COMPLIMENTS OF WATERMAN COMMUNITIES INC.
EMPOWERED POSSIBILITIES: LIVING YOUR BEST LIFE AT ANY AGE
Eliminating the Poison of
Negativity
An Implementation Manual
Dale L. Lind
5/20/2012
Negativity in any team environment is destructive. In this short booklet we explore the sources and
impact of negative attitudes and develop proven strategies for eliminating them.
Chapter 1
Your Attitude Determines Your Altitude
Of all the challenges facing leaders these days, none is more complex or critical than
the attitudes of the individual members of the team. If you are a leader of any type of
organization be it professional, volunteer, a church group, a civic club or even within
your own family, with a significant and persistent presence of negativity you know
firsthand and painfully what I'm talking. And it isn't just the leaders who suffer under the
burden of negative attitudes. The poison of negative attitudes brings everybody down,
leaders and members alike and without discrimination. Negativity affects everybody,
even and possibly especially the negative individuals themselves.
Most of my career has been spent in healthcare. Consequently most of the illustrations
and examples I will share, from healthcare. Healthcare is a service industry, and service
depends on people. Mc Donald's is in a service industry. So is your plumber. Service
in healthcare, however, is given at the most personal level possible for one human
being to serve another. The kind of service we give affects the receiver in the most
private and personal of ways.
“Dealing with people
can be like…………
Service companies in general are
dependent upon good people in
order
to
achieve
positive
perception about their service.
Healthcare with its ultra-personal
type of service, however, is even
more critically dependent on
quality people delivering good
service. Sadly healthcare, serving
people in times of their greatest
need, is not immune from the
malignancy of negativity.
A game of tug-o-war.”
In a way, for my purposes in writing this little booklet that's not all bad. At least I have a
wealth of stories and examples to draw from. If, however, you are just now putting the
finishing touches to your makeup before heading out the door of your house on your
way to a work environment poisoned by negative attitudes, for you the poison of
negativity is not good at all.
So, let's first examine this pervasive poison of negativity, and then, develop some
strategies for eliminating it.
A discussion about negative versus positive attitudes often begins with the following
question. Is your cup half-full, or is it half empty? As far as the contents of the cup go a
half-empty cup contains as much liquid as they half-full cup, provided of course both
cups are the same size. Yes, as simple as the illustration appears to be, your response
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to the question says a great deal about
your perspective on life. If you see your
cup is half empty, then your focus is on
what you have lost and/or no longer
have. If however you see your cup is
half full your focus is on what you still
have and the many ways in which you
can use it.
Negativity is an attitude. I've often heard
the following expressed in various
ways. You often can't control the things
that happened to you, but you can
almost always control your reaction to
them. Consequently, it appears that we have a great deal of control over our attitudes.
The word attitude is defined by the Encarta dictionary as a personal view of something
or an opinion or general feeling about something. Attitudes come in two basic flavors,
positive and negative, and depending upon the flavor you choose to exercise at any
given point in time your attitude defines your expectations. If your attitude is negative,
clearly you expect something bad to happen, while if it is positive, you are anticipating
something good.
Now the question is, what impact does what we expect have on what actually happens?
Apparently, quite a bit, and furthermore, recognition of this fact dates back to the Old
Testament in the Bible. King Solomon, widely considered the wisest man who ever
lived, put it this way. “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.” [Proverbs 23:7]
Author and philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson had this to say. “We become what we
think about all day long.”
In other words, the things we allow our minds to dwell upon have a high probability of
coming true. To what extent, I wonder, is my life a series of self-fulfilling prophecies?
The thoughts expressed by King Solomon and Ralph Waldo Emerson are more than
complex philosophical ruminations. Scientific research backs them up. Virtually every
aspect of our lives is affected by our attitudes.
Specifically, scientific evidence suggests that your
potential for longevity, state of mental health, response
to stress, the quality of your social network and
personal and professional success are largely
determined by your attitude. Put simply, your attitude
is a major factor in your potential for success or failure
in everything you do. As
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Attitudes are
contagious. Are yours
worth catching?
~Dennis and Wendy
Mannering
Furthermore, attitudes are contagious. Your attitude not only impacts you, it significantly
affects those around you.
A good attitude is not to be confused with pie in the sky impossible dreams. A good
attitude is not a denial of unpleasant reality. A good attitude is no guarantee that bad
things will happen to you. Optimistic people go through times of sorrow and loss just like
everybody, but their positive attitudes provide the strength needed to effectively deal
with the bad times.
People with a positive attitude enjoy a longer, happier life. In fact, to research studies
independently conducted at least a decade apart
found that optimists live on average 8 to 10 years Most of us go through
longer than pessimists. Now I know what some of you
life as failures,
are thinking.
You're thinking, “I know some pretty negative people
and it seems to me that they have been around a long
time."
That's just the point. It only seems that they've been
around a long time. When you're shopping for
bargains, a two-for-one deal looks pretty good. Living
with and/or near a negative person makes life seem
longer, and that might be one two-for-one deal that
isn't so good.
What is there about optimism that enables it to add
both to the quantity and quality of life? One study, by
the Rochester Institute of technology, found
correlations between a positive attitudes and the
body's immune system. Other studies suggest that
people with a positive attitude have less risk of heart
attacks.
because we are
waiting for the "time
to be right" to start
doing something
worthwhile. Do not
wait. The time will
never be "just right."
Start where you stand,
and work with
whatever tools you
may have at your
command, and better
tools will be found as
you go along.
