Alien arm syndrome.
A third ventricle in the heart.
Intermittent paralysis of the tongue.
Pathological mimicry.
These are just a few of the strange medical conditions that Dr. Gregory House and his team of diagnosticians have faced at Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital in New Jersey.
If you are not familiar with Dr. House; He is the fictional medical genius in the critically acclaimed hospital television drama House, MD.
And, despite their general disdain for humanity, contempt for religion, and enslaving addiction to vicodin … chiropractors can learn a lot about business success from the way Dr. House leads and manages his team ( both in what to do and in what not).
Here are 5 chiropractic business lessons ‘to do’
Chiropractic Business Lesson No. # 1: Mastermind Known for his unique ability, on the show, to solve the most mysterious medical cases, Dr. House guides his team through a case-specific deliberation process known as differential diagnosis.
Basically, you put them all in a room, write all the symptoms on a whiteboard, and have them trigger possible diagnoses one at a time.
He and the team respond with reasons why the diagnosis just mentioned is valid or invalid … with a lot of dialogue between the team … and the process continues until Dr. House decides on the diagnosis with which more agrees. Then, he puts his team to work testing the theory of diagnosis by treating the patient.
This, in essence, is actually the same as the popular practice of such a common intellectual discussion among entrepreneurs and founders of highly successful companies.
The idea and the practice is simple:
Walk into a room, either formally or informally, and start brainstorming. This can be done for a new marketing campaign, a new office policy, and a budget change, etc.
The benefit is …
The more input, ideas and insights you get from those around you, the better and more informed you can make the decision.
The key to making this work for you, in your chiropractic practice, is not being afraid to ask for the opinions and ideas of others, especially your office team.
Lesson n. Chiropractic Business # 2: Great People Because Dr. House is a genuine medical genius, and given medical cases that would perplex (and indeed) ordinary physicians, he surrounds himself with a highly skilled team.
For Dr. House and every entrepreneur (chiropractor), the better the team and the quality of the people around him, the better his results and overall performance.
In other words, the better and more qualified your office staff and equipment are, the better your office will perform for you. Your office will only perform and produce at the level of your team. Period.
This is why surrounding yourself with the best possible people, and not just settling for mediocre employees, is critical to your success.
This is also why, like Dr. House, you should always hire slow and finish quickly.
In Dr. House’s case, he put his current medical team through a massive series of tests over a long trial period before officially giving them the job on his team. In the event that he realizes that someone is not the right fit for him or his team, they leave immediately.
For you as a chiropractor I also recommend hiring slowly, hiring with a probationary period, avoid procrastinating when you know a team member needs to be fired.
Chiropractic Business Lesson # 3: Understand How to Develop Your Team Dr. House almost never gives his team the answer to a problem or situation they are facing. However, it does help them find the answer. And he does this by asking them questions about their thoughts on the problem and the solution they propose.
Why does he do this?
Because, by not giving them the answer and forcing them to think for themselves, they become better doctors.
The same is true for you and your staff.
Your number one job as the leader of your own chiropractic practice is to develop your staff. Remember, the more qualified you are, and the better you do at your job, the better your chiropractic practice will perform.
So as they develop and improve, everyone benefits.
And they get better when you help them find the right answers to the problems and situations they face.
Lesson n. Chiropractic Business # 4 – High Standards As mentioned above, Dr. House sets extremely high standards of his staff. And they know it.
He has been known to fire a team member for a single mistake (not something I necessarily defend).
The point is: you also have to keep your staff to an extremely high standard.
That doesn’t mean you don’t tolerate mistakes.
That just means you don’t ignore mistakes, sloppy work, or poor front desk service.
That means you set the bar high, give staff the training and guidance they need to perform at that level, and then hold everyone accountable for doing so.
When they don’t, address the situation immediately … either with further training if necessary or with a reprimand from a staff member.
Regardless, he keeps his team at an extremely high level, because that’s what you deserve and need to shine as a chiropractor, and he makes sure they know it from day one.
Chiropractic Business Lesson No. 5: Connections, baby! In almost every episode, Dr. House has a flash of inspiration and makes a breakthrough in the diagnostic process. Usually this happens when you see a connection between seemingly unrelated and unconnected things.
In other words, Dr. House looks for and sees strange connections where other doctors don’t. And it is those connections that allow you to find the diagnostic answers that others cannot.
Looking for and seeing strange connections is also very common among highly successful entrepreneurs.
For example, being able to see the application from one company to another … from one industry to another … is, in essence, seeing connections where others generally do not.
The same goes for chiropractic marketing techniques, tactics, and strategies that apparently only fit a certain profession or business model. The smart entrepreneur (chiropractor) seeks connections where others do not.
Most chiropractors only seek ideas within chiropractic. Either they don’t look or they don’t look outside of the ‘chiropractic box’.
This is a mistake. Because within the walls of a profession there are no advances.
You will find and gain breakthroughs and breakthrough ideas when you search outside of chiropractic and seek connections and applications where other physicians would not or would not.
The best way to develop this ability to make connections where others cannot is to observe things, even study them, and ask yourself a lot of questions.
Questions like:
- “How can that be applied to make me more successful as a chiropractor?”
- “How can I take that and apply it to our new patient marketing?”
- “How can we use that idea in our practice to drive referrals?”
- “What aspect of that idea could have application and value in my office?”
- Etc.
Ironically, this article was based on the idea of seeing connections, connections between the House TV show and the way Dr. House leads and manages his team … with success as a chiropractor and business lessons that could be drawn.
Oh one more thing …
Although I did talk about how Dr. House “leads his team” on the show, I don’t think he’s a good leader, per se. In fact, not by long.
As a leader … especially of your own chiropractic practice … you need to care about people and make their development and improvement a big part of your focus. And you must do it with the right motivations and intentions. If not, they will know, they will resent you for it, and you will get nowhere.