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2024: Who is Listening and Who is Paying Attention (Part I)

I recently found myself at a Medical Specialist office on what I thought was going to be a brief visit on Saturday Morning. Now I know, as to why General Practitioners or Family Medicine Offices have very little business on the weekends, it is the Specialists that have quite a large following on Saturday mornings. Who knew?

Seriously, there were people of all ages. Yes, even infants. I hope by now you can ascertain this specialist deals with issues of one of the senses. Without going any further I will stop right there. You know privacy and the nosy nellies and things like that. But back to the story, my story.

There are three waiting areas. The first one is where people check in and wait to be called. The next area is post-triage/vitals and waiting to be seen by the Doc. The third is a waiting area for letting things happen or recovery for injections or medication, just to make sure there are no adverse side effects. So that sets the stage.

If you have ever been to any Waiting Room, in this case Waiting Room #1, there is an eerie silence that everyone shares. Sure there are whispers and murmurs but nothing else fills the air. That is until those that work there begin to speak. However, that is for part 2. Finally, your name is called and off you go.

After your vitals are taken and if any prep needs to be done, it is now that it happens. Soon you are whisked away to Waiting Room #2.

You enter another quiet room or so it seems. In this room, you will find a handful of those waiting to be seen. Before long, someone speaks. You try not to listen but when they are the only one talking it is quite the challenge to block the woman’s voice.

Within seconds everyone in Waiting Room #2 knows what is ailing that individual. Followed by a full treatment history and what she expects the Clinician to do because her “friend had the same malady”. Folks, days like that day are not the days to forget to bring your AirPods. I never knew who the lady was talking to but I suspect, no one was talking to her but more like listening to the words.

As for who was paying attention, as I looked around the room I could tell who was really invested and actively listening to the one side of a one-sided conversation. They were the ones who had a deer in the headlights look on their face. These were the faces of people that suddenly found themselves in a situation they were not expecting. The people are already anxious and for all they know face an uncertain future.

Adding salt to the open wound that is their new, sudden, and unanticipated state of affairs was this lady and her issues. I understand that everyone handles stress differently, however, some common sense and decorum please. Throwing gasoline on a fire is never a good idea and neither is creating more stress and anxiety for others is also NEVER A GOOD IDEA.

Medical Office Managers get out from behind your desk and walk the halls and visit the waiting room(s) and YES the patients are your responsibility. They are part of the office, without the patients you would not have a job. Yes, it is that simple. So get out there and run interference. Pull aside those that like to over-share, those that like to diagnose others, and those that like to stir the pot for the sake of stirring the pot. Remember, your job is to keep the organization moving along.

Medical Office Staff: Keep an eye and ear on those individuals in the waiting rooms. It is your job to take care of those patients from the moment they walk into the building to the moment they leave. Remember, you are the professional you were hired to be. So be it.

Patients find themselves not liking the environment, they will find some place else to go. I know this to be true as I fired my last General Practitioner and the one I have now absolutely ROCKS!

Patients: Have a little tact, some empathy, and most of all, just keep your mouth shut. I bet you do not like it when others get all up in your business. Guess what? Others do not like it when you do it! So don’t do it.

A Little Disclosure: I was one of the first timers that suddenly found myself there. That’s how I knew what the look on their faces was as I had it as well.

Thank you for your time,
David

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Guide To Leadership During A Pandemic: Welcome To The New Norm by David Guerra, MBA

planning development, creating, implementationThe Pandemic Guide To Leadership

Welcome To The New Norm

The new normal, the new norm and other references to this new way of living and being. In case, you have not caught on because things continue to evolve then let me share this with you. All this talk of the new norm is a new way of saying CHANGE.

Yes, change. We have all been warned that change is coming and to be ready for change. I know I have shared that with you throughout the history of my podcasts, videos, blogs and articles. As a former Active Duty US Army Infantryman, change was what my active duty life was all about and thus difficult to shake the specter of change looming just one step behind. That is why I am such a proponent to be ready for change when it arrives.

