Richard Rayner, MD
Maybe I’m just a bit OCD, but whenever I walk into a room filled with clutter I immediately begin to experience a feeling of instability within my being. I feel the need to fix it, or get away from it! Clutter makes life harder. It necessitates extra effort over time due to loss of efficiency. Disorganization leads to trudging. Entire industries have evolved around helping people get organized. Organizations and businesses need methods to establish order and deliver products consistently. The entropy of life and its resultant chaos need to be restrained through orderliness and often that occurs through established through purposeful planning.
Enter protocols and procedures. In this situation, do this, then this, then that, and all will be right with the world. Protocols allow chaos to be reined in and productive work to proceed. These created rules governing behavior, while necessary for order, can result in other problems, namely that those using them get lost in them and stop thinking and caring beyond the designed process.
A Flawed Decision Algorithm
We’ve all experienced it. That customer service rep that will not listen to your issue. You know they are locked into a decision algorithm that must be followed but doesn’t allow for the variations that come with life. Recently I received the wrong item from an online order placed with a well-established retailer. Oddly, the packing slip on the box was indeed for the item that I did want. So I placed a phone call to the retailer trying to remedy this situation. As the phone call progressed it became clear there was no protocol for this. “Just keep it,” was the final answer. Fine – anybody want a set of TV trays?! (Just kidding, they’ve already been given away.) But I wanted the item I had ordered. It miraculously arrived a few days later!
A mix-up involving a purchased item is one thing, but sometimes the stakes are higher, involving our well-being. Unfortunately, my parents at one point were simultaneously ill to the point of needing to use their long term care insurance. Nearly five months into their illnesses we had yet to receive any sort of payment from the insurance company. After multiple calls to the company, their requests for more information, my providing it, then their claiming to never have received said information, then finding it again when pressed, I was informed that there would be yet another delay as they were allowed another 30 days to process things with new information.
In desperation and attempting to shake the rep out of her protocol-induced trance, I asked directly and simply, “Mam, can you help me? Do you realize that my parents have paid on this policy for over 20 years? They now need the benefits, none of which have been paid for 5 months. Can you help me get them what they need and deserve?”
Silence. Then, “Please hold.” Finally, the desired answer came: payment would be on its way. It wasn’t until I had assertively pressed the issue that the rep realized that people, not algorithms, were involved in this transaction. Only then did it begin to feel different for her.
Not-So Practical Protocol
Probably one of the most poignant examples of protocol over practical involved the friend of a colleague. The woman in this story was due to have her second baby. She lived in a rural area approximately an hour from the hospital. When labor began she was told initially to wait a bit, but eventually, she made the decision to proceed toward the hospital. It was a wise move. Labor progressed fairly quickly so that by the time she reached the hospital she felt like she was sitting on the baby. A wheelchair was brought to the hospital door and she was brought to the delivery area. Her situation had progressed to the point that she was forced to have to lean back in the chair. However, in spite of her obvious condition, protocol prevailed that dictated that the laboring patient must be weighed first. The nurses would have it no other way. The patient dutifully stood up on the scale, then promptly pulled down her pants and caught her baby!
In this case, no one stopped for a moment to look at the patient. They simply launched into protocol, and it nearly resulted in great harm to the infant let alone the mom. I wonder if the hospital has a clean-up protocol for that situation!
Obviously it’s not often that the situations in which we find ourselves are that critical, and there are times when frankly I witness people getting just a wee bit too riled up over things that are not truly important. Is it that horrible if your latte only got two squirts of flavoring instead of three? In our world of personal computing and smartphones where at the touch of a button we can make marvelous things happen on our own personal timeline, having to stop for a moment seems ridiculous. Shouldn’t we be able to have everything the way we want it, and right now? It takes a certain discipline to consider things on an organizational level. However, when organizations are so bound to protocols and procedures such that they absolutely cannot flex for an unusual situation, it communicates a lack of respect and, worst of all, a lack of caring.
Seeing Both Sides
If you are on the “giving” side of this relational equation, and it’s your job to follow a given procedure to be faithful to your employer, stop, take a moment to listen to what is being said, and see if there’s a way to accommodate the request of the person on the other side of the conversation. Do your best to respect the person with whom you’re dealing. “I’m sorry I know it’s disappointing,” (or difficult, or annoying, etc., whichever the case may be) goes a long way.
If protocol must be followed to the “T”, explain as best you can with an understanding of the predicament in which it may leave the other person. Maybe you can do your part to help future customers by respectfully presenting to decision-makers some alternatives to the protocol that will lead to better customer experience. If you’re on the receiving end of the protocol-driven message, understand that the person delivering the bad news may be simply the messenger and have little to no power to alter the decision she’s presenting. Attacking her will likely not get you far.
It seems like once again we’re back to the Golden Rule. Treat others as you would like to be treated.
Oh, and if it looks like the baby’s about to be delivered, skip the weight!
