There is a lot of focus on poor behaviours from all angles (colleagues, customers, patients, general public). It feels especially a problem since the pandemic. Wherever you look there is divisiveness…”you are either on our side or against us” attitude appears to prevail.
We all blame different groups for these behaviours, the right wing, the left wing, baby boomers, gen x, millennials, gen z, immigrants, the list is endless. We focus on the behaviours, and the people we witness perpetuating those behaviours and label them as the problem.
Behaviour seems to be worsening, or that is the prevailing opinion. People nowadays are less respectful than they used to be. I am not so certain that people are any more rude than they were previous generations. I am not so certain that any group of people are more rude than others. I have been guilty of blaming others and damning individuals and groups for a witnessed behaviour. I am not sure it stands up to scrutiny. For instance when I was a Staff Nurse on a Children’s ward we all labelled A&E Nurses were rude and entitled, and ICU Nurses were elitist and entitled. I had friends who worked in A&E and they were not rude or entitled. I ended up working in ICU and the Nurses who work there are generally not elitist and lazy.
Behaviours do not define who people are. We are all capable of being dickheads and we are all capable of being kind and loving. Behaviours are a visible representation of what people are thinking and feeling, as a result of their needs either being met or not. It is not always easy for us to express what we need, or sometimes are requests are not answered and that causes frustration which can spill over into poor behaviours.
Just tackling the behaviour and not addressing the context within which the behaviours sits will not create a change, it will just make the situation worse.
I was giving a new member of our team a tour of one of our Hospitals this week. She is completely new to the NHS so as well as giving her a physical tour it was important to provide context to the work we are tasked to do in Organisational Development in relation to work culture, civility and leadership. The hospital is really busy, with every department under extreme pressure. So when we are developing work with teams it is essential that we just don’t focus on highlighting poor behaviours and help teams manage their environments to ensure the needs of the team, and their patients are in the first instance acknowledged and then addressed. This will help manage behaviours, give people autonomy over their workspace and allow true accountability.
If you work in healthcare and you want to address behaviours in your team, I can recommend this book. Restorative Practice at Work by Lesley Parkinson. The link is below. It has straightforward steps to follow.
Connected Coaching 