Welcome to The Operator | Healthcare Business!
June 9, 2026

Your Clinic Huddle Is Lying to You... Here’s What It Hides

Your Clinic Huddle Is Lying to You... Here’s What It Hides

Most healthcare leaders are drowning in communication — email, Slack, dashboards, newsletters, all-hands meetings.

Larry Benz says that’s not the problem.

The real failure is information. The hard, specific, operational truth lives on the clinical floor — and in too many organizations, it never travels up.

This conversation breaks down why daily huddles have become metrics theater, why frontline silence is dangerous, and why leaders who only hear good news are probably operating blind.

What you’ll learn:

  • Why communication and information are not the same thing
  • What a huddle is actually supposed to do
  • Why frontline teams see patterns before dashboards show problems
  • How leaders accidentally teach people to stay quiet
  • Why trust, proximity, and follow-through determine whether truth moves up

Key ideas:

  • A huddle is a sensor, not a broadcast.
  • Silence is not the absence of issues.
  • Dashboards report lagging problems. The floor sees weak signals.
  • Managers build the meeting. Leaders earn the truth.
  • The best operators want more problems reported earlier.

Article: https://benzoperator.substack.com/p/the-huddle-isnt-a-meeting-its-a-situational

The question is not whether people are talking.

The question is whether leaders are hearing what they need to hear.

WEBVTT

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All right, let's do it.

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All right,

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most healthcare organizations think they

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have a communication problem.

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Larry here thinks they have an information

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problem because the people closest to the

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work, well, they know what's happening.

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Leadership might not just be hearing about

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it.

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In his latest article on the operator,

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Larry brings forth that most healthcare

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huddles have become broadcasts.

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theater or what he calls a metrics huddle,

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where the venue that was supposed to be

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the platform's eyes and ears has become

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just a daily reminder to hit budget.

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And when that happens,

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the platform learns none of it.

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So Larry, let's start there.

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What is a huddle actually supposed to do?

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What is a huddle supposed to do?

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A huddle is absolutely supposed to,

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it's easier, actually,

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let me back up a little bit by

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saying

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Organizations don't really have this sort

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of communication problem.

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As you said,

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they have an information problem.

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I'd like to start out with what is

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the fundamental difference between those

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two.

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A communication problem is when the

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message doesn't get through.

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An information problem is when the message

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that is needed to get through never even

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makes it to the room,

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never even makes it to the thought that

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I should be communicating this.

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We have too much data,

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not enough information.

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We have too much information,

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not enough communication.

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Most healthcare platforms communicate

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constantly.

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Email, Slack, Teams, channels, dashboards,

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monthly all hands, weekly newsletters.

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There's no shortage of talking happening.

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What is missing is the small,

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really what I would say hard,

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specific information that lives on the

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clinical floor.

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The chair that's been broken for eleven

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days,

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the new hygienist who feels like she's

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bothering someone every time she asks,

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the senior clinician who has been quietly

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looking for job postings since February,

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nobody knows that they might be a flight

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risk.

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That information doesn't move through

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email, Slack and channels.

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It moves through trust, through proximity,

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through a venue where it's safe to raise

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what we call psychological safety.

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If the venue does not exist or people

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don't feel safe,

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it sits on the floor and the platform

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obviously doesn't see it.

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So you can have crisp communication

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and zero information they're not the same

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thing and we get in troubles when we

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conflate the two so the huddle is the

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venue specifically not to get to your key

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question the huddle is the venue

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specifically designed to surface that

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information that's its purpose when it

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works you have both communication going

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down information going up when it doesn't

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you have a lot of well-designed slide

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decks and data describing a reality that

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the leadership team fortunately doesn't

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really even see

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In the article you opened with this line,

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I even made a note about it,

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the meeting happened, the huddle did not.

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How can two organizations really run the

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same exact meeting,

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yet one learns something valuable and the

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other learns nothing?

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Yeah, well,

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because the meeting is the visible,

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you know, ten percent,

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the other ninety percent is the system

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around it.

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So two huddles can look identical from

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across the room, same time, same people,

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same checklist, same length.

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The difference is what's happened in

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eighteen months leading up to that point.

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So I've been through huddles.

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I've been to a lot of daily huddles

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when I visit locations,

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whether it be a PT clinic,

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a dental clinic, primary care clinic,

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occupational health, you name it.

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The huddles oftentimes will have that same

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checklist.

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And it is whether or not you're just

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checking the box,

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whether or not you're having meaningful

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conversation.

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In the organization that learned

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something,

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the floor was watched over and over what

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happens when they raise a hard issue.

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So issues get sort of logged,

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owners get signed, but by Wednesday,

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the chaos is either fixed or it's

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replaced.

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By Friday,

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somebody walks to the back of the clinic

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and says, we got this done.

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That's a system that's earned the right

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information from its floor it's actually

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resulted in actions that are measurable

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and held accountable in the organizations

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that learn nothing the floor has watched

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the opposite happen issues get raised

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issues get parked nothing happens by the

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third or fourth time when that happens the

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floor has decided without anybody

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announcing it that the huddle is not the

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right venue to tell you things that are

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really worth telling you they just show up

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and they check the box

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And then they go back to seeing patients.

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So the meeting still happens,

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but the huddle is dead.

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It's just, yeah,

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did we do a huddle today?

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Yeah, in fact, we certainly did.

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But it didn't serve any real purpose.

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And so the difference between those

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organization was not the meeting.

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Both organizations had the meeting.

