Conversations-Leadership-Change

To develop, understand and be an influencer in those crucial conversations, I must first look at my own heart. What is it that I want for myself first, then my students, peers, family, friends and in the medical field the patients? I want to train my students to be caring, highly skilled and ones that will demand the best standard of care for their patients. Knowing that those patients today will be myself, peers, family and friends; we all desire and deserve excellent vision health care. And aren’t we worthy it!

So how I am going to achieve this not so small task in the whirlwind of all our lives? Among the constant changes in the advances of eye care medicine, mandates in electronic medical records (EMR), then which EMR system to activate, where do I draw the line in the sand on what system best fits my students needs and goals? This is where I look at our program’s clinical affiliates to help educate me and our students in the application EMR’s.

To become an influencer and skilled crucial conversationalist, I will use the following guidelines found in Crucial Conversations: tools for talking when STAKES ARE HIGH by Patterson, Grenny, McMillan and Switzler.

Three points to understand in crucial conversations are:

• Stakes are high
• Varying opinions are involved
• Emotions are strong

For me to be an effective leader, I must be prepared, maintain my emotions, and take action to achieve the desired outcome(s) from a heated conversation. So in preparing, I must look at the following processes.

Start with the heart

I need to work on me first, because if I cannot get myself right, I will have an extremely difficult time getting the correct message across in a timely matter. Coming from 36 years in the industry, I have had crucial conversations with patients and physicians regarding best practices. I now have to shift my heart into best practices for my students and their training. Which eventually meets the students and clinics wildly important goal of excellent patient care.

Learn to Look

The safety net, watch the peers from the clinical sites body language, tone of voice and facial expression. Are they comfortable and on-board regarding the changes, I am proposing? Or it is they are not comfortable with their own clinic’s EMR system, so how can we train these students. A meaningful conversation must take place, focusing on mutual purpose and respect between the clinical sites and program’s goal. To create a mutual purpose, I will use four skills, CRIB introduced in the book.

Commit to seek mutual purpose.

To train quality future technicians.

Recognize the purpose behind the strategy.

To produce students into future employees.

Invent a mutual purpose.

To complete the goals without disruption in the clinic patient / physician flow.

Brainstorm new strategies.

To have an open heart and mind to new ideas, opinions, collaboration strategies to raise the safety net for all involved.

Master Stories - STATE My Path

This explores how I gain control of crucial conversations by taking charge of my emotions. Don’t let my personal feelings get in the way of students training. Don’t shut down because one clinical site is against the proposal. I must find a way to have reasonable discussion with the clinical site on the pros and cons of the proposal. And all the while, realize they may open my eyes to a different route that still gets us to our mutual purpose.

STATE my path follows the acronym of:

Share my facts

Students skills are deficient in taking an accurate medical history due to lack of training in EMR systems.

Tell my story

With confidence give the statics on students not mastering the skill.

Ask for others’ stories

Get feedback from the team and what they are experiencing, the good, the bad and the ugly, in the industry.

Talk tentatively

Use confidence and humility in stating the fact without finger pointing to any one person or group.

Encourage testing

Make the environment safe for all to participate in the conversation. “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.”

Move to Action

In decision making, there are four methods to use in the discussion.

Command – The team with my guidance will determine the correct direction for training the students in EMR systems, through the use of lab rotations and service learning.

Consult - The team will consult other ophthalmic training programs on how they have met their EMR training. Consulting with the clinical affiliates EMR / IT support staff to get a broader perspective.

Vote – The team will vote on best practices on training students.

Consensus – Getting the team to agree on the high-stakes involved and commit to the recommendations put forth by the team. This involves getting everyone on the same page, in the right frame of mind and becoming team players.

In reflection my Innovation plan, EMR training and increasing rotation labs added with service learning projects, will be successful. I must change the feelings of clinical affiliates' and preceptors. To do this I must influence them by using the why and how; to pull at their emotions and heart strings for the change. We as a team will accomplish our wildly important goal (WIG): Train the SJC program student to master an accurate medical history, complete an exam and enter results into the EMR system.

The lag measure is to changing the perception of students and clinical sites with the integration of digital technology in the classroom, and forwarding it into the clinical rotation.

Our lead measures with be to use clinical affiliates EMR support staff and EMR webinars to provide additional training. The use of service learning activities and clinical lab rotations, the repetition of completing full medical histories and exams will develop the soft skills of self-esteem and confidence along with the clinical skills.

The team's proposed start time will be Fall 2017. This timeline gives the program and clinical sites time to prepare and put forth a sold plan to execute. Our WIG can be measured by the employment percentage of graduates and demand for future graduates.

A dialog starting with me, with an urgency to met our timeline, develop performance standards during the planning stage. While keeping the team's concentration on the why and how, they will come to understand the need of increasing student productivity. I will generate interest on developing a stronger program, a prepared student and finally a quality employee to aid relief to understaffed office. I will build upon on the industry’s need for quality employees trained in a two-years or less verse the non-trained, off the street, on-the-job hire.

I will aid the team in staying focused on benefits and rewards, again being a cheerleader and leaving my ego at home. It will allow the team to approve and drive the project to success. Permitting the team to take ownership and be part of the solution will increase the achievement of the WIG. Deviation from the goals only when necessary due to unforeseen circumstances. The team must have a concise discussion about why and how a deviation is needed. A back-up plan that crosses the lines to cover for those circumstances is made available as soon as possible.

These two goals are made possible by the integration of recommendations set forth by the Influencer, 4DX and Crucial conversations. I don’t believe I could have organized my innovation plan without all three to lead me down the right path. To influence my peers, to diagnosis and make a treatment plan with the employment of 4DX and then to discover constructive conversations tips, all of these will make the innovation plan successful.

I am fortunate, 99% of my colleagues agree on giving excellent patient care. Ninety percentage of those peers believe a SJC student is a benefit and a valuable addition to their office. That trained student, in many cases, has aided in diverting the whirlwind of a crazy clinic day. The clinical affiliates welcome students with open arms and give full support in their training. The student's success is dependent on our success as a team.

References

Patterson, K., Grenny, J., McMillan, R., & Switzler, A. (2012). Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High. Columbus, OH: McGraw Hill.

Crucial Digital Image Retrieved from http://www.progressivedairy.com/topics/management/crucial-conversations-on-your-dairy

Grenny,J., Patteson, K., Maxfield, D., McMilan, R., & Switzier, A., (2013). Influencer: The new science of leading change, 2nd edition. New York, McGraw-Hill Education.

McChesney, C., Covey, S., & Huling, J., (2012). The 4 disciplines of execution: Achieving your wildly important goals. New York, NY Free Press.

Influencer Explained in Two Minutes Video by VitalSmarts. Retrived from https://youtu.be/yH8XTwLOoVk