Page 131 - The Power to Change Anything

120 INFLUENCER

Let’s focus on staff members who are assisting and predict
what they might do. Most would certainly hesitate for a few sec-
onds before suggesting that the surgeon has just made a mis-
take. They’ll hesitate because if they don’t handle the situation
well, they’ll come off as flippant or even insubordinate. There
are legal issues at play, and that only makes the discussion that
much more delicate. Worse still, they’ve seen colleagues
who’ve expressed a concern, turned out to be wrong, and then
received a tongue-lashing. Better to let someone else take the
risk. Precious seconds continue to pass.
This and tens of thousands of similar medical errors con-
tinue to happen because individuals who may have practiced
drawing blood or moving a patient or reading a gauge dozens
of times haven’t studied and practiced how to confront a col-
league—or even more frightening—a physician. They aren’t
exactly sure what to say and how to say it. They certainly lack
the confidence that comes from having practiced.
Of course, health care isn’t the only field in which a lack
of interpersonal know-how has caused serious problems. Every
time a boss expresses a half-baked, even dangerous, idea and
subordinates bite their tongues for fear of being chastised,
good ideas remain a secret and teams make bad decisions.
Speaking up to an authority figure requires skill, and skill
requires practice. The same is true for confronting a mentally
abusive spouse or dealing with a bully at school or—here’s a
hot one—just saying no to drugs. Try that without getting
ridiculed or beat up. Interpersonal interactions can be extra-
ordinarily complicated, and most will improve only after indi-
viduals receive instruction that includes deliberate practice.
Consider the problem Dr. Wiwat Rojanapithayakorn faced
when attempting to encourage young, poor, shy, female sex
workers to deny services to older, richer male customers if the
customers refused to use a condom. At first the young girls
mumbled their disapproval, only to be intimidated by their
vocal clients. Not knowing what to say or how to say it, they’d