Journal of Sacred Work

   This week, we will be recognizing Ten Healing Hospitals in America and our Healing Hospital CEO-of-the-Year. In advance of that, I offer some comments on excellence.

   One of the most surprising phenomenon our team encounters as we work with organizations seeking positive change is how so many want meaningful improvement without any pain. It’s a natural desire, I suppose. Who wants pain?
   Here’s a ‘painful’ example. Recently, a physician shared with me that while charting at the nurse’s station he was startled to hear the nurse in charge shouting to her staff, "Okay everybody, gather ’round. I have an announcement," she bellowed in a voice that could be heard up and down the hallway …

    After her staff gathered, she issued orders that, according to the doctor, went something like this: "You all know about the compassionate care directives we’ve received," she said to them in a threatening tone. "Now, I know you all understand these. Here’s the point: Everybody had better follow every one of these directives on compassion. If you don’t, there are going to be repercussions!"

   When I talk or write about the importance of living Love, not fear, a lot of people think my four words are obvious. Clearly, this nurse leader missed this point. Equally clearly, she doesn’t know she misunderstood the whole idea of the compassionate care program at this hospital. It is likely that she has received nursing training, but not leadership training. I’m sure she thought her approach was just right. The fact that Love is defeated when threats are used must never have occurred to her.
   Her approach reminds of the painful language we’ve all heard from frustrated moms in grocery stores when they shout at their kids, "Stop hitting your each other or I’m going to hit you!"
   Violence breeds violence. Love breeds Love.
   Change will always be hard. For example, if you were this nurse leader’s director, how would you approach her? How would you help her to discover that compassionate care is not advanced by threats? It’s a challenging problem and the solution will require both patience and discomfort.
   There is no such thing as powerful change without
pain. This is because change requires disruption of the status quo. As
patterns are disturbed and routines are disrupted, people complain. The
pain is tolerable for those who understand the goals. Resistance comes
from those who either don’t get it or don’t agree with the change
pathway.
   When we fix our eyes on Love and understand the importance of Love as a purposeful goal, the pain of change becomes no more than a side effect.
   Forty-two days into this year, consider changes you may be making in your life. Were any of them easy? If they have been hard, how are you enduring the discomfort?

-Erie Chapman