January 18, 2023
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Joely Anderson: Why would they do this for the chance that a $25 gift card? And the team was like, Yeah! $25 gift card. So it’s not always about the money. It’s about I affected change. I did something. I pulled together with a team and we did this, and yes, there’s a prize, but it doesn’t have to be so lofty that it’s going to bankrupt the business. You know, it can be symbolic of achieving and being proud and winning.
Dr.Bethany Fishbein: Hi, I’m Bethany Fishbein, the CEO of The Power Practice and host of The Power Hour Optometry Podcast. And one of the challenges that offices deal with all the time pretty consistently, is a challenge of how to keep staff members motivated and engaged and on board with what you’re doing. And I along with some of the team from my office had attended a seminar many years ago. Given by my guest today, Joely Anderson, along with Dr. Danny Clarke on the Great Game of business. And they spoke at that seminar specifically about “MiniGames”. And ever since then we’ve used those in our office as a great tool for staff motivation for getting people to take action and getting people to be excited about the things that we’re excited about that we know are going to drive change in the business. So, I asked Joely to come on and speak to me a little bit about MiniGames, Joely is the COO of Clarke Eyecare Center in Wichita Falls, Texas. She’s also with Dr. Danny Clarke, the Co-Founder of Modus Practice in Motion, which is a Consulting Company that coaches, clients and implementing the great game of business and an all-around awesome human being who I am excited to have had the chance to get to know over the last bunch of years. So Joely, thank you for taking time out of your day to be here. I love it.
Joely Anderson: Of course! Thanks for asking me and I’m especially thrilled that it’s talking about my favorite topic, which is people I mean at the end of the day it’s all about communicating touching base with people, and really trying to ignite the fire within them. They have a lot of potentials. They have a lot of changes that they can implement. They just don’t always know where they can affect change. So I love talking about giving them opportunities to make changes in the business which makes changes in their lives.
Dr.Bethany Fishbein: Absolutely. So talk about the Great Game of Business first. I know it’s not our primary focus today, but MiniGames are a part of it. So just give a quick summary of what Great Game is and kind of what practice owner gets out of implementing that with their team.
Joely Anderson: Sure. So the Great Game of Business is really it’s a method of an open book, open book, practice, you know, sharing the information of the business with the people. So what I like about it is; it’s about minding that gap in thinking between the owners of the business and the people in the practice. You know, oftentimes they can see how the money comes in but they don’t see how it goes out. They don’t see all of the things that keep you up at night. So they don’t understand. Why are you bothered? What’s up? What’s stressing you? You know, so it really teaches people what it takes to run a business. And that being said, what I love the most about it is it’s not all about money, it can really feel all about money. If you’re not careful and people don’t want to work for a company, they want to work for people. What it’s about is communication. It’s about cause and effect. It’s about really understanding the whole loop of that patient interaction and how our goal is to get patients for life. Not to get them to come in here one time and have an exchange but to build a relationship. And so from a customer service aspect when you have a problem. You go into a mom and pops shop and you’re talking to the owner of the business if you’ve got a problem they’re going to take care of you. We’re really wanting to build and develop a team of people who think and act and feel like owners of that practice. So that if that patient has a problem, it’s their problem to fix because they want that to be their patient for life. It’s our business. It’s our practice. It’s our patients, and it’s our team. And at the end of the day, the practice isn’t the four walls that you do business in. It’s the people in the practice, it’s the heart of the practice. So it’s really about again, awakening that fire within them and helping them build pride in what they do. And bringing just a sense of community and ownership, you know, not legal ownership, but mental ownership to that practice and that team.
Dr.Bethany Fishbein: I would add to the list as a practice that has done this. I think it’s about trust also in both directions because you’re telling your team I trust you enough to entrust you with this information. And it’s information that if they talk to their friends who have similar roles and other doctor’s offices, they’re generally not getting, so I trust you enough to have this. And in giving that trust, I trust you to do the right things with it to make that patient’s situation better to you know, to come into it with that sense of ownership. And then they trust back in turn because there are no surprises. You know, if there’s something to be worried about, financially they’re aware of it. And they’re in a position to fix it. And if things are going great, they trust that there’s something in it for them and they’re going to be rewarded too so that’s a big piece of it.
Joely Anderson: Yeah it is and I’m proud and very happy to say that in the years that we’ve been coaching Great Game which has been since 2013. I want to say we’ve worked with hundreds of practices all across the country in Canada, and I’ve not had any practice say our people used this information against us never had an instance of that. And I would also add it’s open to a point that makes sense. It’s not about what each individual person takes home, but it’s about, you know, the financials of the business. And again, it’s not all about money, but if we’re doing our best and we’re taking the best care of our patients. They’re telling their friends and their family and we’re gonna see that in our numbers. And if we’re not, we’re gonna see that in our numbers too. And what can we do to fix it? It’s open to a point that makes sense. But it can really change behaviors and again, make people feel trusted and vested as a part of it and not just a cog in the wheel.
Dr.Bethany Fishbein: Yeah, I remember one of the most memorable, Great Game moments that we had, and we’re not we’re totally not just talking about this, but I get excited about this too. There’s two moments that I remember but one of them was when we had first started Great Game and I was going out to shop for the binders that we were going to give staff now it’s all like we did spreadsheet it but we were doing paper binders and I went to Staples and looking at the things I wanted and they were like $6 each, and then all of a sudden like having to be more accountable for those numbers and it just having it’s so front of mind, I was a $6 each and next to the staples there was Dollar Tree and at that time things that the Dollar Tree cost a dollar or whatever, but and being like you know what, let me just check and they the same binders for a dollar. And I was like, No! it’s such a little thing. Like it’s not something that I would advise but imagine if every decision every person in the practice was making decisions that way, the difference and effect that would have.
Joely Anderson: Exactly! because the thing is, you know you cannot be an owner of a practice unless you’re an optometrist. Or in most states, Right? But if there’s some kind of emotional buy-in and it is all centered around a bonus system based on profitability as well. So if the practice does better, the people within the practice do better. But if they could care, even half as much as you do, how much of an effect would that be different, you know, and so that’s the thing is just flipping that switch that awareness that just pause and think about the whole thing, the big picture, not just how does it affect me, me, me. And if they don’t have that knowledge and they’re not in on that communication, and I’m the whole thing then the only thing they have to focus on is how am I affected? If they’re not part of the we, then all they have is me.
Dr.Bethany Fishbein: Yeah, that’s a good point. The AHA! moment for our staff was there was one January we were looking at expenses and it was in the staffing category, but all of a sudden, like the line item, was way up. And actually, it was February sorry. So it’s February, and they’re looking at the staffing line item is way up. And so they’re like what was that? And as they are thinking it through, it wasn’t a three payroll month, there weren’t any new people whatever. Did they realize, Oh, was that our holiday party? And it was because we do our holiday party in January and then the payment came in February. And somebody gets this like lightbulb moment you’d see it all over. Their face and go, Oh, the pickle back shots because they all shot to the holiday party. And I was like yeah, right because it was a lot and then they’re all looking at each other, and then one of them goes “totally worth it!” That was it. But it’s funny, right?
