The Academic Council meeting was going on at the Khota Medical College (Fictional Name). The problem of the emergency department came for review.
Everyone quietly listened to the Director’s thought on the matter, but Dr. Sharma (Fictional Name) interjected with some brilliant suggestion. The Director continued with his monologue. Again, Dr. Sharma interrupted the Director with an insightful recommendation. In the end, the director proposed to make a committee to solve the problems of the emergency department, and Dr. Sharma was made its head.
At the next meeting, the Director took the matter of the junior resident’s interaction with the patients in the emergency situation. When he was speaking on the matter, Dr. Verma (Fictional Name) started to say something but quickly stopped himself before he uttered a word. Dr. Sharma who was sitting nearby gave a knowing smile towards Dr. Verma.
After the meeting was over, Dr. Sharma asked Dr. Verma that why did he stop himself from giving suggestion on the topic of junior resident’s interactions.
Dr. Verma replied, “I remembered what happened in the last meeting. When you gave some good suggestion on the problems of the emergency department, you were made the head of the committee created to solve those problems. I did not want to become the head of the committee for junior residents.”
Dr. Verma further continued, “I will be burdened with extra work and responsibilities without any extra perks and powers. The problems are usually multifactorial and beyond a single person’s powers to solve them completely, but yet the head of the committee receives the entire blame if the problems are not solved. It is better to keep quiet and stay out of limelight then speak up and get burdened with an extra thankless job.”
If the similar problem occurs in your organization, then it is better to keep quiet unless you want to get in limelight by becoming the trouble-shooter.
If you are the head of an organization then don’t punish those who give good suggestion by giving them additional responsibilities unless you are giving some perks along with it.
If someone identifies a problem, do not give him the responsibility to implement the solution if it involves hard or boring work. Don't punish for showing initiative. It is better to make someone else responsible for implementing the suggestion and make the person giving the suggestions the supervisor to oversee and report on the functioning of the committee. Suggestions will then really flow giving you some good actionable intel.
This is applicable even in diverse fields, not just in medicine or business. In India, along with the direct-to-home (DTH) system of TV channels, there are many local cable TV providers. They provide the connections with wire-cable hung high from street light poles.
As the signal travels from their main office, there is a loss of signal intensity (strength). The cable TV providers place signal boosters at few meters to boost the signal. Being expensive they are placed enclosed in a locked metal box.
In the rainy season, Dr. Dev (Fictional Name) overheard two employees of the local cable TV providers discussing the signal boosters. The first employee told the second, “The locks on the signal booster box are getting rusted by the exposure to the rains. They may get jammed and we may have to break the locks in future. It is best that they are oiled at this stage.”
The second employee cautioned the first, “Better keep quiet and do not give this suggestion to the boss. Then he will give us the task of oiling all the locks. We will have to go from pole to pole, climb the ladder to the top of the poles and oil all the boxes ourselves. So better keep quiet unless you are in mind to do some tiring extra work.”
(Based on true incident)
— ND© Author. All rights reserved.
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DISCLAIMER: This article is intended only for fun purpose. The author does not promote or recommend any behavior illustrated here or claim it to be useful. Use of the information herein is at you one's own risk. Before trying to emulate or follow anything the reader is well advised to take into account ethical, moral, legal and other considerations. The author recommends that Medical Practice should be of the highest ethical and moral level keeping in mind the interest of the patient as foremost.
DISCLAIMER: This article is intended only for fun purpose. The author does not promote or recommend any behavior illustrated here or claim it to be useful. Use of the information herein is at you one's own risk. Before trying to emulate or follow anything the reader is well advised to take into account ethical, moral, legal and other considerations. The author recommends that Medical Education should be of the highest ethical and moral level keeping in mind the interest of the patient as foremost and according to MCI and other Board’s norm.
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