“Our discussion last time about your experience with difficult people was pretty depressing, Curmudge. Yet I expect that some businesses have even worse employees than you had.”
“That’s for sure, Jaded Julie. And sometimes the problem people aren’t your subordinates; they can be your colleagues and even your boss.”
“I shudder at the thought. What can I do?”
“You’re not alone, Julie. Get help from the experts in HR as I did, and keep your boss informed, unless she is the bad actor. There’s also a ton of books out there detailing how others approached their ‘people’ problems. Bell and Smith present their advice in a very short book*, and Solomon provides guidance on dealing with bosses, colleagues, and subordinates**. Here’s how each of these books categorizes difficult people:
· Bell and Smith: (1) the voice crying in the wilderness, (2) the backstabber, (3) the yes, but (4) the politician, (5) the busybody, (6) the short fuse, (7) the liar, (8) the blamer, (9) the bitter recluse, and (10) the silent martyr.
· Solomon: (1) hostile/angry, (2) pushy/presumptuous, (3) deceitful/underhanded, (4) shrewd/manipulative, (5) rude/abrasive, (6) egotistical/self-centered, (7) procrastinating/vacillating, (8) rigid/obstinate, (9) tight-lipped/taciturn, and (10) complaining/critical.”
“Wow, Curmudge! I didn’t know there could be so many types of painful people. I’ll really have to do my homework if I recognize any of these folks. Fortunately, there aren’t many of these types in the hospital, unless they are on the other side of the door in Behavioral Health.”
“In a Lean culture, I would consider the people listed by the authors as team-destroying or team-endangering. I hope that in the hospital the problems you’ll be faced with are less serious. Perhaps we can call them second-order difficult people. Here are some of the deficiencies that might be found among hospital staff: reluctance to help others, poor communication, absence of empathy, chronically late for work, resistance to change, poor technique, and carelessness. I’m sure you can make your own list that is much longer. Of course when patient safety is a concern—as in poor technique and carelessness—the problem is much more serious than second order.”
“So how do we tackle second-order problems, Curmudge? You taught me that reluctance to address a performance or behavioral issue is a failure in servant leadership.”
“It certainly is. Al Stubblefield (we mentioned his book on March 6) said, ‘You’ll never change what you tolerate.’ Quint Studer, whose book we referenced on January 14, recommended that a hospital—with employee participation—develop a set of standards of behavior. Stubblefield’s book has a partial example. Prospective employees must sign this as part of their application. Employees who cannot improve their attitude or performance in a way that meets the commitment that they signed may be asked to leave the organization. Of course before that point is reached, you should try to guide them toward doing better.”
“It sounds reasonable, Curmudge, but not especially easy. Do either of the authors have specific suggestions on how to proceed?”
“Here’s what Studer proposes we do in a meeting with a low performer:
· Do not start the meeting on a positive note.
· Describe the behavior you have seen.
· Evaluate how you feel about that behavior.
· Show how the work must be done (this may occur after the meeting).
· Make certain that the employee knows the consequences of continued poor performance.”
“It’s as you said a few weeks ago, Curmudge. ‘A servant leader can be just as demanding of her direct reports as anyone else.’ Sounds a lot like tough love.”
“That’s true, Julie. You’ve learned a lot, but I hope that you’ll never need to use it.”
“Oh, I’ll use it all right. I’m going to go home and write a set of standards of behavior for my husband. He’ll have to fix dinner for the kids when I work the p.m. shift, take me out for dinner once a week, watch only one football game per weekend, will not practice his bagpipes when I’m working the night shift and trying to sleep during the day, …”
Affinity’s Kaizen Curmudgeon
* Bell, A.H. and Smith, D.M. Winning With Difficult People. Barron’s, 1991.
** Solomon, M. Working With Difficult People. Prentice Hall, 1990. (Both books available in the Appleton Public Library.)
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Thursday, June 19, 2008
What about difficult people?
“Becoming a manager/leader doesn’t sound so tough, Curmudge. According to our recent discussions, I just have to be a humanist with technical competence and organizational smarts. But you said weeks ago that there might be 10% of the people out there who would resist change, wouldn’t want me to succeed, and would be just plain ornery.”
“The subject is difficult people, Jaded Julie, and there are courses offered and whole books written about how to deal with them. However, no matter how much their manager/leader has learned, she is in an unenviable position.”
“Why do people act that way, Curmudge?”