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The difference are not what surfaced in

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that meeting reliable.

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reliably catches someone who enacts on it

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you know there's a psychological term

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called habituation we get used to things

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we get desensitized to things over time

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that are rote and what you have to

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have is you have to have a meeting

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czar somebody that's frequently like

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what's the purpose here are we really

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surfacing issues that's going on in here

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and maybe that meetings are changes every

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couple months or every quarter or whatever

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but you have to have somebody who keeps

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meeting accountability otherwise it

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becomes rote habituated and accomplishes

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effectively nothing

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Yeah.

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To go back to sort of making sure

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we know your terms,

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most people think a huddle exists to

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communicate information.

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But in the top of the show,

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in the article,

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that feels more like a broadcast or

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performance theater.

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You argue that it exists to gather

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information, uncovering things,

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a place that leadership might not have

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visibility.

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So how would you,

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if someone was starting tomorrow in

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leadership,

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how would you describe to them, hey,

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this is what a huddle is actually supposed

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to do so you know what it needs

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to achieve while you're in it,

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what the goal is?

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Yeah, that's right.

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And again,

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you have to go for what is the

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purpose of the meetings.

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And so there are meetings where you're

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meant to broadcast information and

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headlines and updates,

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those kinds of things.

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But a huddle is not a broadcast.

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It is a sensor.

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So if you really think about it and

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you trace this historically,

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I think it was around the nineteen forties

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that Toyota really,

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really perfected all this.

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And by the way,

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the guy's name really was Toyota.

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It was just spelled a little bit

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differently than I think the car is.

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And he built it as a daily stand

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up on the manufacturing floor designed for

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one problems,

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surface problems that are small and

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fixable when they're cheap.

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Right.

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Health care.

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Imported this practice in the early two

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thousands after the Institute of medicine

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to air is human report.

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That was kind of a famous report and

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HQR formalized it into the team steps

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documented this results from across

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multiple settings, fewer medical errors,

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fewer near misses and fewer adverse

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events.

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So basically we took manufacturing this on

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darn cord where something goes bad.

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We got to fix it right before bigger

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problems happen later.

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We imported into medicine and it was

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effective.

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And it was effective because the mechanism

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was not the meeting.

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The meeting was the upper flow of weak

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signals,

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something we can notice is out of source

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when it's small and weak and closest to

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the problem really reporting it.

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before those signals become events.

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One of the meetings I absolutely hate in

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any organization is when you have an

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operational meeting and those that aren't

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closest to the report are reporting the

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meeting.

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So the way that manifests itself like a

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large physical therapy or healthcare

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organization or dental organization,

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you don't have the local operators,

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regional directors,

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regional business partners,

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whatever you call them,

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And the practice managers in those

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meetings, you have their direct reports.

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So think of the information flow.

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You're having direct reports of direct

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reports trying to relay information.

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And when all that things start to happen,

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it just doesn't work.

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And so that's why you have these huddles

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at the most local level where information

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could flow up.

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You know,

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the tow factory floor and the operating

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room,

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have one thing in common,

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silence is never the absence of any kind

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of issue.

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It's almost always the presence of a

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system that has trained people closest to

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keep quiet.

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You want people closest to speak.

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In the Toyota world,

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they had an on-down cord that they

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actually pulled the cord because they were

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so scared to speak.

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think of that same mechanism,

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but get people to talk and in small

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huddles, if you do in a, you know,

00:08:36.570 --> 00:08:38.371
psychological safety, you know,

00:08:38.432 --> 00:08:40.094
correctly enough and you emphasize it

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becomes cultural, people will speak.

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Yeah.

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Well,

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I think that's one of the strongest ideas

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in the article is that, as you said,

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the people closest to the work actually

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know what's going on.

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They understand why a broken chair

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matters.

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They understand why being down one person

00:08:54.518 --> 00:08:54.957
matters.

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The platform might just never hear about

00:08:56.739 --> 00:08:58.720
it because we're sort of playing that game

00:08:58.759 --> 00:09:00.341
from third grade, telephone.

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By the time it gets transmitted,

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you've lost some meaning.

00:09:03.501 --> 00:09:06.663
So what kinds of problems are frontline

00:09:06.683 --> 00:09:08.845
employees seeing every day that maybe

00:09:08.884 --> 00:09:10.284
through that telephone game that

00:09:10.325 --> 00:09:11.586
leadership might miss?

00:09:12.546 --> 00:09:14.908
Yeah, I like to call them patterns,

00:09:15.107 --> 00:09:16.168
not events.

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So the dashboard,

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back to the KPI and the metrics,

00:09:20.253 --> 00:09:21.774
will tell you that Mrs.

00:09:21.793 --> 00:09:22.914
Jenkins didn't come in.

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It will not tell you that the front

00:09:24.375 --> 00:09:26.298
desk has now had to apologize two or

00:09:26.357 --> 00:09:28.119
three times about the same scheduling

00:09:28.158 --> 00:09:31.501
glitch that took place in the EMR,

00:09:31.522 --> 00:09:32.482
the scheduling system.

00:09:33.062 --> 00:09:35.105
The dashboard will tell you production was

00:09:35.144 --> 00:09:36.767
down four percent in a region.

00:09:37.567 --> 00:09:39.528
or no-show cancellation was up,

00:09:39.548 --> 00:09:41.489
but it will not tell you, for example,

00:09:41.528 --> 00:09:43.250
in a dental world that the hygienist,

00:09:43.450 --> 00:09:45.311
you know, with twelve years of tenure,

00:09:45.331 --> 00:09:46.812
spent her lunch yesterday updating her

00:09:46.851 --> 00:09:48.493
resume and left, right?

