When Better Communication Isn’t Going to Help You You’ve been taught how to motivate people, how to communicate better, and how to get others to buy-in. You may have relied on popular personality inventories to help you align and collaborate with colleagues, and you may have read all the latest leadership books. But all of…
Whenever three or more people come together for a sustained period of time, they form unwritten and unspoken contracts. This is as true for leadership teams as it is for any other group. Subliminal team contracts set the rules for how team members treat each other, who speaks most, whose skills are valued, which qualities…
The growing problem of burnout among medical professionals has created divergent schools of thought, and the subsequent debate has begun to reverberate throughout the entire healthcare system. Within the context of this complex conversation, two distinct groups have emerged, each supporting their own vision for improving the lives of overworked physicians, nurses, and others. On…
Understanding Fern EPC’s Coaching Method A variety of coaching modalities provide support and empowerment to individuals and teams seeking transformation. Our method stands head and shoulders above the others for its effectiveness in assisting doctors and healthcare executives., especially when dealing with physician burnout. And it’s all because we use the Fern EPC coaching modality…
The benefits of learning to listen Fern EPC has been inundated with requests seeking clarification on the Three Levels of Listening, and for good reason. Understanding the Three Levels of Listening is essential for cultivating effective communication, empathy, and empowerment. Prescriptive Listening has its place but must be used judiciously to avoid creating dependence and…
Executives and physicians who choose to grow their ability to face complexity generally pass through four stages.[i] These stages are not easy, but they are essential steps toward greater cognitive and emotional agility: 1.) Unconsciously Immune: When you begin the adaptive-change journey, you are Unconsciously Immune to Change. This means you are unable to see…
“My people!” Almost any CEO will say this when asked what their most valuable resource is. But it’s not necessarily true. “The cognitive and emotional energies of my people are my most valuable resource” is a more specific and accurate answer. The Bad News: loads of this valuable resource are wasted every day in healthcare…
When catastrophe is a minor blunder away, when you could amputate the wrong leg or remove the wrong kidney, for instance, it’s easy to get people to embrace High Reliability principles. Give a speech about HROs to a room full of O.R. docs and nurses, and you might see a lot of nodding heads. Give…
If you aspire to be a High Reliability Organization, your primary obstacle will be the adaptive limits of your staff. To be an HRO, your leaders must commit to zero harm. Your board must commit, your C-level leaders must commit, nurse leaders, physician leaders – leaders all the way down the line must commit to…
You should have grown wise before you grew old! This is a paraphrase of King Lear’s fool admonishing him for being naïve. Lear had come to the threshold of a grand transformation, and he assumed the skills and vision that got him there would serve him once he crossed it. Worse, he expected the old…