Anticlue

Whining is okay. Whining with solutions is much better.

After being in Healthcare IT for almost a decade now, one of my lessons learned regarding whining. Whining by it self is okay for a little while. Everyone needs an opportunity to vent when they are passionate. However, it is better to use that whining time to derive solutions.

Truth of the matter is that change is difficult for some individuals. When a change occurs, people begin to feel outside of their comfort zone. Sometimes people like to go back to their comfort zone. Here is an example.

Once upon a time, I worked in a place that had a manager of hospital billing systems. He was a good manager for the time. He implemented a billing system in an institution that sorely needed to replace its customized homegrown solution. He had a great following of staff that followed him from his place of previous employment to the new one. He was demanding, and a go-getter. One of his driving principals was that team members needed to work together. He really didn’t tolerate the BS of a hen house. The staff admired and respected him.

Then things changed. New upper management arrived. He stepped down from the management role, and consulted for major billing endeavors – APCs, 837s, 835s. His groomed replacement stepped up to managing the hospital billing group at hand. The team respected him, but still treated the new manager as one of the crew instead of the manager. The new manager came to the decision management just wasn’t all it was cracked up to be and became a technical guru. The position went vacant for a while. A fellow from NJ who was more bluster and bull than facts and figures tried to lead the group for a while. It didn’t really work out. Another set of new upper management arrived, and the original manager’s consulting contract came to its natural end.

Now it is almost 5 years later, the hospital billing system group was combined with the hospital registration system group. This combination became in group title only as the two are still completely separate silos. This is where a change is needed. Most of the group goes about recalling the old days desiring to become a part of the old days. Truth be told the only certainty in life is that things will change. No one in the group offers a solution or how to exist in a place where the hospital billing system and the hospital registration system are the same system. The entire group is reminiscent of haw from Who moved my cheese.

If the amount of time whining had gone to cross training, or learning about the other group, or building a bridge instead of a wall, the group would be in a better place. Here is a group of people who make their living solving system problems. Remove the computer part, and you still have a systematic problem, but no one offers a solution.

I’m sure you have come across similar circumstances in your employment journey. Change is difficult, but change does happen. My advice is when change occurs, first keep working, that's key. Offer solutions on how to make the new way work, or how to improve the new way.