Kurt Gallagher With DC Dental Society

Intro: [00:00:02] Broadcasting live from the business radio studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for Association Leadership Radio. Now, here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:17] Lee Kantor here, another episode of Association Leadership Radio. And this is going to be a good one. Today on the show, we have Kurt Gallagher with D.C. Dental Society. Welcome, Kurt.

Kurt Gallagher: [00:00:28] Well, thanks, Lee. I appreciate you having me on as a guest.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:30] Well, before we get too far into things, tell us a little bit about DC Dental Society. How are you serving folks?

Kurt Gallagher: [00:00:36] So DC Dental Society is the state level affiliate of the American Dental Association that operates in our nation’s capital. We represent close to 500 dentists out of the dentist practicing, and we represent them from providing ongoing educational programs to advocacy before the City Council, the mayor and the Board of Dentistry. And we’ve really provided a lot of support for our profession throughout COVID, including getting PPE and making sure that the concerns of dentists are are maintained at a high level before the board and the city council.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:13] Now, how long have you been leading this group?

Kurt Gallagher: [00:01:16] I’m fairly new. I came on board in December 2019. So what a what a time of change. Just leaders when the pandemic started.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:25] So going into that, you were like, oh, this is going to be great. Another association to lead. And then, you know, within what, a quarter or so you had a new reality thrust upon you.

Kurt Gallagher: [00:01:37] Exactly as did the rest of the world.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:39] So what was the kind of first move? You were probably still in those early stages of getting to know everybody, and then all of a sudden you got a, you know, worldwide pandemic on your plate. How did that transition go?

Kurt Gallagher: [00:01:52] It was immediate. You’re right. It was I was still in the phase where I was learning, getting to know that the organization, the culture, the people and we had to quickly pivot to virtual. Dc Dental Society has monthly events from September to May, so it’s not like a lot of other organizations have a big annual conference, which certainly has risked a lot of those conferences were canceled in 2020 and let’s say you’re fortunate to have them early in the year, but DC Dental, we had to pivot to these monthly events and so it was not only was a logistical change, but it was also a cultural shift because the members are used to coming together, seeing their colleagues every few weeks. And then we had to quickly go to virtual where they saw faces on a zoom screen for about a year and a half before we finally were able to come back together.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:40] Now, how did you kind of manage that change? Because that’s difficult enough. You know, all of those all of your members are struggling with their own situation. And then here’s a group that they relied on in terms of face to face, you know, kind of dealing with each other and making that transition to virtual. How do you keep providing the value that your members need and then even the value that they’re used to in terms of networking and things like that? But now it’s some of these things are kind of life or death regarding their practices.

Kurt Gallagher: [00:03:13] You’re absolutely right, Leigh. And we really strove to provide a steady stream of communication. We had a wonderful support from the ADA. They, the American Dental Association, was a terrific partner throughout this process. They were on top of the government relations at the national level, working with Congress, working with FEMA, working with other federal agencies. Ada was able to provide key information about all the assistance programs, the PGP loans, the EIDL loans, and which we were then able to share with our members. But the ADA also was a great advocate for securing PPE and the protective equipment for dentists, which at that point in early 2020 was in short supply. And there were also a lot of risk from people who knew someone, who knew someone who could potentially get PPE that was not legitimate. And so we work with closely with the ADA in terms of providing that communication and did a lot of listening to members to to just make sure we were aware of the challenges that our members were facing.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:19] Now, when you’re in that kind of crisis mode, you’re probably the way you envisioned. This is going to be my first hundred days here. They’re going to work on the culture. I’m going to work on some of these kind of big issues. And all of a sudden, is that all kind of just pushed to the backburner and you’re just, you know, putting out this big fire of I got to keep my members, you know, in business.

