Hospital and healthcare leaders have a multitude of tasks and decisions to manage. Theirs is a lengthy to-do list, yet one vital task probably falls at the very bottom of that list, if at all: energy management.
Tony Schwartz, president and CEO of The Energy Project, recently spoke at the 2012 VHA Leadership Conference in Denver. Mr. Schwartz said it is time for leaders to stop demonizing energy renewal as laziness and slacking off — both for themselves and employees. Looking down on time for recovery can result in a workforce that performs in "survival mode," which eventually leads to burnout.
"The enemy isn't stress in your life. Stress is the only means we can expand our capacity and grow stronger. The enemy is the absence of intermittent recovery. If you challenge a muscle, and then you recover, that's when it grows," said Mr. Schwartz.
There are four critical components of energy, which Mr. Schwartz defines as "the capacity to do work."
1. Physical: This is really the foundation of sustained energy. It encompasses sleep, fitness, nutrition and rest, the last of which "doesn't get a lot of respect in our world," according to Mr. Schwartz.
2. Emotional: This is the quality of energy. How people feel deeply influences the quality of their work.
3. Mental: This involves maintaining focus on one thing, in an absorbed way, for a sustained period of time. Mr. Schwartz pointed out that peoples' mental focus is under siege at any given moment due to the availability of technology, which can leave you constantly tethered to work.
4. Spiritual: This involves the purpose of energy, the feeling that what you do matters.
Working off of those four components, Mr. Schwartz provided a 20-statement energy audit. Each component had five related statements, such as "I get less than seven to eight hours of sleep per night," or "I don't take enough time to reflect," and so on. A perfect score for this audit would be zero, while someone with an extremely low amount and poor quality of energy would score a 20. The average score for the audience was 12, based on a show of hands.
"I call it a personal energy crisis. We're entering into a different kind of energy crisis in the world we live in, and I've made these 20 statements to lots of audiences. There are no audiences that have ever had a significantly lower score than this one," said Mr. Schwartz.
The statements mark gaps in energy that are reparable. Yet, for many people, these shortcomings persist daily and have for a long time. Mr. Schwartz said the reason leaders continue to live in less-than desirable physical, mental, emotional and spiritual circumstances is analogous to a frog in hot water. When a frog is thrown into a boiling pot of water, it immediately jumps out. But when it is placed in cool water that is slowly heated, the frog will linger and eventually die.
"Why? Because it fails to recognize that its living in untenable circumstances. He goes numb to the consequences he is making," said Mr. Schwartz. "We pretend this isn't happening because it occurs so slowly, until we wake up and there's something terrible going on and it's hard to deal with it, if we can deal with it at all."
This might manifest itself as a feeling of dread when you have to get out of bed and leave for work, for instance. This is problematic across all industries, but even more so in healthcare since low morale and broken energy can lead to compassion fatigue, which harms patient safety and the patient experience.
People can range from four energy quadrants, according to Mr. Schwartz, each of which involve different symptoms.
1. Performance zone. This is the ideal place from which to perform. It's characterized by a high quality and large quantity of energy. People often feel happy, focused, excited and motivated.
2. Recovery zone. This is when energy is low in quantity but high in quality. People often feel carefree, mellow, peaceful, relaxed and relieved. "This is the zone of the slacker, isn't it?" said Mr. Schwartz. "You haven't felt this way at work, maybe ever."
3. Survival zone. This is high amounts of negative energy. People often feel impatient, irritable, frustrated, angry, defensive, fearful and anxious.
4. Burnout zone. A burnout occurs when people have low energy that is of poor quality. People tend to feel exhausted, empty, depressed, sad and hopeless. "This is the worst place from which to perform," said Mr. Schwartz.
"When things get tough at work, your first instinct is to push, stay the course [and] burn the midnight oil. Those are the ways we've been told we'll get better and get it done," said Mr. Schwartz. Instead, he said leaders should ennoble renewal and make it a value within their organizations. "Everyone has an opportunity here, for yourself and the team that reports to you, to switch the equation. It's not the number of continuous hours people work that determines their quality or volume of work. It's the energy they are capable of bringing to their work."
He recommended leaders focus on work-rest ratios, in which recovery is valued just as much as work. This can occur through simple mental breaks or breathing exercises. "You can't run on empty, or caffeine, or simple carbohydrates. The alternative is for you to empower the people on your team to value recovery and renewal in their lives. I can't tell you how many hospital administrators talk to me about their fierce commitment to patient care. I'm not in anyway critical of that focus, but the fundamental issue is: How are you taking care of yourself? How are you taking care of your people? That's how well they're capable of taking care of patients," said Mr. Schwartz.
