Transcription for
CREATING AND IMPLEMENTING A VISION FOR YOUR PRACTICE
DR. JEFFERY ZIMMERMAN
Continuing Education Programs APA
MAY 2017
PROVIDED BY
CAPTION ACCESS
contact@captionaccess
May 18, 2017
CREATING AND IMPLEMENTING A VISION FOR YOUR PRACTICE
DR. JEFFERY ZIMMERMAN
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[MUSIC]
DR. NEIMEYER: Why don't we go ahead and get started?
Welcome to today's presentation on creating and implementing a vision for your practice.
I'm Dr. Greg Neimeyer.I direct the Office of Continuing Education in Psychology and the Center for Learning and Career Development in the Education Directorate at the American Psychological Association.On behalf of the Center for Learning and Career Development, on behalf of the Education Directorate, and on behalf of the American Psychological Association, welcome, welcome, welcome.Delighted to have you all on board today for today's presentation, which will last for 90 minutes.
The presentation this morning is on creating and implementing a vision for your practice.We'll take a two hour break and then we'll come back and Dr. Zimmerman will also lead us in a program on managing staff and organization in the pursuit of practice excellence.
Let me take a second and just introduce you to Dr. Zimmerman.Thrilled to have him on board to present to us today.Dr. Zimmerman received his doctorate in clinical psychology from the University of Mississippi.He interned at the West Virginia University Medical Center Department of Behavioral Medicine and Psychiatry.He also has worked in a mental health center and is the chief psychologist at Mount Sinai Hospital in Hartford, Connecticut.He's a fellow and past president of the Connecticut Psychological Association, where he also is the recipient of its award for Distinguished Contribution to the Practice Of Psychology. I note he's also board-certified by the American Board of Professional Psychology in clinical psychology, and a fellow of the American Psychological Association.In 2015, Dr. Zimmerman received the honor of Distinguished Fellowship in the National Academies of Practice and was admitted into the Psychology Academy as a distinguished practitioner and fellow.
We're delighted to have Dr. Zimmerman on board today and we're going to be talking about creating and implementing a vision for your practice.
DR. ZIMMERMAN: Thank you.
Thank you, it's great to be here, and thank you to the Education Directorate in APA, and Dr. Neimeyer and his staff, and the Learning and Career Development Center.It's great to be here.
Before we get started, a few disclosures as I understand we need to have.I've co-authored or co-edited three books on practice.I'm also a principal in the Practice Institute.I won't be selling any of those through this program.
And I'm here to try to help educate you and give you some ideas about creating and implementing a vision for your practice.
As we go along, certainly, if you have questions, there's been some information posted about how to submit those questions.And we'll be taking those from our audience, as well as from people out there online in the webinar.So by all means feel free anytime to send in a question, or a comment, and we'll go from there.
And thank you to all of you who are with us today.We understand that this is a sold-out program with I think over 200, maybe 250 people who have registered.So welcome, wherever you are--East Coast, West Coast, Hawaii, Alaska, or other countries.We're glad to have you with us today.
So most people go into practice and they have, actually...Some of my colleagues, one person with 50 years experience said to me, "I just put one foot in front of the other and here I am."
And they make a tremendous investment.You all have made a tremendous investment in your practice.And you put one foot in front of the other and here you are.
Our typical training programs do very, very little in terms of teaching about the organization of a practice and really what's that all about.So we'll be talking a little bit about direction, a lot about direction.
And in these four, we actually have four segments that we're doing together.And we'll be talking about how to really look at, not only implementing a vision, but how to really structure your practice in many different ways going forward.
When I think about going into practice, I think about the investment that you make in time, in energy, in your soul, and, of course, in money.I presented a workshop along these lines to a PsyD program and the students there told me that many of them had spent upwards of $200,000 in terms of the investment in their education.It's not just tuition but it's all of their life expenses as they go through both their undergraduate and graduate training.
With that kind of investment and with the ongoing investment in your practice, it's amazing how few of us actually set a vision for the practice that we're going to have.We don't set a direction, we just do this one foot in front of the other.It would be like investing in a great big sailboat that costs hundreds of thousands of dollars, and not setting a course but just going out there in the ocean.You might do that on a bike ride, not too far from home.
But yet on the important trip of your practice, the journey of being in practice, which can easily be a 30-, 40-, or 50-year journey, to not have a vision, to not have direction may undermine the importance of that investment.