00:09:48.852 --> 00:09:51.614
The floor sees things that metrics,

00:09:52.214 --> 00:09:53.554
that precede metrics.

00:09:53.615 --> 00:09:55.296
They're like leading indicators.

00:09:55.316 --> 00:09:58.418
They see the patient coordinator who's one

00:09:58.477 --> 00:10:00.759
bad week away from quitting because we

00:10:00.798 --> 00:10:02.759
keep superimposing and creating more

00:10:02.799 --> 00:10:04.480
responsibilities to the patient

00:10:04.520 --> 00:10:04.961
coordinator.

00:10:05.940 --> 00:10:07.402
They see the chair in the op,

00:10:07.442 --> 00:10:07.601
you know,

00:10:07.621 --> 00:10:09.625
in the op three department area that has

00:10:09.644 --> 00:10:11.706
been broken for eleven days and now

00:10:11.726 --> 00:10:13.649
affecting two clinician schedules because

00:10:13.708 --> 00:10:15.250
nobody's taking the time to get it fixed

00:10:15.270 --> 00:10:17.673
because nobody has escalated it well

00:10:17.714 --> 00:10:18.014
enough.

00:10:18.033 --> 00:10:19.635
They see a new dentist who's really,

00:10:19.676 --> 00:10:20.256
really good,

00:10:20.657 --> 00:10:22.599
but culturally just not fitting in.

00:10:23.360 --> 00:10:25.182
They see supply and ordering and it

00:10:25.221 --> 00:10:25.542
happened.

00:10:25.562 --> 00:10:26.743
This is where I see a lot of

00:10:26.763 --> 00:10:28.384
this stuff happening and all this stuff

00:10:28.404 --> 00:10:29.985
gets mad and everybody then gets mad at

00:10:30.025 --> 00:10:30.706
procurement.

00:10:31.106 --> 00:10:32.629
And procurement's not the problem.

00:10:32.708 --> 00:10:34.431
It's the problem occurring at the front

00:10:34.490 --> 00:10:36.231
and it's never surfaced.

00:10:37.192 --> 00:10:38.313
None of that stuff, Jimmy,

00:10:38.354 --> 00:10:39.414
is on a dashboard.

00:10:39.495 --> 00:10:40.976
And if it is,

00:10:41.037 --> 00:10:42.839
it's six months from now and it manifests

00:10:42.879 --> 00:10:44.559
itself downstream in the form of a

00:10:44.620 --> 00:10:45.000
problem.

00:10:45.888 --> 00:10:48.609
The thing the floor has that no other

00:10:48.668 --> 00:10:51.370
layer in the platform has is the time

00:10:53.150 --> 00:10:54.392
spent next to the work.

00:10:54.471 --> 00:10:55.491
It is right there.

00:10:55.532 --> 00:10:56.513
Six hours a day,

00:10:56.533 --> 00:10:57.993
eight hours a day in the same place,

00:10:58.033 --> 00:10:59.374
watching the same patterns,

00:10:59.453 --> 00:11:01.235
noting the same things going slightly

00:11:01.254 --> 00:11:01.575
wrong.

00:11:02.936 --> 00:11:04.658
And anybody, you know,

00:11:05.099 --> 00:11:06.880
you got to have things go wrong before

00:11:06.921 --> 00:11:07.782
anybody could see it.

00:11:08.503 --> 00:11:10.085
So you can't get that information in the

00:11:10.125 --> 00:11:12.307
room with people who act on it.

00:11:12.368 --> 00:11:13.769
If you're not getting that information,

00:11:13.809 --> 00:11:15.030
you're operating blind.

00:11:15.191 --> 00:11:16.673
So I view those things, again,

00:11:16.712 --> 00:11:19.297
as patterns, not events.

00:11:20.562 --> 00:11:22.344
Well, if the meeting goes well,

00:11:22.403 --> 00:11:23.946
it should be quiet, right?

00:11:24.105 --> 00:11:24.806
No problems.

00:11:24.865 --> 00:11:26.988
But you say that silence is almost never

00:11:27.347 --> 00:11:28.788
the absence of issues.

00:11:28.849 --> 00:11:30.551
It's usually evidence of a system that has

00:11:30.591 --> 00:11:32.292
trained people not to speak,

00:11:32.331 --> 00:11:35.533
to have that psychological, that fear of,

00:11:35.995 --> 00:11:37.836
I don't know if this reaches the threshold

00:11:37.895 --> 00:11:39.576
of being worthy of being brought up in

00:11:39.657 --> 00:11:40.357
a sacred meeting.

00:11:40.758 --> 00:11:41.600
So how's that happen?

00:11:41.620 --> 00:11:42.982
Because I don't think many leaders wake up

00:11:43.043 --> 00:11:46.210
trying to create that type of environment,

00:11:46.250 --> 00:11:46.429
right?

00:11:46.450 --> 00:11:47.852
We always hear from leaders,

00:11:47.873 --> 00:11:49.054
I've got an open door policy.

00:11:49.917 --> 00:11:50.618
So how's it happen?

00:11:51.163 --> 00:11:52.725
Yeah, it's an unintended consequence.

00:11:52.745 --> 00:11:53.384
You're absolutely right.

00:11:53.404 --> 00:11:54.846
It's an unintended consequence.