Joely Anderson: But it was awareness,
Dr.Bethany Fishbein: It’s an awareness that’s what it does.
Joely Anderson: And that’s the other part just again quickly because I know I’m like you, I get passionate about it. And I know it’s our topic, but it is when we’re looking at those line items to one of my favorite points, educational points for the people is it’s staff expenses, it’s not just based salary because that is what they think of is their pay, but that is not the expense of an employee to the practice. So what they see is the cumulative amount spent on all staffing expenses. So you know, salaries, payroll taxes, I tell the team when you open your checking and you see how much taxes came out of your paycheck and it makes you sick to your stomach, right? Well, the practice just paid the other half. That’s half of the taxes. The practice paid the other half and look around the room and how many people are in the room. You’re a lot more of an expense than 10 or 12 or 14 all you know, whatever you make an hour. That’s part of the expense that is not the whole so when they see that they really understand why I’m an investment for this practice because it is every practice it’s their highest expense. So it is my duty my part of this contract of employment is to step up to the line and make me work.
Dr.Bethany Fishbein: Yeah, that’s good stuff. So one of the things and maybe it’s like MiniGames are like the gateway to Great Games or something because the practice that isn’t yet doing Great Game of Business for some reason. They can’t there are owners who don’t want to do that level of open book management. They can still benefit from MiniGames. So we’ll talk about a Mini-Game a little bit and just give a definition of what it is.
Joely Anderson: So what I like to say is we’ve all set goals, right and so MiniGames is a goal with a bow on it. What I kind of think is the magic sauce in Minigames is the simplicity, the line of sight. So not only have a goal but having a goal that everybody’s tracking in real-time as it’s happening, not just we’re trying to affect this and at the end of it how did we do but like watching it in real-time while we can affect change during the game. It’s that line of sight. So they’re really used to affect change, you know correct a weakness or pursue an opportunity. All of those things. I love to remind people that MiniGames are not just sales based. You can have a goal. It can be sales that are really easily done and optical, but behavioral change is huge. And all of those things in the end cost your organization money, and they definitely you know making mistakes or not being present at the moment or not focusing on something. In the end, it hurts the bottom line and it also creates more work for your people that are already doing so much work. So it makes us find what we’re doing that we don’t need to do, what we need to change, what we can simplify, it just brings awareness and puts everybody on this similar goal to solve a problem and to affect the bottom line. Eventually, you know, time is money in our business.
Dr.Bethany Fishbein: So how do the practice leader or owner or whoever’s doing the picking? How do they how do you know what to pick? For your Mini Game? Like what’s the thing you’re going to work on? What’s your strategy?
Joely Anderson: What I love to do, especially when an office is first starting is just start by getting feedback from the team. What’s hard right now? You know so that we’re not emphasizing on money. We’re working and emphasizing problem-solving. What I like to put words and have clear expectations for my team is what I’m looking for are problem solvers and team players. So what’s hard? What’s the thing that when you think of going to work Monday, “Ugh! I am looking least forward to doing x?” And let’s figure out if there’s a simpler way to doing that or what’s the rub and fix the rub. Right? So, brainstorming what I love to do is just everybody starts spitballing throwing ideas at the wall people support what they helped create is a big phrase within breaking so they know their problems. Way better than you know other people that aren’t closely related to them. Ask them: what’s hard, what’s sucks, What’s, what’s a challenge? What would you like to see if there’s a better way? And create kind of a little database that you can go to and start to pull ideas from and get their input? They really are the key. If they have an idea they’re going to want to see that idea succeed. So they’re your answer, they’re the secret.
Dr.Bethany Fishbein: Okay, so Joely, Give an example of a practice that you’ve worked with or from within your practice that, you know, people were trying to figure out what sucks, what’s something that we want to fix? And then how did that get turned into a Mini Game?
Joely Anderson: It’s funny, it was just talking to one of my clients today. we’ve been planning this whole like they wanted to play Mini Game on lab errors and mistakes because they were having a bunch of you know, patients show up for glasses that aren’t there. They show up to pick up their glasses and something’s wrong. And then we trace back in there’s been a lot of mistakes lately. Well, the first thing to me that a Mini Game does, it’s information gathering. It’s kind of like a fun report. You know, like, first let’s set a goal. And let’s gather information and see where we are. And so lab mistakes were the focus but as they started to pull it together and build the Mini Game, and then they’re starting to play it. First of all, they’re seeing their mistakes go down, but they’re also starting to see where they’re coming from. Right, because that’s part of the game for them as creating these different they’re categorizing those mistakes. Yes, they want less but they’re putting them in different categories on their scoreboards. And funny enough, one of the things that they found was a big source of mistakes was the doctors weren’t finalizing the prescriptions. So they were having to start in order to get it, you know, ready and kind of as a placeholder, but then if they didn’t circle back around and get that finalized prescription then things would get ordered wrong. Or you know, so it really starts to expose your weaknesses. That conversation resulted in a “Doctor Mini Game” on finalizing prescriptions.
Dr.Bethany Fishbein: So for this practice, when you’re working with that and so. Okay, here’s our goal, we want to reduce lab errors. How does that get turned into a game? Like, how did the rules?
Joely Anderson: What are the steps?
Dr.Bethany Fishbein: Yeah, yeah, like how do you win?
Joely Anderson: The first thing is just, you got to name your goal, you know, you got to kind of start somewhere and that start point is kind of hard for people figuring out what’s your goal. What do you base it on? So a little looking back and seeing Okay, about how many mistakes a month do we make? Sometimes that’s easy depending on what the subject is. Sometimes it’s easy to come by sometimes it’s not, but you got to start somewhere. So they looked back and kind of, you know, they spent I said, Why don’t you take this week and tally up how many come in this week? And let’s multiply that times four and a half and start with that as a baseline, and you’re trying to improve upon that number. You just kind of it depends on the subject matter and how much data you have behind it. Or the best guess you gotta start somewhere. So they started with if we take this weekly amount, times it, times four and a half to get kind of an average monthly amount that we think would be our baseline. And then, to me, the important part of a Mini Game, is you want to get your team addicted to winning. So with you usually make say 50 mistakes a month and you go to five, that’s a big reach. Maybe we want to go 50 to 40. And yes, we want to implement bigger changes than that, but we got to start somewhere. And if we set the goals too lofty and they don’t win, then we’ve just demotivated. So I like to say that your sweet spot is a stretch, but it’s not an impossibility. There’s got to be a good range of success. And typically we say when you’re starting to set MiniGames goals in whichever way it could be if you’re winning about 80% of the time, you’re in a good sweet spot. Then if they if we start then we find that that baseline is way off base. What I tend to find is people want to play it again with them a more in tune. You know we typically say a month is a good amount of time. You know, the whole world has ADHD anymore. They can’t concentrate for too long before getting bored of it. But you want to play a game long enough to create good habits. So a month is kind of a good starting point. And again, if they don’t succeed, they tend to like we can get it this time. Can we do that one again? And so you may play it again, a little more zeroed in.
Dr.Bethany Fishbein: So this one you’re talking about just the example you gave is about lab errors. Is that something that the whole office can play that game or can you have a game that’s just a department like you said, Oh, that led to a Doctor Mini-Game?