“I guess it’s like we talked about on May 8. Their mothers helped them with potty training, but they forgot to teach them how to be nice.”
“Did you ever have to deal with people like that?”
“I sure did, Julie. I had just joined the company and had been appointed lab manager. Within a short time I leaned that one team member ‘would but couldn’t’, one ‘could but wouldn’t’, and one hated several of the other team members. In fact she told them so to their face screaming with language that would make a drill sergeant blush. It was, to say the least, a turbulent staff meeting.”
“So what did you do?”
“The books would advise firing the lot of them, but there were some extenuating circumstances. Two of the ‘bad actors’ were looking for an excuse to sue the company for discrimination, and the company had deep pockets and didn’t want to be sued. So I worked closely with the local HR person and kept my boss—located in another state—apprised of the situation. Everyone else in the building, unless they were hard of hearing, knew all about it.”
“What about the guy that ‘would but couldn’t’? It sounds as if his issue was performance rather than behavior.”
“He was a great person, so we worked with him—and documented our efforts—for a full year. Ultimately he was terminated. It was very sad. We documented every conversation with the other two as well, and we required participation in the Employee Assistance Program. The whole process was like walking on eggs.”
“How was the lab’s performance during this period, Curmudge?”
“Surprisingly, it was quite good. There were other, excellent people in the lab, and even the problem people didn’t do too badly. Of course, I had to check their work very carefully; it made for some very long days. Things were better when we could keep everyone focused on their work and not on personalities.”
“So how did this end?”
“The company was consolidating their laboratories, and they closed ours. Some of our people retired, and the problem people went elsewhere. Perhaps they—but not their bosses—lived happily ever after. I was transferred back to the Midwest.”
“Golly, Curmudge, your hair is white, your beard is grey, your back is bent, and you walk rather slowly. Other than that, you don’t show much wear and tear from your experience with those people.”
“Right, Julie. But the problem is that I’m only 39 years old*.”
Affinity’s Kaizen Curmudgeon
*Of course, the Curmudgeon is kidding about his age.
“The subject is difficult people, Jaded Julie, and there are courses offered and whole books written about how to deal with them. However, no matter how much their manager/leader has learned, she is in an unenviable position.”
“Why do people act that way, Curmudge?”
“I guess it’s like we talked about on May 8. Their mothers helped them with potty training, but they forgot to teach them how to be nice.”
“Did you ever have to deal with people like that?”
“I sure did, Julie. I had just joined the company and had been appointed lab manager. Within a short time I leaned that one team member ‘would but couldn’t’, one ‘could but wouldn’t’, and one hated several of the other team members. In fact she told them so to their face screaming with language that would make a drill sergeant blush. It was, to say the least, a turbulent staff meeting.”
“So what did you do?”
“The books would advise firing the lot of them, but there were some extenuating circumstances. Two of the ‘bad actors’ were looking for an excuse to sue the company for discrimination, and the company had deep pockets and didn’t want to be sued. So I worked closely with the local HR person and kept my boss—located in another state—apprised of the situation. Everyone else in the building, unless they were hard of hearing, knew all about it.”
“What about the guy that ‘would but couldn’t’? It sounds as if his issue was performance rather than behavior.”
“He was a great person, so we worked with him—and documented our efforts—for a full year. Ultimately he was terminated. It was very sad. We documented every conversation with the other two as well, and we required participation in the Employee Assistance Program. The whole process was like walking on eggs.”
“How was the lab’s performance during this period, Curmudge?”
“Surprisingly, it was quite good. There were other, excellent people in the lab, and even the problem people didn’t do too badly. Of course, I had to check their work very carefully; it made for some very long days. Things were better when we could keep everyone focused on their work and not on personalities.”
“So how did this end?”
“The company was consolidating their laboratories, and they closed ours. Some of our people retired, and the problem people went elsewhere. Perhaps they—but not their bosses—lived happily ever after. I was transferred back to the Midwest.”
“Golly, Curmudge, your hair is white, your beard is grey, your back is bent, and you walk rather slowly. Other than that, you don’t show much wear and tear from your experience with those people.”
“Right, Julie. But the problem is that I’m only 39 years old*.”
Affinity’s Kaizen Curmudgeon
*Of course, the Curmudgeon is kidding about his age.
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Let's Spread the Word
“Jaded Julie, I’m concerned.”
“What’s bothering you, Curmudge? Did Procter & Gamble stop making Metamucil?”
