#841: Book Club: High Output Teams Simplified

The Dental A Team Podcast

Kiera reviews May’s DAT Book Club selection, High Output Management by Andrew S. Grove and why her takeaways are complicated. A few of her favorite ideas from the book: delegation is not abdication; allow time to connect; and why less is more when it comes to performance reviews.

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Transcript:

Kiera Dent (00:00.974)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and welcome to May's book club. I hope you guys are excited. Book club was something I didn't know if you guys would enjoy and so many doctors when I was about to cancel it, message in and said, we love this. We love this for our team. You've given us such a easy resource to work through and to be able to do this and then read it and then hear your synopsis on it. So welcome to book club. This month is high output management by Andrew S Grove. And I'm just curious of how many of you read the book?

how did you feel about the book? This one I think puzzled my mind a little bit more. And as I was going through it, I'm like, Kiera, why was this one a puzzling book for you? Why was this one maybe a little bit harder for me to digest? And I think a piece I had was one, I might have thought that the information was dated. And in that, I felt like, Kiera, you might be thinking small because just because things are quote unquote dated or we're doing things differently today.

does not mean the founding principles of what made this organization, the CEO legendary, I can't apply to today. And I think I was thinking so literal as opposed to conceptual. And the other side of it, I thought, I don't know if I'm really set up to do, be a manager. And so I'm super curious, how did you guys enjoy the book? I hope you're ready for it. If you guys are enjoying our podcast in any way, shape or form, please also before we kick it off,

Go leave us that review. You guys, I was looking at those reviews the other day and I just wanna say thank you. Thank you for making us one of the top dental podcasts out there and truly just resonating with the world. And our goal is to get this podcast into the hands of every dental office out there. So please help me out on our mission and share this with somebody today. Leave a review, tag us while you're listening in the car. It means the world to me. So let's kick off High Output Management by Andrew S. Grove and some of the key points that I just noticed in the book club were number one,

Um, like this is a granddaddy, like they're the CEO of Intel's legendary CEO during the transformative years. And I just think about that of, gosh, like they had so many different pieces in there. And so just as kind of a high level, there's the managerial leverage, there's training is the boss's job, motivations, meetings and decisions, one -on -one meetings, delegation and tax relevant, KPIs, performance reviews, interviews, and then promotions and recycling. And so, uh,

Kiera Dent (02:21.134)

Really, I felt like there were so many good tips and I'll just dive right in pretend we're hanging out in my podcast. There is a chair right over here. So pretend you're just hanging out with me sitting here and we're just having a conversation in my podcast studio in my living room, if you will. We're just sitting back having a comfy cozy conversation because I'm really curious. This one was written in 1982. Uh, that's quite, quite a substantial amount of time since this was written. And like I said, I think I was a little more closed off upon reading it.

I think I felt like this doesn't apply. I like the one -on -ones. Oh my gosh. I texted Brittany and I said, this book is recommending we have way longer one -on -ones. And so I feel again, I wasn't looking at the conceptual ideas and more of the logical black and white. Like this is a workbook I'm going in, I'm implementing versus looking at what things can I be looking at?

to really optimize the output of it. And so one of the big things that I really love, like let's take it, is a manager output is the output of their organization and their neighboring organizations under their influence. And so thinking about a manager, and again, I don't know if I'm cut out to be a manager, but that said, just because I don't enjoy managing, I truly don't. I looked at the other day, I was doing a time exercise and I'm like, gosh, like I just feel sluggish.

And I was writing it down and I thought like I have block scheduled and I've maximized my time and I batched my tasks a lot of times and what do I need to do to get out of this bunk? And what I noticed, my funk is due to the fact that I'm in so many meetings. It is death by a thousand meetings and I'm just not enjoying it. And I thought, I don't enjoy this. Britt is our operations manager. I need to get out of these meetings more.

With that said though, I don't think just because we don't enjoy something means that we can abdicate it if we do delegate it. And so that was really a piece I took from this of Kiera. While you might not enjoy managing per se, this is going to give you tips of how to successfully lead your team and guide your managers and give them resources to make sure that they're exceptional managers. So what I really loved is they were talking about like the manager's output should not be focused on how much work they're able to produce.

