The most common response was hammer, followed by gun, and then chain saw.  For a number of reasons, I felt fortunate to get out of the room alive.

I can understand the fascination with tools and building a toolkit.  It offers a readily comprehensible framework for the question, “What do you do,” i.e., ”I fix problems.”  We value problem-solvers.  They rise through an organization to become its senior leaders.

For a different way of looking at tools, I salute Chris Warner, who wrote High Altitude Leadership and has led over 150 international mountaineering expeditions.  He lists Danger #3 for high-altitude climbers as Tool Seduction:

Cho Oyu has become such a popular mountain, that the same level of infrastructure that is built on Everest is applied to climbs on this peak.  Each tent is equipped like a hotel room with sleeping bags, ministoves, bags of food, and bottles of oxygen.

Climbers waited for the storm cycle to play out… Precious time was wasted because Sherpas needed to move even more gear into place…. And when the tiny window finally opened, a small handful of us, those not needing all sorts of tools and comforts, snuck to the summit.  The largest groups watched helplessly from base camp.

An overdependence on Sherpas, tools, and infrastructure can limit talented climbers.  Similarly, a parade of consultants packing the latest tools and theories can bog down progress and distract companies from focusing on vital issues.  Of course, tools are important.  But in critical moments, even the best tools break or fail in some other way- yet you must still survive.  The problem isn’t with the tools; it’s in how you relate to them.

Tools offer hope, and they make people feel that they have the right answer.  But a problem occurs when people use tools as crutches for safe answers.  Both dead climbers and dead companies are found grasping great tools.

Act in the face of real fear; subjugate your personal desires to the greater goal of the group; fight arrogance with humility; seek out and nurture partnerships; be seduced by passion and not by tools.

As I wrote in Collaborative Listening, the most important tool for hospital leaders and physicians to grasp is dialogue.  In “Embracing Complexity,” in Better Communication For Better Care: Mastering Physician-Administrator Collaboration, I stated that face-face conversations are the only sustainable way that people can deal with complex situations in which predictability is diminished, experience does not guarantee success, and relationships are key.

 Physicians can help because our training prepares us to make major decisions based on limited information.  When lives are at stake, we often do not have time to obtain perfect information and have to rely on our clinical intuition.  Act-learn-adapt, or as we say in surgery, “Ready, fire, aim,” characterizes clinical practice.

What do you think?

• Do we use tools as crutches
• Are there tools other than dialogue that improve physician-hospital relations reliably
• Can you fathom extensions of act-learn-adapt into administrative situations

 As always, I welcome your input to improve healthcare collaboration.

Kenneth H. Cohn

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I have not received any compensation for writing this content. I have no material connection to the brands, topics and/or products that are mentioned herein.

©2012 Healthcare Collaboration. All Rights Reserved.

Collaborative Tools to Facilitate Physician Engagement: Post 84 is an original post from Kenneth Cohn, Healthcare Collaboration. If you enjoyed this post, be sure to follow Ken on Twitter, Facebook or Google+.