“I’m concerned that there are still people in Affinity who don’t understand Lean. They see a day at work as ‘business as usual’ rather than a day of opportunities for improvement. These folks are still working in their silos without realizing that Affinity must be a series of patient-focused processes.”
“But golly, Curmudge, there have been lots of activities based on Lean principles. To prompt your foggy memory, Senior Person, here are just a few examples:
· The Mercy Oakwood OB/GYN Clinic
· 5S in Mercy’s PCU2
· Patient tracking in St. E’s Emergency Department
· Affinity Medical Group’s quality coding initiative and their more efficient registration process
· We just involved around 90 people in assessing the ‘Patient Experience’.”
“Of course, Julie. And think of all the people who have been through our Lean training. They should be out there sharing what they have learned with their colleagues and training their direct reports.”
“Perhaps many of our graduates haven’t hardwired what they learned. Recall what we wrote on May 22 about how difficult it is to retain what one learns in a workshop? We need a way to put Lean in front of their eyes every day, or at least every week.”
“What about this idea? Anyone attending a workshop given by one of the big consultants ends up on their mailing list and gets e-mail from the outfit forever thereafter. We need constant communication with our graduates. Most of these folks weren’t charter subscribers to the Kaizen Curmudgeon blog; they might not have seen most of the early postings. Let’s e-mail each of our graduates a Kaizen Curmudgeon blog reprint every week. There are 34 postings to date, so our grads will receive a Lean lesson in their e-mail every week for the next eight months.”
“I trust we won’t stop blogging. When we’ve sent out all of the old postings, we can start sending out the newer ones. Hey, Curmudge, this could go on forever.”
“It would be a lot easier, Julie, if everyone at Affinity just subscribed to the blog. In any case, this shouldn’t be too difficult, and we’ll be doing our part to spread the word. We can even send out a Table of Contents and a Title Page saying ‘The Kaizen Curmudgeon and Jaded Julie Talk about Lean in Health Care’.”
“One minor correction, Curmudge. Shouldn’t the title be ‘Jaded Julie and the Kaizen Curmudgeon Talk about Lean in Health Care’?”
“Whatever.”
Affinity’s Kaizen Curmudgeon
“What’s bothering you, Curmudge? Did Procter & Gamble stop making Metamucil?”
“I’m concerned that there are still people in Affinity who don’t understand Lean. They see a day at work as ‘business as usual’ rather than a day of opportunities for improvement. These folks are still working in their silos without realizing that Affinity must be a series of patient-focused processes.”
“But golly, Curmudge, there have been lots of activities based on Lean principles. To prompt your foggy memory, Senior Person, here are just a few examples:
· The Mercy Oakwood OB/GYN Clinic
· 5S in Mercy’s PCU2
· Patient tracking in St. E’s Emergency Department
· Affinity Medical Group’s quality coding initiative and their more efficient registration process
· We just involved around 90 people in assessing the ‘Patient Experience’.”
“Of course, Julie. And think of all the people who have been through our Lean training. They should be out there sharing what they have learned with their colleagues and training their direct reports.”
“Perhaps many of our graduates haven’t hardwired what they learned. Recall what we wrote on May 22 about how difficult it is to retain what one learns in a workshop? We need a way to put Lean in front of their eyes every day, or at least every week.”
“What about this idea? Anyone attending a workshop given by one of the big consultants ends up on their mailing list and gets e-mail from the outfit forever thereafter. We need constant communication with our graduates. Most of these folks weren’t charter subscribers to the Kaizen Curmudgeon blog; they might not have seen most of the early postings. Let’s e-mail each of our graduates a Kaizen Curmudgeon blog reprint every week. There are 34 postings to date, so our grads will receive a Lean lesson in their e-mail every week for the next eight months.”
“I trust we won’t stop blogging. When we’ve sent out all of the old postings, we can start sending out the newer ones. Hey, Curmudge, this could go on forever.”
“It would be a lot easier, Julie, if everyone at Affinity just subscribed to the blog. In any case, this shouldn’t be too difficult, and we’ll be doing our part to spread the word. We can even send out a Table of Contents and a Title Page saying ‘The Kaizen Curmudgeon and Jaded Julie Talk about Lean in Health Care’.”
“One minor correction, Curmudge. Shouldn’t the title be ‘Jaded Julie and the Kaizen Curmudgeon Talk about Lean in Health Care’?”
“Whatever.”
