IMPROVING COMMUNICATION VERSATILITY AMONG LEADERS
Success Story
At one of the Nation's Top 10 Children's Hospitals, the Vice-President of Patient Care Services (RN, BSN) was determined to develop leadership competencies in her 1500 person organization beginning with communication skills among members of her leadership group.
She also recognized that communication barriers and conflicts among staff members were decreasing productivity and negatively impacting patient care. At the recommendation of an executive coach, she made the decision to implement a pilot of Wilson Learning's Building Relationship Versatility (BRV) with the senior members of her leadership group. This was intended to be the first of several steps to increase leadership competence and the first competency targeted was communication skills.
IMPLEMENTATION
The workshop and follow-up work was a big hit as participants learned how to identify and respect differences in the social styles of others. They also learned how to become more versatile and modify their behavior in ways that made others more comfortable, less defensive, and more open to dialogue and problem solving.
From these grassroot beginnings, an amazing transformation has taken place in the hospital. Due to the popularity of the pilot and the amazing improvements in communication effectiveness, increased trust, and improved conflict management skills, many more BRV workshops have been completed. Since changes in human behavior require more than a two-day workshop, leaders in Patient Services worked with their Wilson Learning consultant to develop a series of eight monthly follow-up sessions designed to reinforce and apply skills learned in the workshop.
The hospital has now implemented all eight follow-up sessions with great results. Over 100 nurse managers, directors, and other hospital leaders have completed the program. To further ensure that skills are applied on the job, the leadership team is also participating in Wilson Learning’s Coaching for Performance program. Leaders are learning and applying best practices in coaching employees in ways that maximize trust and results. They are also learning specific techniques in coaching employees in how to apply versatility skills learned in the BRV workshop resulting in improved collaboration and teamwork.
OUTCOME
The Chief Medical Officer noticed the positive results in communication effectiveness and asked the question "Since this workshop has had such a dramatic effect on improving collaboration and teamwork among nurse managers and their direct reports, I wonder if this would work with physicians?"
The Wilson Learning consultant accepted this challenge and worked with Wilson Learning experts to design a two hour executive overview of the workshop for physicians.
This session was implemented with tremendous success. Within the first hour after the session, a physician who was also a Practice Team Leader and Medical School Faculty Member, sent an e-mail to the Wilson Learning consultant with an amazing, immediate success story.
The physician reported that another physician who had just completed the workshop called her on his way home from the workshop to say "Now I realize why we have been having communication problems. I now know you are a Driver and you need to get straight to the facts and the bottom line quickly. Since I have a different style, I have been communicating with you the way I feel comfortable rather than the way you would prefer. I just need to be more versatile and we can work things out." The physician closed the e-mail by saying that the workshop had already improved collaboration and team work among two physician leaders who had been butting heads for months.
Additional evidence of the immediate impact of the physician executive debrief session was observed a few days after the workshop in the hospital cafeteria. The Chief Medical Officer and others observed physicians talking informally about the content of the workshop, asking each other what style they were and what they were doing to increase communication versatility.
Anyone who has worked with physicians, knows that it is hard to get their attention and even harder to get them to change their behavior. The BRV workshop seems to be the key to increasing collaboration not only when physician communicate with each other, but also when they communicate with nurses and other hospital leaders.
Research clearly links communication skills with increased trust, employee retention, and even patient care. Now there is a proven way to improve communication skills in hospital settings. When can we get started with helping your team?
