As my mother always told me, it’s the little things that count!

How often do we hear phrases / cliches like this and not give it another thought? Lots. Most people have statements like this brush off them without any consideration of the origins of such statements.

I have been in hospital recently having a full on leg operation which has left me on crutches for 6 weeks which as those who know me (yes the one with some form of hyperactivity) this has been a real patience tester. While in hospital, under Private hospital cover, we have an expectation that this in itself will be somewhat akin to 5 star hotel service. And while the Brisbane Mater Private is a nice modern hospital it suffers as do all health care organisations (or many) from accounting disease.

Accounting disease is where numbers rule the business. I have seen it too many times. A business beholden to the financial statements and processes that make good looking numbers. I know a time not so long ago when the main driver behind the Mater and similar hospitals was their beliefs and desire to provide first class patient care. I have a little more insight to this particular hospital as my partner was a long term nurse there through both regimes. The regime where the nuns and their belief in care over ran the current methodologies of everything about the numbers.

Don’t misunderstand my statement, I know exactly what has had to happen, the hospitals have had to become more efficient, money is the driving force in maintaining these hospitals and the need to manage it is important, however as a customer / patient of these businesses and all businesses you can tell the difference in who really cares. And no amount of money can make a good nurse. No amount of money makes a nurse who cares enough, no amount of bean counting can make another Mother Theresa.

What business is your business about?
Hospitals should be about providing the best possible health care and results for patients. Can accountants and financial statements provide that?
Can technology companies provide real customer experiences? Or can they only provide accounting results or software their techs dream up?

I know in my stay that I was looked after and cared for in many different ways. My overall review is good, not excellent, certainly not a raving fan. But individually there were some great people looking after me.

And you know what it was that made the big difference?

The little things. All the nurses were equally qualified, some with more or less experience. The aides equally experienced. But the little things made the difference. A small smile and chirpy “sure no problem” when you were asking for something in the middle of the night. The extra blanket or help you were given because they noticed something when you were too drugged out to really be able to ask, or just a simple, “gee you look like you could handle a cup of tea” at 2am when you could think of nothing better.

A simple pat on the arm to make some human contact, shifting your things around to make you more comfortable, not bringing their busy work dramas into the room when they stopped in and just focusing on your individual needs were all some of the very special thins 1 or 2 of my nurses and aides did that mattered most to me.

It is the same in what I observe in my own staff and with our suppliers, when you really know something is going well, as they fill ina gap ro do something to help knowing it will and that it won’t take too much of their time to do so. It is a staff member who may have been sick or is worrying about outside issues who cheerfully takes demanding calls and helps to solve someones issues, or reaches out to help do something or extend a courtesy without expectation of reward. It is these times you realise how much good humans can do and all it really takes is just 1 or 2 small little things a day and our whole world does become a better place.

I also know the converse is true. That when we as a company miss little things they can easily become bigger issues, particularly if it is the little things we have previously done well, people notice them more and they do matter more than a big issue. Normally big things come about from something major going wrong, computers crashing etc. Little thigns come down to humans.

It is a tricky one, how to encourage more of the little things, how to focus on them more and not to count how much they cost a business to do, but more what or why do we do them for. We do them because they matter to our customers, our patients.

How can we make more staff who care, more nurses that want to nurse people to good health, or make their last days their best, rather than just make a wage. It pains me a lot to understand why is there even a need ot help workers understand what service is. Shouldn’t it just be logical / obvious. Alas it is not.

I figured I would Google ‘it’s the little things that count’ and see what other stories there are out there. Interestingly one of the first that mentions it was from a hospital in the USA.
John Hopkins

As well at Microsoft they noticed it was the little stuff about work that made the difference for employees.

Ireckon we all need to try some more of the little things in our day to day interaction with the world!

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