Joely Anderson: Sure. So as long as everybody is playing in a game is kind of our rule to it. There’s no wrong or right it depends on practice, right? And how your departments if your people are cross-trained or if they’re really sectioned into their departments. There’s no wrong or right. So in this case, this is a dedicated optical team so it’s their lab that people internal lab and they’re opticians that were playing this game, but if it were a cross-trained office, then it could totally be across the board. It’s just that everyone is playing a Mini-Game. Sometimes departments together. One of my favorite things to do is to link departments like say a front desk and a tech team if it is an office that has separate departments, putting them together and playing one Mini Game where they have to work together to kind of blur those lines. There’s often strife in between departments right like the front desk has the patient staring down their throat techs have the doctor staring down there’s like Where’s my patient? Where’s my I’m late for my exam. They’ve both got external pressures and if they’re working together, they can kind of see each other’s pressures and concentrate on achieving the goal, which comes with a price for the team. That’s what they’re wanting to do is to win, they’re not so concentrating on, you know, for her, her and her, it’s us.
Dr.Bethany Fishbein: So, now we’ve identified this problem there are too many lab errors. We’ve set a goal we want to reduce the lab errors from 50 to 40. What makes it a game what are the ingredients that make it fun?
Joely Anderson: So what makes it fun is developing a theme around that. So typically, we think okay, what prize do we want to win, and then that kind of I like to work backwards. So that helps us develop our theme. This office in particular, it’s some kind of I’m trying to remember their theme. It was something about steaks at the meat, you know, and their prize is going to be Steak & Shake gift card for everybody that wins it and she’s setting up some kind of scoreboard that visually looks like that. So it’s just kind of what I like about the scoreboards is they’re fun, childlike, simple, and you can tell at a glance where you are on your status for it so you can see the change happening, see the progress you’re making. A very simplistic one that people can tend to kind of pull up a visual image is kind of like a year old the price is right with the guy climbing the mountain right? You can see where he’s trying to go and he’s climbing the mountain you can visually see him going there. So those kinds of things. Where you can paint a picture around it, and it keeps it in line of sight. It keeps it in the forefront of their mind to establish those good habits is why that scoreboard is so important.
Dr.Bethany Fishbein: So that scoreboard is being updated constantly?
Joely Anderson: Typically every week, or if it’s something that is individualized like, again, an easy mental picture to get is one office that we worked with once they were trying to sell pairs of BlueTechs, and they were playing this game in December. So they had a simplistic construction paper Christmas tree, right? And they had circle ornaments, and each optician had their own color and with their initials, and every time they would sell a pair they would put an ornament on the tree. That element of accountability is great because you can look at their tree and their goal was quite lofty. This was a combination of two offices. And their goal was to sell 100 pair of BlueTech in one month between the two offices. So, it’s a point to be made that their norm to that point was 10.
Dr.Bethany Fishbein: Oh. Okay.
Joely Anderson: So if they had asked my advice, which they didn’t, but I would have said maybe pair down on that goal a little.
Dr.Bethany Fishbein: Funny is the stretch!
Joely Anderson: Yeah, maybe you know a stretch goal again, right, but the result was a spoiler alert, they made it, they achieved their goal. I think that the reason that they did where there elements that went into the game, the players because you do have to identify the people playing this game, right? It was literally the doctors, the techs, and the opticians. It was everybody in the office except the reception area, the front area team, front office team, but they had this element again, they would put an ornament on the tree. And you could see by looking how many they had sold, how they were doing. They had their pot, you know their pile of 100 over here so they could see how many were still here on the side and they can see how many were on the tree. And they can also tell by the tree which opticians were selling them. Okay.
Dr.Bethany Fishbein: There’s a little bit of competition in there as well.
Joely Anderson: A little bit of what I like to call positive peer pressure because you can use that information to inflict fear and intimidation. Or you can use it for information gathering my belief on how it should be used to evaluate the situation. So in their case, there was one optician that was orange and her initials and she had one on the tree right and there’s purple who’s got like 20 on the tree. So your first question in leadership I believe should be, has orange not been given the resources do they not understand the benefits to the patient? Because if they don’t, they’re going to avoid it. They’re going to avoid the conversation. So let’s first make sure you know, what questions do you have. What reservations do you have about this? And hey purple! Now, coach your whole team because the whole benefit of this Mini Game is to create a team of great opticians selling BlueTech, not one optician selling BlueTech. So when do you say it? How do you say it? How do you work it into your conversation with the patient? So learn from that and then see how the results change in real-time. So I love anytime we can add that accountability element but only with the understood goal being in the team developing not making people feel less than others but making the sum of all its parts greater.
Dr.Bethany Fishbein: I Like that. So now they’re doing this I mean to get from 10 pairs to 100 of anything, is a pretty major behavior change, was the prize a Tesla like what are they getting for this? Because that’s a lot to try asking and you’re getting a huge results.
Joely Anderson: And it’s a big win for the practice, right? So this practice in particular with this Mini Game, they’re halfway goal if they got halfway to their price, their goal at 45 was a coffee run. They would go to Starbucks if they were to 45 by the 15th. And if they got to their goal at the end of the month that was a Target gift card for $25 per person. So that’s the part that when we have workshops, and we talk about MiniGames and we teach doctors, they’re like, why would these people respond for a $25 gift card? It’s funny because we did a workshop once for a big group of practices. And there were like 150 team members, we did MiniGames with them half the day. And then in the afternoon, we did it with the doctors and managers and that was the question why would they do this for the chance to a $25 gift card? And the team was like “yeah! $25 gift card.” So it’s not always about the money. It’s about I affected change. I did something I pulled together with a team. And we did this and yes, there’s a prize, but it doesn’t have to be so lofty that it’s going to bankrupt the business. You know, it can be symbolic of achieving and being proud and winning.
Dr.Bethany Fishbein: I think that’s such a huge lesson for practices like, we see that when we start working with a practice too is that sometimes they just have felt or learned along the way that like they feel helpless, or they feel like things aren’t in their control. You know, insurance is going to do this, patients are going to do this, no-shows are going to do this, and I think that the lesson of you can affect the outcome is so tremendous. And you’re right there’s a good feeling in that like yeah, you affect the outcome, you get a Target gift card. Yay? But it’s like that’s a token of celebration, more than a huge motivator.
Joely Anderson: For sure they affected change. I mean, isn’t that what we all want to do is make a difference somewhere?
Dr.Bethany Fishbein: Yeah, absolutely! So then what happens though, after that month, so now they’ve sold their 100 Bluetechs now if next month’s game is about something else, what happens to the next sales?
