Chiropractors, You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know
January 8th, 2010 // 11:13 am @ Dr. Todd Osborne // No Comments
As I work from home today due to bad roads and inclement weather in North Georgia I was inspired toward the subject of this blog. The theme is “We don’t know what we don’t know”. It all started yesterday as I watched the panic set in around the Tennessee Georgia area as we were going to get between a dusting and 1 inch of snow, and oh my gosh it may even stick to a road! For you southerners, I am not picking on you, this is the perfect set up for my blog today. I have experienced the same phenomenon as a “northerner” moving to the south. As example, not in my life had I experienced the joys of boiled peanuts until I moved south, in fact did not even know such a thing existed….I didn’t know what I didn’t know….now I enjoy this wonderful treat on a regular basis. So, back to the story, as some snow did set in yesterday, the panic continued with closings of all kinds, grocery stores being raided, and seeing folks driving on roads that they had know idea how to drive on. But it is no one’s fault, it’s just that down here in the south they haven’t had the experience, they have not lived with it for their entire life, they have not learned how to drive on snow covered surfaces, and the only salt truck in the bi state area was being used somewhere else yesterday! In other words, they just don’t know what they don’t know.
Now back to the successful chiropractor and successful chiropractic office. I have found the exact same principle to be true of myself and chiropractor’s in general. When I joined AMC that is exactly what I found out, that I didn’t know what I didn’t know. Just like someone from the south driving on a snowy road, how was I supposed to know. No one had taught me, I didn’t have any experience, and in fact I didn’t even know what to ask someone to find out. That is what I see from thousands of chiropractors that I meet each year, we don’t know what we don’t know. It’s sad, especially because we tend to try to stay in our box of not knowing. We just assume what we are doing ourselves or what we have developed is the way to do it, never having experienced or having been taught the right way, a better way, or a different way so instead of finding out we just keep on keeping on thinking something will eventually change, yet it does not. Worse than that, someone has told us or taught us the “right way or best way” and so we accept that and fight anyone who wants to suggest anything else. Once I finally admitted to myself that maybe I didn’t know it all, I double an already decent sized practice in 4 months! How could I double a seven year old practice in 4 months? No other reason than I found out what I didn’t know and started utilizing it.
Whatever you are attempting, I suggest these 3 things. First and foremost, conquer your pride and admit that you don’t know what you don’t know. Second, seek out those who do know. Look for those with tons of experience, ones who have been through it. If I am caught in a midwest snow storm, who do I want driving, a northerner that has been driving on these roads their entire life or a someone from a warm climate that has never spun a tire on ice before? And if I want some good peanuts, do I ask a northerner, or go to south Georgia during peanut season to get some awesome boiled peanuts? Third, be willing to do it the way they do it. In chiropractic business, I don’t care whether it is technique, chiropractic consultants, insurance billing, cash practicing, staff hiring and training, or one of hundreds of things, find out what you don’t know, because you don’t know!
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