Someone told Old Kurt that clearly displaying his name and role was better for communication, team work and ultimately patient safety and care.
Old Kurt was offended having never done this before. He felt he was being told he hadn’t been doing his job to the best of his ability. He was understandably a bit annoyed.
And so he looked for ways to rebuff what had been said:
‘Show me the evidence’ – was an old favourite. It wouldn’t work here though. It was obvious that displaying ones name and role made it easier for people to remember (Old Kurt, like most of his colleagues, had kept it to himself that he’d struggled to remember others names).
Further, collaborative teams were now openly gathering supportive data on the initiative from all over the world – connected as they were through social media platforms and the internet.
‘Cost’ – he could try this angle, yet he’d seen some staff using a pen to write their names and roles on their heads – pretty much for free.
‘Infection control’ – Old Kurt loved his cotton hats so couldn’t use infection control as an angle to maintain the status quo. He considered going back to using disposable hats but his College had just put out a statement supporting reusable hats over disposable ones (no evidence of differences in infection rates and reusable hats being better for the environment).
The only remaining line of attack was the most primitive of all – bullying, threats and intimidation. He could attack the way the message was being delivered. He asked for it to be softened and presented as a nice way to support team introductions. But it was more than that, wasn’t it – he knew that – it had clinical outcome implications.
So then he chose to attack the messengers and galvanised others to do the same.
Yet despite this the messengers persisted because they knew the message was right.
The messengers, being human themselves, appreciated what humans were like – perhaps one of the reasons the message was conceived in the first place – it’s visual nature would display to everyone how much we resist change.
There would always be the laggards who would do everything they could to maintain the status quo.
The closer the messengers got to delivering the change the greater the bullying and intimidation would become. All the messengers had to do was put up with all the shit that was flung their way.
They knew they’d be able to, having been exposed to far worse and realising what was at stake.
Eventually Old Kurt relented (in this story he does anyway).
It took Old Kurt a while and required a lot of searching within himself and yes, courage.
He had to accept that displaying his name and role, for others to clearly see, was better. He was actually a better doctor providing better care than he had before just because he took this simple step – after all caring for patients was his job.
There was no denying it any more – it was obvious – and his head hurt less from thinking about it.
And so another step in the right direction was taken – towards a culture which welcomes change and improvement.
Something else amazing happened – New Kurt found that through wearing his name & role hat meant others felt more confident in doing so. They were less likely to feel threatened by the intimidation.
Staff within theatre now communicated more easily on numerous different things. Resultantly the camaraderie in his theatre complex was much greater than it had ever been.
Staff also started to think – ‘if there’d been so much resistance to adopt this simple change what else had been resisted‘.
Staff also felt more empowered to change their work environments in the interest of patient welfare. Further because of the internet and social networks they were able to collaborate rapidly and effectively on thousands of other projects seeing them to fruition. They delivered brilliant solutions to problems they’d been blinded to in the past.
New Kurt was much happier in the New Power workplace which he’d helped create.
So we’re his colleagues.
And everyone lived happily ever after. 😃
(Well almost. At least things started heading in the right direction. There is still a tonne of work to do).