00:11:55.706 --> 00:11:56.886
Nobody decides to build it,

00:11:56.907 --> 00:11:58.067
it just accretes.

00:11:58.847 --> 00:12:00.369
And I think it happens in sort of

00:12:00.548 --> 00:12:01.428
small moments,

00:12:01.688 --> 00:12:03.990
none of which happen in isolation.

00:12:04.169 --> 00:12:05.730
The first time somebody on the floor

00:12:05.770 --> 00:12:09.092
raises a real issue and gets the, oh,

00:12:09.273 --> 00:12:11.274
let's discuss that offline with no

00:12:11.313 --> 00:12:11.793
follow-up.

00:12:12.274 --> 00:12:15.076
Let's take that offline as a classic one.

00:12:15.854 --> 00:12:17.674
The first time a regional person rolls

00:12:17.695 --> 00:12:19.816
their eyes at a suggestion,

00:12:19.875 --> 00:12:21.096
somebody makes a suggestion,

00:12:21.116 --> 00:12:23.097
the feedback is the eye rolling,

00:12:23.217 --> 00:12:24.239
like you're a little kid.

00:12:25.078 --> 00:12:27.039
The first time an assistant brings up a

00:12:27.100 --> 00:12:28.640
safety concern, somebody says,

00:12:28.681 --> 00:12:30.081
let's not get into that right now.

00:12:30.101 --> 00:12:30.863
Let's just defer.

00:12:31.462 --> 00:12:32.543
We got too much going on.

00:12:32.562 --> 00:12:33.403
That's a bigger issue.

00:12:33.423 --> 00:12:34.865
We need to discuss that separately.

00:12:35.424 --> 00:12:35.585
You know,

00:12:35.605 --> 00:12:37.687
the first time a COO visits a clinic

00:12:37.708 --> 00:12:40.331
and the team is told to clean up

00:12:40.371 --> 00:12:42.956
the room before he or she arrives, right?

00:12:43.155 --> 00:12:44.999
Oh, we know Larry's showing up today,

00:12:45.038 --> 00:12:46.701
so let's make sure everything looks good.

00:12:46.861 --> 00:12:49.424
And you know, those are symptoms.

00:12:50.422 --> 00:12:51.923
Again, single moments.

00:12:52.063 --> 00:12:54.826
Each one of those teaches sort of this

00:12:54.866 --> 00:12:55.647
small lesson.

00:12:56.268 --> 00:12:57.109
But by month three,

00:12:57.149 --> 00:12:59.792
the lessons accumulate into a normalized

00:12:59.831 --> 00:13:01.493
behavior in an operating environment.

00:13:01.533 --> 00:13:03.534
By month six, the rule is invisible,

00:13:03.875 --> 00:13:04.777
internalized,

00:13:04.897 --> 00:13:06.197
and it doesn't get brought up.

00:13:06.818 --> 00:13:08.801
Interesting study done by a lady by the

00:13:08.821 --> 00:13:10.621
name of Amy Edmondson at Harvard.

00:13:11.488 --> 00:13:13.350
She did all this incredible research.

00:13:13.450 --> 00:13:14.471
I had to leave this out of the

00:13:14.530 --> 00:13:14.932
article.

00:13:15.731 --> 00:13:17.433
And she's the one who really termed all

00:13:17.474 --> 00:13:19.235
this, by the way, psychological safety.

00:13:19.275 --> 00:13:22.038
But the catastrophic finding that she came

00:13:22.099 --> 00:13:24.740
up with is that in environments where you

00:13:24.760 --> 00:13:26.582
do not have psychological safety,

00:13:27.923 --> 00:13:29.225
They don't reduce problems.

00:13:29.264 --> 00:13:31.265
They reduce the reporting of problems.

00:13:31.605 --> 00:13:32.506
So think about that.

00:13:33.206 --> 00:13:34.628
It's not the problem.

00:13:34.847 --> 00:13:36.067
It's the source of the problem.

00:13:36.087 --> 00:13:37.528
It's the lack of reporting it,

00:13:37.629 --> 00:13:38.690
how it surfaces.

00:13:38.990 --> 00:13:40.571
And when you have low psychological

00:13:40.610 --> 00:13:41.091
safety,

00:13:41.410 --> 00:13:44.451
you actually decrease the reporting of

00:13:44.491 --> 00:13:45.072
problems.

00:13:45.413 --> 00:13:47.594
What really good leaders have figured out

00:13:47.734 --> 00:13:49.534
is they're problem solvers and they want

00:13:49.615 --> 00:13:51.576
more and more and more reporting problems.

00:13:52.015 --> 00:13:53.216
of problems to happen.

00:13:53.256 --> 00:13:54.717
So you have to have a platform that's

00:13:54.758 --> 00:13:56.918
flying through clouds with instruments off

00:13:57.058 --> 00:13:58.879
when you don't believe there are problems.

00:13:58.899 --> 00:14:00.581
It's not that they're not problems,

00:14:00.600 --> 00:14:02.581
it's not that they're being reported.

00:14:04.043 --> 00:14:05.283
And there's a lot of time pressure and

00:14:05.303 --> 00:14:06.245
all the other kinds of things.

00:14:06.284 --> 00:14:07.846
But the good news is that the same

00:14:07.885 --> 00:14:09.787
dynamic actually works in reverse.

00:14:10.366 --> 00:14:12.628
Five months of visibly acting on every

00:14:12.687 --> 00:14:15.208
issue raised will build a floor's

00:14:15.408 --> 00:14:16.688
willingness to speak.

