We’ve all had this experience: You’re teaching a training class, and it’s obvious that some of the participants really don’t want to be there. In one of my recent classes at a busy hospital, I noticed a unit supervisor in the front of the room. She sat stiffly in her seat, arms folded and a scowl on her face.
I wasn’t offended. I knew exactly how this nurse felt, because I’ve been in her shoes myself. She had undoubtedly sat through many trainings in the past where “experts” told her how to do some complicated part of her job, and she was probably expecting something similar from me.
I started by addressing her concerns (and the concerns of others like her). “At the end of my presentation, I’m going to ask two simple questions about what we’ve discussed: Is it doable? And does it make sense?”
I didn’t ask these questions only for this supervisor’s benefit. I use them to make sure every class I teach is anchored in the reality of healthcare today.
About 15 minutes into the presentation, the nurse’s body language began to change. Her arms uncrossed. Her scowl transformed into a smile. True to my word, at the end, I asked if what I had covered was doable and if it made sense. The supervisor responded, “I thought I knew everything about patient rounding, but this was different and seems logical.” I like to be logical. Now I was smiling, too.
Several months later, I returned to that hospital and saw the supervisor putting what I had taught into practice. In fact, she took my ideas and added her personality to make them even more effective!
Over the years, I’ve noticed that great ideas—even those that are thoughtful, evidence-based, and well-designed—often fail to move past the conference slide or classroom. It’s not because people are unmotivated or incapable. It’s because the ideas are too hard to implement in the complex, high-pressure conditions of the healthcare environment.
Every day, healthcare professionals juggle competing priorities, staffing shortages, regulatory pressure, and more. When we introduce initiatives that require extraordinary effort, ideal circumstances, or time people simply don’t have, we unintentionally create barriers to success. At that point, even the best ideas lose credibility.
That is why doability matters. To be useful, an idea must be sustainable during a hectic shift, amid interruptions and real-world constraints. Just as important as doability is whether an idea makes sense to the people who are supposed to carry it out.
Filtering initiatives through the lenses of “doable” and “makes sense” signals that you understand the conditions in which your teams operate and that you respect their time and expertise. Here are four ways to ensure great ideas take hold:
Make sure the idea connects to problems people face every day. If it doesn’t resonate with their daily experience and provide a clear path to improving care, it won’t take hold.
Pressure-test the idea before doing a full rollout. An idea may be clinically sound and strategically aligned, but if staff can’t bridge the gap between knowing and doing, the idea will fail. Ask: Is this feasible on a busy shift? Can it be done alongside interruptions, competing priorities, and staffing constraints?
Make adjustments for your particular healthcare setting. Before you expand an initiative, figure out what can be streamlined. Adapt and remove barriers so the idea works in real clinical settings. This helps with consistent execution.
Leave room for individual judgment and personality. Translate ideas into specific, realistic actions and invite the front line to adapt and make the ideas their own. This moves learning from theory into action.
Healthcare will always run on great ideas. But we’ll see sustainable change only when those ideas can actually be used by real people in real conditions.
Lisa Reich will present on Caring Connections: Show You Care by How You Care at the Rewiring Healthcare: Foundation to Future Conference, to be held April 28-29, 2026, in Atlanta, Georgia. To learn more about the conference, see a detailed agenda, and register to attend, please visit RewiringHealthcare.com.
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About Lisa Reich:
Lisa Reich, RN, has experience in leading, working, and consulting in healthcare for over four decades. She has experience as a registered nurse in many settings and capabilities that reach clinical, non-clinical, financial, and administrative branches.
She has worked extensively with many types of healthcare organizations, including acute care, ambulatory, emergency/urgent care, medical practices, behavioral health, and substance use treatment centers. Speaking to inspire, Lisa uses real-life experiences to connect training for audiences that are applicable to their current work. She focuses on being human and using her strengths to give back to others.
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