing the plan, which is step six, and that's critical.

Don't just say it or just plan it; actually do it.

And step seven is to evaluate your progress.

And so that's when you check in with each other to check in with the different parties involved, bringing out your written sheet on which you wrote your plan of action.

How far have we come?

Are we still on track?

Are there things that are working well?

Well, great. Let's keep doing that.

Are there some things that aren't working very well?

If some things aren't working very well, don't throw the whole thing out and say, "Forget it."

No, no, you look at the parts of the plan that aren't working and resolve those, making sure that you find a way to correct whatever it was that wasn't working.

It's kind of an ongoing process, but it's a living entity.

I'll share this with you.

This is from my book. It says a problem approached with a fresh, creative mind can be the key to progress.

So we think about that and realize that problem-solving is really a key, not the key to progress.

A new idea can open the door to opportunity, growth, and improvement.

Look at problems and face them head-on; find solutions.

On the other side of solving a problem, you'll find strength, wisdom, and peace. Those are vital elements of creating a healthy work environment.

So, as part of a healthy team, problem-solving can be a real gift that we give and share with one another.

Heather-Dawn  

I love how you've coined it as a gift that we give to each other. That is why it is critical to understand that problems and stress are not always bad.

A lot of times, it means growth and evolution and understanding that success is not defined by everything going well.

But success is also defined by recognizing these little glitches. The team comes together, everybody putting in an opinion, and working together to get to the next stage.

Because if your ideal vision of success is everything running smoothly every day, I think you're being misled. Right? Right.

Understanding how to take on that challenge and giving everybody in the team permission to come and share about it is important because I don't want you coming to me with a problem unless you are beginning to think of a solution.

It's a place where everybody can come and say, "Well, this is what's going on." This is what I think we need to look at. If it's a front-desk issue, and the front desk staff is present all day, listen to them.

They know what they're talking about, and they're in that department, so let's listen to them. However, anyone else can say, "Well, from my point of view, what I'm seeing is X, Y, and Z."

And cohesively, we move on to the next, and there's nothing more fulfilling than a team effort when everybody feels it. You know, I'm proud of that. I made that happen.

Cathy

The concept of engagement. The processes of engagement in the workplace today is considered by business magnates to be the single most important factor in a thriving business in the 21st century.

So engagement means that people are participating people care people want to participate.

What you just described is a beautiful example of engagement.

And the other thing that we can see from research on people in the workplace today is that people want that. They want to work somewhere where they are honored, respected, and their ideas are valued.

And, as you and I both stated earlier, they not only have permission but are encouraged to participate. And it's true. And that's how we get people to come to our practices. And that's how we keep them with us.

I mean, that's a lot more powerful than money, which is important but not the single most important thing to people in the workplace.

You know, it's very important today because we're still in the COVID world, inflation is high, and COVID is still here.

So we do have problems, wouldn't you agree? There are some problems nobody even imagined.

And so there's never been a time, probably in our profession or in the universe, when problem-solving hasn't been more important.

We can't do things exactly the same. We're not doing things the same as we were.

Dentistry was way ahead of the game because we really became more involved in infection control during the AIDS epidemic.

And we really upped our infection control. We were way ahead of the game in terms of healthcare professionals, but we've upped our game since then.

So again, Microsoft took the word "problem" out of their company's vocabulary and said to use the word "issue," and when they have issues, they're together in the business of having a brainstorm about ways to resolve them, so they don't even use the word "problem."

They use the word "issue."

And so we all, as you said, have issues every day.

But if we all put our heads, minds, and hearts together, we can find solutions.

Heather-Dawn
Absolutely. The stress does not have to become distress.

Cathy
Yes, I agree.

Heather-Dawn  
Oh, well. I have learned so much during these few minutes that we have been speaking together. I always end my podcast Cathy with a quote. Do you have one that you'd like to share with us today?

Cathy  
I do, and if I may, I'd like to share this quote from the chapter on problem-solving.

"A problem that is left alone becomes a habit, but a problem that is approached with a new, fresh, creative mindset can open the door for new ideas, and new ideas can open the door to brilliance."

Heather-Dawn  
Absolutely brilliant. We have a resource area on our learning platform, and I already have some of your books there.

But I am going to add yours to our resource library, where people can go and get additional information.

As always, this is a wealth of information, and there's not a time that we speak that I don't learn something new or am reminded of something that I may have forgotten. So thank you.

Wow, what an awesome treat listening to Dr. Cathy Jameson speaks to us about problem-solving.

Really, it's essentially about finding a healthy solution that brings some form of resolution.

And here are some steps that she mentioned.

• Identifying the problem,
• generating alternative solutions,
• brainstorming,
• discussing the pros and cons of the ideas presented,
• coming to a consensus,
• designing a plan of action,
• initiating the plan;
• and then evaluating the progress.

Listen, all this and more can be found in her book, Creating a Healthy Work Environment. 

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