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STREAMS IN THE DESERT:
Thoughts and Stories to Inspire |
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"LifeWings" as a Thematic Goal
by:
Steve Montague
"To avoid politics and turf battles, leaders must
establish a rallying cry - a single
overriding theme that remains the top
priority of the entire leadership team
for a given period of time. In turn,
this rallying cry or "thematic goal"
serves to align employees throughout the
organization and provides an objective
tool for resetting direction when things
get out of sync."
Patrick Lencioni
Silos, Politics, and Turf Wars
The Table Group
The LifeWings methodology for implementing human factors in
healthcare is a great example of such a
thematic goal. We know that the
behaviors at the highest levels of a
healthcare organization are clearly
reflected in the behaviors of clinicians
in the OR and at the bedside. If
physicians and staff often feel like
"the system" puts them in a position
where they are working at cross-purposes
with other disciplines, other
departments, and sometimes even between
shifts, then physician and hospital
leadership must take a look in the
mirror and assess their intent and
behavior.
One of the most common remarks we hear
at the end of the Leadership Development
Institute (LDI) is something along the
lines of "I'm really encouraged about
this project because this is the first
time that administration, physicians,
and hospital staff have come together to
work toward a common goal." In essence,
the very act of beginning the project
sets in motion the process of culture
change. Recognizing that transformation
is not an overnight process, LifeWings
spends significant time during the LDI
in assisting clients in laying out the
specific objectives, strategies, and
metrics for this thematic goal, namely
implementing clinical teamwork,
effective collaboration, and
communication.
If the larger vision is peerless patient
safety and quality, then implementing
LifeWings Patient Saving Programs serves
as a perfect bridge between this vision
and the day-to-day behaviors that are
necessary to make this vision manifest.
Next Issue: "What about sustainability?"
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Better Teams. Better Systems.
Better Care. |
July 2008 |
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SHARPENING THE SAW: A Message from Steve
Harden, President of LifeWings Partners, LLC
Moments of Truth
We hear a lot about culture change in
healthcare these days.
Terms like "culture of safety," a "just
culture," a "safety culture," or the
"culture of a high reliability organization"
pepper the conversations of folks talking
about patient safety and how to improve it.
Just what is culture and how do you go about
creating the culture you want?
There are numerous definitions of culture.
Everyone seems to have their own take on it.
After working with over 80 healthcare
organizations in the past 8 years to help
them create and sustain a culture of safety
based on the best practices of high
reliability organizations, I have come to
believe the definition of culture is this:
"The cumulative effect on the organization
of the actions of the people within the
organization at daily moments of truth."
The heart of this definition is what people
do at the daily moments of truth.
Intrinsically, you know what a moment of
truth is - the tens, if not hundreds, of
little decision points every healthcare
professional encounters in the course of
their daily activities. A decision point is
where a choice must be made. You can do "A"
or "B." You can do something, or nothing.
You can say something, or say nothing. You
can do it the right way, or use a
work-around. You can do it mindfully, or
thoughtlessly. Many of these decisions are
decided almost on the subconscious level,
sometimes out of habit - without even being
aware of deciding.
So if we want to change culture, then we
must influence what happens at the thousands
of daily moments of truth in an
organization. There is a simple formula for
this. Remember that "simple" does not always
mean "easy." This formula is simple to
understand and difficult to follow. The
formula for changing culture is this: [Read
More] |
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SKILLS AND TOOLS: Get Better Today
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Leading a Change
Initiative
"Your success in life isn't based on your
ability to simply change. It is based on
your ability to change faster than your
competition, customers and business."
-
Mark Sanborn
Questions to Ask
When Considering Change:
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What
do we want to change?
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Why do
we want to change?
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How
are we going to change?
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Will
change make things better?
Often, change does not bring about the
desired outcome, or is only temporary.
Permanently changing the culture of an
organization requires taking the right steps
in the right order.
Is your team resistant to change?
Listed below are three key components
required to leading an effective change
initiative:
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Planning -
Leading a change initiative requires a
compelling vision, a plan to achieve
that vision, and time to implement the
plan. Anticipate potential obstacles and
plan for overcoming or avoiding them.
Achieve sustainability by anchoring your
changes into your organization's
culture. Don't forget to schedule in
short-term win opportunities within your
long-term planning as this
will encourage forward movement.
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Training -
Provide training and support during
implementation. Plan for training of
new-hires and staff turnover as this
will help to ensure sustainability. Make
certain the proper equipment is
available to support your change
initiative. You can't successfully run a
new software program system-wide when
most of your team is still using
dinosaurs for computers. Avoid
regression by celebrating the "battle
won" too soon, yet
DO celebrate your teams'
successes along the way as this will
build confidence.
