The Practice Playbook
A proven system that builds a team to run your practice, so you can lead and do the dentistry you love.
A done-with-you programme. We work together to install the systems in your practice, one step at a time. By the end, your team knows what to do, does it without being asked, and keeps your standards high.
Book your discovery call25 minutes, no pressure. We'll look at where your practice is now and where it could be.
What changes for you
What's different twelve months from now
The message about nursing cover goes to your practice manager, gets sorted, and you hear about it afterwards. That's what this looks like when it's working, and it's the bit you'll notice first.
- Your time comes back.The hours you used to spend fielding questions are hours in surgery, which is the only kind of time management that ever shows up in the accounts.
- Your team knows what the practice is for.Anyone can tell a patient in their own words, and when you're choosing between a scanner and a third hygienist, there's something to decide it against other than how you feel that week.
- New people land well and stay.A new nurse's first fortnight is planned before she starts, and the nurse who would have gone at eight months is still there.
- Problems get said early.The thing that would have become a grievance gets said in the room, by the person it belongs to, while it costs an awkward ten minutes rather than a locum, a solicitor and six months of atmosphere.
- Standards hold without you.A standard that slips gets picked up that week, by someone who isn't you, without it becoming a whole thing.
And a practice that holds its standards with you out of the building is the practice that's worth something when you come to sell it.
Take a fortnight off, tell nobody to hold the fort, and look at what's waiting when you get back. If the standards held, they're installed. If what's waiting is a fortnight of decisions nobody felt able to make, they were never standards, they were you.
Proof, led by renewal
How do I know it works?
Seven practices have renewed with me, and every one of them was working through these same six systems. Three started in 2025 and have each renewed twice since. Two more started in 2025 and have just signed on for a second year. Two are contracted into 2027. Four of those signed in the last few weeks.
A kind quote costs the person giving it a few minutes. A renewal costs money, and nobody renews to be polite, which is why it's the part I'd look at if I were you.
None of them turned things round in a weekend. They did the unglamorous version, one thing at a time, bedded in before the next one started, and none of them looks anything like it did when we started.
"Mark has an exceptional ability to take complex, often overwhelming topics and break them down into simple, practical steps."Dr Pat Langley, Clinical Director, FMC
"Mark is a clear thinker, a calm leader, and a brilliant communicator."Chris Barrow, Author, Speaker & Business Coach
There's no finished cohort of this programme to point at yet, because the first one starts in January 2027. What there is instead is twenty-five years of doing this work one practice at a time, and the seven above.
How it works
How it works
Two sessions a month for twelve months, with you and your practice manager both in the room. One session to build a system, the next to bed it in, and when it stutters in week three, which it will, that's what the next session is for.
You don't write the system. You haven't got the evenings to invent an induction process from scratch, and you shouldn't have to. You get the system, and building it into your practice is what we do together.
There are six of them, and they go in in order, starting with you and working outwards:
- Get Steady, Get Clear
- Create Culture by Design
- Hire for Fit, Land Them Well
- Say It Straight, Say It Kindly
- Get It Off Your Plate
- Hold the Line
From month seven the wider team comes in properly, with a session a month for each part of the team. Every session is recorded, and you'll have it the same day.
It runs in a small group: small enough that I see what's actually happening in your practice, big enough that you're not the only one solving it. The next group starts in January 2027.
Who it's for
Who it's for
It's right for you if the practice runs on you and you've had enough of that. Some people come to this having read everything and been on every course going. Others got where they are by being good at the job and saying yes, with no time for any of that. Both work. What's missing is a system that holds when you aren't holding it.
It's not for you if what you want is more content. You've almost certainly got more than you can use already, sitting in a folder somewhere.
And it's not for you if you can't commit to two sessions a month with your practice manager beside you. One of you attending and reporting back is the thing we know fails, which is why both seats are non-negotiable.
Mark Topley, Team Performance Specialist
About Mark
Mark Topley BEd (Hons) · Qualified teacher · thirteen years leading Bridge2Aid · twenty-five years in dentistry
I qualified as a teacher before I ever set foot in a dental practice, and it's the reason any of this sticks. Most training in dentistry is built by people who are very good at the subject and were never taught how anyone learns, which is why so much of it is interesting on the day and gone by Friday.
I spent thirteen years running Bridge2Aid in Tanzania, which is where I learned most of what I know about leading people who don't have to do what you say. I write for Dentistry and Private Dentistry and speak at the BDA and the Dentistry Show.
I also burned out once, properly, which is why every decision in this programme gets judged on one question: does this take load off you, or pile it on?
FAQ
The questions people actually ask
What happens on the call?
25 minutes, you and me. We look at where the practice is now, where you want it to be, and whether this is the right way to get there. If it isn't, I'll tell you that too.
What if my practice manager leaves halfway through?
Then we recruit and onboard the next one together, and that's in the programme already, not an extra. It's also where you find out whether the work stuck: if what you built is installed, it survives the handover.
What happens if we miss a session?
Every session is recorded and you'll have it the same day, so a missed one costs you the conversation rather than the content. There's a spare week in every month for rescheduling. What doesn't work is missing them quietly and repeatedly, and I'll ask about it.
We're mid-refurb, mid-associate change or mid-CQC. Should we wait?
Usually no, because there isn't a quiet year coming, and waiting for the clear run is how three years go past. The one case where I'd say wait is if you're selling, merging, or unsure you'll still own the practice in twelve months. Tell me on the call and I'll say so straight.
What if it doesn't work?
You can change your mind in the first two weeks and get your money back, as long as you've attended the calls and taken full part in the onboarding. After that, turn up and run the projects, and if it isn't installed by the end of the twelve months we keep going until it is, at no extra cost.
What does it cost?
£11,964 for the twelve months including VAT, committed six months at a time and invoiced to the practice monthly, with no finance company. You're not buying my hours, though. Twelve months from now the question won't be how many sessions there were, it'll be whether the practice runs without you and is worth more because it does, and a cheaper year that changes nothing is the expensive option.
Start with a conversation
25 minutes to look at where your practice is now and where it could be in twelve months. If it's a fit, we'll talk about what comes next. If it isn't, I'll tell you that too.