I'm a proud Papa today. My oldest child, my daughter Alix, participates in a competition called 'Future Problem Solvers of America.' A group of students in her sixth-grade class, led by a very dedicated teacher, compete in this event. In the competition, each team gets a problem, and they use problem-solving skills to try and find a solution. It has both an oral and written component.

In the recent state competition here in Illinois, the 33 teams competing were given the topic of poor water quality and how to fix it. Each student on Alix's team has a specific job in this problem-solving competition and each is judged on it. My daughter's team worked very hard in preparation to do their very best in this competition, lead by their teacher Mrs. Greenwald. At the end of the event, my daughter's team placed second in the contest and qualified for Internationals, which will be held in June with groups from around the globe that won the same event in their respective regions.

Why am I talking about this on the blog? Besides beaming with pride, I realized that they are being taught what we try and impart to new users when learning about CEREC technology and integrating it into their practices. If you want to be successful, you need a strong leader (the dentist) and a team that knows their role in the process. Each team member performs crucial tasks on each procedure to try and improve the efficiency and quality of the process.

My daughter and her team put in so much effort before the event to be as prepared as they could when the time came to perform. When a practice makes the commitment to use CEREC in their office, they need to do the same. My daughter's team could not have just shown up and performed as well as they did this past weekend. In the same respect, CEREC users need to take the time to practice on the machine. Make sure you, the leader, watch videos regarding upcoming procedures you may have on your schedule to improve your knowledge and be prepared. Strive to take more CE to push the limits of that knowledge. Delegate to your staff things that they can do to improve certain parts of the procedure. When the leader and each team member learns and perfects their role in the CEREC process, success is bound to happen. Just remember that success in anything generally does not come easily, but the preparation and the journey is part of the reward!

My daughter and her team are really looking forward to the next step in their journey and will be putting in a lot of personal time perfecting their roles for that big competition and payoff. You and your team should strive to do the same!