Napoleon Hill
A Web M.D. article had this to say. "Researchers found that people who have a positive
attitude during stressful events are 22 percent less likely to have a fatal or nonfatal heart
attack than those who have negative attitudes,"
After undergoing serious illness and/or surgery optimists tend to heal faster. In other
words, optimism helps you fight disease. In fact, Dr. Herbert Benson cardiologist with
the Harvard Medical School believes very strongly that if we can redirect negative
feelings into positive ones our bodies are much more likely to heal.
Our attitude affects our lifestyle choices. Researchers at the Mayo Clinic have found
that people with positive attitudes exercise more, eat better and don't smoke and drink
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as much as do people with negative attitudes. Could it be that a positive attitude makes
unnecessary many of the crutches pessimists rely on to get through the day? I think so!
There is strong evidence that laughter generated by a positive attitude aids the body’s
immune system by helping to produce anti-bodies that fight infections and upper
respiratory disorders.
It's all very logical when you think about it. Since a pessimist expects the worst, they are
likely spot to illness with anger, fear, helplessness and even depression. With their
focus firmly fixed on their pain and discomfort they tend not to work as hard toward
rehabilitation and recovery as does an optimist.
For the optimist, there is even more good news. Since aging is an unavoidable fact of
life there is little short of untimely death we can do about getting older. For the optimist,
not only is life expectancy greater. So too is the potential for quality-of-life. Very simply,
older people with a positive attitude are less frail and enjoy life more than do their
negative counterparts.
A good friend of mine, Bill, is galloping up on his 92nd
birthday. Years ago Bill told me that his personal secret for
success in life was attitude. Bill has always believed in his
own ability to succeed and has treated every setback as an
opportunity. This positive outlook took him to the top of his
company professionally, and allowed him to retire more than
comfortably at the young age of 55.
If you think you
can do a thing or
think you can't
do a thing,
you're right.
Last week, I caught up with Bill as he was leaving the Lodge
Henry Ford
at Waterman Village where he lives and I work. Bill is moving
along at a good clip but I also noticed his dependence on his cane.
“How are you doing Bill," I asked?
Without the slightest hesitation Bill replied, “Great! I'm just coming from the fitness
center. I go there every day, and I feel myself getting stronger."
“In fact," paused here and gave his cane a vigorous shake, “I think I'll soon be able to
get rid of this thing."
I believe he will. After all this is the same Bill who at age 87 had hip replacement so that
he could play golf again.
Of the many fears evident in our society today, few are more prevalent than the fear of
growing old. It's difficult to watch television for any length of time or delve very far into a
magazine without a bombardment of youth lengthening advertisements. We can, we are
told, fight aging with plastic surgery, Botox injections, lip enlargements to make
ourselves eternally kissable, tummy tucks, miracle skin creams and magical potions.
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One of the most
common causes of
failure is the habit
of quitting when
one is overtaken by
temporary defeat.
Maybe, just maybe, in spending our money purchasing
these would be substances of our dreams for eternal
youth we are missing the best strategy of all. You see, it's
not enough simply look good if you don't feel good.
Several studies have made it clear. People with negative
attitudes about aging tend to fulfill their own feared
outcomes.
Napoleon Hill
I'm a big fan of the products produced by the Floridabased company, Tervis Tumblers. I like them because
their cups and mugs are so indestructible as to come with
a lifetime guarantee from the company. Yet, they are attractive and most importantly
handle cold and hot liquids equally well. I also like them because their products are
made in the United States.
One Tervis product that I plan to buy a lot of because I want at least one for myself and
several more to give away, is a cop with a logo on it it states the following philosophy.
“It's not about the age, it's about the attitude."
People with positive attitudes handle stress better than people with negative attitudes
do. That's not to say that optimists don't experience press in their lives, far from it. The
difference is that optimists are not overwhelmed by stress away a pessimist is. An
optimist uses the energy produced by stress solutions. A pessimist let stress drive them
into defeat and often depression. Put very simply, an optimist has better coping skills
than does a pessimist.
Stress causing emotional distress, fear and anxiety are nothing more and nothing less
than the products of our minds and the way we interpret life events. In any stressful
situation is almost always just as likely that the result will be good as that it will be bad.
Yet, it seems often so much easier to anticipate the bad than to expect the good. There
is plenty of evidence to suggest that even a pessimist who learns strategies of positive
affirmation can reduce their stress and improve their coping skills.
In addition to the benefits of better health and longer life people with positive attitudes
tend to be more successful professionally. If you have ever had to spend much time
with a negative person, then you know they are not always a lot of fun to be around. In
fact you may find yourself going out of your way to avoid
them. Bosses, it seems, are not immune from feeling the Whatever the
same way in my experience looking at life through negative mind of man can
lens produces two kinds of performers, each with negative
conceive and
impacts on the quality of services my company or any believe, it can
company can provide.
achieve.
The first kind of negative performer I'll call a Perfectionist.
For the perfectionist, little in their workplace is of any real
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Napoleon Hill
value except their own performance. They are frequently heard
to say things like, “If it wasn't for me nothing would ever get
done around here." Few if any of their coworkers members
ever measure up, and they make sure everyone knows it in
their whining, persistent and seldom subtle way.
In fairness to the Perfectionist, they usually are technically
quite proficient. Little can be found to criticize in the quality of
their work and also usually the quantity. But the manner in
which their work is delivered, the poisonous, negative aura
constantly hovering over them and those around them is a
different matter.
If you aren't
fired with
enthusiasm,
you will be fired
with
enthusiasm.
~Vince
Lombardi
Because no one is ever as good as them there complaining and criticism often drives
team members away. This allows them to complain even more about the quality of
health and is in adequate sufficiency. They are, in effect eating their young. Sadly, most
bosses painfully aware of their negative natures allow their negativity fester and grow
because of their technical prowess. It seems that these bosses
I am looking for never notice the significant toll their negativity extracts on their
coworkers. They allow him to stay but seldom promote them
a lot of men
thus inadvertently assuring a continuing culture of festering
who have an
negativity in their work area.
infinite capacity
to not know
what can't be
done.
