Mythbusting Change Management

This is the sixth in a series of excerpts from a recent Arch Collaborative exclusive webinar, hosted by Taylor Davis and featuring Rob Schreiner, MD, President of Wellstar Medical Group.

Taylor Davis:                    

"Let's go back and apply that here. So in your case of adult primary care, what does this really look like? You've got some visuals here, but what does this really look like as you were building this vision? This isn't the place where it was everyone's vision."

Rob Schreiner:                 

"Right. So myth or misconception number three in change management is, "Hey, when the leaders at the front of the room telling his or her audience the grand vision of the future state, one should do it with data or charts." Or you know, science. Wrong. You tell a story.

And so in this case my story went something like this, "Hey, nurses, front office staff, docs and nurse practitioners: 'Wouldn't it be nice if every day in the office we began on time and the workflows that we use work for us, rather than us feeling like we're the hamster in the wheel?" And that those redesigned workflows allowed all of us to practice at top of scope! So that we scratch the three key characteristics of human motivation that you and I discussed a couple of months ago, Taylor. In Daniel Pink's work: drive, autonomy, mastery and purpose. And once we're there the outcome is going to be a clean in-basket at the end of the day. And closed charts at the end of the day.

Everybody gets to go home on time so that they can greet their loved ones at the door, unencumbered by the weight of work undone from the day. I think you and I have talked before that for many health systems in the United States, 30% of a primary care doctor's work in the EMR happens after 7:00 PM or before 7:00 AM, 30%! And so, that's just not work life balance.

That's not a way to have a sustained practice in any specialty, including the backbone of American healthcare: primary care. So you tell stories is the theme here, Taylor, rather than lead with data."

Taylor Davis:                    

"And what's really powerful as you walked through that Rob, is you didn't just tell any story. You told the story of the group that is all working on this challenge together and that becomes a lot more powerful when you don't just tell a story. You tell your audience's story! And you get some buy in on that."

Watch the next excerpt (Communicating Your Change Management Vision).

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