Joely Anderson: What we like to say is, you know, with MiniGames you kind of create a new normal, when it’s emphasized and it’s being played, of course, it peaks right, and then it kind of settles back down and plateaus but your new normal, that’s the Mini Game effect is higher. If I were to follow up with them immediately following they probably didn’t do 100 the next three months you know, on average, but they probably didn’t do 10 either. They probably were in you know, 50-60 range. You just develop a new normal, that’s better, and your focus moves on to something else. But that’s part of the conversation with the people that it’s not so that we quit thinking about it, but it’s so that we develop new habits and we move on to another focus, but this is still you know, we’re expected to grow on our arsenal of tools in our tool belt, not drop one and pick up another and if it falls flat again, then we bring that mini-game back up either in a different game board, you know, same topic, a different game so that the fun element is different. But the thing we’re trying to effect change on is still the same. Or a lot of times they like competing with themselves. I want we can get that better and better and they want to keep moving that needle so as an example of that. Our optical team when we first started playing Great Game back in 2010 One of our first MiniGames was for second pairs and it was Mrs. Potato Head was the subject of the game right? And so there were 15 accessories we had a blank potato, Mrs. Potato Head, and five accessories. The goal was to sell 15 multiple pairs. So for every three multiple pairs, they got to pick an accessory and put it on a potato. So you could tell at a glance by how many things she had on her where they were on the Mini Game and three multiple pairs times five accessories would be typical of 15, the result? They got 250, the goal was 15.
Dr.Bethany Fishbein: Mrs. Potato Head was ready for the red carpet at that time, she was kinda driven, and glam!
Joely Anderson: So the evolution of that is back in the day, you know, we were struggling to get 15 multiple pairs, these days you know and we averaged at that point probably to 250 pairs a month, jobs a month you know, and now we average closer to 500 a month and we consistently hit 26% multiple pair rate. We’re not allowed to call them second pairs anymore. That comes from our opticians. They’re like “Why stop it to its multiple pairs, not second pairs”. So they like competing with themselves. They liked besting themselves and that’s one thing I like to it’s not about what other practices do. It’s about competing with yourself and self-mastery and developing your team within. They’re really competitive and really fun.
Dr.Bethany Fishbein: One of the other unique things that I’ve seen you guys do in your practice is you involve little characters of yourselves in a lot of your MiniGames. Just share about that because it’s you had said it once and I was like okay whatever and then I was in your practice and I saw the board with your little heads on it so funny.
Joely Anderson: You know everything, you just got a laugh sometimes right we got a lot of stressors in our lives. So our MiniGames are fairly ridiculous, but it makes us smile and it keeps us happy. We’re sarcastic groups. So yeah, we like to create little characters. One of the first times I did it was by making a goal. So one other point I’ll add with this is what I like to do is instead of just making one goal for the end of the month, and then doing what they usually do, and at the end of the month, you know going oh gosh, we got to cram because I want to win that prize. I want them changing behavior from the beginning of the month. So I’d like to split set little incremental goals, that with little prizes that kind of ramp up as the month goes on. Well, so the first kind of example of that that I did, I had a rainbow and the opticians had some goals and I took their bodies or their heads rather than put them on their heads on leprechaun bodies, and they kind of crossed the rainbow with their goals. So that kind of stuck for some reason they loved it. They kept their little like, I printed like leprechaun bodies that I went on Facebook and looked at their pictures and printed out funny pictures of their heads and made little leprechauns and laminated them. That became the theme. We did a Doctor Capture Rate Mini Game ones with like a baseball diamond and put the doctor’s heads on funny baseball player bodies and laminated those and so when you see our like our staff lockers, they’re all decorated with all these laminated pictures from the MiniGames and it just makes them laugh. That you know, it’s just funny.
Dr.Bethany Fishbein: It’s super fun. And, you know, I know there are different personalities out there and so there are some people listening to this and they’re like, listening and then putting it on in their car so that they can go out to Michael’s to buy the laminator and get the glitter and the little supplies to their games and I know there are other people who are sitting there going, alright, you lost me at cutting out as I have to something to make this happen. So one thing that I would add that we saw on is it doesn’t have to be the doctor or the practice owner. It actually shouldn’t be the doctor the practice owner making this happen.
Joely Anderson: It shouldn’t. Yes. Or even the manager. So here’s the thing. I, I’m a creative person. Like I love that right when we first started playing a great game, we were just playing for us. So I didn’t know in time I would be teaching and I was doing all the MiniGames for every department. I mean, we have literally been playing a Mini Game every month, you know, one to three MiniGames a month since 2010. That’s a lot of MiniGames. And that first started in my head and I quickly you know, my well ran dry very quickly. And so what we do now that I encourage practices to do is we draw names and people have a month assigned to them or you can team people up and some people are creative and some people are stick figures and we laugh with them at it. It’s okay. Again, I will point back to that practice that sold 100 pairs of BlueTech’s with a construction paper Christmas tree triangle and round circle ornaments so you don’t have to have an art degree to make a Mini Game Board. It’s just a line of sight. So it’s almost like leaning to the uncreative thing. And we had a guy tech once that when it came to turning to make his Mini Game the girls are really curious to see what he was going to do. And he was a college student. He lived with a couple of kids from college, and he took it home, which I do not ever expect them to do to me this is work time so whoever is in charge of the Mini Game is given 30 minutes, you know, they kind of come up with their ideas, and we have kind of a craft closet full of supplies, and they have 30 minutes on the clock. To create your game everybody, you know gives them room and flexibility for that. But he took it home and came back with this like Soap Derby box car, Race Car Mini Game, I mean he had put so much time and energy and he was so proud of it. And they loved on him so hard for it. So, you know don’t be so afraid it can definitely work. I definitely recommend drawing names and letting everybody have their chance. Again, people support what they create. So when it’s their Mini Game, they want to see it succeed because it was their idea. And it also lets them see how hard it is to motivate others to get people interested to affect change. They start to see how hard it is for you. When they’re the ones trying to deliver a message which makes them a little more empathetic. Next time they’re on the receiving end.
Dr.Bethany Fishbein: Yeah, absolutely. It’s super fun. It’s a great way to put something in the practice front of mind. I appreciate your emphasis that it doesn’t have to be a sales goal, although it can. It can be a project, it can be training, or it can be a reduction of something that’s not going well. Really just affecting habit change, and giving the team an opportunity to make it fun and know where they are in the moment and to have a little prize at the end just to keep it fun and make it special. Super fun, easy, interesting, and entertaining way to motivate your team. So Joely, thank you so much for sharing it. Make me want to go back to our you know, archive of game boards, and I’m thinking about some of the ones we’ve done. So this is a little trip down memory lane for us as well. Thank you. If somebody wants to learn more about Great Game and get in touch with you, how do they reach you?
Joely Anderson: You bet! So we do have a website experiencemodus.com, modus like modus operandi experiencemodus.com. There is a community anybody can sign up and the password is inspire with an exclamation point, all lowercase, and there’s a Mini Game share site on there. It’s they’re sorted by department so that you can see examples of MiniGames that other practices have done. We encourage people to play MiniGames and to post them so that we can get a giant database of ideas for people to steal ideas from other people. And then it has more information about workshops or leadership training anything else if you want to get ahold of us our contact information is on there if you have any questions or any interest, but I encourage you to go there. You can sign as many staff members up, if you want to implement MiniGames you can have your team sign up so that they can go there for inspiration so that we can just, you know, have fun together and learn from each other.
Dr.Bethany Fishbein: All right, Joely, thank you so much. And to everybody out there, thank you for listening for more information on Power Practice, you can find us online at powerpractice.com.
Joely Anderson: Thank you!
