Following their win at the 2024 Dentistry Awards, dentist Johanna Thompson and her team share their top tips for building a strong team.
I am an NHS dentist on the Isle of Wight and have been part of the Denbigh House team for 16 years. I am in my ninth year as an educational supervisor, and have mentored numerous dentists and dental nurses through their training.
I am proud to have put our team forward and to have won the amazing accolade of Best Team in the UK for the second year running at the Dentistry Awards. We are so appreciative of the award and there is a sense of pride across the island as a result – our patients and MPs often vocalise this shared achievement.
The award boosts team morale and any new staff joining can feel excited to be a part of something excellent!
I am lucky enough to live on the beautiful Isle of Wight with my fantastic family. I have other excellent teams that I have been part of for many years, including my netball team and beach exercise class, and have been reflecting on why certain teams just ‘work’.
It is difficult to write an article on teamwork without using cliches, but a good team is just a group of people that work well together to deliver a shared vision. What that vision is, and everyone’s role to deliver it, needs to be clear from the offset.
It is rare that people go out of their way to be unhelpful or cause problems. Most problems in a stressful environment come down to communication. Communication needs to be free flowing and respectful. If everyone is kind to each other and themselves, it is already a functioning team!
Tips for building a strong team
Here are the things my team and I believe are important to have in order to be a strong team…
It is everyone’s role to ‘always do your best’
If everybody on the team understands they are working hard to support each other and doing all that they can to ensure that everyone else on the team has a good day, then everyone will feel cared for, including the patients. Offering to make the tea, checking in if someone is running late or has a challenging patient or helping if you have a gap, can brighten and improve someone’s day.
The job can be stressful, but if everyone knows that the whole team is doing their best, then it is the situation that is hard, and the challenge can be met together rather than letting the stress out on each other. Leave no person alone at the end of the day without checking they are ok, saying thank you and sharing a good moment, or at very least a goodbye!
The Dentistry Awards celebrate excellence in dental practice, recognising dental professionals for their achievements and advancements.
For more information on all of our awards, visit www.dentistry.co.uk/awards.
Have a shared vision
If the practice has an ethos and clear aim, with a supportive family-style base as the core, everyone is working towards the same goals.
We had a staff meeting where we created core aims through everyone saying what they wanted the practice to be for staff and patients. Now we know that everyone is onboard with working towards the same set goals. If we feel things are unbalanced, we reflect on these goals – do they need updating or do we need to identify the problem?
Love and be proud of what we provide and do together
It is everyone’s reputation, so hopefully you all want that to be a good one – the practice is everyone’s baby. It isn’t ‘work’ if it is somewhere you enjoy being with people you like, doing something you love! Doing things together means that people have to be present, too. It needs to be known that it is everyone’s job to change a loo roll or pick up rubbish, because you all want the practice to be smart
Developing and training together
This addresses any vulnerability. It is a leveller, meaning you are all receiving matching aims and outcomes. It is a chance to be together in a more relaxed environment.
Communal space
By having a communal space that everyone uses together at a shared time, you often get the most open discussion and it makes the whole team approachable. It is a good place to chat about cases and debate ideas in an informal setting.
Be part of the community
Try to get involved with local projects and volunteering, reach out to schools and residential homes and offer visits, say yes to NHS projects, go on fun runs or walks together, or even just support local businesses together. It creates bonding memories within the team, and it may even encourage more local young dentists
It will also make the practice more than just something you are proud of, but something the community is proud of and talks about too. Having the positivity of the local area behind you and happy proud patients makes the team happy and proud too. Plus it’s all fun stuff to do together!
No egos here, please!
Everyone can learn from each other and every team member is as important as the other. The practice must be clean, you need patients booked in, you need someone chairside, dentists cannot make their own lab work, and audits and policies need to be written etc. Every role is an essential part of the machine, so if one part is missing, the practice will fail.
This means every person needs to feel valued in the role they hold, empowered to use initiative, and appreciate the roles their colleagues contribute. By having a ‘training practice’ where nurses can help one another, dentists can ask for second opinions, ask for help, and everyone knows we are all learning no matter where we are in our careers, we can all guide each other without embarrassment or judgement, which means every person is approachable.
The patient recounts of terrifying dentists with a God complex are hopefully a thing of the past – thank goodness!
Communication
Having regular open discussion at staff meetings, rotating the meeting chairperson and having an agenda available and visible to all to contribute to and reflect on before the meeting helps. Any quibble, reminder or question, no matter how big or small goes on the list.
Everyone can input and chat about it openly to come up with a solution or way of finding one. If anyone has been on an interesting course or completed an audit where they found a way for the team to improve, then share it with each other so we can try new ways, review and adapt – a continuous cycle.
Patients come first
By doing what people need to be healthy and looking after your patients, you will earn UDAs/money naturally. Let the care be the focus and priority, as being care-driven will result in the best happiness for all and the finances will take care of themselves as a result.
Practice principal, Helen
Find the problem in the process and ensure there is no ‘blame culture’ – a series of events and human factors lead to a problem or error, and therefore the chain of events needs unpicking or auditing to prevent it happening again, rather than blaming the person who made the final mistake.
Receptionist, Dani
Denbigh House isn’t just a team, we are a family. We look out for each other and support each other, we are fully committed to our patients and we go above and beyond. We all give our patients time not just to discuss their dental needs, but anything else they want to offload, to give them a personal experience.
They aren’t just names and numbers – we are part of the community and patients feel like they know us all personally.
Nurse, Dorana
I joined Denbigh House when dentists Bob and Helen Caddick opened the NHS clinic 21 years ago (eek). We started as a team of five and gradually expanded.
The down-to-earth, friendly and warm approach extended to me and the rest of the team led to the term ‘ Denbigh family’ being used. Over the years, foundation dentists have come, with many choosing to stay on as a testament to the happy and supportive team/family environment.
I feel completely valued and blessed working with dentist Johanna Thompson, not just for her ability to make the nurse a cup of tea, but for her sunny disposition to all patients and staff alike. We often give each other a good morning hug which gives us strength and positivity for the day ahead.
Working in a busy clinic, the nurses will always help each other with restocking, decontamination and the clean and close of the surgeries at the end of the day. Though we see a large volume of patients a day – which can get quite stressful at times – we always manage to make each other laugh at lunchtime. Laughter helps us, as a team, to decompress and be ready for afternoon clinic.
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