00:14:16.989 --> 00:14:17.928
It's not the magic,

00:14:17.969 --> 00:14:19.690
it's the patience and the follow through.

00:14:20.070 --> 00:14:21.691
It's just like what they found years ago

00:14:21.750 --> 00:14:25.091
in putting the alert system in a hospital

00:14:25.152 --> 00:14:25.471
bed.

00:14:26.211 --> 00:14:27.773
When they first started doing that,

00:14:27.812 --> 00:14:29.873
they were worried that the alerts would go

00:14:29.994 --> 00:14:30.734
off all the time.

00:14:30.754 --> 00:14:31.313
And you know what?

00:14:31.653 --> 00:14:32.293
They did.

00:14:32.774 --> 00:14:33.875
And each time they went off,

00:14:33.894 --> 00:14:35.056
a nurse would have to come in and

00:14:35.096 --> 00:14:35.855
respond to it.

00:14:35.895 --> 00:14:37.336
But over time,

00:14:37.537 --> 00:14:40.418
when you could preemptively solve problems

00:14:40.457 --> 00:14:41.418
and surface them,

00:14:41.898 --> 00:14:44.538
then the alerts started to get less and

00:14:44.558 --> 00:14:46.799
less frequent, and they served a very,

00:14:46.840 --> 00:14:48.020
very valid purpose.

00:14:48.400 --> 00:14:50.981
So early warning signs and on SCAR,

00:14:52.221 --> 00:14:53.302
all those things are really,

00:14:53.342 --> 00:14:54.163
really beneficial.

00:14:54.663 --> 00:14:55.604
Reward people.

00:14:56.183 --> 00:14:58.705
for reporting yeah yeah this reminds me of

00:14:58.725 --> 00:14:59.684
my dad told me a story he was

00:14:59.705 --> 00:15:01.466
a new york city fireman and after every

00:15:01.505 --> 00:15:03.927
big fire everybody would go get showered

00:15:03.947 --> 00:15:05.326
and come down to the kitchen and they

00:15:05.346 --> 00:15:06.668
would just go in a big circle and

00:15:06.807 --> 00:15:08.048
whether you were the guy who was there

00:15:08.087 --> 00:15:09.489
for thirty years or you're the guy that

00:15:09.509 --> 00:15:11.809
were there for the first thirty days what

00:15:11.830 --> 00:15:13.450
did you see what did you learn why

00:15:13.470 --> 00:15:14.610
did you do it what do you think

00:15:14.630 --> 00:15:15.850
we should do next time and they talked

00:15:15.870 --> 00:15:18.011
it out in public and there being open

00:15:18.032 --> 00:15:20.253
and honest was rewarded because lives run

00:15:20.273 --> 00:15:22.014
a lot absolutely absolutely

00:15:23.407 --> 00:15:24.447
So reading this article,

00:15:24.567 --> 00:15:25.827
I kept thinking it doesn't sound like a

00:15:25.868 --> 00:15:26.687
meeting problem then.

00:15:26.727 --> 00:15:27.889
It sounds like a leadership, right?

00:15:27.908 --> 00:15:29.448
This should be a reflection of leadership.

00:15:29.908 --> 00:15:32.990
So what's the difference between a manager

00:15:33.009 --> 00:15:36.010
who gets information and a leader that

00:15:36.051 --> 00:15:37.572
people are actually willing to tell the

00:15:37.631 --> 00:15:38.812
truth in front of?

00:15:38.831 --> 00:15:40.832
I'm going to guess it's absence of eye

00:15:40.873 --> 00:15:41.192
rolling.

00:15:41.212 --> 00:15:42.173
It's got to be on the list.

00:15:42.494 --> 00:15:43.313
A hundred percent.

00:15:43.614 --> 00:15:44.354
A manager,

00:15:44.394 --> 00:15:45.434
the way I look at it is a

00:15:45.495 --> 00:15:48.056
manager builds the venue,

00:15:48.775 --> 00:15:51.797
but a leader earns the audience, right?

00:15:52.253 --> 00:15:54.014
They are the heart and soul of the

00:15:54.095 --> 00:15:55.035
people side of it.

00:15:55.076 --> 00:15:57.359
The manager side of it is just studying

00:15:57.719 --> 00:15:59.761
the physical environment oftentimes.

00:16:00.743 --> 00:16:02.284
So the venue is necessary,

00:16:02.424 --> 00:16:03.466
but not sufficient.

00:16:03.505 --> 00:16:05.368
You can have a perfectly structured

00:16:05.408 --> 00:16:07.571
huddle, a perfect cadence to the meeting,

00:16:07.610 --> 00:16:08.932
the right people, the right prompt,

00:16:08.972 --> 00:16:09.813
the right cadence.

00:16:10.702 --> 00:16:12.663
run by a leader that nobody on the

00:16:12.683 --> 00:16:15.544
floor trusts and nothing ever real comes

00:16:15.605 --> 00:16:16.004
out of it.

00:16:16.605 --> 00:16:17.884
And the floor will smile,

00:16:17.904 --> 00:16:19.446
there's no concerns and everybody will

00:16:19.505 --> 00:16:20.765
kind of go back to work and it'll

00:16:20.785 --> 00:16:21.947
be a very quick huddle.

00:16:22.027 --> 00:16:23.706
And that's what happens over time if you

00:16:23.726 --> 00:16:25.827
don't do this thing appropriately is to

00:16:25.868 --> 00:16:26.368
become very,

00:16:26.388 --> 00:16:28.188
very short while nothing goes on.

