Eric Norwood, FACHE, PCC
April 23, 2020
A busy healthcare executive told me today, “I don’t want to go back to normal after this.”
“We were all on the trajectory of a train wreck before the Covid Crisis - - running as fast as we could and spinning our wheels in the process. Why would we want to go back to that?”
“This whole experience has been a reset for everyone in our organization and the community at large: stop, think, regroup. How will we reengage our society without all the chaos? What elements of our prior life should we just kill?”
“I’m happier than I was before this … the same or more stress than before, yet it feels different. I used to think working from home was less productive. Now I have more family time balanced with my work life. A lot of “good things” that kept my family on a treadmill have been replaced by more time to really connect together. If I have to go back to the way it was before, I think I’ll scream!”
“Between stimulus and response there is a space.
In that space is our power to choose our response.
In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”
Viktor Frankl, “Man’s Search for Meaning”
In my recent blog, “Struggle Makes for Stronger Leaders,” I referenced how resilient people seem to “bounce forward” from adversity because it changes who they were before it.
In his book, “Bounce Forward: How to Transform Crisis into Success,” Sam Cawthorn shares the harrowing story of an auto accident that cost him his right arm and left the rest of his body shattered. The experience taught him that he had a choice of how to respond to this crisis.
In the course of his recovery, Sam became a student of how to bounce forward, studying the lives of others who had done it well. He framed a 5-stage process as “The Bounce Cycle”:
- The Crisis: Something has happened that will absolutely change your life. Face it squarely.
- The Downturn: At this stage the crisis may have caught you unprepared - - it’s the time between Crisis and Rock Bottom where choices can begin to be made.
- The Bounce: “This is the turning point and the toughest because it’s at the lowest point of the cycle.” Recognize you have a choice: to try to go Back or to go Forward.
- The Opportunities: Pull back the lens, broaden your perspective, take inventory and be surprised by what you CAN do!
- Bounce Forward: “When you bounce forward, acceptance isn’t an end point from which you mourn a life once lived; it’s merely a stage toward a bigger, better and brighter life…. I can honestly say I wouldn’t change a thing in my life!”
Sam’s book builds upon 4 crucial habits for Bouncing Forward that make his book a great read:
- Forget the past and press forward.
- Expect the best.
- Empower your strengths.
- Stay aligned and motivated.
The Covid Crisis will be known as a defining moment for healthcare, just as 9/11 was for air travel. Already telemedicine visits have exploded around the nation. This is technology that was already present but largely ignored until necessity made it a real-time innovation. Now insurance plans are beginning to pay for telemedicine office visits. Healthcare leaders can bereave the loss of office visits to primary care practices or foresee an exponential improvement in primary care access if they Bounce Forward to grasp it.
“The challenges we face in life are not meant to be some sort of punishment;
rather, they are an invitation to change –
and an opportunity to create something even better than before.”
Sam Cawthorn, “Bounce Forward”
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