Kiera Dent (04:29.934)

but is measured on how much output that the team is doing. And I thought about like, doctors, we're looking at our production per hour and hygienists, our production per hour, a manager oftentimes like, it's just a million to do's. And so for you and managers and CEOs and owners and office managers and all that, if we realize that our KPI is our team's output, what are we doing? How is the output of the team, our production, our efficiency? That's what our job is to do. And then,

the way you actually maximize that output is to focus on tasks that have high leverage. And so you're working on high level output and you are looking at the high leverage activities because they have a long -term outcome of a high output from your team. And so like planning ahead and making sure that we're batching our tasks and really making sure that we're doing high leverage is making sure that our team output is a lot higher.

Um, they also talked about like when a manager is putting off decisions that actually can impact a lot of times the effect of that. And so making sure that we make decisions quicker and more efficiently. So we're not stopping the work of our organization. And so just kind of thinking about that, uh, minimizing your interruptions. So that way you can actually get those tasks done, blocking your schedule, creating a scheduled time for people to connect with you. And I thought that that was such an interesting point of creating a scheduled time where your team can come talk to you. And I thought about that of.

if I really had quote unquote office hours where my team was available, of course there's times when there's emergencies, but would that cut down my emergencies? Would that cut down all the interruptions I'm getting throughout the week? I have never tried it. And so I think that that's something for me that I asterisked in the book of try adding this in to see does that cut down? Because if the team knows, it's kind of like we recommend on offices of.

block one hour of CEO time, block one hour of admin time, office managers minimum per week. And that what it does is it cuts down all the fires and all the things. Cause you have a set time where you know, you're going to work on tasks. And I thought about that of, does that help our team know that you're available always with no other meetings, nothing where you are here for your team every single week for them to really be able to come to you. So I just thought like, maybe have that created time where people can connect with you.

Kiera Dent (06:48.078)

I really loved how they talked about training along with motivation is a way to improve performance with your team. And I thought about that training along with motivation and how little time do we as managers. And when I go back to being an office manager, I had my set one hour a month that I was set up for training. Is that really enough time to train?

And I was just actually talking to a manager. She's got a really beautiful practice. And she said, Keira, I think I'm ready for my next step. What's my next step? And I said, realistically, your job is to step back and go to all the different departments and really set it up. And we built a schedule for her. So for example, it'd be Monday, you go and work with the front office. Tuesday, you're on hygiene. Wednesday, you're on leadership. And Thursday, you're on doctors. So how are we going to set it up? Not to say that the whole day is doing that, but there's a cadence for her to know which department am I going to go look in.

Which ones am I going to work on training? Where can I really help? And so it's not just a one -time event, but it's clear of who's training and the, in the book, they recommend that the manager trains. For me, I enjoy leveraging and thinking, how can I train my leaders in each department to basically be managers where it's not just my office manager? And I think that again, this is me thinking literal rather than conceptually, and how can I apply this to dental practices doing this podcast with you? Um,

And so just kind of a thought for you guys to think of if we were to possibly schedule time, would that help? Also looking at training and do I have set time and enough training to really be able to get my team where I actually want them to be or am I just holding back and making it to where we really aren't getting the training because I'm not prioritizing that because I'm so busy putting out other fires. And they said meetings are the medium of managerial work. 50 % of the time in meetings.

25 % and then non -contributary. And I thought, oh my gosh, 50%. And so to me, again, like I said, I was very literal on this book versus thinking, and could it be that I don't have productive meetings? Could it be that if I actually had this more effective that we'd have less problems? So just thinking about it, and again, this is a book that really did, I said, puzzle my mind and make me think of what things are really going to be applicable for dental practices and for my own practice.

