In this episode of The Best Practices Show, host Kirk Behrendt sits down with serial entrepreneur, speaker, and author Chuck Blakeman to talk re-humanizing the workplace of a dental practice. Blakeman believes that since the dawn of factories, our culture has slowly but steadily grown towards de-humanizing our workforce. This same trend is all too true in the world of dental practices. Kirk asks Blakeman for his best advice to return humanity to the 8 to 5, and takes a deep dive into a world where there are no longer managers.

Re-humanizing a workplace that has been de-humanized by too much telling and not enough asking isn’t an easy process, but from his bevy of experiences, Blakeman shares some of his best advice, starting with a return to our humanity through awareness and creativity. Blakeman goes on to illustrate how training is better than telling when it comes to building leaders, and that overall, a dental practice, or any workplace, needs input from its people to regain its collective humanity.

The episode concludes with Blakeman’s insight into turning employees into adults again, a practice that includes letting your people make decisions, making it possible for them to do what they like and what they’re good at, and asking the most powerful question in business: "Why?" The final factor to take a practice from de-humanized to re-humanized is through examining your own mindset. Blakeman emphasized that if a leader thinks his or her people are stupid and lazy, those people will most likely be stupid and lazy. On the converse, when leaders believe that their people are smart and motivated, re-humanizing is not only possible, it’s probable.

Main Takeaways

Awareness and creativity make us human (5:58)

Training is better than telling when it comes to building leaders (16:34)

Leaders don’t tell, they ask (19:32)

Managers have reports, leaders have followers (27:21)

Decision-making makes us adults (29:10)

Letting people do what they like and what they’re good at re-humanizes the workplace (33:01)

The most powerful and least asked question in business is "Why?" (38:49)

When it comes to re-humanizing the workplace, the place to start is your own mindset (42:23)

Key Quotes

“We’ve de-humanized work. Now we have to figure out how to re-humanize it.”

“What de-humanizes us is other people telling us what to do.”

“What’s the one thing most people at dental practices are not allowed to do at work? Make decisions.”

“People commit to what they create.”

“You can impose any goal you want on anybody, but if they don’t believe it, it’s not going to come true.”

“Managers need to become leaders and they do that by asking questions, instead of making statements.”

“Why is the most human of questions. It’s the one that motivates us.”

Snippets

Why no practice should have a manager (5:11-9:03)

Consensus and collaboration (9:12-13:30)

Agency of Responsibility (13:53-17:04)

Input equals ownership (17:44-23:51)

Everyone should be a leader (23:57-28:36)

What really makes us an adult (28:53-31:40)

Distributed decision-making (35:00-39:14)

Bio of Guest

Chuck Blakeman is a serial entrepreneur, international speaker, best-selling business author and world-renowned business advisor who built ten businesses in seven industries on four continents, and now uses his experience to advise others. His company, Crankset Group, provides outcome-based mentoring and peer advisory for business leaders worldwide. Chuck sold one of his businesses to the largest consumer fulfillment company in America and led three other $10-$100 million companies. He presently leads the Crankset Group and a for-profit business based in Africa, focused on developing local economies to solve poverty. Chuck is a results leader with decades of experience leading companies in marketing, import/export, fulfillment, call centers, website development, printing and direct mail processing. Some of Chuck’s customers have included...