Journal of Sacred Work

The status quo, in its seductiveness, can trap us like a straitjacket and keep us from accomplishing
meaningful change.
-Erie Chapman

   The hardest thing about advancing the Loving Care Movement is not people understanding what it’s about. Everyone agrees that loving care is a good thing. Loving care is like motherhood and apple pie. No one can say they oppose it. Love is an essential value. Only a fool or a deep cynic would say they’re against love.
   The problem is not in the words, but in the actions. Meaningful change, rare as it is, lies in persistent follow-through. For examples of this, consider your workplace…

   How many times have you gone off to a conference or seminar, returned with the energy of a good idea, and seen that energy evaporate along with the idea? How many Saturday or Sunday mornings have we heard messages in Synagogue, Temple, Mosque or Church and resolved to make change only to see ourselves fall back to the same patterns we have always followed.

The New Year’s Resolution Syndrome:   Although some people are baffled by this so-called "New Year’s Resolution Syndrome" the psychology is relatively simple. The status quo is seductive because it’s comfortable. The status quo also had the enormous power of inertia. It’s easier to sit in the same patterns, to follow the well worn path, then it is to strike out on a new road that may hold danger and hard work as well as the promise of important improvement.
   It requires courage to change. It also requires that we overcome our enormous tendency to defend the comfort of the status quo through rationalization. "Why bother to change?" voices will call out to us. "If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it."
   The problem is that many aspects of our healthcare work places are broken. Too many patients are not receiving the loving care they need and too many caregivers are getting inadequate support from their leaders.
   It’s easier for us to sit back and complain, and to blame others, than it is to tackle change ourselves.
  Several months back, a high level hospital leader promised me he was going to get out of his suit and follow my recommendation that he work one shift a month alongside first line employees. "Great suggestion, Erie." He said enthusiastically. "I’m definitely going to do it."
  "Really?" I challenged. "Most people back away. They’re too afraid."
  "Not me," he said. "I’m going to do it."
   A few weeks went by and I emailed  him to check his progress. "Oops, haven’t done anything yet. I’ve been too busy."
   Immediately, I was suspicious. I served as CEO of three different hospital systems over a quarter century. I know the activity patterns of top health care leaders. Every single one of them can find four to eight hours in a given month to work alongside their employess if they decide this is an important way
to model solidarity with staff. For example, I regularly worked with first line staff myself for almost twelve straight years as CEO of Riverside Methodist, the largest hospital in Ohio.
   But the point is not that every leader should jump into a housekeeping uniform and work shifts on the front lines. Instead find what things you can do to create meaningful change. Embrace personal changes with sincerety and courageous follow through. I know the approach I used at Riverside Methodist was helpful partly because we saw: 1) significant improvements in employee morale, 2) significant jumps in patient satisfaction, and 3) we were voted one of the most employee-friendly workplaces in America by three different media sources.
   Sadly, my suspicions about my hospital colleague were correct. Five months after his promise to change, I saw this executive at a meeting. "You know what I’m going to ask," I told him. "What?" he said, looking baffled. Not only had he not spent a second working alongside his staff, he had forgotten his promise!
   "You’re never going to do it, are you?" I told him, doing my best to challenge his male ego. "Yes I am," he said defiantly when he finally realized what I was talking about. That was a month ago. He still hasn’t acted yet. He’s caught in rationalization and he’s drowning in the status quo. Like so many of us, he means well but he really has no intention to change his schedule or, for that matter, the way he leads. He’s also caught in the notion that he has to say not what is true but what he thinks someone else wants to hear.
   The point here is not to drop a guilt trip on this one fellow but to face the fact that meaningful change is always harder than we think. We need to probe what it takes to overcome the obstacles that lie in front of significant movement even though the short answer is always the same: courageous commitment wins the day.
The Touch Card Challenge:  Recently, I challenged three different hospitals and one hospice to start using the touch card
system I have discussed in the Journal (see Journal of Sacred Work, October 1) The touch card idea is simply an idea for a reminder system (sort of like a Mezuzah – left) that helps caregivers recall loving care and the patient’s humanity by pausing a second to touch some card or object on the way into a patient room as a reminder of the patient’s humanity. It’s a symbolic act intended to reawaken the inner light of love – "Sort of like the way Notre Dame football players jump up and touch something on the way out onto the field before a game," someone said to me. "Right," I said, "I guess that’s a parallel idea.
   Leaders at each of the four organizations said they loved the idea and would begin incorporating it. To my knowledge, none of them has, thus far, done so much as to even open a dialogue on the subject with their team. Accordingly, the energy that this practice might release has yet to be experienced. Ah, the dark comfort of the status quo…

-Erie Chapman