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The Moment You Can’t Ignore

When Big Trouble Leads to a Great Future

Malachi O’Connor and Barry C. Dorn

Public Affairs, 2014

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Dissatisfaction grows, tensions build and conflicts arise until boom! – something so startling happens that you cannot continue business as usual. Strategy consultants Malachi O’Connor and Barry Dornfeld explain that these combustible situations result from waves of change crashing against the shore of “that’s how we’ve always done it” thinking. Workplace eruptions arise when new ways challenge old ways and simmering emotions boil over. O’Connor and Dornfeld adapted methods from field ethnography to explain how to take advantage of “un-ignorable moments” and move in new, positive directions. While the case studies gleaned from the authors’ consulting practice make interesting reading, their overuse somewhat muddies the main points. Chapter summaries or bullets would have provided a simple solution. Still, getAbstract appreciates this insiders’ look at crafting a planned response to portents of trouble ahead.

Summary

University Hospital

When a patient at University Hospital (UH) was suffering from severe abdominal pain, Dr. Piersen, the hospital’s leading surgeon, performed surgery that lasted nearly eight hours. As he was about to close the incision, Marco Fierro, the scrub tech, told him that a sponge was missing. Piersen ignored Fierro, and the two almost came to blows. A nurse restored calm, they found the missing sponge and the patient made a full recovery.

While the patient escaped harm, the volatile situation in the surgery theater raised a red flag with hospital management. Dr. Davidian, head of the medical staff and procedures, launched an investigation. A relatively new program, Putting Patients First (PPF), had thrown the hospital into turmoil. The program synthesized internal safety protocols with requirements from outside institutions such as the World Health Organization. PPF put the responsibility for patient safety into the hands of hospital employees, from scrub techs to surgeons. The new processes, checklists and protocols forced UH staffers to adopt new ways of working, whether they wanted to or not.

Dr. Piersen believed in an orderly chain of command in...

About the Authors

Malachi O’Connor and Barry Dornfeld are principals at the management-consulting firm CFAR Inc.

The Moment You Can’t Ignore

When Big Trouble Leads to a Great Future

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University Hospital

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