Movin’ On Up: Keith Morris, Senior Director of Lab Operations Excellence
Movin’ On Up: Keith Morris, Senior Director of Lab Operations Excellence.
It’s not about an opportunity. It’s about an opportunity path. Where each stepping stone you earn due to hard work, consistency, and passion leads to another. And another. Where you can look upon these stones, and realize, with great pride, the career, the life, that you have paved.
It has been 33 years since Keith Morris crossed the threshold, stepping foot into the ADI family. It began in 1987, after he completed his degree as a student at Durham Technical Community College, when he received a summer opportunity in the lab at the ADI affiliated Durham, NC location. That experience seemed to seal the deal as he recalls, “I got hooked...hooked in a major way. I enjoyed the people, working in a fast paced environment, the doctor I was working with, the atmosphere...I learned a whole variety of skills that I didn't learn in school.”
Though that summer came to an end, the opportunities did not. Over the course of two years Morris worked his way up to the role of a full technician in Durham and was then offered another promotion. “I was young...maybe 21 at the time…they asked me if I’d be interested in becoming a Lab Manager in Fayetteville, NC, a town I’d never been to in my life. I jumped in my car, drove there, worked a couple of days and ended up there for ten years as the lab manager,” Morris said.
His efforts and achievements didn’t go unnoticed. In 1999, he was recruited by none other than George Edwards, the founder of ADI, to serve as the lab manager of a new practice positioned within company headquarters in Kinston, NC. He and his young family moved to the Kinston area where he worked alongside Edwards’ daughter, Dr. Robin Edwards, managing a lab staff of five.
Morris quickly found himself holding two roles, that of lab manager as well as the Manager of Technical Development, a role in which he was responsible for training prospective lab managers at headquarters. “As soon as I became acclimated myself, it came naturally to me. To train people, to make them feel comfortable, even if they were doing something incorrectly,” Morris said.
ADI practices throughout North Carolina welcomed Morris into their labs to train new hires and lab managers alike, helping to establish ideal protocol and culture. In 2004, ADI’s COO at the time promoted Morris to Regional Manager, where he oversaw the Florida-Texas vicinity.
“I went where the problem was. I helped improve laboratories in regards to culture, communication issues, technical matters,” Morris recalls. Eventually he found himself traveling the country, visiting practices within every region. Inside all of these practices Morris instilled the importance of excellence, consistency and development. His closely held mantra, “If we don't have the solution, we will find it,” no doubt rang through the walls of each practice he visited.
“The focus for me was fulfilling our guiding principles,” Morris said, in reference to C.A.R.E., the principles that ADI was founded upon, which stands for Curiosity, Accountability, Respect and Engaged. It is these principles that, according to Morris, if upheld, secure a lab’s ability to deliver clinical excellence and accommodate the needs of each practice owner. “Curiosity, meaning that we have to be proactive, not reactive. Accountability...making sure that we deliver world class service. That's the aim, the goal. That’s our job. Respect for practice owners and engagement with them...communication, and addressing concerns.”
The climbing of the ladder did not stop. In 2012, Morris was promoted to Senior Regional Manager and in 2015 became the Director of Laboratory Operations. Since 2018, Morris has served as the Senior Director of Lab Operations Excellence, where he plays a critical role on ADI’s Field Operations team.
Morris credits the evolution of the industry and the innovative leadership of ADI for his growth. “What separates us [from other companies and professions ]is that we have the ability to rise,” he said, “ I worked and trained and found out what the focus was...as focuses change over time, I change with them. That’s the reason I’ve been here for over 30 years. The race goes to the person who is able to adapt to change.”
No doubt one of the few constants in his career has been change. His awareness and acceptance of change along with his industriousness has propelled him forward again and again. Though it has been challenging, he says it has been extremely rewarding.
To this day, the rewards are for the taking. “The opportunities are there,” Morris says, “You have to want it. You have to be consistent. You have to innovate. You have to challenge yourself to be better...If you're weak in some way, work on it. If you’re strong in an area, share that with someone...someone else can benefit from your strength.”
Morris’s growth stems from his willingness to help, just as much as his willingness to learn.
“It began with me training other folks to do what I do, but to do it better. Everyone that I've trained, from a clinical standpoint, are better than me. I trained them to communicate better, to create better. If you do that you will continue to grow.”
ADI’s value system either inspired Morris in his career aspirations along the way or it was pure happenstance that these two should meet. He credits ADI’s value system and structure for their standing as the world leader in tooth replacement services. “They are constantly looking for the mousetrap. They are never satisfied with where they are never content nor complacent. They always look for a way to do it better. That's what sets us apart.”
Senior Director of Lab Operations Excellence. Keith Morris’s current title may be quite a mouthful, but he has earned every word of it.
“I could have gone a hundred different places...but I came here.”