How Healthcare Works, LLC

When leading a new team or teaching a new group of students, I would ask team members or students to tell me something unique about themselves. My reason for doing so was often two-fold. First, it really helped me learn about the employees' and students' names. Second, I was able to gain insight into who they were as people and what they felt was important. As time went on, I would ask the same team members and the same students to tell me something they had accomplished, tell me about their special skills, and tell me about what made them believe they could succeed. In my unofficial polling and assessment, I found that these employees and students had something in common. They found it hard to talk about what made them successful as individuals. They were more than eager and able to talk and "brag" about the accomplishments of their families, their friends, their neighbors, their classmates, and their coworkers.  However, they were not able to tell me what speci...

Every year, there is that story about the sports team that just couldn't get along. The team was fighting at practices, fighting in the media, and arguing over petty issues or who did who wrong. The team then started to lose games, and the coach came forward and said he just couldn't figure out what went wrong. He said it just wasn't their best game. Players left the team and went elsewhere. Sadly, the viewers knew the truth as they watched the dramatic irony unfold. Infighting was the underlying cause of the problem. It was at the core of all of the surrounding issues.  Unfortunately, the above scenario plays out not only on the field or on the court, but also in classrooms, communities, families and healthcare organizations. Once a culture of infighting is fostered and allowed to develop, the organization is doomed for failure in one area or another. Infighting tears away at the very fibers of an organization until the nerves and goals of all of those involved are...