I need a gut check or maybe just vent.

Anonymous

November 3,2022 at 1:24PM UTC

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I need a gut check or maybe just vent.

Some quick background- I have an administrative role in a clinical type setting. I am on the senior leadership team (6 people and our director) of our department. I am responsible for executing a change in an administrative process directed from above. This doesn’t impact anything clinically, but is a significant culture change for our department. We’ve been talking about it for about two years and I have been communicating in meetings, via emails, in person when possible (we’re still hybrid).

At a half day retreat yesterday about 90 minutes was reserved for discussion about this. I had requested this because I’m frustrated at how the new process is (not) working and I don’t feel supported by most of my peers on this. I thought a discussion about how it might work better would help. A couple of my colleagues behaved as though some of the information in the discussion was brand new. In frustration I mentioned that this specific information, a new handbook, had been shared on several occasions, we’ve talked about, etc. The response I got was along the lines of “I’m so busy I can’t read everything.” How does one respond to that? It felt like they were saying what I do isn’t important.

As non-clinical person in a semi clinical environment, this happens frequently. However, we are only a small part of a much bigger system that is also non-clinical so the pressure to execute this change is enormous.

Any words of wisdom or how to respond in situations like this?

I should add that overall the discussion was productive but I feel that I need to wait and see if this actually works in the long run.

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AnonymousNovember 3,2022 at 2:14PM UTC
Not sure how expansive the new handbook you mentioned is. I am going under the impression that it is fairly large. The suggestion I would have is to create a summary of the the new handbook topics with upper management (who is hopefully backing this effort) on the communication. Point out specifically the upper management backing. Want to highlight the most important items. That would show that upper management has buy-in and the target audience would not need to read the whole document.
AnonymousNovember 4,2022 at 1:37PM UTC
OP here: the new handbook is very expansive and I am not my expecting that everyone had read it or committed it to memory.
Only key staff will need to use its contents on a regular basis. I was frustrated because my colleague acted as though she didn’t know it existed at all despite it being shared and discussed in several occasions. She was saying she didn’t have time to read the emails saying it existed.
AnonymousNovember 9,2022 at 5:23PM UTC
Unless you have management pressure on your peers, this will be difficult to change.
At this point, you can post the document on a centralized location (such a SharePoint) if not already done. If the online document post can be broken up to a degree, links to specific sections and suggestions on use can be sent out to relevant peers. Give information on why it will benefit them if they use your suggestion. Try not to get upset if they do not take the suggestion. They are like teenagers. Sometimes, they need to learn the hard way.
AnonymousNovember 3,2022 at 3:44PM UTC
These things are due to both culture of your company and that lack of oversight by leadership at the top
People will ignore what they are allowed to ignore.