Kurt Gallagher: [00:04:41] Part of the challenge of a crisis is the crisis usually becomes all encompassing. But at the same time, an organization needs someone to keep the lights on, which is something that might not be appreciated. So those basic administrative functions are also critical. You need to make sure that they use those. You don’t lose sight of them, that they’re still managed properly. And fortunately for the DC dental side, we did have staff that helped out with that so that we were able to provide that that basic level of support and operation to keep the organization going while also providing that support that members needed. Know, for example, I mentioned that PPE was was PPE was in short supply. And again, we had some members coming to us who had connections who could potentially get sources of of PPE. But the sources were were were questionable whether or not the quality was there, whether the products were legitimate. At the same time, the ADA secured commitment from FEMA to provide PPE to dentists in 50 states and in DC. But unfortunately, DC government was providing PPE to health care providers, but dentists weren’t in the first priority list, so we had to actually go to a local TV network that helped us raise awareness about this challenge. And a couple of days later, we received confirmation that dentists, too, would be included in that distribution of PPE.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:06] Now when you’re working through this crisis like this and you have so many fires and so many, you know, kind of so much noise out there, how do you kind of. Prioritize. This is a must do. This is the stuff that has to get done. This is a nice to do. And maybe we will backburner this all while trying to kind of keep your vision of a culture of collaboration and of sharing best practices and knowledge during this time.

Kurt Gallagher: [00:06:39] It involves a lot of collaboration with the leaders of the organization. Organizations have to be agile during a crisis and staying in close communication with the elected leadership. But there’s an acronym that’s used in the medical field to assess how to support someone in a sort of triage. Triage mode is ABCs airway, breathing, circulation. So that sort of tells you what you need to do to keep your patient alive. And I use that as an analogy for how we focused and prioritize within the society as well, making sure we address those issues that if weren’t addressed right away, the patient might not survive and then get into the point where we can then deal with the circulation issues. The ABCs again. So it sort of provided a nice apt analogy for the society.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:29] Now, during a crisis like this, to me, this is one of those moments where the value of being a member of an association like DC Dental Society becomes no longer a Oh yeah, that’s a nice thing that I should consider. It becomes a This is something I have to do because these people are helping me survive during this crisis. How do you also educate the folks out there that aren’t members? Like how do you kind of create that member engagement and the prospective member engagement during this time? Because I would think that during a crisis like this, you’re giving them, you know, the information, you know, hot off the presses. You’re helping these people with the stuff they need to be doing without them having to go out and search for it and hope they get reliable information out there on their own.

Kurt Gallagher: [00:08:20] You’re right. And again, it really is that steady communication and sharing some of that information with the nonmembers. In some cases it might be in sort of a teaser format. There might be content that’s password protected behind some sort of password firewall. But making sure that we’re able to to highlight to members and to nonmembers the activity of the organization, whether it was, again, advocating for the PPE, providing information on the assistance programs, those PPE loans or the EIDL loans and other federal assistance programs, and just providing that information, really highlighting the value of the work that the society was doing and that the ADA was doing on our behalf and in coordination with the D.C. Dental Society.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:05] So now how have you have move forward as as the pandemic hopefully is waning and now people can meet again face to face. Are you seeing kind of a resurgence among members like, you know, hungry for this kind of engagement? Is it something where attracting new members is easier or like what’s happening now in the growth of the organization?

Kurt Gallagher: [00:09:29] It’s still an evolving process. So we’ve switched over to having hybrid events, which is something we were never able to do before those monthly events, which has made the organization more accessible to members. But at the same time, we don’t have as many coming in person because there are some participating online. And so it’s it’s still evolving. We had a mask mandate until about a month and a half ago. So that was an impact. And I think people are still to some degree on easy. We had the Delta variant, we had the Omicron variant, and there may be others in the future that are widespread, but we’re seeing the numbers increase in terms of of members coming back as well as members getting engaged in our events. But again, it’s a slow going process because the other thing is we’ve gotten we change culturally and there’s this sort of grand scale in a large scale. You know, we were sort of withdrew. We got used to working from home. Dentists couldn’t do that. They had to go to their practices. But even there, I think a lot of them just sort of were used to sort of getting home, trying to be safe, you know, sort of being almost cocooned for a while during this period just to make sure that, you know, especially someone had younger kids or older and older family members, someone who might be more susceptible to COVID because of their their age or health conditions. You know, we’ve all had to be mindful to protect those people in our lives as well. And that’s certainly applies to dentists because they obviously are people and they have family members who could be at risk as well.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:14] So. Tell us a little bit about your back story. Have you always been involved in association work?