00:16:28.229 --> 00:16:28.568
Let's just,

00:16:28.749 --> 00:16:31.190
you get positive reinforcement to end

00:16:32.070 --> 00:16:33.171
meetings way too quickly.

00:16:33.811 --> 00:16:36.052
But what earns trust is actually

00:16:37.972 --> 00:16:40.094
mechanical and somewhat unglamorous.

00:16:40.134 --> 00:16:41.674
It's the leader who gets the truth from

00:16:41.715 --> 00:16:43.995
the floor with the same set of habits

00:16:44.616 --> 00:16:45.136
every time.

00:16:45.177 --> 00:16:47.158
They show up consistently.

00:16:47.197 --> 00:16:49.179
They listen without interrupting.

00:16:49.200 --> 00:16:51.301
They are genuinely curious.

00:16:51.701 --> 00:16:53.322
When something hard surfaces,

00:16:53.361 --> 00:16:56.083
they're adult and they want to embrace

00:16:56.124 --> 00:16:56.264
them.

00:16:56.283 --> 00:16:57.544
They don't get reactive.

00:16:57.565 --> 00:16:58.625
They don't get defensive.

00:16:58.666 --> 00:17:00.527
They react with curiosity.

00:17:01.006 --> 00:17:02.568
They don't shoot the messenger.

00:17:02.948 --> 00:17:05.010
When they are wrong, they say so publicly.

00:17:05.090 --> 00:17:05.511
I was wrong.

00:17:05.571 --> 00:17:06.393
I should have listened to you.

00:17:06.413 --> 00:17:07.534
If I would have just held on,

00:17:07.574 --> 00:17:08.535
if I would have had a little more

00:17:08.595 --> 00:17:10.416
patience, I would have listened.

00:17:10.757 --> 00:17:13.039
This problem would never become a problem.

00:17:13.630 --> 00:17:15.230
that's what good leaders do and they also

00:17:15.290 --> 00:17:17.212
explain it none of this by the way

00:17:17.272 --> 00:17:20.715
is exotic right all this is uh all

00:17:20.736 --> 00:17:22.676
this is hard because the gravitational

00:17:22.738 --> 00:17:26.701
pull on a busy leader is to multitask

00:17:26.740 --> 00:17:29.262
it's to dismiss inconvenient information

00:17:29.303 --> 00:17:31.365
it's to defend it's to over compromise

00:17:31.384 --> 00:17:33.465
it's to try to be more efficient rather

00:17:33.486 --> 00:17:35.988
than to be effective but the leader who

00:17:36.028 --> 00:17:38.589
resists all of those instincts over and

00:17:38.671 --> 00:17:40.192
over in small moments

00:17:41.589 --> 00:17:43.592
accidentally builds an organization,

00:17:44.011 --> 00:17:47.295
which the truth reliably travels up.

00:17:47.474 --> 00:17:49.696
And overall they do truly have less

00:17:49.737 --> 00:17:50.198
problems.

00:17:51.018 --> 00:17:53.039
The manager who follows the playbook gets

00:17:53.079 --> 00:17:53.980
it right in the venue,

00:17:54.000 --> 00:17:55.122
but gets no information.

00:17:55.162 --> 00:17:58.084
The leader that builds the relationship

00:17:58.265 --> 00:17:59.285
gets the information,

00:17:59.345 --> 00:18:00.826
whether or not the venue is perfect.

00:18:00.866 --> 00:18:03.709
The leader is the relationship manager.

00:18:04.190 --> 00:18:05.550
If you want to know whether you're,

00:18:05.730 --> 00:18:06.692
you're one or the other,

00:18:07.574 --> 00:18:08.773
You really want to know what the litmus

00:18:08.814 --> 00:18:09.275
test is?

00:18:09.315 --> 00:18:10.835
Look at what's being raised to you.

00:18:11.275 --> 00:18:12.395
If it's all good news,

00:18:12.776 --> 00:18:14.816
polite questions and well-formulated

00:18:15.476 --> 00:18:17.156
updates, you're managing a venue.

00:18:17.576 --> 00:18:20.337
You're not leading anybody willing to risk

00:18:20.417 --> 00:18:22.278
telling you the hard thing.

00:18:22.298 --> 00:18:24.078
What I tell folks all the time is

00:18:24.558 --> 00:18:25.200
a good leader,

00:18:25.220 --> 00:18:26.680
and I would say this to a friend,

00:18:27.059 --> 00:18:29.381
a good friend is somebody who's willing to

00:18:29.441 --> 00:18:32.021
risk their friendship to tell you what

00:18:32.041 --> 00:18:32.701
they need to.

00:18:32.821 --> 00:18:34.461
And that takes a lot of trust and

00:18:34.481 --> 00:18:35.903
a lot of psychological safety.

00:18:35.942 --> 00:18:36.083
Yeah.

00:18:36.416 --> 00:18:37.397
You were sort of preempting my next

00:18:37.417 --> 00:18:37.637
question,

00:18:37.657 --> 00:18:38.598
which was going to be if someone's a

00:18:38.659 --> 00:18:40.519
CEO and they think their organization

00:18:40.559 --> 00:18:41.540
communicates well,

00:18:42.161 --> 00:18:43.521
what are the signs that they're actually

00:18:43.582 --> 00:18:44.923
operating with a false picture?

