After I published a recent Burleson Report: A Weekend Update for Orthodontists, a private client whom I consider a friend and mentor to many of the younger members in my coaching groups, Dr. Ron Barnett, wrote me a kind note, thanking me for the insight in the articles and echoing something he’s taught his employees for years: “Your thoughts are things.” I couldn’t possibly... »
Gavin Pretor-Pinney, founder of one of my favorite magazines, The Idler, said, “To solve the right problems for your patients, customers, clients or donors, you just need to step outside and pay attention to what is so commonplace, so everyday, so mundane that everyone else misses it.” He’s right, but how can orthodontists pay better attention to what their competition misses? First, through clari... »
From another brilliant opinion piece in the New York Times by David Brooks: “American life has secularized and grand political ideologies have fallen away, but moral conflict has only grown. In fact, it’s the people who go to church least — like the members of the alt-right — who seem the most fervent moral crusaders. We’re living in an age of great moral pressure, even if we lack the words ... »
In a recent Strategy+Business article, adapted from his book, 63 Innovation Nuggets, Professor George Barbee shares two simple leadership concepts. First, he teaches to “pilot simultaneously at 30,000 feet and at ground level.” The best leaders can see the big picture but are also aware of the facts and details on the ground. I’ve done both separately and they will destroy trust and accountability... »
A sign on the wall of my employee break room reads, “Are you being BUSY or are you being PRODUCTIVE?” If you’ve been following me for long, the most-recent employee engagement survey by Gallup should not be surprising to you. Only 33% of U.S. employees are engaged on the job. Internationally, the number is worse: only 13% of employees are engaged at work. Two researchers in the Harvard Business Re... »
From Peter Bregman’s article in the Harvard Business Review comes a great reminder to orthodontists: your problems implementing new strategies or following-through on the tried-and-true is not a strategy problem, but a people problem. Doctors from all over the globe fly to Kansas City to spend a consulting day with me and, without fail, the topic of “getting my team to do what I ask... »
If you or your parents grew up when the popular opinion in Congress, the news media and universities aligned with Roosevelt’s New Deal and the idea of redistribution of wealth, you’ve seen things come a long way from that ideal to Regan, who brought back the old Federalist lines of argument. These aligned closely to Alexander Hamilton, who has garnered much current interest and is the subject of a... »
I’ve been teaching for years that rational thought is not required in decisions that are often based largely on emotion. Recent research by Kulow and Kramer, “In Pursuit of Good Karma: When Charitable Appeals to Do Right Go Wrong” continues to support my theory. Study after study have shown that, although most Americans will not admit that they are irrational, their actual decisions on product pur... »
From the Journal of Consumer Research, Dubois, Rucker and Galinsky; June, 2016. Researchers have examined how power arises and is distributed via socioeconomic status, how it affects consumer behavior and even how it affects psychological state or mindset. One area researchers haven’t fully explored is how power affects the creation and reception of persuasive messages. Having power, researchers h... »
In an article in Strategy + Business, Charlotte Roberts and Martha Summerville review the components to a mindful board of directors. Their wisdom has direct application to how you run your team leader meetings and entire company meetings as an orthodontist. To begin each meeting, the authors suggest you have a “connect to purpose” moment, like showing a video or telling a short story. Each time w... »
Although there are hundreds of studies that support the findings from this article in the Journal of Psychology & Behavioral Science, it reminded me of an excellent TED talk and review of the world’s longest-lasting study on happiness. Known as the Harvard Study of Adult Development, for over 75 years they have been “tracking the lives of 724 men, year after year, asking about thei... »
Ask any younger person, as I do with my residents each week, whether they read the newspaper or watch the nightly news and no hands will go up. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, though it is different than how previous generations acquired news and interacted with media. You must pay attention to the trends in media consumption amongst this group, as they are your patients and/or parents o... »
How do you pay attention to Feature Search Trends in our industry? If you’re not asking your patients exactly what they searched for when they found your practice on Google, now is the time to get serious about monitoring precisely what features and benefits patients are looking for when shopping for a pediatric dentist or orthodontist. Research out of the Bauer College of Business in Houst... »
In a brilliant and visceral essay published in this month’s Atlantic, Meghan O’Rourke takes us through the current state of doctors, empathy and the American health care system that has not only complicated how patients receive care but also how doctors become fulfilled in their professions. Although many doctors enter the profession to become healers, teachers and care givers, too ma... »
After 130 Years, Ladies’ Home Journal is ending monthly publication and going digital. Reported on the TODAY show, the hosts were asked how many magazines or journals they receive at home. Their answers: only one or none! As a subscriber to over 30 monthly journals, periodicals, 4 daily newspapers and someone who has been reading a book per week for years, I’m pleased to offer this ... »
Addressing the dynamic relationship between marketing and the public interest, Journal of Public Policy & Marketing is a source for understanding today’s most important issues that rest at the nexus of marketing and public policy. Each issue features a wide-ranging forum for the research, findings, and discussion of marketing topics related to business and government, including, but not limite... »
Readers rely on the Journal of International Marketing for the latest in global marketing issues. Geared both to international marketing and business scholars and to senior- and mid-level practitioners, Journal of International Marketing features analysis of the latest marketing theories, in-depth articles, and coverage of new methods. Also included are scholarly and managerially relevant articles... »
Journal of Marketing Research delves into the latest thinking in marketing research, from philosophy and theories to methods and techniques. Written for technically oriented research analysts, educators, and statisticians, Journal of Marketing Research covers a wide range of marketing research concepts, methods, and applications. You’ll read about new techniques, contributions to knowledge b... »
For more than seven decades, Journal of Marketing has been a vibrant outlet for the communication of ideas and thought leadership in marketing, bridging the gap between theory and application. By providing thought-provoking, in-depth articles covering vital aspects of the marketing industry, Journal of Marketing is the premier publication for academics and practitioners. Each issue includes origin... »
