Eggshells are a result of what we perceive based on our past individual experiences and not necessarily the other person’s intent.  Some of the Eggshells I am referring to are; fear, anger, judgment, retaliation, insecurity, nothing changes, peer pressure, hurt feelings, disrespect, or it’s not my problem.  Eggshells stop us from addressing the Elephants (the unstated issues or concerns) in the office. 

 We create barriers between each other by laying our eggshells all around ourselves and worrying about stepping on those that others have laid around themselves.  We believe if we talk about what is not working or what needs improvement we will step on their eggshells.  Almost everything becomes too uncomfortable or off-limits to discuss.  So we don’t!  Instead we just keep everything inside to avoid the eggshells and the practice environment deteriorates.  The chance to make good things happen, (better results, better relationships, and more responsibility) disappear.  What appears instead is a herd of elephants.  Everyone knows they are there and yet no one will talk about them for fear of stepping on an eggshell. 

The problem is, if we don’t discuss the issues as they happen, they don’t go away.  Instead the issues become elephants and the herd continues to grow until it takes over the entire practice.  We end up tiptoeing around each other’s eggshells and pretending the elephants don’t exist.  Communication between team members becomes emotionally charged or non-existent.  The office environment becomes stressful and negative.  Performance and patient experience plummets! 

 To overcome the eggshells we need to first acknowledge they exist.  Have a team meeting to talk about the eggshells in the office.  Have each team member identify which eggshells they surround themselves with most often.  They are their hot buttons and can be set off very easily.  Once the eggshells have been identified discuss the necessity of talking about what is working and what is not as it happens regardless of their existence.  This proactive communication helps to prevent and remove the elephants in the room.  Reinforce the message; we are all working together towards the same goal of a healthy office environment. 

 Talking about tough stuff as it occurs will eliminate the eggshells and elephants and promote a happy, healthy, high performing team environment.

 I love the quote by Aristotle, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act but a habit.”  Therefore, if we want to achieve excellence we must make it a habit.  A habit is doing without thinking.

 Here are 5 steps to take what you implement and make it a habit!

1. Cleary define the process/system/protocol to the entire team

2. Establish as SOP (Standard Operating Procedures)

3. Be consistent & realistic with routines & repetitions

• What we do and what we say, when, where & how
• Every day, every visit, every patient, every team member, etc
• Don’t settle – 3 out of 5 is not good enough, 5 out of 5 is

4. A habit forms after 18 to 254 days of repeated practice (average is 66 days)

5. Schedule regular check-ups

• Quarterly – just like bacteria, old behaviors may surface

Dr. John Grohol wrote in an article that when researchers examined different habits, many of the participants showed a curved relationship between implementation practice and automaticity (automatic processing of information).  On average a plateau in automaticity was reached after 66 days. In other words it had become as much of a habit as it was ever going to become.  Although the average was 66 days, there was marked variation in how long habits took to form, anywhere from 18 days up to 254 days depending on the difficulty of the habits examined in this study.

So 66 days later, a simple habit might be in place and on automatic pilot. But as the research shows, it could as long as 8 1/2 months for more complicated habits to take hold.  This is why it is so important to continue to remind and reinforce new SOP’s at your Daily Huddles and Monthly Team Meetings and Quarterly Workshops!