Expressions and behaviour at workshops

Now that the dental workshop series has concluded, I look back and reflect on the “attitude” of the clients in each day delivered. An interesting change is that we are now staggering the start dates of our 4 quarterly workshops, so that different regions begin at different points in the year. This allows continuous marketing of The Dental Business School, instead of our traditional “all or nothing” marketing each October for a January start. It also creates some variety for me in each series (I have delivered workshops 1,2 and 4 in the last three weeks) and, I suppose, keeps me sharp on the delivery of each workshop. Mainly, I have noticed the different expressions and behaviour at each workshop: Quarter 1 – stunned silence and the expression of startled rabbits in the headlights – as Chris Barrow unravels all of their traditional paradigms and introduces radical new ideas on planning and time management; Quarter 2 – a little more relaxed in the room (“I’m not quite so afraid of asking stupid questions in public” said a Q2 client yesterday), frustration at lack of progress and even more amazement at my thoughts on financial management: Quarter 3 – much more relaxed and a fun day on customer service for the whole team: Quarter 4 – realisation that this stuff is possible and a little overwhelm at the marketing systems they want to build but have never started. And, of course, we have 40% of our clients on their second year in the programme – realisation that the changes are coming through. Then another 40% (of the 40%) who are on their third year – “Hey – this stuff works – listen to this guy – he knows what he is talking about”. So, understanding this, I no longer stress at the silence in the room in the first few workshops – they are thinking!