Respond to two (2) Colleagues W2D1  “see at

Kristen Springer – Discussion 1 – Week 2

Top of Form

            Due to a very angry, unapproachable Emergency Department (E.D.) Director, our Information Technology Department (I.T.) has become complacent to the needs of her department.  The complacency reason is denial.  “So, when evidence of a big problem appears, if we can get away with ignoring the information, we often will” (Kotter, 2002, p.43).  It doesn’t seem to matter what any I.T. staff does, it is ALWAYS wrong in the eyes of the E.D. director.  If downtime is scheduled to fix an issue, she screams because they picked the wrong day.  When things unexpectedly occur, like a power outage, when I.T. arrives to assist, they get yelled at even though they didn’t cause the problem.  This has caused the I.T. department to shut down and ignore the E.D. as much as possible.  I.T. staff avoids the E.D. at all costs.

            In order to overcome this complacency, a sense of urgency needs to be expressed.  One of the most crucial issues in the E.D. is that there are no barcoding scanners installed.  Therefore, when nurses need to administer medications, they must manually type in the patient’s identifying number.  The inpatient department of our facility has had this capability for years.  The problem is human error.  In a fast-paced E.D. nurses are always rushing due to understaffing and our current pandemic.  In order to reach the I.T. staff, they must be moved emotionally in order to overcome the anger they feel towards the director.  “Another is you-can’t-make-me-move deviance, driven by anger” (Kotter, 2002, p.17).  Since I work for the E.D. but support I.T., I must find a way to have staff put aside anger and think more about an individual patient.  This lack of technology could affect anyone’s family who uses our E.D. for care.

            The approach I would use to establish urgency would get the granddaughter of a former patient to tell her story to the I.T. staff either on video similar to the “The Videotape of the Angry Customer” (Kotter, 2012, p.18).  This patient was in the E.D. to receive stitches on a cut on her hand, but she received the wrong medication due to a human typo error since there are no barcode scanners.  When the granddaughter arrived to visit, the patient was extremely lethargic and slurring her speech.  The granddaughter alerted staff and this patient had to be admitted and monitored for three days.  Luckily this patient survived, but wrong medication administration is a serious issue and could result in death.  “Video plays better to our brains, hard-wired from thousands of years of evolution to absorb deeply what we see, in particular, but also what we hear and touch” (Kotter, 2002, p.22). This video approach could definitely help I.T. see past the irritable E.D. director to the urgency of much-needed equipment installation.

Reference

Kotter, J. P. (2012). Leading change. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Review Press.

Kotter, J. P., & Cohen, D. S. (2002). The heart of change: Real-life stories of how people change their organizations. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Review Press.

2nd Colleagues – Sandra Patterson

Sandra Patterson – Discussion 1 – Week 2Top of Form

Developing a Change Plan – Introducing a Sense of Urgency

An area in my community where I have noticed a level of complacency is in the area of anticipation. Living in this global community, I think that we constantly need to be aware of how to anticipate emergencies in order to always be as ready as possible. (Laureate Education, 2012) As members of an ever-changing online global community, we might need to be moved out of a state of complacency by having a sense of urgency in order to be able to initiate the change process. This sense of urgency can come from internal and external sources. The key is to be able to energize members of society by constantly creating a sense of optimism about the future. (Laureate Education, 2012)

As I reflect on the methods for overcoming complacency by creating a sense of urgency, I would say that the approach to be used to address complacency would be to emphasize the need to have leadership skills and practical management techniques. It would be important to explore techniques that will initiate the change process and create a sense of enthusiasm about the future. Then the next step would be to develop a network by carefully considering the personality characteristics so that the change for members can be successful. (Kotter, 2012) So even though I would use the approach of enthusiasm, it’s important to remember that it can be dangerous for a company to be too successful. That’s why in addition to enthusiasm, I would suggest that managers and leaders would often need to create momentum as well. When no visible crisis exists, it could still be necessary to develop techniques to make transformational change appear to be the best option for overcoming organizational complacency. So as I analyze how I would use transformational change, I need to consider if complacency is negative, what differences there are between a sense of urgency and sense of emergency, and I would need to ask myself how can leaders and managers create a sense of urgency without creating a sense of emergency.

The specific plan that I would create for how to implement an approach for creating a sense of urgency would be to follow certain steps. First of all, I would make an emphasis on the need to have key individuals who can be contacted when a person cannot use their own cellphones. Secondly, I would build a type of community watch group in my area in order to make sure that children are safe. Thirdly, I would form a strategic vision for my community by making sure that they align themselves with non-profit organizations to make a difference in the community. Fourth, I would encourage members of my community to regularly exercise and have a positive outlook on life. Fifth, I would remove barriers in my community by making sure that my community members organize different events that would benefit the children in the community. Sixth, I would generate short-term wins in my community by encouraging them to submit ideas for projects that would make their community a better place. Seventh, I would sustain acceleration by always encouraging my community members to be proactive about change. Finally, I would gradually institute change by pointing out the benefits of certain changes especially in the areas of child safety measures. (Kotter, 2012)

References:

Kotter, J.P. (2012) Leading Change. Boston: Harvard Business Review Press. Chapter 3: Establishing a Sense of Urgency