Managers and supervisors can take note on how hospitals are reducing their malpractice lawsuits by counseling their doctors to apologize when they make a mistake. 

Yes it’s true there is a lot to be learned about excellent leadership, communication and collaboration from the newspaper.  Part one of this article spoke about a casino tribal leader who overcame his predecessor’s bad leadership and communication to win over a community that had been dead set against any expansion of the casino in the wine country.  Here’s a story, in the same newspaper (The Press Democrat, Santa Rosa, California) on the same day that further illustrates the points.  

The Value Of Saying You Are Sorry

When Dr. Tapas K. Das Gupta, chairman of surgical oncology at University of Illinois Medical Center discovered that he had removed tissue from the wrong rib of his patient, he did something that might have made some hospital lawyers cringe; he apologized to the patient!  He recalled saying, “After all these years, I cannot give you any excuse whatsoever.  It is just one of those things that occurred.  I have to some extent harmed you”.   

Wow, for decades malpractice lawyers have been advising doctors to 

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Tags: Communication, New News, Rewards, Recognition by Norma Smith Davis
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Organizations who have fully engaged employees have a much better bottom line than those whose employees are disenchanted. Intuitively we have always known this but a  2007 Towers and Perrin study of companies worldwide confirms it. Companies will earn more money if their employees are engaged, challenged and empowered. What does engaged mean?  It means that employees are willing and anxious to give more of their discretionary efforts to their work. They are connected to their organization emotionally, know how to add value and are willing to do so. Other facts from the study include:

•   Just 21% of the worldwide work force is fully engaged. So nearly 80% of people do not contribute fully and are costing the employer money in terms of productivity, effectiveness, customer service and more. But in America the percentage of engaged workers is 29% and 28% are disengaged or disenchanted.  In Mexico those numbers are 54% and 16%, in Japan the numbers sag to a whopping 3% engaged and 72% disengaged or disenchanted!  

•  The organization has a big impact on whether or not employees are engaged.  The notion that employees are just “free agents” 

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Tags: Management Skills, Rewards, Recognition by Norma Smith Davis
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