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Human Power -
Are you adequately staffed to lead this
change initiative? Do you have champions
in place? Are your champions equipped
with a common vision? Avoid
overburdening an already overburdened
team. Consider restructuring and adding
new team members to better ensure change
and desired outcome.
LifeWings Partners offers a Master
Train-the-Trainer program that allows
clients to develop an internal capability to
sustain culture change over time, by
equipping key personnel with the tools and
skills necessary to maintain performance
improvement. We offer an intensive,
week-long program that qualifies hospital
personnel to conduct the LWP
industry-leading training Teamwork Skills
Workshops, New Hire Orientation, Hardwired
Safety Tools Workshops, and Refresher
Training sessions.
Find out more about this
proprietary training or read about
leading change from Harvard Business
Review and
John P. Kotter's 1996 book
Leading Change, which
outlines eight critical success factors to
leading change. |
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LEADERSHIP TOOLKIT:
Skills for Sustaining an Enduring Cultural
Change |
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Arm Your Team With CRM Skills:
 Situational
awareness skills - what are they and how do
they apply to healthcare?
Situational awareness (SA) is a common
aviation term that refers to the ability to
make and maintain an accurate assessment of
the "big picture" view of what is happening
and to predict accurately what might happen
based on what is seen at this moment. Pilots
are often heard describing difficult
emergency situations in terms of how much or
how little SA they had at the moment. After
a simulator session where a crew has had to
handle both an engine on fire and a
hydraulic system failure, you might hear the
captain say, "So much was going on that I
had a low SA and didn't realize we were so
close to the mountains."
Because high SA is so important for flight
safety, crews spend many hours training to
be able to detect warning signs that their
SA is low and at risk. Being able to predict
results based on current events is critical
to avoiding adverse outcomes. The concept of
training to recognize warning signs comes
from a study of the root causes of multiple
air carrier accidents. In this retrospective
study, researchers analyzed scores of
accidents and asked two questions: [Read
More] |
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SUCCESS STORIES:
Reported Results from Organizations
Implementing LifeWings Patient Safety and
Quality Programs |
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Reduction in Incidences of Retained Objects
from Surgery
In a major academic medical center in Texas,
we worked with the Medical Director, the
Chief Nursing Officer, the Dean of Medicine,
the Executive Director, and the Senior
Director of Outcomes and Performance
Improvement.
One of their goals was to reduce incidences
of retained objects from surgery. Lack of
communication and teamwork between the
physicians and nurses led to increased
errors, including four incidences of
retained objects from surgery in seven
months.
Recognizing the need for improved quality of
care, the hospital contracted with LifeWings
to provide a series of customized, on-site
training seminars and safety tools
workshops. LifeWings was able to create
specific safety tools based on the skills
taught in classroom to allow for better
teamwork and effective communication. By
improving communication, team building
skills, and creating more reliable systems
in the operating room, the hospital was able
to reach their goal.
To date, the hospital was able to reduce
their incidences of retained objects from
surgery by 75%. [Read
More Success Stories] |
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ASK THE INNOVATORS:
Road Blocks of Project Implementation |
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Q.How should a
Debrief be handled when individuals who were
involved earlier are no longer there at the
close of the case when the Debrief is
carried out?
A.
One of the best ways to solve this problem
is to have "interim" debriefs. If you have
a "Positional Relief" or "Change of
Personnel" checklist, build in a step to
ensure the off-going person (scrub, circ,
anesthesiologist) alerts the surgeon that
they are being relieved. This is the
opportunity for the surgeon to ask if there
are any debrief items.
Another way is to pass the information along
to the on-coming person to debrief at the
end of the procedure, however, caution
should be taken when using this method as
there could be a loss of information in
translation.
Answer provided by:
David M. Dufour, Consultant
LifeWings Partners LLC
Do you have a
question or success story you'd like to
share? Contact Dawn Colonna at
dcolonna@SaferPatients.com or (800)
290-9314. |
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About Us |
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LifeWings Partners LLC was founded by a
former U.S. Navy Top Gun instructor and
commercial airline pilot. The firm
specializes in applying CRM based teamwork
training and safety tools to help healthcare
facilities save patients' lives and reduce
costs. LifeWings has helped over 85
facilities nationwide provide better quality
care to their patients.
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Dear Recipient,
You are receiving this email from LifeWings
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continue to receive emails from us, please
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Dawn Colonna
Marketing/Public Relations
email:
dcolonna@SaferPatients.com
phone: (800) 290-9314
web:
http://www.SaferPatients.com |
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"Change is hard
because people overestimate the value of
what they have-and underestimate the value
of what they may gain by giving that up." |
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~James
Belasco and Ralph Stayer~
Flight
of the Buffalo (1994) |
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