00:18:45.063 --> 00:18:46.664
One of them right there would be you're

00:18:46.704 --> 00:18:48.486
not just getting smiles and nods.

00:18:48.506 --> 00:18:49.807
You're not just getting good news.

00:18:49.866 --> 00:18:51.107
People are telling you different things.

00:18:51.127 --> 00:18:54.009
Are there other things that would sort of

00:18:54.049 --> 00:18:56.172
let you know that you are actually

00:18:56.251 --> 00:18:58.753
operating with a good organization and

00:18:58.773 --> 00:18:59.253
good leadership?

00:19:00.111 --> 00:19:01.231
Yeah, I would say there's, you know,

00:19:01.251 --> 00:19:02.373
I can think of a handful.

00:19:03.192 --> 00:19:03.933
One, you've not been,

00:19:04.094 --> 00:19:06.315
if you've not genuinely been surprised by

00:19:06.375 --> 00:19:08.317
anything until say the last ninety days,

00:19:09.570 --> 00:19:11.472
You know, I mean, really surprised.

00:19:11.792 --> 00:19:13.074
You're probably not seeing it.

00:19:13.114 --> 00:19:13.733
Number two,

00:19:13.854 --> 00:19:16.737
no bad news ever reaches you first.

00:19:16.997 --> 00:19:17.237
Right.

00:19:17.277 --> 00:19:18.597
Like by the time you hear a problem,

00:19:18.617 --> 00:19:19.999
it's already been resolved by someone

00:19:20.038 --> 00:19:23.501
below or it's metastasized into a crisis.

00:19:23.561 --> 00:19:24.301
The middle window.

00:19:24.321 --> 00:19:25.864
Here's the thing that is going wrong.

00:19:25.903 --> 00:19:26.844
We have time to fix it.

00:19:26.884 --> 00:19:27.585
We need your help.

00:19:28.005 --> 00:19:29.686
Has gone missing from your inbox.

00:19:31.548 --> 00:19:32.048
Additionally,

00:19:32.128 --> 00:19:34.690
I think your one-to-ones with your folks

00:19:34.750 --> 00:19:35.790
are all upbeat.

00:19:36.270 --> 00:19:38.212
There never is any, you know,

00:19:38.232 --> 00:19:39.894
what I call creative abrasion,

00:19:40.013 --> 00:19:41.515
anything going on there that you're in

00:19:41.535 --> 00:19:42.635
disagreement about.

00:19:42.655 --> 00:19:44.836
And you can't have that.

00:19:45.438 --> 00:19:46.659
If it's only good news and the only

00:19:46.679 --> 00:19:48.180
people reporting to you because they know

00:19:48.220 --> 00:19:49.540
you only want to hear good news or

00:19:49.560 --> 00:19:50.582
they're in fear of you,

00:19:51.501 --> 00:19:52.782
that is a telltale sign,

00:19:52.843 --> 00:19:53.683
as you alluded to.

00:19:53.743 --> 00:19:54.344
And then, you know,

00:19:54.443 --> 00:19:56.365
I think when you visit a place,

00:19:56.405 --> 00:19:56.846
you know,

00:19:57.866 --> 00:19:58.126
You know,

00:19:58.146 --> 00:19:59.848
if everything is looking perfect and it

00:19:59.868 --> 00:20:01.611
was all brushed up for the regional

00:20:01.631 --> 00:20:04.354
leader, the manager, everybody's smiling,

00:20:04.413 --> 00:20:06.175
everybody's putting on a show for the

00:20:06.215 --> 00:20:06.895
management.

00:20:07.257 --> 00:20:08.258
That's not a good thing.

00:20:08.278 --> 00:20:09.419
And then maybe lastly,

00:20:11.240 --> 00:20:13.742
the CFO is a different operating structure

00:20:13.782 --> 00:20:14.763
than your COO.

00:20:14.804 --> 00:20:16.125
And neither one of them has a picture

00:20:16.165 --> 00:20:17.928
that matches your like chief marketing

00:20:17.968 --> 00:20:19.189
officer or something like that.

00:20:19.798 --> 00:20:21.339
So when the three folks sit in a

00:20:21.400 --> 00:20:23.583
room and describe the same platform,

00:20:23.603 --> 00:20:25.705
the description should be dramatically

00:20:25.967 --> 00:20:26.446
different.

00:20:26.647 --> 00:20:27.648
That's not normal.

00:20:27.868 --> 00:20:30.673
This is the platform's nervous system

00:20:30.772 --> 00:20:32.234
disagreeing with itself.

00:20:32.275 --> 00:20:33.877
So the CMO has heard one story,

00:20:33.917 --> 00:20:35.200
the CFO has heard another.

00:20:35.619 --> 00:20:37.701
And if all these things are going on

00:20:37.761 --> 00:20:39.782
disparately, you've got a problem.

00:20:40.763 --> 00:20:42.065
And so it's time for you to get

00:20:42.144 --> 00:20:43.526
out and walk the floor yourself.

00:20:43.566 --> 00:20:46.048
So it's the inconsistency in your C-suite

00:20:46.087 --> 00:20:47.328
reporting things to you.

00:20:47.709 --> 00:20:51.432
That's not a good, that's a telltale sign.

00:20:52.152 --> 00:20:52.853
So for the big finish,

00:20:52.873 --> 00:20:54.394
if you walked into a healthcare

00:20:54.433 --> 00:20:55.034
organization,

00:20:55.055 --> 00:20:56.935
doesn't really matter what they provide.