Kurt Gallagher: [00:11:21] For most of my career I have. I’ve worked for a number of associations from a wide range of industries. So the food sector and agriculture are the types of organizations I work with early on. The Pet Food Institute, US Export Council, and then I transitioned over to health care oriented organizations. Initially, some of those were more oriented towards companies and trade associations. But I’ve also worked with a couple of professional societies in addition to the DC Dental Society. I recently was appointed as Executive Director of the American College of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons, which is an association for oral surgeons nationwide.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:03] Now, so what do you think your superpower is that makes you so attractive to lead associations?

Kurt Gallagher: [00:12:12] You know, there’s the analogy that we use in the industry that we’re herding cats, right? So with associations, there’s so many different stakeholders and so many different players. Number one, you’ve got to be a good listener. You’ve got to actively listen, find a way to build consensus, bring people together, often with different viewpoints, to try to get on the same page. They’re members of the association because they want to be part of something and they want to support efforts that help their profession with their industry. So that in some ways can make it easy. But even with that sort of very high level shared goal, there can still be challenges that required. So really, I think in terms of building that consensus, that’s one of those, but also helping organizations in terms of assessing their strategic standing. Now, I once was appointed of an association, and part of my onboarding process is to talk with every board member key stakeholders within the organization. And ironically, not one board member could describe the mission of the organization, which was a huge red flag that I focused on correcting.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:19] So when you’re doing that kind of kind of due diligence and getting that discovery at the beginning and you see something like that occur where the board doesn’t even know kind of what you do or the why behind it. What are some actionable things you can do when that occurs? Like what? Share some advice for a leader that’s in a similar case when it comes to dealing with a board. And there is a disconnect between how you see what this association is and the why behind it. And then this the board not understanding fully, you know, why they’re there, really.

Kurt Gallagher: [00:14:00] And one of the challenges an executive director or another association leader has is to surface and resolve conflict. There are always going to be conflicts even again when people come together with similar missions. Sometimes the conflicts are personality, which it can be really challenging as well. Sometimes they’re political and sometimes they’re sort of institutional. But really, to elevate this up in a respectful way, creating a safe place to have that dialog. You know, in the case of the organization I was referring to, it was sort of an open secret that people were aware of, but they weren’t really conscious of, if that makes sense. And no one had come together and and raised it for topic of discussion to be addressed. So this that’s something that’s really important. You know, those of us who are in the association profession to elevate these issues to the appropriate level, whether they be a committee that might have a role or ultimately the board that may have a role in trying to right the ship in terms of its direction and address these challenges.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:04] Now, when you have an event like COVID and that forces change on an organization, sometimes that’s a good thing in a way, in the way that you’re now kind of auditing all of your the whole operation. And you can say, okay. Maybe we should get rid of this. This is a legacy process that maybe has outlived its purpose. Have you found that to be the case in your group where there are some things that just because we’ve done this in the past, it doesn’t make as much sense moving forward in the world the way that it is today.

Kurt Gallagher: [00:15:41] As we go into the next phase of Cove, it is critical for organizations to reassess. There really can’t they can’t be any sacred cows. To your point, there are programs that probably have outlived their purpose and need to be sunset. And that’s a challenge because often culturally organizations members get accustomed to certain programs, but they may not provide the value. They might not have the level of use. They or they may not. They may have revenue challenges. And so that’s critical as we move forward to assess changes and be willing to innovate. Sometimes innovation can be minor. There can be might be minor adjustments to a program or developing a new program that might be very similar to something old. And in some cases, innovation can be really transformational, something that brings about a major change or a major new initiative. Both are valid and both can have significant impact to the organization.

Lee Kantor: [00:16:45] Now, when you’re going about implementing some of this change, is there kind of a go to methodology you use to implement this thing, or is it more of a collaboration getting consensus and then incrementally moving forward? Or is it sometimes just ripping the Band-Aid off and saying, hey, we got to go this way, it’s time we were zigging and now we got to zag.

Kurt Gallagher: [00:17:08] It really depends on the organization, its culture, its situation, you know, the insights I can bring. And it’s also a matter of of sharing a vision that others can get behind. That’s part of the challenge. Part of the challenge, those of us who are leaders in terms of getting that support, if you’re trotting up the mountain and no one’s following you, you’re not really a leader. So that’s critical, is to make sure that you don’t leave people behind. And sometimes it takes time just to bring them on board to make sure that they understand the vision and that they can support it. And sometimes that vision, you know, we might be so sold down on ourselves, but it might not resonate with others and we need to adjust it. So we’ve got to be really flexible in order to really fulfill that promise of leadership.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:54] So what are you most looking forward to as we move hopefully out of this pandemic and move forward into this new normal?