If you were, I often say to people if you're writing a check as a venture capital investor for that practice, would you want a plan back?Would you want a vision back?Would you want a sense of where the practice was going?In actuality, you did write the check.That's your investment in the practice.
So today, we're going to focus on setting that intention, and creating and implementing the vision for the practice.Our focus is going to be rather broad, and we're going to be talking about why a vision statement's important.We're going to be talking about some different types of vision statements, how to create it, how to make it real.
There are a lot of organizations that have a vision statement.I've been in some of them, and the statement is up there on the wall.And if you ask anybody what the vision for the organization is, they don't know it.
There are other organizations where not only do they know it, but they live it and breathe it.And we'll be talking about some of those today.
You know in retail, when you walk into a company and you see on the door, you see on their website, what their vision statement is, and you walk into the retail shop and it's not lived.[LAUGH] And you know that by the very attitude--or it is lived.And you know that for the very attitude of the first person that you come in contact with.
I often see that when I happen to get the manager.I was in a pet supply store just the other day.And I could tell I had the manager by his approach with me and how dedicated he was to customer service.
We are not selling products, generally.But we are in the work of offering our professional services and professional expertise and our time, and often for reimbursement of some sort.So we are interacting with the community, not as a retailer, but certainly as a service provider.
So let's start with a couple of definitions.
There's a lot of confusion out there in terms of mission and vision.And depending on who you talk to and what article you read, you see them get mixed up.And they're used interchangeably.And it's very confusing as to what a mission is and what a vision is.
I'm going to give you a way that I think is fairly easy and simple to keep them apart, to distinguish one from the other.
The mission is essentially what you're about, what you do.(A little technical issue here...) So the mission is what you do, who you are, what your present major goal is.
So, for example, if I am providing services to veterans, my mission might be to provide great service to veterans in our county, or our township, or our city--and to help with PTSD, and reintegration, and other kinds of services.
I happen to provide a lot of divorce services outside of court.Andmy mission might be to provide alternative dispute resolution services outside of court.
(Just working also on a technical issue here...)
But the vision is not just what you do...But why you do it.And this is quite different.
The vision of why we provide veteran services might be something like...to help pay it back.The tremendous sacrifice that was made by our veterans...I'm in practice if I provide those services to give back to the veterans.
That's very different than saying what I do.Why I'm doing it is to give back.Why I'm doing the divorce services is to give kids a sense of family.
Which is more compelling?
"Hi, I'm Jeff Zimmerman, and I provide mediation, and co-parenting, and parenting coordination in collaborative divorce services..."The what I do...
Or the why I do it... "I'm Jeff Zimmerman, and I provide divorce services [That's the what.]...in order to give kids of divorce a sense of family as they grow up."
One is, I would hope, more compelling than the other.The why, the vision, is what we're going to be talking about today.
If you look at psychology today websites, much of what you'll see there is the mission or the what.
"Hi, I'm so and so, and here's a list of all the things I do..." And no sense of why they're there and doing them.
A vision statement gives you the intention that helps define your culture.And that often can lead to an alignment between the decisions you make...the focus of the practice, and what that vision is.So you wind up having a cultural synergy between the actual work that you're doing, how you're doing it, and why you're doing it.There are countless decisions you're going to be faced with, large and small, and the vision statement gives you a basis for making those decisions.
So, if I'm in divorce services and I want to give kids a sense of family, and I'm asked to testify in court, is that likely to be aligned with giving kids a sense of family?I would suggest often it's not, because that's an adversarial place that puts its caregivers, the child's caregivers at war with one another.What's that have to do with giving them a sense of family?
If I'm working with veterans, and my focus is on the payback and helping them adjust, and I have an opportunity to work at the local university and provide consultation for an eating disorders program...Is that something aligned with my practice's vision?
And many times people will say to me, "Should I do this great opportunity over here that may complement my practice in some way?"Well, why is it a great opportunity if it doesn't fit within your vision?I might argue it's something to let go of.Something to say, that's a great opportunity but no thanks...Because there you don't have that alignment.
The vision helps you let your clients know, and your staff know, what it is you stand for.Crucial to your relationship with the community, and also in terms of your investment with the people that you hired.
If you are paying people on a percentage of what they collect, if you're paying people on fixed salary, whether they be clinical staff who's somebody you pay on a fixed salary, or the clerical staff, or clinical staff, some of whom you may pay on a percentage of what they collect...
