If you give people just a little bit of information it is amazing how quickly they can make up a story. Lets say that you have discovered that 150 mg of morphine is missing from your organizations drug supply. The new guy working nights in materials has lots of scary tattoos, rides a Harley chopper (how can he afford that on his low wage?), and cuts off his cell phone conversations anytime someone from management walks through the department.
It takes most people a few seconds to write a story in their mind about this outlaw biker paying for his scooter with the money he is making selling narcotics pilfered from your inventory. One of the things about writing a good story is that you just have to share it. This invites other people to contribute their own color and spin, “did you see his girlfriend, she always looks stoned.” This practice of instantly writing stories like this is natural, happens fast, and is exhilarating. Most people, myself included, can not help themselves.
The risk comes when we start believing that our fictional story is actually a documentary. The danger comes when we act as if our made up story is true. One of the hallmarks of an effective leader is that they are able to recognize the difference between the facts and the story they have made up. They hold their stories lightly with anticipation that they will be proven wrong. BTW the missing morphine was found stored in the wrong bin.

I have lots of friends who have spent several years poking fun at my Apple computer. Ever since I made the switch to Mac from DOS (yes it was a long time ago) I’ve felt like the folks at Apple have managed to put together products with operating systems and user interfaces that work the same way my brain does. I’m aware that this may not be a compliment to Apple, but it really works for me. Last week I was visiting with friends when their 7 year old daughter asked if she could see my phone. I handed her my iphone (they are really hard to break) which has the same operating system as my computer. In less than 90 seconds she was snapping photos, emailing them to herself, and surfing her way through the phone’s features. I think that everything we use should be that intuitive.

People who experience sudden illness or injury are in no position to assess the knowledge and skills of the emergency medical folks who show up to care for them. They rely on the providers themselves and the EMS system leaders to ensure that EMS professionals know what to do and how to do it. Sadly many if not most EMS leaders don’t really know how skilled or knowledgeable their employees are. I was discussing this yesterday over a Grande, non-fat, no-syrup, green tea latte at Starbucks with Baxter and Todd from the UCLA Center for Prehospital Care. We were talking about designing a knowledge competency test for one of the EMS systems that we work with. Baxter said, “Why don’t we test everyone anonymously? That way we’ll learn what the system leaders and educators need to do to improve the overall knowledge and no individual employee will be singled out.” Baxter’s suggestion shows the essential difference between old style quality assurance where we work to improve people and quality management where we focus on making system improvements. It’s a lesson that we can’t learn too often.

It’s happened with almost every leadership group I’ve met with. Someone will say some version of, “I don’t understand the young generation in our workforce. They have no work ethic. When I was a new paramedic my job was my life.” I usually point out to them that 20 years ago there was a group of folks with a touch of gray in their hair sitting around a conference table saying the same thing about them. My guess is that these same conversations have been going on for thousands of years in one form or another.

I’ve noticed that “young folks” (I can’t believe that I’m writing about young folks rather than being one of them when did this happen?) today seem kinder, more polite, and more willing to help than any generation I’ve experienced. I was just talking about this with my life long friend Thom Dick who reminded me that it is much more important to treat people as individuals, rather than lump them into some generational label. That’s good advice.

For the last several years people have been saying things like, “You really need a blog” or “I can’t believe that you’re not a blogger.” I thought blogger might some kind of insult hurled by British rugby players or some type of ugly birthmark. It might be both and finally I’m taking the plunge. I’m excited about having a soapbox on which to share random thoughts on EMS, leadership, quality management, and life in general. Thanks for checking in.