Read the Transcription
Joely Anderson: Why would they do this for the chance that a $25 gift card? And the team was like, Yeah! $25 gift card. So it’s not always about the money. It’s about I affected change. I did something. I pulled together with a team and we did this, and yes, there’s a prize, but it doesn’t have to be so lofty that it’s going to bankrupt the business. You know, it can be symbolic of achieving and being proud and winning.
Dr.Bethany Fishbein: Hi, I’m Bethany Fishbein, the CEO of The Power Practice and host of The Power Hour Optometry Podcast. And one of the challenges that offices deal with all the time pretty consistently, is a challenge of how to keep staff members motivated and engaged and on board with what you’re doing. And I along with some of the team from my office had attended a seminar many years ago. Given by my guest today, Joely Anderson, along with Dr. Danny Clarke on the Great Game of business. And they spoke at that seminar specifically about “MiniGames”. And ever since then we’ve used those in our office as a great tool for staff motivation for getting people to take action and getting people to be excited about the things that we’re excited about that we know are going to drive change in the business. So, I asked Joely to come on and speak to me a little bit about MiniGames, Joely is the COO of Clarke Eyecare Center in Wichita Falls, Texas. She’s also with Dr. Danny Clarke, the Co-Founder of Modus Practice in Motion, which is a Consulting Company that coaches, clients and implementing the great game of business and an all-around awesome human being who I am excited to have had the chance to get to know over the last bunch of years. So Joely, thank you for taking time out of your day to be here. I love it.
Joely Anderson: Of course! Thanks for asking me and I’m especially thrilled that it’s talking about my favorite topic, which is people I mean at the end of the day it’s all about communicating touching base with people, and really trying to ignite the fire within them. They have a lot of potentials. They have a lot of changes that they can implement. They just don’t always know where they can affect change. So I love talking about giving them opportunities to make changes in the business which makes changes in their lives.
Dr.Bethany Fishbein: Absolutely. So talk about the Great Game of Business first. I know it’s not our primary focus today, but MiniGames are a part of it. So just give a quick summary of what Great Game is and kind of what practice owner gets out of implementing that with their team.
Joely Anderson: Sure. So the Great Game of Business is really it’s a method of an open book, open book, practice, you know, sharing the information of the business with the people. So what I like about it is; it’s about minding that gap in thinking between the owners of the business and the people in the practice. You know, oftentimes they can see how the money comes in but they don’t see how it goes out. They don’t see all of the things that keep you up at night. So they don’t understand. Why are you bothered? What’s up? What’s stressing you? You know, so it really teaches people what it takes to run a business. And that being said, what I love the most about it is it’s not all about money, it can really feel all about money. If you’re not careful and people don’t want to work for a company, they want to work for people. What it’s about is communication. It’s about cause and effect. It’s about really understanding the whole loop of that patient interaction and how our goal is to get patients for life. Not to get them to come in here one time and have an exchange but to build a relationship. And so from a customer service aspect when you have a problem. You go into a mom and pops shop and you’re talking to the owner of the business if you’ve got a problem they’re going to take care of you. We’re really wanting to build and develop a team of people who think and act and feel like owners of that practice. So that if that patient has a problem, it’s their problem to fix because they want that to be their patient for life. It’s our business. It’s our practice. It’s our patients, and it’s our team. And at the end of the day, the practice isn’t the four walls that you do business in. It’s the people in the practice, it’s the heart of the practice. So it’s really about again, awakening that fire within them and helping them build pride in what they do. And bringing just a sense of community and ownership, you know, not legal ownership, but mental ownership to that practice and that team.
Dr.Bethany Fishbein: I would add to the list as a practice that has done this. I think it’s about trust also in both directions because you’re telling your team I trust you enough to entrust you with this information. And it’s information that if they talk to their friends who have similar roles and other doctor’s offices, they’re generally not getting, so I trust you enough to have this. And in giving that trust, I trust you to do the right things with it to make that patient’s situation better to you know, to come into it with that sense of ownership. And then they trust back in turn because there are no surprises. You know, if there’s something to be worried about, financially they’re aware of it. And they’re in a position to fix it. And if things are going great, they trust that there’s something in it for them and they’re going to be rewarded too so that’s a big piece of it.
Joely Anderson: Yeah it is and I’m proud and very happy to say that in the years that we’ve been coaching Great Game which has been since 2013. I want to say we’ve worked with hundreds of practices all across the country in Canada, and I’ve not had any practice say our people used this information against us never had an instance of that. And I would also add it’s open to a point that makes sense. It’s not about what each individual person takes home, but it’s about, you know, the financials of the business. And again, it’s not all about money, but if we’re doing our best and we’re taking the best care of our patients. They’re telling their friends and their family and we’re gonna see that in our numbers. And if we’re not, we’re gonna see that in our numbers too. And what can we do to fix it? It’s open to a point that makes sense. But it can really change behaviors and again, make people feel trusted and vested as a part of it and not just a cog in the wheel.
Dr.Bethany Fishbein: Yeah, I remember one of the most memorable, Great Game moments that we had, and we’re not we’re totally not just talking about this, but I get excited about this too. There’s two moments that I remember but one of them was when we had first started Great Game and I was going out to shop for the binders that we were going to give staff now it’s all like we did spreadsheet it but we were doing paper binders and I went to Staples and looking at the things I wanted and they were like $6 each, and then all of a sudden like having to be more accountable for those numbers and it just having it’s so front of mind, I was a $6 each and next to the staples there was Dollar Tree and at that time things that the Dollar Tree cost a dollar or whatever, but and being like you know what, let me just check and they the same binders for a dollar. And I was like, No! it’s such a little thing. Like it’s not something that I would advise but imagine if every decision every person in the practice was making decisions that way, the difference and effect that would have.
Joely Anderson: Exactly! because the thing is, you know you cannot be an owner of a practice unless you’re an optometrist. Or in most states, Right? But if there’s some kind of emotional buy-in and it is all centered around a bonus system based on profitability as well. So if the practice does better, the people within the practice do better. But if they could care, even half as much as you do, how much of an effect would that be different, you know, and so that’s the thing is just flipping that switch that awareness that just pause and think about the whole thing, the big picture, not just how does it affect me, me, me. And if they don’t have that knowledge and they’re not in on that communication, and I’m the whole thing then the only thing they have to focus on is how am I affected? If they’re not part of the we, then all they have is me.
Dr.Bethany Fishbein: Yeah, that’s a good point. The AHA! moment for our staff was there was one January we were looking at expenses and it was in the staffing category, but all of a sudden, like the line item, was way up. And actually, it was February sorry. So it’s February, and they’re looking at the staffing line item is way up. And so they’re like what was that? And as they are thinking it through, it wasn’t a three payroll month, there weren’t any new people whatever. Did they realize, Oh, was that our holiday party? And it was because we do our holiday party in January and then the payment came in February. And somebody gets this like lightbulb moment you’d see it all over. Their face and go, Oh, the pickle back shots because they all shot to the holiday party. And I was like yeah, right because it was a lot and then they’re all looking at each other, and then one of them goes “totally worth it!” That was it. But it’s funny, right?