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Tony Schwartz, president and CEO of The Energy Project, recently spoke at the 2012 VHA Leadership Conference in Denver. Mr. Schwartz said it is time for leaders to stop demonizing energy renewal as laziness and slacking off — both for themselves and employees. Looking down on time for recovery can result in a workforce that performs in "survival mode," which eventually leads to burnout.
"The enemy isn't stress in your life. Stress is the only means we can expand our capacity and grow stronger. The enemy is the absence of intermittent recovery. If you challenge a muscle, and then you recover, that's when it grows," said Mr. Schwartz.
There are four critical components of energy, which Mr. Schwartz defines as "the capacity to do work."
1. Physical: This is really the foundation of sustained energy. It encompasses sleep, fitness, nutrition and rest, the last of which "doesn't get a lot of respect in our world," according to Mr. Schwartz.
2. Emotional: This is the quality of energy. How people feel deeply influences the quality of their work.
3. Mental: This involves maintaining focus on one thing, in an absorbed way, for a sustained period of time. Mr. Schwartz pointed out that peoples' mental focus is under siege at any given moment due to the availability of technology, which can leave you constantly tethered to work.
4. Spiritual: This involves the purpose of energy, the feeling that what you do matters.
Working off of those four components, Mr. Schwartz provided a 20-statement energy audit. Each component had five related statements, such as "I get less than seven to eight hours of sleep per night," or "I don't take enough time to reflect," and so on. A perfect score for this audit would be zero, while someone with an extremely low amount and poor quality of energy would score a 20. The average score for the audience was 12, based on a show of hands.
"I call it a personal energy crisis. We're entering into a different kind of energy crisis in the world we live in, and I've made these 20 statements to lots of audiences. There are no audiences that have ever had a significantly lower score than this one," said Mr. Schwartz.
The statements mark gaps in energy that are reparable. Yet, for many people, these shortcomings persist daily and have for a long time. Mr. Schwartz said the reason leaders continue to live in less-than desirable physical, mental, emotional and spiritual circumstances is analogous to a frog in hot water. When a frog is thrown into a boiling pot of water, it immediately jumps out. But when it is placed in cool water that is slowly heated, the frog will linger and eventually die.
"Why? Because it fails to recognize that its living in untenable circumstances. He goes numb to the consequences he is making," said Mr. Schwartz. "We pretend this isn't happening because it occurs so slowly, until we wake up and there's something terrible going on and it's hard to deal with it, if we can deal with it at all."
This might manifest itself as a feeling of dread when you have to get out of bed and leave for work, for instance. This is problematic across all industries, but even more so in healthcare since low morale and broken energy can lead to compassion fatigue, which harms patient safety and the patient experience.
People can range from four energy quadrants, according to Mr. Schwartz, each of which involve different symptoms.
1. Performance zone. This is the ideal place from which to perform. It's characterized by a high quality and large quantity of energy. People often feel happy, focused, excited and motivated.
2. Recovery zone. This is when energy is low in quantity but high in quality. People often feel carefree, mellow, peaceful, relaxed and relieved. "This is the zone of the slacker, isn't it?" said Mr. Schwartz. "You haven't felt this way at work, maybe ever."
3. Survival zone. This is high amounts of negative energy. People often feel impatient, irritable, frustrated, angry, defensive, fearful and anxious.
4. Burnout zone. A burnout occurs when people have low energy that is of poor quality. People tend to feel exhausted, empty, depressed, sad and hopeless. "This is the worst place from which to perform," said Mr. Schwartz.
"When things get tough at work, your first instinct is to push, stay the course [and] burn the midnight oil. Those are the ways we've been told we'll get better and get it done," said Mr. Schwartz. Instead, he said leaders should ennoble renewal and make it a value within their organizations. "Everyone has an opportunity here, for yourself and the team that reports to you, to switch the equation. It's not the number of continuous hours people work that determines their quality or volume of work. It's the energy they are capable of bringing to their work."
He recommended leaders focus on work-rest ratios, in which recovery is valued just as much as work. This can occur through simple mental breaks or breathing exercises. "You can't run on empty, or caffeine, or simple carbohydrates. The alternative is for you to empower the people on your team to value recovery and renewal in their lives. I can't tell you how many hospital administrators talk to me about their fierce commitment to patient care. I'm not in anyway critical of that focus, but the fundamental issue is: How are you taking care of yourself? How are you taking care of your people? That's how well they're capable of taking care of patients," said Mr. Schwartz.
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