Journal of Sacred Work

I wouldn’t give you two cents for all your fancy rules if behind them they didn’t have a little plain, ordinary, everyday kindness – and a little lookin’ out for the other fella too. – Jimmy Stewart in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) Directed by Frank Capra; Story -Lewis R. Foster; Screenplay -Sidney Buchman

   Across America, thousands of people seeking help from one organization or another will hear these dreaded words: "I can’t help you. It’s the rules." How often has this phrase been used in America’s bureaucracies as an excuse by a clerk or caregiver to avoid personal responsibility for the problem before her or him. "Sorry, it’s just our policy," a nurse will say to a patient or an executive will say to a complaining family member.
  Do we need rules? Of course. Do rules need to be informed by humanity? That is what differentiates a bureaucrat from a caregiver….   

   When people ask me how to break the iron grip of bureaucracy, I think of Riverside Methodist Hospital in Columbus. When I came there as a new CEO in 1983, Riverside was the largest hospital in Ohio with over a thousand beds and more than six thousand employees. Many of those employees were walking the hallways with their heads either down or talking to their friends. An unfamiliar face like mine was ignored. To everyone else, I and many others walking the halls were strangers. The Riverside Methodist Hospital of 1983 seemed like a bureaucracy.

   How do you change the direction of such a huge organization? The long answer is contained in
both of my books (www.healinghospital.org). The short answer is: you can change  bureaucracy into a caring community by warming up the culture. In a bureaucracy, fellow workers are on one side and all strangers are on the other. In a caring community, there are no strangers. In a bureaucracy, leaders govern by fear. In a caring community, leaders lead with love and see their work as serving the servers. Across three years of hard work, the atmosphere in the hallways and up on the floors changed. Riverside became a community where employees were called partners (and treated as ones) and caregiving was relationship-centered.

   CEOs willing to drop the facade of power and open their hearts to their employees as partners can lead the conversion from bureaucracy to community. EVERY caregiver can participate in this change by doing the same thing. Caregivers have power over patients. When they drop the mask of superiority and commune with patients and fellow workers as thinking, caring human beings they create caring community.

   Any organization can fall victim to its own rules and become a bureaucracy. My friend, Jason Dinger, a Vice President at St. Thomas Health System in Nashville, told me some time back that the best organizations run not by rules but by "guiding principles." He’s right. Rules can be applied mechanically by robots. Guiding principles require thought and heart. The first guiding principle in a caring community is: Rules will be applied with humanity as well as discipline.

   How are we to know when to administer a rule in a strong way? This is the challenge of community. People living by guiding principles need to consult both head and heart. They need to be, as Dr. King advised, tough-minded and tender-hearted. They need to be willing to accept criticism for mistakes. Above all, they need to climb out from behind the shield of a rule and face personal responsibility for decision making.

   
Jimmy Stewart’s character is right when he speaks the words written by screenwriter Sidney
Buchman: rules aren’t worth two cents unless they’re applied with a little everyday kindness, and a
lot of looking out for the other person. This is the rule worth far more than two cents. It is the rule made of gold.

Reflective Practice:
1) Discuss, in a group or with a friend, the purpose of rules and how they can be applied with the right balance of discipline and compassion.
2) Reflect on a rule you follow in dealing with others. Why are you afraid to bend this rule? Are they ways you can apply the rule differently than you are now – and still honor the principle that supports the rule?
3) Rules are supposed to be grounded in fairness and trust. Yet fairness and trust can still be served by allowing them to be watered with the tears of mercy. How could you do this?