Joely Anderson: But it was awareness,
Dr.Bethany Fishbein: It’s an awareness that’s what it does.
Joely Anderson: And that’s the other part just again quickly because I know I’m like you, I get passionate about it. And I know it’s our topic, but it is when we’re looking at those line items to one of my favorite points, educational points for the people is it’s staff expenses, it’s not just based salary because that is what they think of is their pay, but that is not the expense of an employee to the practice. So what they see is the cumulative amount spent on all staffing expenses. So you know, salaries, payroll taxes, I tell the team when you open your checking and you see how much taxes came out of your paycheck and it makes you sick to your stomach, right? Well, the practice just paid the other half. That’s half of the taxes. The practice paid the other half and look around the room and how many people are in the room. You’re a lot more of an expense than 10 or 12 or 14 all you know, whatever you make an hour. That’s part of the expense that is not the whole so when they see that they really understand why I’m an investment for this practice because it is every practice it’s their highest expense. So it is my duty my part of this contract of employment is to step up to the line and make me work.
Dr.Bethany Fishbein: Yeah, that’s good stuff. So one of the things and maybe it’s like MiniGames are like the gateway to Great Games or something because the practice that isn’t yet doing Great Game of Business for some reason. They can’t there are owners who don’t want to do that level of open book management. They can still benefit from MiniGames. So we’ll talk about a Mini-Game a little bit and just give a definition of what it is.
Joely Anderson: So what I like to say is we’ve all set goals, right and so MiniGames is a goal with a bow on it. What I kind of think is the magic sauce in Minigames is the simplicity, the line of sight. So not only have a goal but having a goal that everybody’s tracking in real-time as it’s happening, not just we’re trying to affect this and at the end of it how did we do but like watching it in real-time while we can affect change during the game. It’s that line of sight. So they’re really used to affect change, you know correct a weakness or pursue an opportunity. All of those things. I love to remind people that MiniGames are not just sales based. You can have a goal. It can be sales that are really easily done and optical, but behavioral change is huge. And all of those things in the end cost your organization money, and they definitely you know making mistakes or not being present at the moment or not focusing on something. In the end, it hurts the bottom line and it also creates more work for your people that are already doing so much work. So it makes us find what we’re doing that we don’t need to do, what we need to change, what we can simplify, it just brings awareness and puts everybody on this similar goal to solve a problem and to affect the bottom line. Eventually, you know, time is money in our business.
Dr.Bethany Fishbein: So how do the practice leader or owner or whoever’s doing the picking? How do they how do you know what to pick? For your Mini Game? Like what’s the thing you’re going to work on? What’s your strategy?
Joely Anderson: What I love to do, especially when an office is first starting is just start by getting feedback from the team. What’s hard right now? You know so that we’re not emphasizing on money. We’re working and emphasizing problem-solving. What I like to put words and have clear expectations for my team is what I’m looking for are problem solvers and team players. So what’s hard? What’s the thing that when you think of going to work Monday, “Ugh! I am looking least forward to doing x?” And let’s figure out if there’s a simpler way to doing that or what’s the rub and fix the rub. Right? So, brainstorming what I love to do is just everybody starts spitballing throwing ideas at the wall people support what they helped create is a big phrase within breaking so they know their problems. Way better than you know other people that aren’t closely related to them. Ask them: what’s hard, what’s sucks, What’s, what’s a challenge? What would you like to see if there’s a better way? And create kind of a little database that you can go to and start to pull ideas from and get their input? They really are the key. If they have an idea they’re going to want to see that idea succeed. So they’re your answer, they’re the secret.
Dr.Bethany Fishbein: Okay, so Joely, Give an example of a practice that you’ve worked with or from within your practice that, you know, people were trying to figure out what sucks, what’s something that we want to fix? And then how did that get turned into a Mini Game?
Joely Anderson: It’s funny, it was just talking to one of my clients today. we’ve been planning this whole like they wanted to play Mini Game on lab errors and mistakes because they were having a bunch of you know, patients show up for glasses that aren’t there. They show up to pick up their glasses and something’s wrong. And then we trace back in there’s been a lot of mistakes lately. Well, the first thing to me that a Mini Game does, it’s information gathering. It’s kind of like a fun report. You know, like, first let’s set a goal. And let’s gather information and see where we are. And so lab mistakes were the focus but as they started to pull it together and build the Mini Game, and then they’re starting to play it. First of all, they’re seeing their mistakes go down, but they’re also starting to see where they’re coming from. Right, because that’s part of the game for them as creating these different they’re categorizing those mistakes. Yes, they want less but they’re putting them in different categories on their scoreboards. And funny enough, one of the things that they found was a big source of mistakes was the doctors weren’t finalizing the prescriptions. So they were having to start in order to get it, you know, ready and kind of as a placeholder, but then if they didn’t circle back around and get that finalized prescription then things would get ordered wrong. Or you know, so it really starts to expose your weaknesses. That conversation resulted in a “Doctor Mini Game” on finalizing prescriptions.
Dr.Bethany Fishbein: So for this practice, when you’re working with that and so. Okay, here’s our goal, we want to reduce lab errors. How does that get turned into a game? Like, how did the rules?
Joely Anderson: What are the steps?
Dr.Bethany Fishbein: Yeah, yeah, like how do you win?
Joely Anderson: The first thing is just, you got to name your goal, you know, you got to kind of start somewhere and that start point is kind of hard for people figuring out what’s your goal. What do you base it on? So a little looking back and seeing Okay, about how many mistakes a month do we make? Sometimes that’s easy depending on what the subject is. Sometimes it’s easy to come by sometimes it’s not, but you got to start somewhere. So they looked back and kind of, you know, they spent I said, Why don’t you take this week and tally up how many come in this week? And let’s multiply that times four and a half and start with that as a baseline, and you’re trying to improve upon that number. You just kind of it depends on the subject matter and how much data you have behind it. Or the best guess you gotta start somewhere. So they started with if we take this weekly amount, times it, times four and a half to get kind of an average monthly amount that we think would be our baseline. And then, to me, the important part of a Mini Game, is you want to get your team addicted to winning. So with you usually make say 50 mistakes a month and you go to five, that’s a big reach. Maybe we want to go 50 to 40. And yes, we want to implement bigger changes than that, but we got to start somewhere. And if we set the goals too lofty and they don’t win, then we’ve just demotivated. So I like to say that your sweet spot is a stretch, but it’s not an impossibility. There’s got to be a good range of success. And typically we say when you’re starting to set MiniGames goals in whichever way it could be if you’re winning about 80% of the time, you’re in a good sweet spot. Then if they if we start then we find that that baseline is way off base. What I tend to find is people want to play it again with them a more in tune. You know we typically say a month is a good amount of time. You know, the whole world has ADHD anymore. They can’t concentrate for too long before getting bored of it. But you want to play a game long enough to create good habits. So a month is kind of a good starting point. And again, if they don’t succeed, they tend to like we can get it this time. Can we do that one again? And so you may play it again, a little more zeroed in.
Dr.Bethany Fishbein: So this one you’re talking about just the example you gave is about lab errors. Is that something that the whole office can play that game or can you have a game that’s just a department like you said, Oh, that led to a Doctor Mini-Game?
