As a clinician or clinic owner, continuous learning is part of the daily grind and we are all accustomed to advancing our knowledge and skills. But when it comes to making that move away from everyday dentistry, and implementing fully comprehensive digital dentistry, it can be difficult to know how (and where) to start with the huge amount of new information that you need to take on board.
So what is the best way to begin your learning? And how do you ensure that you are going about it in the right way?
Christian Coachman believes in a fundamental shift that is required before any learning even begins.
And that if you do it successfully, it’s guaranteed to help you get the most out of any experience.
When participants join Christian Coachman for DSD Residency courses, he recommends coming with a ‘beginner’s mind’.
DSD Residency Tip #1: Activate your beginner’s mind
Hit play to listen to Christian Coachman’s thoughts on this approach👇
The concept of the ‘beginner’s mind’ is a philosophy from Buddhism that explains how, regardless of our level of expertise in a certain topic, we should all approach learning with a beginner’s mentality or mindset. It’s all about maintaining that humble, open mind of a beginner.
Why do we believe in the beginner’s mindset?
Beginners learn more than experts. As a beginner in any subject, we see nothing but possibilities.
However, as we get good at something and start to become an expert, our minds can start shutting down to new information. Instead of keeping an open mind to the options in front of us, we begin to listen to our preconceived idea of something before we even start – and we find ourselves judging the information that comes from others.
The result? We minimize our ability to learn and our openness to things that are new and different.
Christian Coachman believes that while it’s still necessary for us to become experts - and to continue to value the fact that we are experts - we need to put this aside briefly when we obtain new information. By pretending we are beginners, we give ourselves the opportunity to let the information sink in and benefit more from it.
After this initial approach, we can brainstorm the idea, implement it, judge it, change it and adapt it – we can even say “This doesn’t work for me”. But why not benefit from a beginner’s perspective and do this only after we really embrace the possibility of what’s new?
“What I’m asking is for you to forget that you are already an expert, because experts learn much less than beginners. We need to maintain our beginner’s mind - despite the fact that we do so many things so well and we are experts in so many things - even on the topics related to things in which we are already experts.
Let’s just reset our brain, open our mind, allow the new to come in, and give it a chance.”
- Christian Coachman
Activate your beginner’s mind on DSD Residency
On DSD Residency courses, Christian Coachman talks about a comprehensive dental office model that is beneficial for dentistry as well as dental business.
The Beginner’s Mind is just one of the tips that he recommends to help forward-looking dental professionals like you to succeed with comprehensive dentistry. If you are not content with your current dental office model, but you’re not sure how to move forward, DSD Residency can help you do it.
We have upcoming DSD Residency courses taking place in Madrid, Las Vegas, Sydney – and even online. If you want to learn more, schedule a callwith one of our sales reps today.
