Getting a hospital's employees — be they administrators or medical staff — to gel as a team and communicate effectively is the ideal situation, but can prove difficult: Healthcare reform has caused many workers' jobs to change, leading to stress, and the nature of treating patients in high-stress situations can create communication barriers, which can lead to poor patient outcomes.
"Communication has every thing to do with patient safety," says Nancy Krafcik-Rousseau, PhD, executive director of innovation and learning at Saint Francis Medical Center in Hartford, Conn. "If people can't communicate well with each other and have the courage to talk respectfully with someone else, you need to worry about the culture of safety."
In order to develop leaders with effective communication skills, Saint Francis Medical Center created a Core Leadership and Management Program, led by Dr. Krafcik-Rousseau. The program uses the Myers Briggs Type Indicator instrument to tailor leadership and communication advice by personality type. This helps employees learn how to communicate well and can foster a culture of safety and respect.
How it works
The MBTI assessment helps people determine which of 16 possible personality types fit them best, based on preferences in four categories: extraversion or introversion, sensing or intuition, thinking or feeling and judging or perceiving, according to CPP. Once leaders at Saint Francis — front-line staff, directors or physicians — take the assessment, Dr. Krafcik-Rousseau and her team of leadership trainers take the results and tailor the program for each participant based on their personality type.
"[Personality types] influence how people see you," Dr. Krafcik-Rousseau explains, as introverts and extroverts communicate differently, both verbally and nonverbally. For example, an introvert may process information quietly and appear to not be listening; an extravert may think out-loud. These actions and nonverbal signals affect how team members perceive a leader's message, some of which can lead to misinterpretations or unnecessarily hurt feelings. The trainers equip leaders with the tools and suggestions they need to understand how they come across to their team members and how to communicate better.
"I have people all the time telling us their ability to lead becomes more effective because they understand how people are perceiving them," Dr. Krafcik-Rousseau says. "It's not about intent; it's about how people perceive the message."
For other hospitals and health systems interested in developing a program similar to the one at Saint Francis, Dr. Krafcik-Rousseau provides the following tips:
Gain senior-level support. In order to have the program be effective, senior leadership and members of the C-suite must be wholeheartedly onboard, according to Dr. Krafcik-Rousseau, which takes time. "It doesn't happen over night," she says. At Saint Francis, senior leadership was typed and went through the program, which she encourages other hospitals to do as well.
Coach leaders one-on-one. "Coaching sessions are very meaningful to people; they value it highly," Dr. Krafcik-Rousseau says. Taking time to talk with leaders one-on-one allows them time to reflect on how their personality type influences how others see them and take new communication skills to heart.
Focus on solutions. Even though a team may not be working as efficiently as it could be due to communication issues, leadership trainers should not spend too much time talking about the problem itself. "Talk about solutions. That's what people want to hear: how I am going to fix this," Dr. Krafcik-Rousseau explains. Talking about solutions keeps sessions positive and effective.
Overall, using MBTI results as part of leadership and communication training has helped Saint Francis employees understand themselves and their communication styles as well as how other employees can perceive their actions. Employees who have gone through the program are able to communicate more effectively, especially in stressful situations that can arise often in healthcare organizations, leading to more harmonious teams.