A huge portion of your investment in your practice going forward beyond what you've already invested is going to salary and benefits, to compensation and benefits.
What do you stand for?What do you want them to stand for?Your vision speaks to that.
And it guides those decisions, as I was saying, that you make large and small, even minute ones.
Let's look at a couple of corporate, non-mental health visions.So I took these off the web.I think I can give credit to the organizations that they come from.
So this one is from Whole Foods and it's called their Higher Purpose Statement.Remember we talked about, orwe're going to be talking about the different types of visions, and...
They have a higher purpose.
"With great courage, integrity and love, we embrace our responsibility to co-create a world where each of us, our communities and our planet can flourish--all the while celebrating the sheer love and joy of food."
I thought they were a grocery store [LAUGH].But they're not talking about being a grocery store.They're talking about a higher purpose, with courage, integrity, and love.
If you work there, you have a very different sense of what that's about, I'm presuming, than if you worked in perhaps at a different grocery store that had a very different vision of itself.
Amazon, you've heard of them?
"Our vision is to be Earth's most customer-centric company, to build a place where people can come to find and discover anything they may want to buy online."
A customer-centric company...A place where people can come and find anything they want to buy online.They're not talking about shareholders, they're not talking about profits and distributions and dividends, and things like that.They're talking about why they're doing what they're doing.
And what's the scale?Earth.[LAUGH] Big...They didn't just say the US, they didn't just say France, or someplace else--the Earth.
LL Bean has a core values statement:
"Sell goods and merchandise at a reasonable profit, treat your customers like human beings and they will always come back for more."
And that is by, I believe, it was done early, early on in LL Bean's history by the founder:"Treat your customers like human beings and they will always come back for more."
I bought a windbreaker.I fell, I ripped the sleeve.I called up months later to buy a pair of jeans.
They said, "How'd you like the windbreaker?"
I don't go into a stores and they say, "How'd you like the last product you boughtfrom us?"
"How'd you like the windbreaker?"Of course, it came up on the fellow's screen.
I said, "I like it but I fell, I made a little hole in the arm."
He'ssaid, "Doesn't sound like you it's 100% to your liking.
I said, "Well, the windbreaker is."I didn't get it. "The windbreaker is, but I have this little hole in the arm."
He says," It doesn't sound like it's 100% to your liking because it has a hole in the arm."
Finally it dawned on me...
He said, "Our policy is, if it's not 100% to your liking for any reason, send it back.
"Do you I need a receipt?"
[LAUGH] "Send it back.And if you want to change the color, or you don't like the one that zips and you want one that pulls over, that's okay too," he said. "Send it back."
I was treated like a human being.And by the way, they answer on half a ring.[LAUGH] I was treated as a human being.And how many times have I told that story?And will I go to the competition?Not first...
They have customer loyalty.If I'm looking for something that I think LL Bean has, I go there first, because I am treated like a human being.
Bright Horizons Family Solutions, they have the HEART Principle--Honesty, Excellence, Accountability, Respect, and Teamwork. So they did five words, first letters spell out the word "heart." Why?It keeps it easily in your mind as to what it is.
I was going to read Apple's...vision statement, but it is long.And it's just different because it's long.That's not necessarily bad, but it's a lot harder to really keep present in your mind if it's long.
There are different types, as you can see on the screen, of vision statements.You have vision statements that speak about the product, that speak about the values, that speak about the core purpose, and that also speak about the long-term 10- to 30-year goal.We don't often think in 10- to 30-year goals.We can't see beyond our headlights, but we have vision statements that actually do speak to the 10- to 30-year goals.
So let's look at how we might do that.
In the divorce services, I might say, as a product-based, I might say, "Create innovative alternative dispute resolution services."A values-based vision statement might speak to decreasing the conflict in families and the impact that that has on children.The core purpose would be what I said earlier, giving kids a sense of family.The 10- to 30-year goal might be to change the way families divorce, change the system.
Depending on which vision statement I choose, I'm going to be taking slightly different paths at the start, that may turn into very different destinations at the end.
It's kind of like four ships leaving a harbor.And they all leave kind of in the same path.But by the end of the journey, 10 to 30 years later they may be in very different places.
Same thing with the Veterans Affairs example. "I'm providing needed PTSD services with cutting-edge treatments." That would be the product, if you will, or the service.
"I'm recognizing the great debt and paying back the great debt that was created by the amazing sacrifices that our veterans made for us." That's a values-based...