The ought of opportunity or the ought of obligation?
I have been listening to groups of dentists talking and watching discussion on different forums and noticed the common use of the word ought.
I am aware that many dentists often ask colleagues for advice or guidance. The reply is often “You ought to do x, y or z.”
Unfortunately, even though advice is solicited, the most common response is to ignore it, irrespective of who has offered it.
I have reflected on both the questions and the answers and recognised that oughts fall into one of two categories, opportunity or obligation.
One set of oughts give rise to opportunities, choice, freedom and fulfilment e.g.
- You ought to learn how to Transform your practice in 10 days,
- You ought to find time to relax and exercise daily,
- You ought to cut our refined carbs and eat nutrient dense foods,
- You ought to wear loopes,
- You ought to save for your tax,
- You ought to do intensive hands on restorative, TMJ/ occlusion, and cosmetic training,
- You ought to find a coach and be part of a young dentist face-to-face mentoring group
- You ought to learn how to develop your soft skills and communication and deliver Patient Centred Sales -BEST CHOICES. Etc.
These opportunity oughts are offered to young dentists at the beginning of their career, usually by more mature practitioners who have either made mistakes, or seen others make costly stressful and preventable mistakes. The motivation behind opportunity oughts is to prevent you from experiencing the stress, anguish, financial and health costs involved if you don’t learn the key lessons. These oughts are the philosophy “prevention is better than cure.”
The second set of obligation oughts are offered when someone can see that you are struggling or that you are in some form of personal or professional difficulty. These oughts often involve obligation, reparation and urgent problem solving. With obligation oughts they are often offered by an ‘interested’ third party and you may have less choice about following the advice e.g.
- You ought to learn how to run and lead your practice to make it compliant or you will be closed,
- You ought to find time to relax and exercise daily or else you will not be here to see your children grow up,
- You ought to cut our refined carbs and eat nutrient dense foods or you will be on diabetic meds for the rest of your life and at risk of all the side effects of diabetes,
- You ought to wear loopes or you will be in breach of your conditions,
- You ought to save for your tax because we will not extend your overdraft,
- You ought to do intensive hands on restorative, TMJ/ occlusion, and cosmetic training as part of your mandatory conditions,
- You ought to find a coach be part of a young dentist face-to-face mentoring group and discover how other people are manging
- You ought to learn how to develop your soft skills and communication and deliver Patient Centred Sales -BEST CHOICES because we are going to. significantly increase or remove your indemnity as you have too many complaints and claims against you.
Obligation oughts are offered to dentists at different stages in their career to those who have ignored opportunity oughts and subsequently made costly, stressful mistakes and have usually come to the attention of a third party. With obligation oughts you will generally have little if any choice about what, when or how you follow the advice.
Obligation oughts are motivated by damage limitation.
Curiously the content and advice offered in opportunity and obligation oughts the advice is often the same, it is the timing, cost, stress, intentions and outcomes that are different.
Opportunities if ignored become expensive and stressful obligations
Be aware ought can appear in in disguise;
“I encourage you to ….”
“Have you thought about….”
“If I were you I would …”
“Have you considered. . .?”
Irrespective of how an ought presents itself, the choice to follow the advice or not is yours and your alone. Make a good choice. I encourage you to find a qualified and respected coach/mentor and follow as much advice as possible, and save yourself, time money and stress.
“In life, you need many more things besides talent. Things like good advice and common sense. “
Hack Wilson
We would love to hear your thougts on opportunity and obligation oughts
If you would like some coaching/mentoring support for you, your practice or team, call us on 07989 757 884 or email. Jane@IODB.co.uk
