Engagement
1. How do you know your team is engaged? What does an engaged team look like to you?

For me, I know my team is engaged when they are offering solutions, suggestions, and input to an issue openly and with ease. An engaged team should never fear offering their input with phrases “I would suggest, I recommend, I think.” To me an engaged team is a thinking team bring input and fresh ideas into an issue, mission, SOP, task, etc. We must remember that we all have different skill sets and different viewpoints and by respecting those skills and views we may learn a different, more effective solution to a task we are trying to accomplish. Team members that show independence and individual initiative in pursuit of a goal are also engaged. Team members that procrastinate, put minimal effort in, or do the bare minimum are less engaged.

3. Does your team’s work add value to the organization? How can we make mundane tasks more meaningful? How do we add value to routine work?

Any team’s work adds value to the organization. There is a frequent saying in Social Work “it takes a village” which is often used to underline the importance team work. Can a major task be accomplished alone? Possibly. Can a major task be accomplished alone, efficiently, and effectively? That is less likely. It usually takes several moving parts to accomplish any major task, and it is difficult for any one person to do this quickly, efficiently, and effectively. However, through the efforts of effective team work, major task can be accomplished quickly and effectively.

We make mundane task more meaningful by helping the team identify how these tasks fit into the larger mission and by valuing each individual responsible for completing these tasks. In addition, by defining the goal for the team or the individuals doing routine or mundane work but giving them freedom to accomplish the deliverable by coming up with a plan to achieve the goal by organizing and/or prioritizing the specific tasks themselves. We can devalue individual autonomy and deny people the opportunity for learning and growth and a sense of teamwork by micromanaging every move our team makes. By giving specific goals but giving the team or individual the ability to accomplish those goals in the way they choose, they feel more empowered and valued.

Failure

1. Is failure always a bad thing? Is so when can failure be useful?

While failure can be bad, it can be useful when we acknowledge it and use it to learn. Failures can more naturally cause us to evaluate our actions and seek opportunities for improvement than do successes.

2. We all fear failure, how does this fear paradoxically lead to failure?

Sometimes through fear of failure one fails to try, puts off task and has difficulty completing the task once it is started. In addition, this fear can create a domino effect of continued fear by self-fulfilling prophecy (i.e. fear failure, don’t try or procrastinate, thus fail, etc.). Fear can also lead us to take a safe, conventional path when a riskier, more innovative option could prove to be a more transformative solution
to the problem at hand.

Leader-Leader: Pick and answer 2

1. Medicine, by tradition, has a long history of utilizing the leader-follower model (i.e. following doctors orders). Is the leader-leader model appropriate in a medical company? Why or why not?

The leader-leader model is very appropriate in a medical company for two specific reasons. First and foremost, no doctor can be everywhere at one time. We need independent thinkers in any medical setting, most especially during a MASCAL event. We need a team of leaders who can identify and triage/prioritize patients, administer basic first aid and administer urgent treatment. In addition, every human is subject to error. I was recently involved in an interview panel in which a Social Worker was on a treatment team and noticed that a pain scale was not completed. The Social worker inquired about pain which lead to a conversation that determined the patient was suffering from an undiagnosed appendicitis. We need leaders who are not afraid to speak up when something may have been accidentally overlooked.

2. You are transitioning from a leader-follower to a leader-leader model. What first steps can you take to start that transition? Assume this attempt failed, what obstacles did you hit? One of your squad leaders comes to you and says, “just tell me what you want done.” How will you respond?

I would start this transition with a team conversation, identifying areas that the team could handle independently but are currently seeking instruction from the leader. I would inquire to which responsibilities the team is willing to assume and start there utilizing motivational interviewing to encourage the team in the transition. This attempt might have failed when one team member did not understand their new responsibilities and did not seek clarification or guidance.
If a squad leader said to me “just tell me what you want done,” I would first make a quick triage of the situation to determine urgency. If the decision is not urgent then I would seek the squad leader and squads input into the situation and ask them for ideas to best handle the situation. The conversation might go something like this “Squad, what are your thoughts as to the best approach to problem x?” The goal would be to gain team input and identify an appropriate solution the team came up with so that next time they are more likely to do this independently.

Purpose of Action: Pick two and answer

1. Google the phrase “tyranny of the now.” Like the author we are subject to numerous deadlines, regulations, and reports. Using ideas developed from the book, how can we break the “tyranny of the now” and get to what’s important?

Through triage of deadlines, regulations, and reports we can prioritize and delegate tasks. It is important to not get caught up in taking on all the task one self and not get lost in lower level task when higher priority task remain. A focus on immediate tasks in the now also prevents people from seeing the bigger picture. A journey of a thousand miles may begin with a single step, but if you keep looking down and watching yourself put one foot in front of another, there’s a good chance you’ll end up going a thousand miles in the wrong direction.

2. How does “tyranny of the now” drive us to make decisions? Are they good or bad decisions? Why?

Change is uncomfortable and we often tend to go back to what is comfortable and known. This is a common trait with “tyranny of the now” when trying a new idea or technique. We tend to go back to what we know instead of following through on the new technique. This can be both a good and bad decision. In crisis we may need to resort to what we know works to complete the task/mission at hand. However, we also lose the ability to find out if the new/innovative idea may have worked more efficiently then the “tried and true.” There needs to be a balance of getting tasks done in the now but ensuring that we remain oriented to the bigger picture and a quest for continuous quality improvement.