Henry Ford
The second kind of negative performer I'll call the Elusive. The
Elusive, often burdened with self-doubt, tends to be on their
best days and underachiever. Whether it's fear of trying or an
overpowering expectation that things are going to work out
right anyway, the Elusive lacks motivation to excel.
Consequently, their performance never earns them a
promotion but doesn't keep them from resenting this lack of recognition. The Elusive
sulks around in the background trying to stay just below the radar, doing only enough to
stay employed.
In each their unique ways both the Perfectionist and the Elusive are bad for business,
because business success in the form of repeat business is at the mercy of how well
customers perceive the staff serving them like their jobs. While a negative attitude may
not earn a promotion for the pessimist, its presence in front
The difference
of the customer earns a demotion for the business.
An optimist and a pessimist may fail with the same
frequency. The difference is that optimist uses failure as a
learning experience and key chatted until success is
achieved, while a pessimist tends to throw in the towel and
complain about their lack of breaks and opportunities.
Not only does an optimist get promoted more and earn more
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between can and
cannot are only
three letters.
These three
letters determine
your life's
direction.
money than a pessimist, their presence is much better for the business.
Optimists also enjoyed more and better friendships than do pessimists. This is not so
hard to understand. After all who would you rather spend time with, someone who raise
your spirits or someone who brings you down?
By now it should be very clear that your attitude can be the single most important
determinant in your ability to be successful. No individual or organization sets out to fail
on purpose. Deep in the beating heart of every individual and organization lies the
desire and often a determination to be the best, to succeed at the level of superstar. Yet
few seldom do. Perhaps you've heard the following statistics before, but they are worth
sharing again. I found them in a brief article by Earl Nightingale entitled, The Strangest
Secret.
According to Mr. Nightingale if you follow the
progress of 100 individuals picked at random
from a normal sample of society and
including both men and women you will note
an amazing result. At the age of 25
individuals in your sample may share a
common determination to succeed. Early in
their careers you may find them excited and
eager at their prospects. Like they had, for
them, will be an adventure and they will
succeed. Check back in with them 40 years
later when they reach the age of 65 and
statistically this is what you will find.
“I am golfing. I am not working.
Therefore, I must be having fun!!#@#@
Only one will meet the definition of being rich.
Four more will be financially independent.
Five will still be working. 36 will be
somewhere in middle ground limbo, but 54
will be broke forced to depend on others.
All 100 started the early years of their careers determined to succeed at this great
adventure called life yet not very many of them really succeeded. Why is that? I'd like to
share three probable answers to that question.
The first mistake made by those who didn't make it was, I believe, failure to adopt and
maintain a positive attitude of possibilities. We've already seen enough evidence of the
impact of attitudes on our potential succeed. Consequently, I won't add anymore except
to remind you of that fact.
The second mistake is failure to understand our own strengths and weaknesses and
choose our careers based on what we are likely to be successful at. It is difficult to do
well at something we neither like nor are naturally gifted for. Yet sadly, it seems that
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shocking numbers of people try. I read in the Orlando Sentinel several years ago a
research project that discovered that as many as 80% of all people in the workforce
didn't like what they were doing. That would certainly explain widespread poor service
and seeming apathy in much of the business world. Later, thanks to the Gallup
organization, I learned that in a survey of over 100,000 people working in a wide variety
of jobs barely 20% get to do on a regular basis what they really enjoy and are good at.
It's not hard to see that failure to understand our natural talents, strengths and
preferences and apply them to our careers would be a major stumbling block for
maximum success.
Finally, the third mistake is failure to establish meaningful, achievable yet challenging
goals for ourselves. It is very difficult to hit a target if we don't know what or where it is.
Quite simply, people who set goals that are achievable within the scope of their natural
talents and abilities and who pursue those goals with an attitude of enjoy the highest
levels of success.
So it is that many of us stumble ahead wanting to succeed but not knowing how;
claiming to succeed but not really achieving our full potential. When we advertise on
behalf of our organizations, our rhetoric is about being the best. We offer membership
on the “winning team”.
You never see ads that read:
"We're mediocre and proud."
"A job with us is certainly no more tiring than the one you have now"
"Join our team and work short regularly"
"A day with us is only eight hours long (usually)"
"Chaotic Care Center: We elevate average to new heights daily."
No. No one advertises what they really feel and it's probably a good thing. Everybody
claims to be number one, the best, to stand for quality. Privately in my professional
world, health care administrators depress each other with talk about the horrors of the
business and the impossibility of finding good help while publicly laying advertising traps
for unsuspecting and naively optimistic staff who also want to present themselves as
being the best.
In an atmosphere where everybody is advertising that they are number one, the fact is
that someone has to be number one. Why not you? Really being number one begins
with a change from the acceptance of status quo chaos to a mindset of passionate
persistence. A mindset that believes "Someone has to be number one and it might as
well be us."
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We pretty much achieve what we expect to achieve, and if we good things we will likely
achieve them. If we expect bad things that too will likely be our lot. Our mind set
guides the actions we take. If we believe a situation can never be better than it is, it
probably never will be.
Before continuing into the next chapter, thoughtfully complete the following exercises.
Exploring Your Attitude
1. What do you really feel are your chances of success in whatever endeavor you are
currently involved in?
2. What is the greatest obstacle you and your team are going to have to overcome?
3. What is your specific goal?
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Chapter 2
NEGATIVE ATTITUDES, ONLY A LITTLE ARSENIC IN THE SOUP
KEY POINTS
1.
