The Art of Practicing Safe Stress
Q: Do you have any stress-survival strategies for folks in mental health organizations who are battered by work pressures, managed care, increased competition among providers, a world full of unsolveable problems and a pay scale that is less than generous?
A: Whew!! I’m on the edge of exhaustion already. Budget cuts, reduction in resources and reimbursements, loss of patients and key personnel ... “managed scare” tactics. Today, an increasing number of allied health professionals must “do more with less.” Can anyone say “frightsizing” and “lean-and-MEAN”? Take heart. Have no fear (well, maybe a little) ... the Stress Doc is here with his Seven Highly Effective Organizational/Professional Strategies for Practicing Safe Stress.
1. Engage in group grieving. I’m going to assume almost everyone these days occasionally flirts with burnout. Too many, I fear, still engage in casual stress. Let’s start with a systems intervention for helping the community of employees grapple with the above-mentioned stressors and losses. And it’s not just loss of funds, fees and familiar faces.
Cynicism and despondency can build when we feel the organization, the profession, the healthcare industry and the larger society devalue our services and our once-cherished mission. It is important that workshops allow departments — if not the entire organization — to gather and grieve, enabling folks to see the tragedy and the comedy in an absurdist world. This encourages them to work through sadness and vulnerability, while focusing justified anger and helping regain a sense of purpose, play and control ... so they can rebuild the commitment fire.
2. Insure your pros with the “Triple A.” The basic formula for runaway job stress is simple: a work situation that has high demand and/or high professional responsibility combined with little authority or low control over work process and outcome. It’s not just a heavy workload that’s the culprit; people can thrive on a reasonably high volume of work if they have some impact on timing, scheduling and flow. Here are two philosophical and policy pillars for supporting employee integrity in these volatile times:
a) Encourage and integrate the “Triple A” of professional/ organizational responsibility: Authority, Autonomy and Accountability. Remember, management must let professionals exercise reasonable independence and individuality in thought and practice. Professionals must understand that accountability to clients and professional management, i.e., effective and ethical management, supports autonomy and credibility.
b) Question the notion of customer as king. To challenge an organizational ambiance where “client is king” and staff are withered and weary peasants, consider my Basic Law of Safe Stress: “Do know your limits, and don’t limit your no’s!”
3. Make task and process meet. “Not another meeting.” “Who has time for meetings?!” These can become familiar, plaintive cries in a downsized, pressure-packed setting. Drastically reducing organizational, departmental or team meetings is only a formula for isolation and confusion; making community time meaningful is the key. Many organizations under a time and resource crunch become increasingly task-driven. At some point, the meeting needs to connect with:
a) Establish a “Wavelength Segment.” In an hour or 90-minute meeting, set aside 15 or 20 minutes for processing, usually at the end of the session. Individuals and the team as a whole can check-in and tune-in with each other.
b) Rotate leadership. A common mistake is to always have a supervisor or manager run the show. Rotating the facilitator can enhance group involvement and commitment, reduce hierarchical decision-making and strengthen team concept and team morale.
c) Try a morning quickie. Sometimes an alternative to a formal meeting can be a 10-minute huddle at the beginning of the day. A quick gathering makes it easy to give the troops a heads up and affirm that all are on the same day/game/page.
4. Envision mission and goals. With the above policies, structures and procedures in place, hopefully, your agency and staff will not be sinking and disappearing. Perhaps management by crisis can be replaced by proactive leadership and creative consensus. This is especially critical after a major restructuring or downsizing. Set aside some team-building/staff-training time. If you haven’t already done so, consider bringing in a “Team-Visioning and Goal-Setting” consultant. For a mission statement to be viable, and for action plans that realize goals and objectives, there needs to be short-term and long-range planning as well as “buy-in” from staff.
5. Manage stress carriers. Now for a delicate matter: Some folks, even after partaking in these potentially rejuvenating steps, will not be able to rebuild the fire. They can’t renew a genuine sense of individual and/or organizational purpose and commitment — at least not on their own. Some may respond to individual supervision and coaching. Others may benefit from Employee Assistance Program (EAP) counseling or, hopefully, will seek out private psychotherapy. There may be a few individuals, however, who simply are not able to function in the still-demanding day-to-day environment. When management does not set appropriate limits and boundaries on such professional “stress carriers,” team morale and productivity are contaminated and compromised.
Sometimes employees must intervene with a supervisor or with management before decision-makers realize they are ignoring or covering up for an impaired colleague (who also may be a personal friend or, even, a high producer). Clearly, fair, effective (“do the right thing’) and efficient (“do the thing right”) grievance procedures must be in place. Engaging this troubled individual is essential for his or her own sake — as well as for others’. Remember, stress carriers may not get ulcers, but they certainly can give them!
6. Fireproof life with IRAs and PUNCH. Despite, or because of, the future-shock pace of change, some professionals will have “been there, done that” one too many times. (Organizational crisis often surfaces chronic individual frustrations.) Fireproof your life with variety. And for management and staff, I offer two stimulating acronyms:
a) Organizational IRAs. Provide “Incentives, Rewards and Advancement Opportunities” for employees. They all keep the mind, heart and soul supple and dynamic.
b) Entrepreneurial PUNCH. More than ever, organizations must develop new clients and resources. Here’s a quick outline of skills and strategies for entrepreneurial evolution and rejuvenation:
Public Presentation. Public speaking and workshop leading provide a powerful marketing vehicle
as well as a challenging, exhilarating and growth-producing opportunity.
User-Friendly. Avoid psychobabble, and communicate ideas with an expanded audience — face-to-face
or through writing and the electronic media — in a lively and tangible, meaningful and memorable
style.
Networking. Make connections with a variety of consumer groups and professional associations, not only with therapists and clinical societies.
Cyberspace and (Mass) Communications. There’s a whole new Internet frontier rapidly being explored and developed with myriad possibilities for clinicians and organizations —from EAP assistance and specialty chat groups to distance learning and training. Go web, young cyberite! Humor. You don’t have to be a standup comic, just appreciate the absurdity in the world and share your own imperfect humanness for a laugh. Remember, people are more willing, even eager, to open and receive a serious message when it’s gift-wrapped with humor. Every mental health organization needs at least one in-house “psychohumorist.” (tm)
7. Develop Psychological Hardiness. While this article has especially focused on team strategies, a vital group and community requires healthy and hardy individuals. To survive and thrive in a turbulent transition, build in these “Four ‘C’s of Masterful Coping”:
a. Commitment. Create balance in your life.
b. Control. Acknowledge limits and achieve your goals.
c. Change. Embrace uncertainty with flexibility.
d. Conditioning. Practice regular aerobic exercise.
In these tumultuous times, organizations must help rebuild individual energy. Management and professionals together must cultivate conflict-managing and harmonizing team structures, along with healthy boundaries, both within and with the outer environment. Organizations also need to encourage career and skill evolution in addition to responsibility for professional productivity and personal integrity. It takes a systems approach and individual hard work to forge that elusive balance: giving to your organization, colleagues and clients, as well as getting from others and giving to yourself. But when you create that balance, you definitely are ... Practicing Safe Stress! B
Mark Gorkin, “The Stress Doc,” is a nationally recognized speaker, workshop
leader, author and psychohumorist specializing in stress, reorganizational change, anger,
team building and humor.
His motto: “Have Stress? Will Travel!”
You can reach him by e-mail at: StressDoc@aol.com;
or his website www.Stressdoc.com or phone 202/232-8662.