What's Your Workplace MO?

Megan Guido:                 00:00                  Well, welcome everybody. Thanks for joining "What's your MO in healthcare? And today I have a very distinguished guest, Deena Rauch who recently received her doctorate in nursing practice. She is also a fellow certified color-code trainer. I've known Deena for probably about 20 years now. Most recently she is working as a Chief Nursing Officer for a critical access hospital in Idaho. And today we're going to explore how you have used Color Code throughout your career spanning what, 20, 30 years now as a nurse. And tell me a little bit about your most recent position.Deena Rauch :                 00:51                  I started at the hospital I'm at now in August of 2017. I came to fill in as an interim Chief Nursing Officer for four months. And I liked it so well. I decided I would stay. So I've been there a little over two years now. My responsibilities include overseeing all the nursing units as well as cardiopulmonary services, infection prevention, education case management, utilization review.Megan Guido:                 01:39                  It's a big job. So getting into the Color Code. I should explain to my guests that you are a red, blue, blue, red.Deena Rauch :                 01:54                  I'm a blue with a secondary red.Megan Guido:                 01:58                  So with your self awareness around that, how have you used Color Code and the strengths of the blue to help you navigate in your job as a Chief Nursing Officer?Deena Rauch :                 02:14                  Well, I've used Color Code formally in two organizations and I'd say rather informally in a couple others. I think that color code provides a foundation for personal and professional growth. I think it also establishes a common language that organizations can use to discuss workplace issues like performance, communication; Color Code helps to navigate through conflict and problem solving. I think that it also gives us insight into how our behavior affects others and it helps us to develop that emotional intelligence when we have to work with others.Megan Guido:                 03:08                  Absolutely. That's what it does. It really does provide that foundation for an organization. So as a Chief Nursing Officer, how have you used the strengths of your color? Primarily blue with the secondary red to navigate some of those things that you talked about? Like conflict resolution.Deena Rauch :                 03:31                  Relationship, intimacy. I'm able to use that to develop strong teams. I use that by gaining trust, developing those teams by acknowledging others' strengths and their communication styles around those strengths. So to approach a red, I use as a whole different skill set than when you're trying to approach another blue personality, a white or yellow.Megan Guido:                 04:05                  Absolutely. So realizing that we can't go into any specifics, but maybe you could draw from your past experience. Any examples that you can think of where you utilized what you knew as a Color Code trainer and brought those strengths forward to resolve a conflict or to deal with something in the workplace?Deena Rauch :                 04:32                  Well, I knew you were going to ask me that.Deena Rauch :                 04:36                  Color Code is so much a part of who I am and how I do my work, that it's in constant motion for me. I can't really pull out specifics. I do know that if I am working with a red personality compared to my own blue personality, that I can be assertive up front and even mildly confrontational if I need to be. And I know that person isn't going to linger or worry about that. It's just getting it out...Megan Guido:                 05:20                  Just getting to the bottom line and the facts.Deena Rauch :                 05:23                  Right. I don't have to worry about feelings and things getting in the way of a direct conversation. And so I kind of liken it to putting on my big girl panties as a red with the red. Um, and knowing that I can just, um, tell it like it is.Megan Guido:                 05:44                  Exactly. So how about the other colors, yellows and whites? Are they more challenging?Deena Rauch :                 05:53                  I think that all of the types can be challenging in their own ways, and easier in some ways. I think where it gets glitchy is if somebody isn't real healthy. If people are healthy in, in their lives and they approach their work and their life with clean motives, it's a lot easier to have conversations with those folks. If somebody isn't very healthy, and they approach their life with unhealthy motives, then that trips up honest and genuine communication.Megan Guido:                 06:40                  So tell me more about that. That's an interesting notion. This idea of a clean motive.Deena Rauch :                 06:47                  I think clean motives serve others in a positive way or manner. aA dirty motive is when you're only looking out for yourself and what you want out of a relationship.Megan Guido:                 07:03                  So how would you experience someone who has a clean motive? Um, are they more authentic? Do you feel like you can have, you know, where they're coming from?Deena Rauch :                 07:14                  Absolutely.Megan Guido:                 07:15                  Whereas someone with what you call a dirty motive, how would you experience them?Deena Rauch :                 07:20                  A clean motive helps you gain win-win solutions rather than win-lose solutions or lose-lose solutions.Megan Guido:                 07:33                  That's an interesting way to put it. That might help the audience understand what we're talking about because there's some vernacular within Color Code that is very clear to us but may not be to others. But you are talking about someone who may not be authentic and not coming across as being authentic or you get kind of mixed signals. That could be someone who's not healthy, in terms of who they are. They are not comfortable in who they are. It's very hard to read those people and to have an effective relationship with them. Tell me a little bit more about your work as a chief nursing officer. You know, that's kind of the pinnacle in terms of a nurse who is going into administration and working in a hospital. What are some of the challenges that you face?Deena Rauch :                 08:39                  Well, anytime you put people together, you always have challenges. I think healthcare is a challenging occupation. It is rapidly changing and the way we've done things are not going to sustain us into the future. So we're