Negative staff attitudes cost you money and drive away staff.
2.
Good technical performance doesn't make up for the problems caused by
negativity.
3.
Negativity in the workplace is just as dangerous as arsenic in the soup.
4.
Negativity must be made a performance issue.
5.
Confronting negative people is hard but necessary.
6.
Remember, it's the attitude that must go, not necessarily the person.
7.
The new performance equation is: Exceptional Performance = Quantity + Quality
+ Attitude
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Chapter 10
Negative Attitudes, Only a Little Arsenic in the Soup
Damaging negative attitudes affect your organization in two ways no matter what kind of
organization it is or its mission and goals. The first rears its ugly head in the form of
constant complaining. The second, equally dangerous though not as obvious comes to
new team members who are forced to deal with cold shoulders, hostility, and unwillingness
to help, particularly with orientation. In addition, probably the worst thing new team
members face is the bad habit of many older more established team members to give the
dirtiest jobs to the newcomers. Each of these work place poisons, if uncontrolled, can
sound the death knell of even the best recruitment efforts. You may have both of these
poisons in your work place. When one is present, the other is seldom far away. They
travel in pairs. If you are dealing with these poisons on the job, prepare to see your
company decline. If your focus is a club or other form of volunteer organization it to will
wither and die under the negative influence of these poisons.
Chances are, somewhere in the darkest, dankest corners of your organization lurks a
class of team member, sometimes alone, sometimes in small cancerous clusters with long
faces, acid tongues and prune-like appearance. These
Barbarous Bombers of Bile spew poison in every
groaning, moaning and complaining word slithering from
their mouths. You know the type. They can walk into a
room on a sunny day and instantly it rains. When
confronted with a silver lining, they immediately tear it
apart looking for the cloud. Nothing is ever right. They
say such things as "I do not know where they are getting
the people that they get these days. If it weren’t for me
nothing would get done. Things have not been right since
that new leader took over fourteen years ago."
Negative people
Make the day seem longer
Can't you see their faces, puckered in puffy selfrighteousness, the whining, and singsong drone of their
cackley voices grating on your ears?
If something good happens, they think it was an accident. If things are going well, it will
not last long. If they meet a co-worker who is happy, their comment is, "Well you will
learn, you will see."
You know the people by name. Right now you probably have a mental image of the ones
in your organization that most fit this description. They are the kind that when you are
making your rounds and you see them coming down the hall, you jump into a janitor’s
closet until you are sure they've gone by. You have even been known to turn on your
heel, go back to your office, shut the door and do...and do...paperwork until you're sure
these grinches of groan are gone. There are, after all, worse things than paperwork!!
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Their negative words are poison and yet probably, right now you are thinking, "But they
are so good at their jobs." They usually are, by the way, at least technically.
They never miss a work assignment. Sometimes you stumble out of bed in the morning
and pray that they will get sick, but they never do. They may have the best attendance
record in the business. They are always there. They have been with you for a while,
spreading their poison of hatred and malcontent. Yet, you keep telling yourself, they are
good at what they do, technically astute.
Well these so called "Good Performers" are driving away the really good team members
and killing customers with their negative words of gloom and doom. Would you tolerate a
chef in your kitchen who said, "Be careful of the soup, I dropped a little arsenic in it, but it
is such a small amount I do not think that it will hurt you."
Negativity in the workplace
is a deadly poison.
Would you say, "Since there is only a little arsenic
in the soup, go ahead and serve it."
Would you say that?
Not likely and yet you will let negative employees,
through their constant complaining, acting puffy
as my friend Clint Maun likes to describe it,
spread poison just as deadly as any arsenic ever
was. And you will say, "But they are so good at
what they do."
They this.....they that....they....they....they!! All
this talk about THEY and the harm THEY do. Yet
who are they anyway? One director of nursing
complained, "No matter what we do, THEY are
never satisfied. No matter what we give them,
THEY think it's not enough. To her, it seemed
the whole staff was dissatisfied. The facts are
that in any organization, the members members
Clint does Puffy at a Miami Seminar
with damaging negative attitudes seldom total
more than three to five. Yet those three to five
are so vocal and so negative that to leadership, it feels like everyone. Three to five team
members in a total count of 100, pulling everyone down. What's worse, everyone knows
who they are and tolerate them. At least management tolerates them. The members
usually just avoidsthem until they can escape to some other more peaceful work place.
The poison of negative attitudes will continue to haunt you until the day you decide that
negativity is a bona fide performance issue. Most organizations in some sense are in a
service business. That is service with a smile folks, not service with a frown. Rats may
like the flavor of rat poison but it kills them just the same. You may appreciate the
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technical ability of your most negative team member, but if that member’s negativity is
driving away other members, it will kill your organization just as surely as rat poison kills
rats. Having just a little poison in the soup is no standard to shoot for. The only safe
course is no poison at all. Negative attitudes must go. The negative person should be
given a chance to change, but in the end, the negative attitude must go.
Most people do not enjoy confrontation. In the short term it seems easier to put up with
the negative person. They do, after all, fill a slot on the staffing schedule. They are a
body. Unfortunately, tolerating negative attitudes is about as productive as tolerating
cancer. Left unchallenged, they get worse in their impact. The work environment
becomes more oppressive. Just as cancer spreads to neighboring cells, negative
attitudes eventually infect co-workers. Unchecked negativity continues to make new team
members feel unwelcome. Feeling unwelcome, they don't stay, and turnover escalates.
