Leading the culture change within your practice

Leading a team can be a challenge even for the most seasoned leaders, but with the right tools, enhanced productivity, team satisfaction, and a positive team culture can be achieved. Dentists, as leaders, should create an environment that promotes and encourages collaboration, which means including staff in decision-making processes.¹ Change and transformation are essential and require participation from both leaders and their teams, which inspires motivation and helps reach consensus on both issues and solutions.²

Climate vs. culture

First, it’s important to differentiate between climate and culture. Organizational climate is “a collective measure of how the members of a group (or department or organization) feel, how they perceive and describe the characteristics of this group feeling at a particular moment,” while culture “is a set of values governing the behavior of a group.” Culture affects climate in an organization, changes slowly, and is not quickly influenced by the leader, existing in an enduring sense; whereas climate is subject to change from moment to moment and exists in a more fleeting sense. Culture is comparable to values and climate to emotions.³

How to actually measure—and improve—team climate

To measure organizational climate, studies or satisfaction surveys should be conducted to gain feedback on the real culture, or the temperature of the current situation. The first step is to involve all study participants in the analysis process to reach a shared diagnosis because a) participation is important to motivate a team, and b) it is impossible to reach agreement on a solution if the team does not agree on the problem.³ Leaders must create a plan that involves participants in the analysis of results.

Climate studies can feel repetitive and tiring if done too frequently, which can demotivate participants, so it is best to carefully plan the frequency and format of these studies. It is recommended to conduct one climate study every two years, but if the survey is short (only 10 questions), it can be done annually. Questions in a climate study should be indirect to elicit honest responses.³

Results of the assessment should be shared openly with participants without hiding any information. They should be presented truthfully, highlighting both positive and negative aspects of the results. Issues that need improvement should be brought to attention, as well as areas where the climate is doing well. The purpose of a climate study is to either maintain or improve organizational climate—it is not just about making a diagnosis. Leaders should analyze what can and should be maintained and what can and should be changed. While some consultants analyze the data themselves and then present the results to leaders, this is not advised. Leaders have the most influence on climate and must not play a passive role; otherwise, if something goes wrong later, they may find it easy to blame the consultants they hired. Leaders are responsible for maintaining or changing the climate based on the report’s conclusions and should discuss results with staff to collaboratively decide on climate-improving actions.³

Furthermore, identifying the following cultural elements is crucial to create positive change⁴:

1. Observed behavioral regularities when people interact: language used and interaction patterns
2. Climate: feelings conveyed in a group through interaction or physical layout
3. Formal rituals and celebrations: ways events are celebrated
4. Espoused values: articulated or publicly announced principles or values
5. Formal philosophy: broad policies and ideological principles
6. Group norms: implicit standards and values
7. Rules of the game: implicit or unwritten rules
8. Identity and images of self: how the organization views itself
9. Embedded skills: special competencies
10. Habits of thinking, mental models, or linguistic paradigms: shared cognitive frames
11. Shared meanings: emergent understandings created by group members
12. Root metaphors or integrated symbols: ways groups evolve to characterize themselves

Turning cultural insight into real, lasting change

Once cultural elements are identified, creating a desired team culture requires change. The process of changing organizational culture involves the following steps³:

1. Describe the desired culture.
2. Describe the current culture.
3. Diagnose and measure the differences between the current and desired culture.
4. Create an action plan and involve as many people as possible.
5. Implement the action plan and be consistent.
6. Lead by example.
7. Reinforce the desired behavior by reviewing policies, eliminating discrepancies and contradictions.
8. Create mechanisms to monitor and revitalize the culture, including climate surveys, analysis and discussion of resulting actions, and stakeholder relationship management.

Lastly, to create and maintain an organizational culture that retains employees, dentists as leaders should focus on providing compensation and benefits that align with industry standards, implementing transparent performance management systems, and clearly communicating expectations. Regular discussions about workload and outcomes, along with a culture that encourages transparency and open feedback without fear, support continuous improvement. Recognizing and appreciating employees through meaningful rewards and acknowledgement of good work further strengthens engagement and long-term retention.⁵

Editor's note: This article appeared in the March 2026 print edition of Dental Economics magazine. Dentists in North America are eligible for a complimentary print subscription. Sign up here.

References

1. Chilcutt AS. Exploring leadership and team communication within the organizational environment of a dental practice. J Am Dent Assoc. 2009;140(10):1252-1258.
2. Rukh H, Qadeer F. Diagnosing culture of public organization utilizing competing values framework: a mixed methods approach. Pak J Commer Soc Sci. 2018;12(1):398-418.
3. Lanzer F. Organizational Culture and Climate: Understanding, Maintaining, and Changing. Independently published; 2018.
4. Schein E, Schein P. Organizational Culture and Leadership. 5th ed. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons; 2017.
5. Soundarapandiyan K, Ganesh M. Employee retention strategy with reference to Chennai-based ITES industry—an empirical study. Glob Manag Rev. 2015;9(2):1-13.