Joely Anderson: Sure. So as long as everybody is playing in a game is kind of our rule to it. There’s no wrong or right it depends on practice, right? And how your departments if your people are cross-trained or if they’re really sectioned into their departments. There’s no wrong or right. So in this case, this is a dedicated optical team so it’s their lab that people internal lab and they’re opticians that were playing this game, but if it were a cross-trained office, then it could totally be across the board. It’s just that everyone is playing a Mini-Game. Sometimes departments together. One of my favorite things to do is to link departments like say a front desk and a tech team if it is an office that has separate departments, putting them together and playing one Mini Game where they have to work together to kind of blur those lines. There’s often strife in between departments right like the front desk has the patient staring down their throat techs have the doctor staring down there’s like Where’s my patient? Where’s my I’m late for my exam. They’ve both got external pressures and if they’re working together, they can kind of see each other’s pressures and concentrate on achieving the goal, which comes with a price for the team. That’s what they’re wanting to do is to win, they’re not so concentrating on, you know, for her, her and her, it’s us.
Dr.Bethany Fishbein: So, now we’ve identified this problem there are too many lab errors. We’ve set a goal we want to reduce the lab errors from 50 to 40. What makes it a game what are the ingredients that make it fun?
Joely Anderson: So what makes it fun is developing a theme around that. So typically, we think okay, what prize do we want to win, and then that kind of I like to work backwards. So that helps us develop our theme. This office in particular, it’s some kind of I’m trying to remember their theme. It was something about steaks at the meat, you know, and their prize is going to be Steak & Shake gift card for everybody that wins it and she’s setting up some kind of scoreboard that visually looks like that. So it’s just kind of what I like about the scoreboards is they’re fun, childlike, simple, and you can tell at a glance where you are on your status for it so you can see the change happening, see the progress you’re making. A very simplistic one that people can tend to kind of pull up a visual image is kind of like a year old the price is right with the guy climbing the mountain right? You can see where he’s trying to go and he’s climbing the mountain you can visually see him going there. So those kinds of things. Where you can paint a picture around it, and it keeps it in line of sight. It keeps it in the forefront of their mind to establish those good habits is why that scoreboard is so important.
Dr.Bethany Fishbein: So that scoreboard is being updated constantly?
Joely Anderson: Typically every week, or if it’s something that is individualized like, again, an easy mental picture to get is one office that we worked with once they were trying to sell pairs of BlueTechs, and they were playing this game in December. So they had a simplistic construction paper Christmas tree, right? And they had circle ornaments, and each optician had their own color and with their initials, and every time they would sell a pair they would put an ornament on the tree. That element of accountability is great because you can look at their tree and their goal was quite lofty. This was a combination of two offices. And their goal was to sell 100 pair of BlueTech in one month between the two offices. So, it’s a point to be made that their norm to that point was 10.
Dr.Bethany Fishbein: Oh. Okay.
Joely Anderson: So if they had asked my advice, which they didn’t, but I would have said maybe pair down on that goal a little.
Dr.Bethany Fishbein: Funny is the stretch!
Joely Anderson: Yeah, maybe you know a stretch goal again, right, but the result was a spoiler alert, they made it, they achieved their goal. I think that the reason that they did where there elements that went into the game, the players because you do have to identify the people playing this game, right? It was literally the doctors, the techs, and the opticians. It was everybody in the office except the reception area, the front area team, front office team, but they had this element again, they would put an ornament on the tree. And you could see by looking how many they had sold, how they were doing. They had their pot, you know their pile of 100 over here so they could see how many were still here on the side and they can see how many were on the tree. And they can also tell by the tree which opticians were selling them. Okay.
Dr.Bethany Fishbein: There’s a little bit of competition in there as well.
Joely Anderson: A little bit of what I like to call positive peer pressure because you can use that information to inflict fear and intimidation. Or you can use it for information gathering my belief on how it should be used to evaluate the situation. So in their case, there was one optician that was orange and her initials and she had one on the tree right and there’s purple who’s got like 20 on the tree. So your first question in leadership I believe should be, has orange not been given the resources do they not understand the benefits to the patient? Because if they don’t, they’re going to avoid it. They’re going to avoid the conversation. So let’s first make sure you know, what questions do you have. What reservations do you have about this? And hey purple! Now, coach your whole team because the whole benefit of this Mini Game is to create a team of great opticians selling BlueTech, not one optician selling BlueTech. So when do you say it? How do you say it? How do you work it into your conversation with the patient? So learn from that and then see how the results change in real-time. So I love anytime we can add that accountability element but only with the understood goal being in the team developing not making people feel less than others but making the sum of all its parts greater.
Dr.Bethany Fishbein: I Like that. So now they’re doing this I mean to get from 10 pairs to 100 of anything, is a pretty major behavior change, was the prize a Tesla like what are they getting for this? Because that’s a lot to try asking and you’re getting a huge results.
Joely Anderson: And it’s a big win for the practice, right? So this practice in particular with this Mini Game, they’re halfway goal if they got halfway to their price, their goal at 45 was a coffee run. They would go to Starbucks if they were to 45 by the 15th. And if they got to their goal at the end of the month that was a Target gift card for $25 per person. So that’s the part that when we have workshops, and we talk about MiniGames and we teach doctors, they’re like, why would these people respond for a $25 gift card? It’s funny because we did a workshop once for a big group of practices. And there were like 150 team members, we did MiniGames with them half the day. And then in the afternoon, we did it with the doctors and managers and that was the question why would they do this for the chance to a $25 gift card? And the team was like “yeah! $25 gift card.” So it’s not always about the money. It’s about I affected change. I did something I pulled together with a team. And we did this and yes, there’s a prize, but it doesn’t have to be so lofty that it’s going to bankrupt the business. You know, it can be symbolic of achieving and being proud and winning.
Dr.Bethany Fishbein: I think that’s such a huge lesson for practices like, we see that when we start working with a practice too is that sometimes they just have felt or learned along the way that like they feel helpless, or they feel like things aren’t in their control. You know, insurance is going to do this, patients are going to do this, no-shows are going to do this, and I think that the lesson of you can affect the outcome is so tremendous. And you’re right there’s a good feeling in that like yeah, you affect the outcome, you get a Target gift card. Yay? But it’s like that’s a token of celebration, more than a huge motivator.
Joely Anderson: For sure they affected change. I mean, isn’t that what we all want to do is make a difference somewhere?
Dr.Bethany Fishbein: Yeah, absolutely! So then what happens though, after that month, so now they’ve sold their 100 Bluetechs now if next month’s game is about something else, what happens to the next sales?