High pay will not compensate for the unpleasantness of negative attitudes and
accompanying cold shoulders. Recently in a Florida organization, a very good CNA left for
a $.75 per hour pay increase. She felt bad about leaving but needed the extra money for
her family. Two weeks later she was back. The reason: The negative atmosphere in her
new, higher paying job, made her feel unwelcome. The money wasn't worth it. Negative
attitudes do drive away good help. They must be addressed, not ignored.
Negative attitudes will
never improve if they aren’t
addressed.
One Director of Nursing met the unpleasant
experience of an entire work crew walking into her
office to complain about a negative co-worker.
"Something has got to be done," they told her. "We
can't take it anymore. Nothing is ever right with
her. She is always complaining, and we just cannot stand it anymore. Do something
about it."
Quaking in fear and trepidation, the DON called this negative aide into her office and told
her that there had to be an attitude change. Reflexively she shrank back, just a little, in
her chair, fully expecting that aide to walk out of the office in a huff proclaiming herself a
martyr to the world.
Her reaction, however, was entirely different. She sat there a moment in stunned silence
and then said in a choked voice, "No one has ever told me that before. I had no idea that I
was coming across that way. I will try to do better."
And you know what, she has done better. Now, she needs a periodic doctoral adjustment,
sometimes weekly, sometimes with a tire iron, but she always improves when spoken too.
In fact two weeks later that exact same work group was back in the DON's office saying,
"We do not know what you did, but she is a whole different person. Thank you so much."
One hairdresser, we’ll call her Sylvia, in the business of providing personal services to
clients faced a very negative, long time client literally head on. This particular client, a
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very attractive and apparently gifted professional herself, had a highly negative attitude.
From the moment she entered Sylvia’s place of business until the time she left, her mouth
spewed one negative comment after another.
“You wouldn’t believe my day….”
“The traffic is just horrible…”
You can’t find anyone who wants to give good service…”
And so on and so on and so on ad nauseum.
Generally Sylvia could take it, but on this particular day things hadn’t gone well for her
either. She’d been especially busy. To make matters worse, she had spent most of the
previous night at the hospital with her father who was in very serious condition, and it
looked like she’d be spending this coming night too.
No sooner had the client positioned herself for service when she said, “I’ve had a really
rough day and it is your job to make me happy.”
Sylvia had had enough. Acting on instinct she spun the client around and put her face just
inches from the clients face. In measured and very deliberate tones she said:
“It is not my job to make you happy. My job is to serve you, then bill you. I cannot make
you happy. No one can. Only you can do that. Everything that has happened to you is
your own fault and you need to take responsibility for it. You think you had a bad day. I’ll
tell you about a bad day. My father, right now, is lying in a hospital bed and I may very
likely get a call any time to tell me that he has died. That’s a bad day!!”
The client was at first speechless. Then she said somewhat nervously, “You are right
Sylvia. My happiness is my responsibility.”
For the rest of their time together, not another negative word was spoken.
Several days later, Sylvia looked up from her work to see the negative client standing next
to her.
“I have come to thank you for what you did for me the other day. I had no idea I was
coming across so negatively. I do not want to be that kind of person.”
With that the client handed Sylvia a gift. When she opened it up she saw that it was a
plaque with these words written on it:.
“My regular fee for service is $50.00. If you are difficult to deal
with there will be an additional $50.00 charge.”
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We are understandably hesitant to address negative people, yet as these stories show,
tactful honesty can pay off. It doesn’t always work however.
An administrator found himself with a Social Worker who didn't seem to like people.
Seldom would she smile. She was all business. No little extras ever came from her.
Almost daily he found her in his office in self-righteous indignation saying, "We've got a
problem and you'd better do something!!"
He finally had to speak to her about her attitude and the negative impact it was having on
the management team. Her comment, "That's just the way I am. People have been telling
me since I was 16 and got my first job, that I need to loosen up and be more friendly."
When he asked her if she understood what he was really trying to say, she responded,
"Yes, if I don't smile, I'll lose my job."
He now considers her one of his greatest assets. Soon after his conversation with her, the
Social Worker went to work for a competitor. He prefers having her spread her poison
among the competition. Organization census prospers and peace, at least in Social
Services, reigns.
These two examples illustrate the importance of teaching all team members to take the
challenge of making a bad day better. It is after all no great stretch to improve on a day
that is already going well. What really identifies the superstars is the ability to make a bad
day better. Confront those with negative attitudes, don't let the wounds they cause fester.
Often the person can change, but the critical thing is that the attitude must go. If the
person will not change, then the person must go. You cannot afford to have negative
people driving away employees and killing sick customers with their poisonous tongues.
Attitudes in your organization are pretty much set during the first 15 minutes of each shift.
As those 15 minutes go, so will the day. You can do a great deal to seize control of the
attitude of the organization in the first fifteen minutes. Train your staff to begin each shift
by greeting each other by name. Teach them to shake hands and inquire as to how the
time off went. You will see negativism recede and ultimately disappear.
Heaven help the organization stumbling under the burden of a negative manager,
especially if that manager is the administrator or DON.
Once in a seminar in the Chicago area, a DON raised
her hand and asked what could be done if the biggest
negative influence in the organization was the
administrator. Being in Chicago, there were certainly
solutions available and willing hands to implement
them. It is better however, to eradicate negativity
without also eliminating, permanently perhaps, the
person.
2-6
In the past we have been largely satisfied to define the performance equation as follows:
Acceptable performance = Quantity + Quality. It's time to improve the equation. The
attitude with which service is given, is just as important as its technical correctness. The
new performance equation needs to be: Exceptional Performance = Quantity + Quality +
Attitude. Negative attitudes, bitching, moaning and groaning, are poisons and cancers
that eat out the heart of every organization they exist in. You
cannot create a positive retention environment without eliminating
Attitude determines altitude
them.