Kurt Gallagher: [00:18:04] Well, I guess a new normal life for all of us. This is a challenge. The COVID has forced us all to reassess our lives, reassess, reassess our work life balance. I can I can attest for how it’s been for me working from home. My schedule expanded. I mean, again, it’s a crisis situation which always requires more attention, more time. But working from home, you know, when I did, you know, my schedule didn’t shorten. I’m looking to create some balance as well. We were all have heard about the great resignation. So that’s a challenge for organizations, whether they be associations or companies or other entities out there trying to find and retain staff. And and that’s a challenge, too, as we move forward, just making sure we provide a work environment that is Fosters staff and provides what they need in terms of expectations and just general sort of personal needs to to feel comfortable working in a place and feel comfortable serving an organization. That’s where the mission and vision no for associations can be so critical because it can provide that reason. That reason. That’s right. That people want to get behind, including staff.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:19] Yeah. There has to be a why that everybody kind of buys in or else it’s going to be very difficult if people don’t believe in the why. That’s a challenge for any group, whether it’s an association or a traditional business or whatever.

Kurt Gallagher: [00:19:34] Absolutely.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:35] Right now for you, have you had any mentors or any whether they’re personal or maybe a book you read or some resource that you go to for leadership advice or for, you know, kind of your philosophy in this.

Kurt Gallagher: [00:19:55] I’ve had mentors in in my role in earlier on when I was with the Pet Food Institute, there were there are a couple of senior members of the team who who mentored me and or we’re really I found to be really helpful in terms of providing advice. And I’ve tried to model myself after their behavior to a certain degree that in one case there was a former executive director of PFI who really was a master in terms of of that consensus building and and empathy and sort of bringing people along with him, making people feel included. So that’s something I’ve striven to achieve and follow my practice. A few years ago also I had an opportunity to participate in a leadership program that really exposed me to a lot of leadership concepts. And this was not a program that was over a weekend, it was over about six months, and there were a dozen books that were I had to read for the course and I took a lot out of that program. And I still have these books that are referred to periodically. So it’s a wide range of them some. And these aren’t basic management sort of books. Some of them focus on challenges of leadership around consensus building or around management structure, around honesty. Some of them focus on mistakes, learning from mistakes, using case studies. So, you know, I think what I try to follow is to always continue learning and always continuing and improving, practicing continuous improvement. If we can do that, I think we can all continue to grow and get better.

Lee Kantor: [00:21:44] So what do you need more of? What right now would help you kind of do your job and help your community?

Kurt Gallagher: [00:21:55] Has some staff transitions. You know, the organizations I serve aren’t immune to the great resignation. And so I’ve got new teams on. We’re all getting on board, learning with one another. I think once we get through that process of really getting acclimated and integrated, you know, we’re well positioned to really move forward with a lot of success. So I’ll be happy once we’re through that process that it takes some time to just for people to get acclimated.

Lee Kantor: [00:22:28] Now, any advice for a young person that hasn’t considered going into association work that maybe that wasn’t on their radar when they were, you know, going through school? Is there anything you would share with them about the reason to explore this as a profession and career?

Kurt Gallagher: [00:22:47] There’s such a tremendous variety of organizations out there that that they can find an organization that matches their areas of interest and their values, and they can also gain so much professional knowledge that that they can carry for other organizations that they may serve, whether they’re for profit or nonprofit. And so that’s why I would encourage them really look at the opportunities, because they’ll be challenged. They will grow, they will learn, they’ll expand their knowledge. And again, they may also end up working for an organization that they really connect with on a personal level, which can be so rewarding as well.

Lee Kantor: [00:23:25] Now, if somebody wants to learn more about D.C. dental society or get a hold of you through that, is there a website?

Kurt Gallagher: [00:23:33] It is. It’s D.C. Dental dot org.

Lee Kantor: [00:23:36] Well, thank you so much, Curt, for sharing your story today. You’re doing such important work and we appreciate you.

Kurt Gallagher: [00:23:43] Lee, I really appreciate the opportunity. Thank you so much. You have a great day.

Lee Kantor: [00:23:46] All right. This is Lee Kantor Lucy all next time on Association Leadership Radio.