SaferPatients

We hear a lot about disruptive physicians and Disruptive Physician Policies these days.

As Seth Godin points out in his blog, bad behavior and irrational decisions are almost always caused by fear. If you want to change the behavior, address the fear.

I don’t see that approach to changing behavior much.

In my previous work with airline safety systems, I used to lead what we called “Mediated Debriefs” for cockpit crews that had a total meltdown in teamwork and could no longer fly together safely. Usually the meltdown was caused by disruptive behavior - which can be deadly when experienced in a confined metal tube with wings hurtling through the air at 500 MPH.

After scores of sessions with totally dysfunctional crews, I realized most of the bad behavior stemmed from some sort of fear. That discovery transformed my ability to help the crews get to the root cause of the meltdown and, more importantly, plot a way forward to change behavior.

I wish more folks would try that tactic.

Instead, we ban someone, or we put a letter in the permanent file, or put the employee on a performance improvement plan.

Sometimes asking “What are you afraid of?” is the shortcut in understanding what motivates the behavior you are seeing. Fix the fear - change the behavior.

If you read a book or download a resource from the Internet (e.g TeamSTEPPS from AHRQ) that you want to use to change your organization for the better -  and it fails or doesn’t work for you, then it’s just a another self-help program.

If you read a book or use a resource that actually succeeds in creating a sustainable culture of safety, then the label changes from just another self-help program to a successful change initiative that you want to brag about.

We don’t like programs or projects that fail, because they waste our time, they frustrate us, they are confusing, or they make us feel like we don’t know - exactly - what do next. Self-help projects can often make us feel this way.

On the other hand, a program or resource that resonates with us, that shows us exactly what to do to be successful and then teaches us how to do the things we need to do to be successful, earns a place of trust and confidence. We will tell others about it.

A training consultant who tries to sell you something and fails is a high-pressure salesperson.

If she succeeds in selling you something and that something truly changes your culture, she’s helpful.

The difference between a self-help project and a consultant-assisted project isn’t one of intent. Both are ultimately striving for the same thing.

The difference is in the success, or lack of it.

By the way, the only real help is self-help. Any vendor that promises to create the culture change for you without much effort from you, is making an empty promise that can’t be kept. Truly successful culture-changing initiatives are training partnerships where the health care organization rolls it sleeves up and works alongside the consultant experts. That is the way LifeWings does business. Our mission is to get you to the point where you can help yourself because you can do exactly what we do, as well as we do it.

So, self-help or consultant? Ask yourself which one is most likely to achieve success for your organization?

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