To further help you understand the importance of combating
damaging negative attitudes in the work place, complete the
following exercise. Remember, Even with good skills, bad attitude kills.
Negativity Exercises
On the lines below, list the three to five most negative team members active in your
organization. Indicate their role and approximately the last time their
negative attitude had a damaging influence on organizational operation.
#
1.
Identifying Negative Staff Members
Name
Role
Last Negative Impact
2.
3.
4.
5.
Ask three of your key team members to complete a similar list for themselves. Instruct them
to think organization wide and not just in their own areas. Then compare their lists with yours.
What names are on all the lists?
2-7
The fact is folks; in this current lawsuit crazed health care environment we cannot afford
negative attitudes. One excellent Florida nursing home recently got a survey abuse citation.
What it came down to was the attitude of two nurse aides toward difficult customers.
Begin the correction process by developing a negativity elimination plan for each staff member
who appeared on all the lists generated in the exercise above. Use the form on the following
page to help you develop this plan.
2-8
Negative Attitude Elimination Plan
Name:
Counselor:
Date:
In the space below, describe the negative attitude.
List several examples of this negative attitude happening in the workplace.
#
Event
1.
Date
2.
3.
4.
5.
How has this negative attitude damaged the team environment?
#
Negative Impact
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
2-9
Date
What will happen if this negative behavior isn’t corrected by: Date:
Achieving Commitment to Change
To the person being counseled: Please thoughtfully answer, in your own words, the
the following questions:
1. In your own words, describe the attitude you have just been told you have.
2.
How do you feel when you come in contact with that attitude in other people?
3.
Do you believe that you have this attitude?
4.
If you answered yes to question 3, describe a time when you know you acted this
way and what happened as a result.
5.
If you answered no to question 3, explain why others might think you have this
Attitude sometimes.
6.
What do you believe will happen if you don’t change the perception that you have
This attitude?
7.
Do you want that to happen?
8.
What are you willing to do so that the people you work with will no longer think
That you have this attitude?
Sign your name:
2-10
Chapter 3
THE WORK PLACE SHOULD BE FUN
KEY POINTS
1.
The most productive type of fun occurs naturally while work is going on.
2.
Management plays a key role in creating an atmosphere where fun can break out
at any time without notice.
3.
It's OK to enjoy your job.
4.
Creating a fun atmosphere can play a key role in turning around a troubled
situation.
5.
Fun, while needing management support, must be employee driven in order to
be truly effective.
6.
Without fun, long-term care can be depressingly serious business.
7.
Fun should be formalized through an employee committee made up of fun
people.
8.
Productive fun comes in three categories:
a. Fun to relieve tension
b. Fun to celebrate
c. Fun with training
2
Chapter 3
The Work Place Should Be Fun
A key element in driving away negative attitudes is fun. The healthcare work place,
filled as it is, with pain, sickness and death, needs to be an environment where fun can
break out at a moment's notice. Productive fun is much more than parties and
refreshments even though those things are certainly important. Productive fun comes in
three different forms to achieve three different purposes. Those three forms are:
1. Fun to relieve tension
2. Fun and celebration
3. Fun with training
The most productive tension relieving fun happens while the job is being done. This
type of fun erupts naturally and spontaneously in the
middle of the workday, and if the atmosphere is right,
does not have to cost much at all, if anything.
Management plays a key role in creating that
atmosphere of fun.
I learned the importance of fun on the job early in my
career as an administrator. The story goes like this.
"I've evolved through a number of phases on the road
to being a manager, but one phase that keeps coming
back is what I call my singing phase. Now I have a
secret desire seldom shared with anyone, but I will
Time flies
share it with you because I trust you. Please do not
When you’re having fun
tell anyone else, however, because I am sensitive on
this issue. In the deepest, most secret place in my heart, I am a singer. I have
dreamed dreams of standing on a stage amidst floodlights, surrounded by a band in
glittering costumes, belting out songs that stir souls and move hearts. I visualize
audiences carried to staggering heights of emotion with the message of my singing, but
no one ever asks me to sing."
"One day I approached the receptionist area in my organization. Standing in the
window were several of my staff lead by an enterprising young man who was with us for
the summer doing yard work."
"He said, 'Dale, how about singing that song you always sing? The girls say they’ve
never heard it.'"
"My heart leaped into my throat, palpitating giddily all the way. A desire, long stifled
might soon receive public expression. Still timidity reared its ugly head."
3
"'Song,' I stammered, 'What song?'"
"'You know that song you always sing in your office? Traveling Man?'"
"There it was. My secret laid bare for all to see. I was and am a closet singer. I can
burst into song at a moment’s notice, and sometimes not even know that I am doing it. I
go through phases in my singing. Like a lot of you who grew up in the early days of
rock and roll, I know snatches of literally hundreds of songs, (It's an advantage we enjoy
over today's teenagers who are forced to endure songs that, as far as I can tell, have no
identifiable words that are) but there are only one or two songs that I know all the words
to. One of those songs is Rick Nelson's immortal "Traveling Man". In fact I know that
song so well, I was surprised to note, when I heard his version on an Orlando Oldies
station recently, that Rick has been singing it wrong all these years."
"Traveling Man was and still is my trademark closet song.
I was clearly caught. Apparently I'd been sitting in my office singing "Traveling Man"
and the young man wanted me to sing it now for the office staff. I felt a range of
emotions at this time. First of all, I felt nervousness because no one had ever asked me
to sing before. Singing in public wasn't something I was used to. I also felt a rush of
excitement, standing on the threshold of a dream. I looked around the office. There
were three or four people present. They wanted me to sing. They were a captive
audience. They could not run away, because I was paying them. So I reasoned, what
harm could it do."
