What does a hospital, a deadly virus, and your business, have in common?
When you go into the hospital you expect to get care and treatment that allows you to get better. Right?
Yet, in 2005 nearly 94,000 patients in hospitals all over the country contracted a preventable drug resistant bacterial infection they didn’t have before they entered the hospital. Nearly one out of five who got the virus died.
It is true that 94,000 patients is a very small number of people when you consider how many people enter the hospital each year. But it is not a small number if it happens to you. An additional heartbreak, these infections were preventable!
What can this possibly have in common with your business?
This is a story about a doc with entrepreneurial spirit. No, he didn’t start a business to fight this resistant bacteria (MRSA). But I believe he acted as one would expect an entrepreneur to act.
Dr. Richard Shannon, Chairman of Medicine at Alleghany, Pittsburg General became started looking for a solution to the problem at large when MRSA struck his own practice.
In other words, Dr. Shannon stepped out of his one-to-one care model and studied the bigger picture. He looked at how existing systems supported unwanted results.
What did he do?
He set out to learn more about how to make care more reliable and safe. And he didn’t do it by throwing everything out and starting over. He built upon traditional experience. He also said something else that was the trigger for this ezine.
His take is the first step for any leader is ownership of the issue! Sound like an entrepreneur? I thought so too.
As I said earlier, DR. Shannon’s first step was to look at how existing hospital systems supported unwanted results. Interestingly, he found that anonymity was a culprit.
Here is what he found and his three prong approach.
- Because infection data was reported in statistics, complex numbers, Dr. Shannon realized no one felt responsible. Here’s an example of how these infections were reported, “5.1 infections per thousand (intravenous) line days.” How’s that for anonymous and non-emotional? Anyone see a human face on those numbers?
Dr. Shannon put a human face on the problem. If fifteen people were infected they said just that. Then the stories of those 15 people were told. People’s lives and how they were affected by the infection told the stories rather than anonymous numbers simply reporting data. Anonymity was replaced by real people’s loss.
- All staff members were asked to observe their work and see where there were defects in current delivery of care that could propagate into error. Their job was to see with “new and different eyes.” This is an important piece because typically it is not one thing but a combination of things that create a problem.
- When they encounter the possibility of infection they solved to root cause why it happened that day. Historically infections were reported months after they occurred loosing any chance of context to ascertain why it happened.
Now when an infection has occurred Shannon gets an email message. He goes to the bedside and asks one of these questions? Which question do you think he asks?
- Who did it?
- Why did it happen?
If you said “Why did it happen” you’re correct. The goal is not to ascertain blame but rather to find a reproducible solution that can be used 100% of the time to prevent the circumstance from happening again!
Let me ask you these questions:
- In the bigger picture what’s your job as a sponsor?
- Do you have preventable problems?
- Have you taken ownership?
What is your job as sponsor?
Dr. Shannon’s take in the big picture was to provide care that was “safe and reliable.” When I was a sponsor I saw my job was to provide a solid proven business platform for my new recruit’s business? It was also my job to provide an environment for them to work through setbacks and celebrate successes.
Which of the following describes you?
- Do you take ownership (not blame) for the issues that recur in your business?
- Do you lament how many people start but don’t build.
- Do you wonder, “Where are all the good people?”
- Do you scrutinize your system(s) as they worked (or didn’t work) with each and everyone one who joins your team?
What does ownership look like?
- Does your weekly team meeting feel like a mastermind where people talk about their activity and how it’s working or not working?
- Does everyone leave that meeting with a “personal activity goal,” something inside them they’d like to change or continue to develop?
- Do your team members leave that meeting looking forward to “watching themselves” in action in order to learn more about themselves?
Hmmmm? 
If all this sounds overwhelming to you, relax. It’s not. This is nothing more than systematic skill building. You are just as capable of running a winning, dynamic team as the next person. Ask any graduate of our “Savvy Sponsoring” program.
And for those of you saying, “I don’t have the time to build a business this way.” If you’re putting time into building a business, any amount of time, you have time to build it properly. It does not take more time to build a business right. It saves you time … and your sanity.
If you listen to the Terry Gross’s NPR interview of Dr. Shannon you’ll hear how he actually went to Alcoa and also Toyota to study their successful business systems. Do you think Dr. Shannon was determined to get a handle on something that had been plaguing medicine for years? Yes, so do I.
Our industry (like most small businesses) is plagued with a very poor success rate. However, it does not have to be that way. But in order for it to change in your business:
- Take ownership, it’s not about your recruits
- Look with new eyes and identify your problem areas.
- Build reproducible systems you use 100% of the time
I hope this ezine makes two things very clear:
- You can build a financially successful and sustainable business.
- If you don’t know how, like Dr. Shannon, work with someone who does know how.
Warmly,
Jillian