constantly innovating, creating, developing and evaluating how our work affects patient outcomes.Megan Guido:                 09:20                  I think you summarized that nicely. That is basically the environment that people working in a hospital and in healthcare are dealing with everyday -- constant change. Why would an organization spend time and money on something like a personality assessment tool like Color Code. People may think that's not really worth the money when we have all these other things we have to invest in. Why would someone like yourself who has experienced the power of Color Code and how it helps people, why is it important for a leader to invest in something like Color Code?Deena Rauch :                 10:05                  I think if you look at evidence based practice and knowing personality styles, it helps you get it right the first time. So like when we apply evidence based practice to solving healthcare problems, we know that the answer is out there. We just have to go look for it and do it. I think with using Color Code as an example to get to know and understand people, we get our relationships right the first time. We can communicate and build on that relationship to be more productive and effective at work and in our personal lives.Megan Guido:                 11:01                  Well said. It really speeds up the process, right? We don't have as much time to get it right. We have to be expedient in terms of our work because things are changing all the time. And so this gives you that ability to move to trust more quickly.Deena Rauch :                 11:21                  I think also in the context of problem solving that the more diversity you have around that problem, in terms of how people view the situation or view the world, that you can reach better solutions to those problems if you have the diversity too.Megan Guido:                 11:51                  Right, you're going to get knowledge, those different viewpoints up front and, and bring them together to begin with.Deena Rauch :                 11:58                  And that you can acknowledge others values and their unique perspectives, which enhances the team and the problem solving.Megan Guido:                 12:08                  Thank you for being my guest on What's your M.O. in healthcare. Until next time, this is Megan Guido with What's your M.O. in healthcare.

Announcer:                      00:05                  Welcome to what's your MO in Healthcare, the podcast that's all about understanding the core motives of the people you work with and manage in healthcare.Megan:                            00:17                  Welcome to What's your MO in Healthcare? And today I have Greg Clifford and he is a recently retired EMT who is joining me today to talk a little bit about his experience as a volunteer EMT, what that involves and what are some of the stressors and Things that may be people in the medical profession can learn from his experience, whether it comes to burnout or what drives someone to become an EMT and maybe learn some lessons from Greg. So with that, welcome.Greg                                                             Thanks for having me.Megan                                                         You bet. So Greg, let me start off. Um, you're a volunteer EMT. Recently retired. How long were you a volunteer EMT?Greg                                 01:05                  I've got 20 years at the end of this year in EMS. I started back in the 90s, but I took a few breaks and so, you know, there's actually more years since I started to now than there than I did in service.Megan:                            01:22                  And what interested you about the profession?Greg:                                01:27                  It's funny because I've sat on a lot of interview committees for new EMTs in our organization. We askthat question all the time. You know what, why do you want to be an EMT? What motivated you? Everybody gives a pat answer. I want to help people, right? What people forget to say, a lot of their motivations are beyond that. You know, it's nice to help people, but there's an excitement to it, right? There's a, maybe somebody was in a situation where they saw somebody that needed CPR or somebody who was in a car wreck. They came upon them and they felt helpless. And so for me, I had some situations like that too, where you know, that, wow, uh, I feel like I don't have anything to offer to these people that needed help. I had a landlord that was multigenerational firefighter and he invited me to come down to fire station one night, see what they did and what they were all about. And I saw that and I thought, this is so cool. These people are empowered with these new sets of skills with these tools to do something more than just stand by or call 911 So that's really above and beyond helping people why I wanted to do it.Megan:                            02:36                  So it was feeling empowerment, feeling like you could offer something and that satisfaction of building your skills. So why did you decide to do that on a volunteer basis versus making it a career?Greg:                                02:55                  I was already pretty far along in my career when I got the opportunity to try it out. But I did consider a career change at one point. But EMS is not a high paying field unless you've been in it a long time and you end up being management or something, you know, teaching you how to add things on, you know, or have lots of years of service. So it's, it's pretty low pay for what they have to do. So I stayed in the broadcast/IT world instead.Megan:                            03:30                  Yeah. It has its own stresses, I'm sure. So what does a volunteer EMT schedule look like? How does that work versus being on the payroll?Greg:                                03:44                  Different in every department. When I was in Pennsylvania, they had what they called the jolly volley slot and that was 6:00 PM to midnight. So after most people were done working, they would go and run until midnight when most people need to go to bed so they can sleep and do their day job. In Moscow here it's different. It's shift based. So you have A, B, C, D shift and you're on for 24 hours from 7:30 morning until 7:30 the next morning.Megan                             04:17                  when you say you're on, you're on call, correct?Greg:                                04:21                  Yup. So you carry a radio with you, you also have an app on your phone that will send you an alert and that's whatever you're doing, you're supposed to drop what you're doing and go answer the call.Megan:                            04:34                  So that might be one of