Kiera Dent (09:02.574)

And what do I want to do about that? And what do I want to implement? And I just want to put it out there that everything we hear in books, everything we hear in podcasts, everything we hear on Facebook and social media, I really hope that we become better sifters of information rather than just doers of everything. Because doers of everything actually don't prioritize. And as I thought about this book, I thought, fantastic, what things can I take from this book versus...

trying to implement the entire thing, thinking if I do this, because for me, I do believe that we have wisdom within our businesses. I do believe that we have wisdom as managers of that resonates with me and I can see how that would work versus this doesn't resonate with me and I don't think this could work while still having an open mind. So again, thinking about this to me, put me in 50 % of my time in meetings, I don't want a job. I would rather not, but for a lot of managers, they're perfectly fine with it as long as we're being effective with our meeting time.

I really have thought about this and I wondered there's a lot more ways to be effective with our meetings. And so I just thought about let's caution through the information we receive and truly pick up the pearls that actually resonate with us. Like I said, this one was probably the hardest book of all of our book clubs that I've gone through just due to the fact that I felt like there were probably more efficient ways.

that I could get the same outcome with less time and effort while not abdicating my responsibilities. So I really felt like there were just a lot of pieces when they talk about meetings, they said, within meetings, we always need to make sure that we nail down what decisions need to be made. When does it need to be made? Who's going to decide who will need to be consulted prior to making the decision? Who will we ratify or veto the decision? And who will need to be informed of the decision? And I did think those questions were really fantastic.

Also questions to ask yourself before calling a meeting is what am I trying to accomplish? Is the meeting necessary? Is it desirable or justifiable? And don't call a meeting unless those answers are yes. So, and remember by saying yes, we're actually saying no to something else. And so that's, I think, where I kind of looked at like 50 % of my time in meetings. Do I really need to spend that much time or are there ways that I can actually get what I need to done more succinctly? And I think that that's a piece for you.

Kiera Dent (11:23.374)

They talked about one -on -one meetings, which you guys know I'm very pro having one -on -one meetings. They said, these should occur once a week, up to once every few weeks, depending on how quickly things are changing in the environment. And I remember reading this and they recommend a pretty lengthy amount of time for every one -on -one where we really do work with them and we facilitate what's going on and what's bothering them and making sure that we're talking to them about their lives as well. And...

I'm really giving them that guidance and direction. And I think I agree that one -on -ones are phenomenal once a month. But I also feel like spending so much time. I don't know, I'm a 50 -50 split because sometimes I think that they're too short. We do ours 30 minutes every single month. Britt does all of them. And I join in once a quarter. And sometimes I wondered if I had more time, would I hear more? Other times I think.

If I had maybe that set time where people could connect with me, could that offset the need for as long of one -on -ones with them? So really just make sure that on one -on -ones we're getting information back and we're not just giving information. I think that that was the biggest piece. Another piece that I took away from this is being present in meetings and really making sure that I'm there. And recently in our team, I noticed we were all very distracted in meetings and I felt like, well, this is why our meetings are not going as well as I would like them to be.

So I said, everyone has to shut off Slack, everybody shuts off their email, everybody puts their phones on silent, and we are here present. And in a virtual team, it's a bit trickier. I think in person, it might be easier, but in a virtual team, that is a bit trickier. And so really for me, I noticed that when we were all present, so much more actually got done. And I thought, could we actually simplify our meetings just by simply being present? Could we cut down the amount of time and the amount of meetings by being present, having an agenda, pieces like that?

And so just a few pieces like that and they talked about like how far ahead should we be looking and they recommended five years but really just one year and implement between now and the next meeting. And I thought that was really beautiful to think of because you know we've got Gina Wickman who's got traction of the one three ten. We've got like so many things but I love the let's have a five year we need to kind of like that goal out there and then we want to implement.

Kiera Dent (13:41.518)

Like for this year, this one year, and now what's going on between now and the next meeting. Um, I really do love Gina Wickman's traction where it said in a quarterly, like 90 days sprint. And we know the big projects, but I have noticed that those big projects as I've coached teams, as we've done it in our own company, that those 90 days sometimes get forgotten meeting to meeting to meeting because there's just higher issues that come up. And so with this, I thought that really is a beautiful piece of what needs to be done now between the next meeting and making sure that there's that set plan for it. So.