Joely Anderson: What we like to say is, you know, with MiniGames you kind of create a new normal, when it’s emphasized and it’s being played, of course, it peaks right, and then it kind of settles back down and plateaus but your new normal, that’s the Mini Game effect is higher. If I were to follow up with them immediately following they probably didn’t do 100 the next three months you know, on average, but they probably didn’t do 10 either. They probably were in you know, 50-60 range. You just develop a new normal, that’s better, and your focus moves on to something else. But that’s part of the conversation with the people that it’s not so that we quit thinking about it, but it’s so that we develop new habits and we move on to another focus, but this is still you know, we’re expected to grow on our arsenal of tools in our tool belt, not drop one and pick up another and if it falls flat again, then we bring that mini-game back up either in a different game board, you know, same topic, a different game so that the fun element is different. But the thing we’re trying to effect change on is still the same. Or a lot of times they like competing with themselves. I want we can get that better and better and they want to keep moving that needle so as an example of that. Our optical team when we first started playing Great Game back in 2010 One of our first MiniGames was for second pairs and it was Mrs. Potato Head was the subject of the game right? And so there were 15 accessories we had a blank potato, Mrs. Potato Head, and five accessories. The goal was to sell 15 multiple pairs. So for every three multiple pairs, they got to pick an accessory and put it on a potato. So you could tell at a glance by how many things she had on her where they were on the Mini Game and three multiple pairs times five accessories would be typical of 15, the result? They got 250, the goal was 15.
Dr.Bethany Fishbein: Mrs. Potato Head was ready for the red carpet at that time, she was kinda driven, and glam!
Joely Anderson: So the evolution of that is back in the day, you know, we were struggling to get 15 multiple pairs, these days you know and we averaged at that point probably to 250 pairs a month, jobs a month you know, and now we average closer to 500 a month and we consistently hit 26% multiple pair rate. We’re not allowed to call them second pairs anymore. That comes from our opticians. They’re like “Why stop it to its multiple pairs, not second pairs”. So they like competing with themselves. They liked besting themselves and that’s one thing I like to it’s not about what other practices do. It’s about competing with yourself and self-mastery and developing your team within. They’re really competitive and really fun.
Dr.Bethany Fishbein: One of the other unique things that I’ve seen you guys do in your practice is you involve little characters of yourselves in a lot of your MiniGames. Just share about that because it’s you had said it once and I was like okay whatever and then I was in your practice and I saw the board with your little heads on it so funny.
Joely Anderson: You know everything, you just got a laugh sometimes right we got a lot of stressors in our lives. So our MiniGames are fairly ridiculous, but it makes us smile and it keeps us happy. We’re sarcastic groups. So yeah, we like to create little characters. One of the first times I did it was by making a goal. So one other point I’ll add with this is what I like to do is instead of just making one goal for the end of the month, and then doing what they usually do, and at the end of the month, you know going oh gosh, we got to cram because I want to win that prize. I want them changing behavior from the beginning of the month. So I’d like to split set little incremental goals, that with little prizes that kind of ramp up as the month goes on. Well, so the first kind of example of that that I did, I had a rainbow and the opticians had some goals and I took their bodies or their heads rather than put them on their heads on leprechaun bodies, and they kind of crossed the rainbow with their goals. So that kind of stuck for some reason they loved it. They kept their little like, I printed like leprechaun bodies that I went on Facebook and looked at their pictures and printed out funny pictures of their heads and made little leprechauns and laminated them. That became the theme. We did a Doctor Capture Rate Mini Game ones with like a baseball diamond and put the doctor’s heads on funny baseball player bodies and laminated those and so when you see our like our staff lockers, they’re all decorated with all these laminated pictures from the MiniGames and it just makes them laugh. That you know, it’s just funny.
Dr.Bethany Fishbein: It’s super fun. And, you know, I know there are different personalities out there and so there are some people listening to this and they’re like, listening and then putting it on in their car so that they can go out to Michael’s to buy the laminator and get the glitter and the little supplies to their games and I know there are other people who are sitting there going, alright, you lost me at cutting out as I have to something to make this happen. So one thing that I would add that we saw on is it doesn’t have to be the doctor or the practice owner. It actually shouldn’t be the doctor the practice owner making this happen.
Joely Anderson: It shouldn’t. Yes. Or even the manager. So here’s the thing. I, I’m a creative person. Like I love that right when we first started playing a great game, we were just playing for us. So I didn’t know in time I would be teaching and I was doing all the MiniGames for every department. I mean, we have literally been playing a Mini Game every month, you know, one to three MiniGames a month since 2010. That’s a lot of MiniGames. And that first started in my head and I quickly you know, my well ran dry very quickly. And so what we do now that I encourage practices to do is we draw names and people have a month assigned to them or you can team people up and some people are creative and some people are stick figures and we laugh with them at it. It’s okay. Again, I will point back to that practice that sold 100 pairs of BlueTech’s with a construction paper Christmas tree triangle and round circle ornaments so you don’t have to have an art degree to make a Mini Game Board. It’s just a line of sight. So it’s almost like leaning to the uncreative thing. And we had a guy tech once that when it came to turning to make his Mini Game the girls are really curious to see what he was going to do. And he was a college student. He lived with a couple of kids from college, and he took it home, which I do not ever expect them to do to me this is work time so whoever is in charge of the Mini Game is given 30 minutes, you know, they kind of come up with their ideas, and we have kind of a craft closet full of supplies, and they have 30 minutes on the clock. To create your game everybody, you know gives them room and flexibility for that. But he took it home and came back with this like Soap Derby box car, Race Car Mini Game, I mean he had put so much time and energy and he was so proud of it. And they loved on him so hard for it. So, you know don’t be so afraid it can definitely work. I definitely recommend drawing names and letting everybody have their chance. Again, people support what they create. So when it’s their Mini Game, they want to see it succeed because it was their idea. And it also lets them see how hard it is to motivate others to get people interested to affect change. They start to see how hard it is for you. When they’re the ones trying to deliver a message which makes them a little more empathetic. Next time they’re on the receiving end.
Dr.Bethany Fishbein: Yeah, absolutely. It’s super fun. It’s a great way to put something in the practice front of mind. I appreciate your emphasis that it doesn’t have to be a sales goal, although it can. It can be a project, it can be training, or it can be a reduction of something that’s not going well. Really just affecting habit change, and giving the team an opportunity to make it fun and know where they are in the moment and to have a little prize at the end just to keep it fun and make it special. Super fun, easy, interesting, and entertaining way to motivate your team. So Joely, thank you so much for sharing it. Make me want to go back to our you know, archive of game boards, and I’m thinking about some of the ones we’ve done. So this is a little trip down memory lane for us as well. Thank you. If somebody wants to learn more about Great Game and get in touch with you, how do they reach you?
Joely Anderson: You bet! So we do have a website experiencemodus.com, modus like modus operandi experiencemodus.com. There is a community anybody can sign up and the password is inspire with an exclamation point, all lowercase, and there’s a Mini Game share site on there. It’s they’re sorted by department so that you can see examples of MiniGames that other practices have done. We encourage people to play MiniGames and to post them so that we can get a giant database of ideas for people to steal ideas from other people. And then it has more information about workshops or leadership training anything else if you want to get ahold of us our contact information is on there if you have any questions or any interest, but I encourage you to go there. You can sign as many staff members up, if you want to implement MiniGames you can have your team sign up so that they can go there for inspiration so that we can just, you know, have fun together and learn from each other.
Dr.Bethany Fishbein: All right, Joely, thank you so much. And to everybody out there, thank you for listening for more information on Power Practice, you can find us online at powerpractice.com.
Joely Anderson: Thank you!