Where you are working, When you are thinking
Where you are positioned in an organization drives When you should be thinking about.
My daughter jumped onto a mollusk. She was five years old and the water about three feet deep. She had been playing at the lake with her aunt all afternoon and they were about to come home. The lake water was clear because of a zebra mussel infestation. These are small clam-like creatures which filter out plankton for food. They sit on the bottom of the lake with their hinged shells open toward the surface of the water. And when little kids jump onto a mussel, the sharp shells cut the soft skin on their feet
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We ended up at the emergency department of the local hospital. An emergency physician injected some lidocaine to numb the area and then he irrigated (rinsed out) the wound. He stitched up the cut and sent us home.
We were very thankful parents. Thankful for the doctor’s skill and attention. And thankful for the existence of and presence of the hospital and staff. It is possible to imagine that a smart guy like the doctor could find his mind on other things. He might have been thinking about his own lake vacation. And even if his mind was on work, he could have been caught up in staffing concerns. Or the hospital’s budget. Or even something more abstract like mission drift. “Is our organization really delivering the highest quality health care to the community? How might we improve wait times and patient outcomes, and post-surgery follow up care?” Perhaps this doctor is a visionary and great leader who could profitably address these questions. But on that Saturday morning he was a front-line care provider. His mind needed to be on stitching up that foot so it healed properly. And thankfully it was.
There is a self-leadership principle found in this situation: the timeframe we’re thinking in should be directed by our position in the organization. The doc on the front line need to be thinking in seconds and minutes: Numb the foot and clean it in the next minute or two. Apply antibiotic cream immediately after irrigating. Start the stitching right after that so no other contaminants get into the wound. Short time frame, immediate action.
The manager of the emergency department should be thinking in terms of weeks: Planning the calendar, managing staffing loads for the next month or so. Noticing that Fourth of July is coming up and lots of people drink beer and play with fireworks, so we might need an extra body or two in the department. The position of manager drives the timeframe the leader needs to be thinking about.
Chief medical officer and directors of nursing have an even longer time frame: They think about policies and procedures. Setting the right SOP’s will produce better patient outcomes and more satisfied staff over the next months and years
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And the CEO of the hospital should be thinking about years and decades. Based on the population growth in the area when will we need to add a new wing, more operating theaters, expand the labor and delivery department. The CEO might be a fine physician, but she shouldn’t be in the ER looking for a suture kit to stitch a cut in the next five minutes. Her position at the top of the organization demands that she think much longer term. Is your thinking focused on the right timeframe to make you successful in your current position? If your focus is too long or too short, you might not accomplish your purpose.
Where you are positioned in an organization drives When you should be thinking about.