"Clearing my throat, I belted out, with true heartfelt gusto, "Traveling Man". It was a
fine moment, a moment of supreme long unrealized pride. It was my apex and after
all...what harm could it do? Not until the last strains of "Traveling Man" were dying on
my smiling lips did I discover what harm it could do. The mellow tones barely faded
when the young man leaned forward and switched off the intercom button. I had just
sung "Traveling Man" to the entire nursing home. I still remember the applause rippling
from the far and near corners of the building, also the laughter. It was my day, sort of.
Well, I survived that and worse, for the greater purpose of establishing an atmosphere
of fun that could break out at a moment’s notice."
How do you create a fun friendly work environment? Begin by letting everyone know it's
OK to enjoy his or her jobs. Particularly let your department heads know that periodic
parties are OK. Give your food service director the latitude to announce an impromptu
bar-b-cue. Then, join him at the grill.
One New York administrator reports that the best thing he personally does for his staff
is the outdoor, winter bar-b-cue. Dressed up in long johns and insulated coat, He grills
burgers in the courtyard. He's a brave and dedicated man.
4
A Tennessee owner gives his staff a shot at him every year in the fund raising dunking
booth. A lot of money is raised to see how many soakings he can absorb. More than
money is raised. You've got to believe that an owner who lets himself be the target of
multiple dunkings really cares. That is good for morale.
As regional director, Dale used fun to start a seriously troubled organization on the road
to stability. Here's how it worked.
"We had a series of bad surveys and were within thirty days of losing our license to
operate as a skilled organization. To make matters worse, our turnover rate was so
high we were staffing nursing with in excess of fifty percent agency help. Response to
our help wanted ads dwindled to practically nothing. To save ourselves from
decertification, we had to recruit our own stable staff. To do that, the internal
environment must be changed. Time was short. My first key strategy was fun.
I had a nurse on one of the units, who asked me, jokingly, for a company car every time
she saw me. Her line went, "Don't you think that as a faithful nurse I ought to have a
company car. I am sure that you have one. Why shouldn't I?"
"Finally, after being approached several times, I decided that the day had come to grant
her request. I went out and bought her a company car...., a
Rolls Royce...., paid cash for it...., three dollars...., cutest
little plastic model Rolls Royce you've ever seen. I brought it
back to the organization, buffed it to a mirror finish sheen
and parked it out in front of the building against the curb. Its
cute little Rolls Royce, plastic, windshield eyes peered up
over the curb like some audacious gremlin looking for
excitement. A few days before someone had turned in a set
The company car
of tarnished keys found in the parking lot. I shined them up
a bit and put them on a ring."
"Then I called her and her unit co-workers down to the lobby. I made a flowery speech
about how much I appreciated her and how I decided to reward her with a company car.
I handed her the keys. She let out a scream, and tore out the door so fast she almost
stepped right on that poor little Rolls Royce. Picking it up, she let out another scream
and brought it back into the building.
That Rolls Royce was with her every day on the job for as long as she remained with
us. When she left, she turned it in, because she said it wouldn't be right to keep the
company car when you're no longer employed."
A three-dollar investment and a five minute ceremony bought us a lot of positive attitude
and improved morale. I share that story in all my Employee Recruitment seminars.
Often people tell me they know exactly who, in their organization, they are going to
award a Rolls Royce to when they get back home
5
My friend Greg tells of one small organization in North Dakota where the night shift
needed a morale boost. As often happens with night shifts, they felt left out. The
solution of the fun committee was a 2:30 am pajama party. Twelve members of
administrative and nursing staff showed up on the night shift in full pajama party
uniform, pink bunny slippers and all. Sounds crazy you say. Our response, it worked.
Administration and staff together in jammies in the middle of the night, forged new lines
of communication and morale received an immeasurable boost.
Speaking of the night shift, when I was an administrator in New York State, more years
ago than I care to remember, I hatched the bright idea of sponsoring a county wide
senior citizen picnic. Guess who volunteered to be the planning, organizing, promoting
and fundraising committee all combined in one. Did you guess the night shift? If you
did, you are right on. Over the three month course of preparation, representatives from
the night shift spoke at every civic organization in the county, arranged for corporate
sponsors, washed cars, baked and sold pies and cakes and in general got things ready.
On a misty, rainy and cool June picnic day, 700 hungry seniors turned out, providing the
home with a public relations bonanza. Has your night shift had any fun lately?
Celebrating the good things that happen on the job is an excellent use of fun.
Clint tells a story of madcap cooks, green vegetables and an incredibly effective focus
on the importance of good nutrition.
“It was National Nutrition month. In most organizations, National Nutrition month comes
and goes with barely a notice, but not this organization. It was an organization-wide big
deal with a theme of the week and special activities every day. I was there during
Vegetable Week on Eat Your Greens Day. They had green Jell-O, Kool-Aid and
green everything. Two large Clint-sized cooks, I mean big cooks, cooks that when you
walked into the kitchen and asked what’s for lunch, they say, moo, moo, moo, because
they are eating half of it – those kind of cooks. These cooks weren’t named Bambi &
Deidre either. They were Bertha and Maude. These two
cooks, on their own, went out and rented artichoke
Celebrate success
costumes.
They had green leaves on them for
And
artichokes and green leotards. They dressed up the
Success will grow
skinny little maintenance man as a dip can and they were
running around the building having customers and staff
pull leaves off the big cook and dip them in the
maintenance man. It was one of the most hilarious
things I ever saw in my life.”
