Message Boards
Today's Active Topics Today's Active Cases Browse Forum Categories My Recent Activity My Messages Private Groups My Marked Threads My Subscriptions
Today's Active Images Today's Active Polls Most Active Topics Global Townie Map Advanced Message Board Search Message Board Terms of Use

Professional Courtesy: Serious Summer Reading Thomas Giacobbi, DDS, FAGD, Editorial Director, Dentaltown Magazine

View Comments (3) More by this author (317)

 
Serious Summer Reading
by Thomas Giacobbi, DDS, FAGD, Editorial Director, Dentaltown Magazine
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is not a book about your dental assistant, and Fifty Shades of Grey is not a coffee table book about photography. In spite of the fact that these are both bestselling books, they will not improve your practice one bit. While summertime is often promoted as an opportunity to read fun books poolside or on the beach, I have a few other books to share this month that will likely be a better use of your time. The books I have suggested for your summer reading list will help you both personally and professionally. If your children are old enough to have a summer reading list, you can share this experience together as they read Shakespeare and you read Lencioni or Gawande.

The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande
Let’s just say, Dr. Gawande had me at checklist. Yes, I said doctor. The author of this book is a general and endocrine surgeon, professor at Harvard Medical School and leader of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Safe Surgery Saves Lives program. His book is the ultimate proof of the power of a simple checklist. The premise is simple: checklists save lives. He cites numerous examples throughout the book of how a checklist is used to ensure complex tasks are handled properly. The airline industry is filled with checklists because pilot error is a frequently cited factor in crashes. The checklist that Dr. Gawande developed through his work with the WHO was adopted by more than 20 different countries and improved surgical outcomes by a significant percentage.

What does all this mean for your dental practice? While we might not deal with life and death situations, the cost of common errors is still quite high. Developing and implementing checklists in your practice will improve your day-to-day operations and streamline staff training. There are many complicated procedures that happen in your office every day – make sure they are done well with the help of a checklist. Read this book and you will understand just how powerful this tool can be in your life.

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni
No matter what size your practice, you have at least one team in place that is responsible for your success. Teamwork and team dynamics might be overused terms in dentistry, but there is something to be said for addressing the needs of this critical component to your success. Best of all, this book is written as a leadership fable, which means you will not be bored by technical jargon or statistics and lofty theories. Rather, Mr. Lencioni uses a fictional story of a company in trouble to illustrate his five dysfunctions. The use of fable makes the book an interesting and fast read. I know any time I see a book with a number in the title, I immediately want to see the list to decide if it is the book for me, so I will save you the trouble of looking at the book in the bookstore. Here are the five dysfunctions discussed in the book:
  1. Absence of Trust
  2. Fear of Conflict
  3. Lack of Commitment
  4. Avoidance of Accountability
  5. Inattention to Results

I’m certain after reading that list alone, you can already see there will be themes that match the issues you face in your practice every day. Order this book for your entire team and you will improve together, as a team.

The Big Switch by Nicholas Carr
The only information you really need to know about this book is the author also wrote a book called: Is Google Making Us Stupid? The answer to that question is most likely, yes. In The Big Switch, Mr. Carr does a superb job of introducing the reader to the wonders of “cloud computing.” Certainly, by now, you have heard this term in any number of contexts. Apple has iCloud, Google has just released GDrive and Amazon.com not only lives on a cloud but also provides space for many others. “So what?” you say? On a practical level, this is the future of computing and it will matter a great deal to anything you do online, as well as what your children might do for a living. From a dental perspective, if you have a computer in your office, the cloud will have an impact there as well. There are already practice management software companies like Curve Dental that provide a cloud-based solution and it is likely that some of the other server-based systems will eventually follow suit. The promises of cloud computing are many: access to your data from any Internet-connected device, secure backups and the elimination of complicated networks that currently exist in many of our practices. This is a good book to get a dose of geek in your life.

Now, Discover Your Strengths by Marcus Buckingham & Donald O. Clifton, PhD
The premise of this book is appealing to dentists because it deals with the unique strengths and talents of individuals. Since our success is directly related to our ability to interact with people and understand how they work, the test that this book is based on is invaluable to you and your team. The authors make a very good point to say that individuals tend to view improvement or progress as addressing their weaknesses. This is incorrect in their view. You should identify your strengths and use them to your benefit rather than try to be someone else. Dr. Clifton is chair of the Gallup International Research and Education Center, and this book is the result of its study of more than two million people. This project took more than 25 years to complete and the result is a list of 34 “themes” (read strengths) that can be arranged in scores of combinations. The book includes a code for you to visit StrengthsFinder.com and complete your profile. The results will provide your “top five” themes or strengths. With these in hand you have something to focus on for future success. Whether you want to use this book for personal development or a team exercise, I think you will find the results illuminating.

If you are a particularly fast reader or you have a lot of free time in the summer, here are a few more books worth mentioning.

iCon: Steve Jobs: The Greatest Second Act in the History of Business by Jeffrey S. Young & William L. Simon
If you own anything Apple, you should read this book and understand why everyone mourned the loss of Steve Jobs.

Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel H. Pink
The experiments in human behavior make this an interesting and engaging book. You might also discover some insights into your patients and staff in the process.

Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion and Purpose by Tony Hsieh
This is the story of one of the best service-oriented companies that lives entirely on the Internet: Zappos.com. Learn how this company went from zero to $1 billion in sales in just 10 years.

There are no book reports due at the end of the summer, but if you read one or more of these books and find them valuable, send me a message: tom@dentaltown.com.
Dentaltown Magazine
September 2025
Dentaltown Magazine September 2025 Read Current Issue Read Archived Issues
Sponsors
Townie Perks
Townie® Poll
Who or what do you turn to for most financial advice regarding your practice?
  
Site Menu
Message Boards Magazine Continuing Education Podcasts Blogs Classifieds Dental News Events Townie® Poll Ebooks Townie Choice Awards
Company Info
Contact Us Advertise With Us Howard Farran DDS, MBA Policies and Agreements
Site Help
Sally Gross, Member Services Specialist
Phone: +1-480-445-9710
Email: sally@farranmedia.com
©2025 Dentaltown, a division of Farran Media • All Rights Reserved
9633 S. 48th Street Suite 200 • Phoenix, AZ 85044 • Phone:+1-480-598-0001 • Fax:+1-480-598-3450