Enhance Team Cohesion and Patient Relationships through unlocking the Power of Thinking Patterns

In the world of dentistry, dental excellence isn't just about clinical skills, digital tools, and qualifications, it's about fostering strong trust-based connections that create a strong team and building long term meaningful relationships with your patients.

Have you ever stopped to think about what part mindset and the structure of your thoughts plays in building meaningful relationships?

Your mind habits play a pivotal role in shaping your perception, mood, and behaviour? Let us find out how understanding thinking patterns can help you strengthen team cohesion and patient relationships.

In the 1970's NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming), was developed through the study of people who were experts in their field achieving better results than their colleagues. Some of these people included,

Fritz Perls (Gestalt Therapy)

Milton H. Erickson (Hypnotherapy)

Virginia Satir (Family therapy)

Alfred H. Korzybski (Linguistic Philosophy)

Vaihinger (Philosophy of 'As-if')

Miller, Galanter, and Pibram (Cybernetics)

Gregory Bateson (Human evolution)

later NLP practitioners also modelled  the work of

Clare Graves ( motivational types) and others,

The developers of NLP at Santa Cruz university recognised that there were patterns to how individuals thought and that influenced their words and actions. In NLP we call these different structures and patterns of thinking meta programmes, I prefer to call them thinking patterns or mind habits. I prefer not to use mind set because set implies that your thinking cannot change, and it can. Speaking of mind habits reminds us that we can get stuck in habitual ways of thinking and we can think differently when we know how.

Thinking patterns and mind habits are less about what we think, they are more how we think, the structure of our thoughts and how we think.

Recognising the structure of our thoughts and the impact it has on our mental health is an important subject that we are not taught at school, university or even when we seek the support of a therapist or counsellor.  An NLP master practitioner or therapeutic coach will be able to help you understand your thinking patterns and use them to your best advantage.

Mind habits Shape Your Perception

Your mind habits are a combination of your thinking patterns and  and motivational types (Graves drives), these act  a coloured sunglasses lens, perceptual filters, through which you view the world, colouring how you  perceive your reality. What you notice and what you don't are unique to you and are vary from a s small difference to a large mismatch between you and others.  for example, if your sunglasses mean that you see the world through a filter of procedures, you think in sequences, order, 1,2,3  if you looked at a bookcase that contained a mixture of books you are likely to first notice the manuals and training guides filled with procedure and 'how to ' information. Whereas someone else whose sunglasses filter is for choice and options, is likely to first spot the travel guides, and be 'blind' to the manuals.

Mind habits and Perception Impact Your Emotions

Your mind habits, coupled with perceptual filters, the sunglasses, influences your emotions. For example, consider someone views things through procedure, faced with a flat pack furniture will want to first read the manual so they can follow it step by step. If the manual is missing a procedure focused person will become very frustrated. However, a person who looks at life through the lens of options, and will be quite content, to try and work it out for themselves, their mantra will be if all else fails then find the manual.  

Mind habits, Perception, and Emotions Drive Behaviour

Let's add in  the graves drives and notice how this influences outcome. Our person wearing procedure lens, notices the manual on the bookcase, They will read it and follow the instructions (behaviour), solving the problem, provides satisfaction. which in turn, acts as a positive feedback loop reinforcing the habitual procedure thinking. Concurrently this will honour  or violate their Graves drives. If their preferred Graves drive patterns are blue for 'doing things as they ought to be done' and  orange for 'Being successful and winning', they will feel fulfilled if however, their Graves drives are high green for 'doing things together' or turquoise, ' as a whole' they will feel something is missing as the project was completed alone.

Understanding thinking patterns, mind habits and Graves drives for you and your team will transform your dental practice. By understanding and using the patterns you will be able to personalise your communication making it more effective, enhance teamwork by asking your team to do tasks in a manner best suited to them. When you get a feel for how thinking patterns are exhibited you will be able to tailor your communication with your patients so that you and your team can connect with them more effectively, building deeper trust, understanding, and  providing personalised care.

Understanding thinking patterns is taking cultural awareness and diversity to a higher level, avoiding discrimination at a level of thinking patterns.

Incorporating this knowledge into your practice will lead to improved patient relationships, better teamwork, and ultimately, a more successful and fulfilling dental career. Is it now time for you to harness the power of mind habits and thinking patterns to take your practice to new heights. If the time is not now, when will it be?

Developing your skills

The two best ways to understand this this fascinating topic and learn how to apply it to your dental practice,  are to

A) Book a session with Jane so that she can decode your thinking patterns and Graves drives

B) Book your team on a F5 team reboot were as a team you discover all your thinking patterns and Graves drives and discover how and why they complement or clash with one another.

When is the best time for you to improve your practice  by improving the practises of your team?

Find out more e mails Jane@IOB.co.uk or book a complimentary Speak with Jane call through the website www.IODB.co.uk