I am honored to post guest blog articles on Athenahealth's Leadership Forum, and the latest one just went live. I'd be very pleased if you clicked over there to read it. The title of the article is "Negotiating on Purpose." Here's the lede:
After her fifteen year-old son Lewis Blackman died from a series of preventable medical errors, Helen Haskell diagnosed the problems in the hospital by saying, “This was a system that was operating for its own benefit.”
What she meant was that each person in the hospital was unthinkingly engaged in a series of tasks that had become disconnected from the underlying purpose of the hospital. They were driven by their inclinations and imperatives rather than by the patient’s needs. Indeed, they were so trapped in that form of work that they could not notice the entreaties of a seriously concerned mother as her son deteriorated.
From there I go into a discussion of the role of a leader in conducting what can be viewed as a negotiation with the doctors and other staff of a hospital to help the institution's constituencies understand that their interests are coincident with the purpose of the organization and to help them jointly decide on the actions needed to carry out that purpose.
Some might read the article with a view of negotiation as a kind of transaction or a form of haggling. That is a narrow view of the term. A more expansive view, and the one I attempt to portray, is a respectful process that provides a means of satisfying parties’ underlying interests by jointly decided action.
I'd welcome your comments, either at the Athenahealth site or here.
After her fifteen year-old son Lewis Blackman died from a series of preventable medical errors, Helen Haskell diagnosed the problems in the hospital by saying, “This was a system that was operating for its own benefit.”
What she meant was that each person in the hospital was unthinkingly engaged in a series of tasks that had become disconnected from the underlying purpose of the hospital. They were driven by their inclinations and imperatives rather than by the patient’s needs. Indeed, they were so trapped in that form of work that they could not notice the entreaties of a seriously concerned mother as her son deteriorated.
From there I go into a discussion of the role of a leader in conducting what can be viewed as a negotiation with the doctors and other staff of a hospital to help the institution's constituencies understand that their interests are coincident with the purpose of the organization and to help them jointly decide on the actions needed to carry out that purpose.
Some might read the article with a view of negotiation as a kind of transaction or a form of haggling. That is a narrow view of the term. A more expansive view, and the one I attempt to portray, is a respectful process that provides a means of satisfying parties’ underlying interests by jointly decided action.
I'd welcome your comments, either at the Athenahealth site or here.
0 comments:
Post a Comment