I feel like looking at a lot of these different pieces, looking at KPIs where we have focus on the output, so really making sure we have that performance reviews, making sure that people know where they're going, which is different than your one -on -one. So we've got to level with our team, and we've got to make sure that we're really paying attention and we're hearing what they're saying. And then we really make sure that this is, like these reviews are for us and also for our team members. So.

putting those pieces in place and then like how you take care of performances and interviews and what we do for that and then promotions within. And I liked that they talked about performance reviews and annual raises and they said, less can be more, sit down with a blank paper, write it all down, see the trends and examples, will they remember everything if not remove and how to improve their performance. And I liked the simplicity of that. And so I feel like those are just some of my key highlight takeaways. But like I said,

The pieces that I took from this of sifting through all of it, reality is I'm probably not gonna implement a lot of this book in my life. For some of you, this might have been a book where it was a slam dunk, but the reason I bring books like this that challenge our thinking is because the goal is not to implement everything that we read in book club. The goal is to pick out the pearls from wisdom in this world that will actually move your business forward. And so for me, setting up time where we're available for people to connect with us, I do think that that's like,

asterisk dog, dog ear that page. And then batching tasks. I'm such a pro and I'm going to go back through and look to see how I can batch. I thought about other things that I could batch to cut down for me meetings. I think that the, the following up of those questions of who needs to make the decision, what needs to happen that could really help my team move forward. And then making sure that I do have maybe those annual performance thing. I don't know. I've been very anti doing annual performance reviews and raises. However,

Kiera Dent (16:05.998)

I do think for teams to know that there's a set time for that could clear up expectations. So for me, that's a question mark, right? So I have ideas and I put it as a question mark. And for you, I would love to know what did you guys get from this? I think this would be a possible great discussion book for you and your manager if you want. But maybe it's not, maybe it's not the one, but really I think overall, my biggest takeaways, if I can like scale myself all the way back, if I don't want to do the meetings and I don't want to have that much time on one -on -ones, one is what's the...

What's the underlying principle and reason as opposed to the tactics? And then how can I put the tactics into place? So really making sure that we're maximizing our one -on -one times, maximizing our meeting times, asking myself those questions, making sure that we're available for our teammates to try and reduce. And then I think my biggest piece is a manager's, like the way we measure a manager is the output of the team. And if I could boil it all down, that's the piece that I would take away from all of this is,

a manager's job, like their output is the output of the team. And how can we maximize that output of our team while still balancing and having a be a 10 of fun is a question I think is worth pondering, maybe worth answering, and then implementing. Because honestly, wisdom without action is just dreams. And so how can we implement one thing,

But again, only one thing if it truly moves us forward. And I think that that was one of the greatest lessons from this book club. So I hope you guys enjoyed it. Like I said, I don't always choose books that are like the most fun. I purposely choose books that challenge our thinking because I feel like if we can challenge our thinking, we're able to make smarter decisions. So next month, I know you guys are gonna love it for June. It's called Come Up for Air, How Teams Can Leverage Systems and Tools to Stop Drowning in Work by Nick Sonnenberg.

And I will tell you, this is one that I have obsessed on. My whole team is reading this book. Leadership is reading this book. I have not stopped thinking about this book. Buy back your time, plus come up for air. I feel paired beautifully together. And then just to prepare you guys for July, the next book after that is, You Can Heal Your Life by Louise L. Hay. That one is a very, very emotional book. And so get ready to like really do some inner soul work. But my goal is to give you guys.

Kiera Dent (18:17.614)

management systems, leadership and personal development books this year. So I hope you guys enjoyed it. If we can ever serve you help you and your managers become higher producing managers. If we can help you guys look to see where the efficiency gaps sometimes just having somebody come in. Like I wish I could go get Andrew Grove to come into my company and say, Kiera here is XYZ and if you implemented this, you would be so much more efficient. That's what I'm obsessed with doing for dental offices because we see so many and we get to help you truly cut down the fluff.

Maximize and optimize and do it with ease and a ton of fun. So if we can do that for you reach out [e-mail]. Thanks for listening I'm gonna catch you guys next month on our book club with come up for air by Nick Sonnenberg Thanks again for listening and I'll catch you next time on the dental a team podcast