ADDRESSING CHANGE WHEN LIFE IS ON THE LINE

Shawn Rhodes

Keynote Speaker, 2019 Leadership and Physician Advisor Conference

ADDRESSING CHANGE WHEN LIFE IS ON THE LINE

By Shawn Rhodes
Keynote Speaker, 2019 Leadership and Physician Advisor Conference

Spend long enough in a high-risk environment like case management, and it’s bound to happen—either you, a subordinate or one of your hospital staff will deal with a change that could end a career—or a life.

Not if—but when these changes happen—most teams across industries distance themselves from whoever’s closest to the change in an attempt to avoid fallout. While that may work in a corporate environment, it’s not how high-performing case managers operate. Rather than letting change create a negative impact, teams that are adept at dealing with change first mitigate the damage of changes so they don’t impact anyone else. Then, they prevent those changes from catching them off guard ever again.

As part of a group sent to study the highest-performing teams on the planet, I saw firsthand how elite teams handle unexpected change. Below, we’ll learn how one of them dealt with a life-threatening change and used it to make everyone on the team and in their organization better because of it.

In the spring of 2004, I was accompanying a tank platoon in the deserts of Iraq. The M1A1 Abrams tank is a powerful—and dangerous—machine. Equal in weight to 8 full-grown elephants, it fires a projectile that travels 4,500 feet a second (that’s fast enough to go from San Francisco to New York in 45 minutes). As I circled the parked tank, a loud explosion knocked us off our feet. 

A massive change to our plans—potentially a life-threatening one—just occurred. It was what happened next that taught me how high-performing teams handled change in high-stake environments. Think about a high-risk change you’ve dealt with in case management and how it might also benefit from this process:

1. Own Up

We didn’t know where the explosion had come from or whether we were still in danger. A crew member in the tank immediately popped their head out of the hatch and let us know the main cannon on the tank misfired. Rather than shrugging off the change, he was the first to admit the change happened even if he didn’t know who, or what, was responsible. If you or one of your case management teammates notices a change that could have massive impact, communicate it as soon as possible. Isolate the change instead of isolating the team or person who noticed it.

2. Hit The Brakes

Once we realized we weren’t in immediate danger, the tank platoon huddled to assess potential damage from this change and plan their next steps. When a change puts safety at risk, it’s imperative to halt operations. If the mistake is administrative and puts profits on the line instead of lives, still gather your team to assess the change and why it occurred.

3. Find the Problem, Not the Blame

The tank platoon discovered all of their electronic and manual safety mechanisms were accidentally triggered, causing the misfire. In your huddle, ask: “Why did this change happen?” If a person or series of events was responsible for the change, that can be dealt with. However, unless the reason for the change is identified and corrected, it may happen again with larger repercussions.

4. Communicate Up And Down

The cause of the misfire was immediately reported to headquarters, the engineering department, and tank training departments around the globe that very day. This ensured equipment and processes would be updated so the misfire wouldn’t happen again and put lives at risk.

Once you’ve identified why a change occurred, communicate it to your peers, training department and hospital. This ensures everyone learns from what happened.

In the rapidly changing environment of case management, a massive change may impact us in the short term, but if we deal with it then and there it doesn’t have to impact our hospital or our patients.

Be sure not to miss Shawn's Keynote Closing Session at the 2019 Leadership and Physician Advisor Conference in Miami:

Creating a Pivot Point in Case Management: Leverage Change Without Sacrificing Results
November 17 | 10:45–11:45 a.m.
In the world of case management, the best plans may not always work out as planned. To address the constant challenge of planning for change and ensure plans achieve results TEDx speaker and nationally syndicated columnist Shawn Rhodes will share how the best teams and organizations across industries pivot to leverage change when it occurs, build engaging cultures and ensure the experience of senior leaders doesn’t leave when they do.

About Shawn Rhodes

Shawn Rhodes is an international expert in improving organizational performance, and his work studying organizations in more than two dozen countries—some the most dangerous places on the planet—has been published in news outlets around the world. His clients have included Coca-Cola, Serta-Sealy and dozens of similar businesses. He is author of the new book Pivot Point: Turn On A Dime Without Sacrificing Results.