President's Editorial - Good To Great

Wow!! another year has passed in Dentistry and Transitions is grateful to be smiling and thriving in Canadian dentistry. Thank you sincerely to all who continually supported and encouraged us to live our vision to make a positive difference in the lives of dental professionals across Canada.

The end of a year brings about reflection and the need, regardless of how busy we are to slow down long enough to review the past year accomplishments and develop a fresh plan for the next year. We encourage each and every one of you to take the time to reflect with your own teams on 2003.

Our year end team meeting brought about the realization that for Transitions, 2003 has proven to be our best year ever in the areas of Client Service, Team Development, Speaking and Workshops as well as continued new industry relationships.

Our client service was enhanced with our accreditation approval from the AGD on our dental practice management curriculum. This means that clients achieve point and portfolio recognition for all Transitions programs. You will also notice that the streamlining of your statistics and monitors to our head office has allowed us to support you in making sure you are achieving a return on investment on your consulting fees.

At Transitions our most precious resource is our clients and through continued enhancements to our leadership programs and case presentation strategies and your willingness to change, you are achieving significant results in the areas of team performance and financial success.
Our business and leaders are only as good as the team and their ability to fulfill the vision. Making sure the right people are on the bus, in the right seats maximizing their potential is the foundation of our culture. As with any team, turnover is a fact of life. We said good-bye to a few special team members as they moved on to other industries and careers. We also welcomed fresh expertise with the addition of a leadership coach, marketing expert and human resource specialist.

Our team is particularly proud of Linda Anderson, who after numerous hours and hard work achieved her certificate in Adult Education from Xavier University and Angela Mills who is now teaching at Niagara College in the hygiene program. Barbara Mitchell, after a decade of client service with life-long clients, continues to find innovative approaches which take these practices to their next level of goals.

Our speaking engagements at conventions, study clubs, and associations, combined with our workshops across the country allowed us to impact over 1600 dental professionals in 2003. Providing Continuing Education in this format is extremely rewarding especially when we hear feedback and stories from our participants of how they leave the experience with a renewed passion and excitement for dentistry.

We have also broadened our scope to reach out to the dental students through my teaching at the University of Toronto, Faculty of Dentistry, The Business of Dentistry Course. Preparing the students for graduation and providing them with the ability to make sound decisions for their dental career continues to pave the way for future dentistry.

In your own year-end review of accomplishments and planning, it is critical to keep the process simple, fun, and achievable by following Transition's three elementary rules of change.

RULE

1

IF SOMETHING WORKS
~ DO MORE OF IT
If something is working and fulfilling all objectives, there is no reason to change it and methods of how to do more of it need focus.

RULE

2

IF SOMETHING DOESN'T WORK
~ DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT
If something doesn't work, why repeat it over and over again and expect a different result. What do you have to lose by trying something different?

RULE

3

IF YOU DON'T KNOW
IF SOMETHING WORKS
~ FIND OUT

Many times we don't know if something works or not because we haven't looked closely enough at the result. Take the time to analyze the outcome to determine its success.
The future is bright and we look forward to building new relationships and maintaining our current alliances in 2004.