How we became resilient and bounced forward, not back

Lessons we can learn from Northeast Delta Dental’s Covid experience

By Tom Raffio

It is over two years since the start of the Covid crisis, and I find myself asking exactly how Northeast Delta Dental managed to not just bounce back but to actually bounce forward from where we started.

That’s what I think of as resilience. As defined by the Baldrige Excellence Framework of proven management practices for high performance, resilience means anticipating, preparing for and recovering from disasters, so that when they occur the organization can react quickly and with agility to continue functioning effectively and safely.

How did we manage to thrive when so many organizations struggled? No two organizations are exactly alike. We are a nonprofit dental insurance company with about 200 employees. So, all the things that worked for Northeast Delta Dental will not work for everyone, but perhaps our story can still be instructive.

HAVE A CRISIS RECOVERY PLAN

Like many organizations, we have a robust strategic planning process that identifies our financial and operating goals and tactics for the near and long term. But we were very fortunate that in 2016, we added disaster recovery planning into the mix.

It covered all types of disasters including weather, fires, bombs, accidents, intruders and, yes, pandemics. I felt the odds were low that any of these crises would occur, but we wanted to be prepared.

So in March of 2020, when we realized that Covid was a serious matter, we implemented our crisis recovery plan and evacuated our offices. The plan had identified the need for secure technologies (including a remote call distribution and measurement system) for working from home. While our new call distribution system wasn’t in place until the summer of 2020, we benefited because we had ordered it well in advance.

Another important part of the plan was having 500 high-quality surgical masks. While we didn’t need all the masks because

most people weren’t in the office, our relationship with the mask vendor turned out to be very valuable: We were able to extend the contract and provide 110,000 masks and other PPE (gowns, wipes and gloves) at fair prices to our participating dentists, so they could care for patients. So having a disaster recovery plan was important in our resiliency.

BE GUIDED BY YOUR AUTHENTIC VISION AND VALUES

For over 30 years, Northeast Delta Dental’s boards, management team and employees have worked together to define our organization’s vision and our shared values.

The vision description I talk about most is, “Everybody deserves a healthy smile.” We interpret that to mean that we will do all we can to ensure our customers and others less fortunate in our communities have access to quality dental care. Our four values (effective communications, collaborative teamwork, high-quality service and respectful integrity) are taught to new employees and lived by existing employees.

After Covid hit and we made sure our people were safe, we asked ourselves what to do next. Our leadership team met with the executive team of board members and together realized our vision and values should set our direction. That meant we needed to work to get people the dental care they needed, which meant helping dental offices reopen safely (remember our masks) and reassuring the public it was safe to get care. It also meant that we should put the needs of our team of stakeholders (our employees, our customers, our dentists, insurance brokers/ benefit consultants and our communities) ahead of short-term profits.

We came up with a plan to invest in all our stakeholders and secured board and regulatory approval for us to spend $27 million toward our vision of healthy smiles for all. This was 7 percent of our 2020 revenues, but it kept our stakeholders going (and incidentally built incredible customer loyalty). I like to say our organization did well by doing what was right.

COMMUNICATE TO BUILD TRUST

One of the most valuable traits of great leadership is trust. That requires consistent and honest communications. Before the Covid crisis, we regularly used many forms of communication. With customers and dentists, we used email, face-to-face meetings, videos, social media, newsletters, appearances in public media, participation in community groups and more.

For employees, we had regular all-colleagues meetings and communication by walking around the office. These methods allowed us to listen as well as talk — to foster two-way communication. And, of course, we were always honest in our communications so that people knew they could trust what we said. When Covid hit and we determined to invest millions to help our stakeholders, we had to communicate what we were doing for them and why. My main goal was to reassure them that we were doing all we could to help them come through the crisis. Even when I had to share news that was less positive than I wished, I was always honest, supportive and timely, so I could head off unfounded rumors or speculation.

I sent emails every day to our employees for nearly two years. In those emails, I often included photos of my young granddaughter, because I wanted to convey a sense of family and of taking care of ourselves and our families, so that we could take care of our customers.

For dentists, I sent weekly emails with instructions about how we could supply them with protective gear at discount prices. For customers, I sent personal letters as well as emails about how we would forgive their premiums for July 2020. In return, I received hundreds of personal notes and emails back thanking me for all that Northeast Delta Dental was doing to support them. To this day, I feel an overwhelming sense of gratitude that we were able to communicate so deeply with our stakeholders and to hear how much this meant to them.

PREPARE FOR THE NEXT CRISIS

It now appears that Covid may be here to stay. And, even if we learn how to live with it as we would any serious illness, we must assume that other crises are inevitable.

Cybersecurity threats, for instance, are almost certain to grow in volume and impact. So, regardless of what happens with the pandemic, we all would be wise to prepare for the next crisis. To me, this means building a strong foundation on three dimensions.

First, build a financial cushion so that we can get through a crisis that cuts into revenues. Second, hire the best people and treat them well, so they will serve customers well and remain loyal to the organization. Third, adopt best management practices in terms of operations, board and community relations, and customer focus — just as described by the Baldrige performance excellence program.

The better we are at managing ourselves in good times, the better we will manage in tough times.

Tom Raffio is president and CEO of Concordbased Northeast Delta Dental. This essay is adapted from his book, “Plan to Thrive: The Inside Story of How One Company Did It Right.”