As a Leader, it is up to you to be an engaged pupil in the art of managing change. Managing change? Yes, I believe when it comes to change all we can do is to manage it as we can NEVER master change. As change is always a dynamic, fluid situation which is susceptible to way too many external factors which influence just about all aspects of the evolving situation.

Having a firm grasp and understanding that while we would like to control change, it is not going to happen. While I am not advocating riding the wave of change, I am saying think of change as a white-water rafting. You are on the raft and you have some semblance of control with the paddle. Sure, you can guide your raft to the shore or down the river but where you actually end up will most certainly not be exactly where you wanted/planned to be. Sound familiar?

Sounds a lot like real, true blue leadership. While leaders have a plan and ready to put in place that plan and like all other plans before that plan things do not always go as planned. Just like most of the battle plans in the history of battle plans, they go into the trash can the moment the bullets start flying.

However, do not for one second believe that you should abandon hope when you develop, create and implement a plan. While it may be difficult kick off that plan during a time of crisis such as the current COVID-19 pandemic, it should not stop you from doing so. Any and every Leaders worth his or her weight in salt are on the lookout for staying the course of the plan once executed. Yet, when things do not go as planned, leaders are ready to adapt, improvise and overcome as leaders are expected to do so.

Folks, change will continue to surround us for the far foreseeable future. Change is the new norm. Change is what we as human have always been exposed to, but it was so low level that now with the Pandemic it has risen to the top, which means that as Leaders you have to rise above that. That is non-negotiable because that is the new norm.

Thank you,
David G. Guerra, MBA
email: [email protected]
twitter: @daveguerra
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Weekend Challenge #10 (03/28-29/2020): Revisit & Revise Your Goals

HERE IS YOUR WEEKEND CHALLENGE: REVISIT & REVISE YOUR GOALS

you weekend challenge has arrived

Listen to this weekend’s Weekend Challenge

Welcome To The Weekend. It is time for another challenge.

This weekend your challenge is to go back to the beginning. Basically, is to go back and review your goals for this past month.

I know things have changed our priorities, changed the situation of our lives, and change in general in that we are more at home; hunkered down.
Go back and pull out the file that has all your goals, vision, and mission written down. Remember, writing it all down is how we achieve those goals because they become real the moment you write them down. Once real, they are achievable.

However, now in this time of a new normal, we have to adapt, change, and overcome this new life we have been given. This new opportunity. In doing that we must work to reshape and refocus our priorities and our global view.

So as our main goals, the core of our goals will not change it is how we achieve it that will change. Our timelines and our schedules now have to change. We have to adjust to this new way of the New Normal and this New Normal is everybody’s New Normal.

This is happening to all of us. To all of us on the planet. Every citizen on this planet, all seven plus billion of us. It’s happening to us; it’s happening to all of us! You are NOT exempt and you’re not special, you’re not unique in that senses because you are a human being.

This is affecting the entire species. This is affecting the entire human race. All this is the great equalizer!

COVID-19 does not know who’s who. Who are the haves and have nots? Who has a TV show and who doesn’t have a TV show? Who is in politics and who is not in politics? Who is a parent and who is a child? Who is a boss and who is an employee? It doesn’t separate, it equals everyone, all together.

So please understand, this is happening to everybody but as individuals we still have to go on our lives. We still have to continue and we still have to set ourselves some goals and we still have to set ourselves a mission and vision and we have to see the future!

Folks, this is going to come to an end and this will stop. Then we will return to some kind of normalcy, that we once knew. I guarantee you this much, we have to be prepared to come out of this as better people, better human beings. We have to come out of this with a much greater sense of purpose than all just “about me poor me”.

The old “normal” days are over. Those days were over the moment that virus started spreading. That’s when the writing was on the wall. A lot of us chose not to see it and still so many continue to choose not to see it. Understand that we are forced to face it and one way or another that being said I offer you this week’s challenge: Sit down pull out your goals and to adjust your goal to reflect the new normal.

Get To Work!

Thanks for your time,
David