Affinity’s Kaizen Curmudgeon
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Manager/Leaders in the Hierarchy
“Curmudge, if you haven’t already forgotten, please tell me where we left of in our last discussion. It had something to do with shaking hands with Hillary.”
“You may have to settle for Mrs. Obama, Jaded Julie. We were discussing a manager’s possession of savvy and aura, but of greatest importance is the manager’s unspoken authority and power. We know that in the ubiquitous hierarchy someone—the manager—has to see that the merry-go-round goes around. To see that lab analyses are performed, surgeries are scheduled, and bills are sent out.”
“I don’t know much about ubiquitous, but I do know that hierarchies are everywhere.”
“Leavitt tells us that people will complete about 90% of a manager’s request just because she is the boss. But that last 10% is essential if the organization wants to go from good to great. That’s where leadership is needed. Management’s authority is necessary but it’s not sufficient. As Bob Nelson says (quoted by Hunter), ‘You get the best effort from others not by lighting a fire beneath them, but by building a fire within them.’ Combustion in the abdomen is best ignited by a leader who communicates to her followers that she is competent, confident, and has their best interests at heart. The ‘best interests’ part is, as we know, servant leadership.”
“Come out with it, Curmudge! ‘Fire in the belly’, not ‘combustion in the abdomen’. That’s a euphemism. (Euphemism! Did I say that?) So, Old Guy, is there something about today’s society that makes it essential that our hierarchies have manager/leaders rather than pure managers? Henry Ford just had managers, and he did pretty well.”
“We get some hints from Leavitt, and they seem to make sense. He said that in our volatile, interconnected world organizations require some leader-like creativity from all levels. Our top executives ‘recognize that their managers are people, not empty suits… who have the positive qualities of leadership.’ Leavitt also notes that today’s managers don’t work just in their own units. They need to be able to interact with all sorts of people and to be able to persuade folks horizontally, where they don’t have authority, and diagonally in the organization.”
“Thanks, Curmudge. You made a pretty good case for manager/leaders. Of course, you had some expert help. Now if I could just inject some of that ‘fire in the belly’ stuff into my sedentary husband. Any ideas?”
“It shouldn’t be too hard, Julie. When you make supper tonight, just add lots of habanero chili peppers. Their capsaicinoid content is really high.”
“If you say so, Chemist.”
Affinity’s Kaizen Curmudgeon
“You may have to settle for Mrs. Obama, Jaded Julie. We were discussing a manager’s possession of savvy and aura, but of greatest importance is the manager’s unspoken authority and power. We know that in the ubiquitous hierarchy someone—the manager—has to see that the merry-go-round goes around. To see that lab analyses are performed, surgeries are scheduled, and bills are sent out.”
“I don’t know much about ubiquitous, but I do know that hierarchies are everywhere.”
“Leavitt tells us that people will complete about 90% of a manager’s request just because she is the boss. But that last 10% is essential if the organization wants to go from good to great. That’s where leadership is needed. Management’s authority is necessary but it’s not sufficient. As Bob Nelson says (quoted by Hunter), ‘You get the best effort from others not by lighting a fire beneath them, but by building a fire within them.’ Combustion in the abdomen is best ignited by a leader who communicates to her followers that she is competent, confident, and has their best interests at heart. The ‘best interests’ part is, as we know, servant leadership.”
“Come out with it, Curmudge! ‘Fire in the belly’, not ‘combustion in the abdomen’. That’s a euphemism. (Euphemism! Did I say that?) So, Old Guy, is there something about today’s society that makes it essential that our hierarchies have manager/leaders rather than pure managers? Henry Ford just had managers, and he did pretty well.”
“We get some hints from Leavitt, and they seem to make sense. He said that in our volatile, interconnected world organizations require some leader-like creativity from all levels. Our top executives ‘recognize that their managers are people, not empty suits… who have the positive qualities of leadership.’ Leavitt also notes that today’s managers don’t work just in their own units. They need to be able to interact with all sorts of people and to be able to persuade folks horizontally, where they don’t have authority, and diagonally in the organization.”
“Thanks, Curmudge. You made a pretty good case for manager/leaders. Of course, you had some expert help. Now if I could just inject some of that ‘fire in the belly’ stuff into my sedentary husband. Any ideas?”
“It shouldn’t be too hard, Julie. When you make supper tonight, just add lots of habanero chili peppers. Their capsaicinoid content is really high.”
“If you say so, Chemist.”
Affinity’s Kaizen Curmudgeon
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