“People were rolling on the floor watching this thing,
because they knew it was OK to do. The cooks knew that
it was OK to go rent the costumes and they knew that the
administrator would even give them the 50 bucks back
for renting the costume. They didn’t even have to ask
because that was the spirit of the building. What a
6
difference that kind of fun spirit can make in this serious business of ours.”
In a small, 70 bed Nebraskan organization several years ago, Greg learned the value of
celebration when good things happened. Over the course of a year, the staff of this
organization, through their employee involvement committee had accomplished some
incredible things.
1. They sponsored an Easter egg hunt in the organization courtyard for 300
kids. The even cost the organization nothing because staff raised all the
money.
2. Staff raised enough money through car washes and bake sales to send more
kids to summer camp than any other organization in town had ever done
3. Staff and customers, working together, sponsored a Halloween Safe Trick or
Treat party at the organization. Again, 300 kids showed up along with local
newspaper and TV coverage. Again there was not cost but time.
4. A Thanksgiving food drive in the parking lot of the local supermarket had
netted in one day more food collected than had ever been done before in the
history of the local food pantry.
When Greg learned of these successes, he just had to understand why. The answer,
the one single act that had motivated all these successes was a celebration of the
Employee Involvement Committee’s first success.
It seemed that several years before, a certain customer discovered the key to the
employee/visitor restroom.
Using this knowledge, the customer left frequent,
unpleasant symbols of his presence in the restroom. This irritated the housekeeping
supervisor, who finally brought it up to the collective wisdom of the department head
group for resolution. Their solution was to place the key at the nurse’s station, a
significant distance from the restroom.
Prior to the committee’s involvement, five years of running to get the key had passed.
The offending customer was long gone. At its very first meeting, the committee asked if
the key could be returned to its hook beside the bathroom door.
Not only was it returned, but it was returned with pageantry and celebration in typical
healthcare style, punch and cookies. Staff so much appreciated this small but important
token of management trust and teamwork that they responded with an incredible string
of community service activities that resulted in a public relations bonanza for the
organization.
Using fun to emphasize training can be a highly effective technique for taking otherwise
boring, though important, material and making it memorable.
7
Dale and Greg do a lot of training in
health care organizations, hospitals,
nursing homes, assisted living
organizations and home health care,
on how to avoid on-the-job injury. In
these programs they talk about such
riveting topics as body mechanics,
blood borne pathogens, dealing with
violence and auto safety. Taken
separately or as a whole, these
topics
present
tremendous
opportunities
for
boredom.
However,
Dale rapping with a management group in Naples
most organizations who have them
Florida
present once, bring them back,
because they have made the programs not only informative but fun. To emphasize
proper lifting, they have written and perform a back safety rap using “volunteers” from
the audience as a back-up group. There is also a country and western version entitled,
“My Cheating Back.”
Some of you are not by nature fun people. Clint worked with one such administrator
who found, initially that fun on the job was a tough concept for him. One day his
Director of Nursing and her assistant asked, "How would you like it if we did little things
spontaneously to create an atmosphere of fun?"
He very thoughtfully and honestly said, "Well it will be hard for me at first, but let's try it."
Two years later at a dress up western bar-b-cue day, he said, "You know, this fun stuff
is getting to be kind of enjoyable. I think I like it."
While management participation and support is vital to establishing a fun friendly
atmosphere in the work place, fun to be a truly effective tool, must be employee driven.
Counting on spontaneous fun won't be enough. Fun, to be lasting, should be
formalized. Appoint an employee Fun committee. Make sure committee members are
fun people. Give them a budget and let them plan at least one organization wide fun
activity monthly. Please remember, no idea is too crazy.
When it is fun on the job, the day (and the night) goes so much better.
We must close this chapter on the importance of productive fun in the work place with a
note of caution. We are promoting spontaneity. We have said that leaders are
responsible for creating an atmosphere where fun can break out a moment’s notice.
Most importantly, however, effective fun is productive. This often means making a
distinction between legitimate, positive and spontaneous fun and non-productive, even
harmful horseplay.
8
Three Minneapolis based Northwest Airlines baggage handlers are learning this
important distinction even as we write this. We can understand that the task of moving
thousands of pounds of baggage every day can be physically draining, routine and
possibly downright boring. We can readily appreciate the value of looking for ways to
make it fun. These guys, however, went too far. As cameras for a local TV station ran,
they played an impromptu game of bounceless baggage volleyball, even dropping a few
bags in the heat of the game. They are, as we write, learning from their misdeeds while
on a three-day suspension without pay.
Productive fun does not damage.
To help you get started down the road to fun and productivity, complete the following
exercises.
9
Planning for Fun
1.
2.
Analyzing Your Current FUN Atmosphere
Estimate the percentage of total staff who act like they like
their jobs.
Instructions: Using the table below, list all the fun activities held in your
workplace in the last six months along with an estimated percentage of staff
who attended each one.
Activity
Attendance %
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
3.
%
What have you personally done to make the work place fun?
10
4. If you are doing this with a group, take some time to discuss your answers to
question 3.
5. Is it fun to work here? Explain your answer
6. List the three main obstacles to fun in your work place. Then briefly outline a
plan for overcoming these obstacles
Fun Obstacle 1
A Plan for Overcoming this Obstacle
Fun Obstacle 2
A Plan for Overcoming this Obstacle
Fun Obstacle 3
A Plan for Overcoming this Obstacle
11
Appointing a Fun Committee
Instructions: Appoint members from as many departments as possible.
Remember, this is a FUN committee, so be sure to appoint people who know how to
be fun and productive at the same time. The committee will need a chairperson and
a budget.
Names of Members
1.
8.
2.
9.
3.
10.
4.
11.
5.
12.
6.
13.
7.
14.
Fun Committee Annual Budget
12