Written by Lynn Homisak, SOS Healthcare Management Solutions, LLC

I’ll admit. I commiserate with doctors (employers/parents/coaches/teachers) or any leader when they hear the words, “It’s not my job” after asking why an assigned task was neglected or incomplete. To be fair however, I have similar compassion for staff when they hear, “That won’t work here!” after offering a new suggestion for improvement. Both sound like nails screeching on a chalkboard or a fork grating across a china plate! Eeeccchhh! Both expressions are toxic from auditory, motivational and common sense perspectives. Instead of the traditional face crunch every time we hear these words, we would do much better to understand why they are said and how to prevent hearing them ever again.

It’s usually implied (if not stated) that job descriptions are the culprits of the phrase “It’s not my job”; however, it is generally the product of an unsupportive work environment or an employee’s poor work ethic. If the employee is not team-oriented, does not align with the practice culture or sees their employment as just a “j-o-b” as opposed to a career, every job-related thing they do is a struggle.

Similarly, if the employee has a decent work ethic at the onset but turns bitter once on board, it’s likely due to an uncooperative culture. For example, maybe they were getting a disproportionate number of extra jobs dumped in their laps that prevented them from getting their primary tasks done – while other co-workers seemed to always get a pass. Perhaps they were continuously assigned tasks that they were not properly trained in, or not within their skillset or comfort range. Finally, bad performance could simply be the result of bad management. How can you avoid all of this? Three simple guidelines: hire for personality, build a positive work environment and manage staff the way you’d like to be managed.

In order to address the mind numbing, “That won’t work here!” comment, we have to talk about change and why that typical first reaction to a new idea is to resist it. Truth is, many times it is simply the WAY people are approached, rather than the change itself that causes resistance. Let’s say a practice sends the staff to a conference where they are exposed to many new efficiency strategies. When they return, staff are eager to implement the new stuff they learned so they enthusiastically approach their doctor with several pages of things they “need” to do differently. Unfortunately, the doctor was not there and doesn’t share their enthusiasm and in fact, feels a little threatened by change. As a result he/she pulls back and without even hearing what’s involved or knowing the potential outcome, the automatic response is “That won’t work here!” Ouch. Talk about an energy killer!

If the approach was less overwhelming; if the staff presented just one or two top ideas; and if they had laid out what was involved along with the potential outcomes…the doctor would be able to process it much easier and resistance levels would drop significantly. When offering up a new idea, avoid going in like gangbusters. Instead, take a more reasonable approach:

“Doctor, thanks for sending us to the conference. There’s one thing we learned there that we are eager to share with you and feel it would benefit the practice. (State the idea and the benefits) I’ve done some research and the costs to make the change are minimal-to-none. (Present anticipated costs, if any) Basically, here’s what would be involved. (Outline x,y,z actions needed)  Susan (or whoever will be responsible) has already offered to do (x and y) to get things started and I’ll tackle (z). If we try it for about 2-3 weeks, we’ll have a good indication of whether or not it will work for us (Point out that it takes approximately 21 days for any change to take effect.) I’m pretty confident this will make our practice more efficient, however, if it doesn’t work to your satisfaction, we’ll agree to go back to doing things the way we did before.”

By the way, this strategy works in reverse too; e.g., if the doctor plans to implement new policy and needs staff to be on board.

If you are absolutely, positively 100% satisfied your office is flawless, perfectly fine-tuned, and couldn’t be better… there is no need to make changes and you have already spent too much time reading here. If however, you want to continue improving your practice, well then, change needs to be part of that process. Whether the doctor initiates some new ideas or the staff does…for the sake of progress, have an open mind, lose the de-motivational “It won’t work here” and consider an “Ok, let’s try” response. You won’t be sorry.