00:20:57.903 --> 00:20:59.685
and could observe only one thing to

00:20:59.726 --> 00:21:00.946
determine whether it's healthy or

00:21:01.008 --> 00:21:03.250
unhealthy, would you watch the financials,

00:21:03.289 --> 00:21:04.912
culture, outcomes, or watch the huddle?

00:21:05.211 --> 00:21:06.594
And which would you watch and why?

00:21:07.054 --> 00:21:08.015
It's not even close.

00:21:08.055 --> 00:21:08.776
I'd watch the huddle.

00:21:09.896 --> 00:21:11.618
The financials are a trailing metric.

00:21:11.659 --> 00:21:14.122
By the time they show distress,

00:21:14.843 --> 00:21:16.825
things are already structural and down the

00:21:16.865 --> 00:21:17.885
road by six months.

00:21:19.607 --> 00:21:20.890
Those are the outcomes, right?

00:21:21.329 --> 00:21:23.973
Quality metrics run on annual cycles or

00:21:24.034 --> 00:21:25.055
quarterly cycles.

00:21:25.075 --> 00:21:26.477
So definitely the huddle.

00:21:26.537 --> 00:21:27.939
The huddle is happening now.

00:21:27.979 --> 00:21:29.020
It's happening today.

00:21:29.682 --> 00:21:31.183
Honestly, in ninety seconds,

00:21:31.223 --> 00:21:32.905
you can tell whether information moves out

00:21:33.226 --> 00:21:34.067
or whether it doesn't.

00:21:34.327 --> 00:21:36.029
I once listened to a marriage expert,

00:21:36.049 --> 00:21:37.231
Gottman, I think his name is.

00:21:37.612 --> 00:21:39.113
been published more than anybody else

00:21:39.133 --> 00:21:40.752
saying he could tell whether the first X

00:21:40.792 --> 00:21:41.593
number of seconds,

00:21:41.633 --> 00:21:43.294
whether a marriage is going to have a

00:21:43.594 --> 00:21:45.213
have a high rate of divorce or not.

00:21:45.233 --> 00:21:45.314
Well,

00:21:45.334 --> 00:21:47.835
how do they tell that a marriage when

00:21:47.855 --> 00:21:49.115
they're talking to one another?

00:21:49.175 --> 00:21:49.655
How are they?

00:21:49.796 --> 00:21:50.796
How are they respecting?

00:21:50.816 --> 00:21:51.855
What are they saying to each other?

00:21:51.875 --> 00:21:53.237
Are they looking themselves in the eye?

00:21:53.277 --> 00:21:55.057
What is the trust that's going on?

00:21:55.817 --> 00:21:56.238
So really,

00:21:56.278 --> 00:21:58.038
the huddle is that nervous system on

00:21:58.097 --> 00:21:58.637
display.

00:21:58.698 --> 00:22:00.098
I'd rather watch one of them.

00:22:00.919 --> 00:22:03.842
for ninety seconds than read a whole board

00:22:03.922 --> 00:22:05.183
deck of PowerPoints.

00:22:06.105 --> 00:22:07.185
When I visit clinics,

00:22:07.266 --> 00:22:09.748
I usually ask to participate in their

00:22:09.788 --> 00:22:11.730
morning huddle or to be able to observe

00:22:11.769 --> 00:22:14.192
their morning huddle in an unambiguous

00:22:14.272 --> 00:22:14.512
way.

00:22:14.593 --> 00:22:16.095
I break the ice at the beginning and

00:22:16.115 --> 00:22:18.257
then they know I'm not going to lead

00:22:18.277 --> 00:22:18.376
it.

00:22:18.518 --> 00:22:19.337
I just want to watch.

00:22:20.380 --> 00:22:21.840
And that will tell you from two years

00:22:21.901 --> 00:22:23.242
hence what's what's actually going to

00:22:23.262 --> 00:22:23.522
happen.

00:22:24.616 --> 00:22:25.396
Most leaders think they have a

00:22:25.416 --> 00:22:26.377
communication problem.

00:22:26.397 --> 00:22:27.978
And as you've figured out from listening

00:22:27.998 --> 00:22:30.058
to this, many have an information problem.

00:22:30.078 --> 00:22:31.220
The question probably isn't,

00:22:31.380 --> 00:22:32.140
are people talking?

00:22:32.160 --> 00:22:32.779
The question is,

00:22:33.500 --> 00:22:35.381
are leaders hearing what they need to

00:22:35.421 --> 00:22:35.740
hear?

00:22:35.901 --> 00:22:38.142
If today's conversation made you rethink

00:22:38.201 --> 00:22:39.722
how information moves and make you

00:22:39.762 --> 00:22:40.903
uncomfortable, good.

00:22:41.242 --> 00:22:41.782
That's the point.

00:22:42.243 --> 00:22:43.804
And you'll love the deep dive in the

00:22:43.903 --> 00:22:45.565
article with it's available in the show

00:22:45.605 --> 00:22:45.805
notes.

00:22:45.845 --> 00:22:49.046
Subscribe on Substack using the link in

00:22:49.086 --> 00:22:50.386
the show notes attached here.

00:22:50.606 --> 00:22:52.768
Subscribe to the podcast and we'll see you

00:22:52.788 --> 00:22:53.167
next time.

00:22:53.228 --> 00:22:53.728
Larry, thanks.

00:22:54.776 --> 00:22:55.124
Awesome.

00:22:55.144 --> 00:22:55.636
Thank you, Jimmy.