those stressors in terms of being on call, because working in the healthcare field, I talk to practitioners and doctors and they say that's probably one of the most stressful things is being on call. So tell me why that is. Why is that stressful?Greg:                                04:51                  Yeah. You can never just truly relax, right? You can't even watch a movie at home without thinking, well, I've got to have my radio on. It's got to be loud enough that it can hear it over the movie. Um, at night when you sleep, you’ve got to balance like, well, I need this radio loud enough. It's going to wake me up, but hopefully not wake my spouse up. It's just never, you're always on alert. You're always on high alert. There's just no time to really, you know, you can't go out and eat, because your meal probably will get interrupted and you'll have to walk away from your friends that you wanted to have dinner with. Things like that. So you have to, you have to give up a lot while your on call.Megan:                            05:29                  And what are some of the other stressors that an EMT particularly volunteer EMT would experience?Greg:                                05:36                  Oh, you are going to eventually run into somebody you know and it might even be somebody that's your own family if you're in a small enough town. So you may find yourself doing CPR on your own relative or on your best friend’s relatives. It's a, yeah, that's another stressor for them.Megan:                                                        Any particular examples or stories that you're willing or able to tell that were particularly traumatic or that you remember?Greg:                                                           Well I did CPR on my own brother-in-law. That was a not a comfortable thing. And you know, we're, we're trained to just do our thing, right? We train enough, we know what to do. We just go into action. But you also look up once in a while just to see or is it still a safe place for me to be? Things like that. That's part of your training. And I remember doing CPR on my brother in law and looking up and what I saw was horrified faces of my wife and my sister in law and the grief on their faces. It was just so huge. And you know, you just feel that to the core of yourself when you see that going on. It happens with people you don't know. Yyu look up and see their grief, but when it's somebody, you know, it really strikes home.Megan:                            06:57                  How do you manage that? How do you come off of something like that?Greg:                                07:02                  It's hard. Mostly, at least for me, you just push it down deep somewhere and you try to put it away. And that's some of the motivation for me to stop doing this. I’ve pushed 20 years of it down and I'm not sure I have the resilience to keep pushing it down.Megan:                                                        How do you think it might express itself?Greg:                                                           Oh, all kinds of ways. I mean, burnout, you know, that's the thing. It's like, whether you call it burnout, compassion, fatigue, PTSD, they're all really tightly intertwined. All those terms and it expresses itself like “Ever been so tired that it hurts?”  mean, that's for me was the symptom as of late. It's just you, it doesn't matter who, if you sleep eight hours or 10 hours or 12 hours, you still just have to drag yourself out of bed the next day because it's not just a physical hurt, it's a mental hurt on top of it. It just consumes you. Just uses every bit of energy you have after a while.Megan                                                         So your colleague, some paid, some volunteers. Is it something that people talk about? Is it something that you can see maybe as someone who's maybe experiencing that have a higher awareness?Greg:                                08:28                  There is more awareness and it’s becoming more acceptable to talk about it nowadays. Um, there's a code green campaign, which is a bigger nationwide one, but even locally, we've tried to put together some peer support groups and things like that. And I think our command people are embracing it more than they used to. But in Moscow in particular, we're a very young organization as far as our EMTs. So our ratio of 20 year olds to people who are 40 plus is it's way different. So at 20, you've got a lot more resilience. I mean, these are the people that we're sending to the front lines in war and expecting to protect your country. Well, we do that because that's the age of people who, you know, charge forward. They work hard. They can go 24 hours without sleeping and still function the next day. You don't see a lot of really old EMTs and, that's why. Age has something to do with it. The physical nature of the work.Megan:                                                        But you're saying also the years of seeing things and pushing down those memories are the things that in order to keep functioning eventually does catch up.Greg:                                09:44                  Yeah. We had a, a recent college graduate who’s still with us in our EMS who said to a couple of us the other day, “I don't know how you guys do this and have full time jobs?” because now he's out of school and he's having to deal with the rigors of a full time job plus doing the volunteer work. He's only 20 somethin. It’s tough to balance it.Megan:                            10:11                  So any words of wisdom to a young person just getting into this field, maybe something around recognizing when they might be feeling burnt out or the importance of pacing yourself or anything after looking back at 25 years of doing this?Greg:                                10:31                  Yeah, I think you need to talk to people when you feel bad. It used to be everybody who is associated with fire departments, mostly with EMS and the volunteer world and they've got a way about them, you know, they eat smoke and they do brave things and run into fires and all this and that whole mindset wasn't really conducive to people saying “I don't feel good. I feel crappy after that call. I feel sad.” You just, you didn't say it. Nowadays there are different generations. We’ve got the Gen Z's and the Millennials and, and all that. They are less worried about having people judge them about mental issues and there's less stigma I think with these newer generations. I think they're more willing to talk about it. That's great. That's a positive.Greg:                                11:28                  I think it's good because you’ve got to talk it through sometimes. I'll have it build up and build up.  In a non-volunteer setting where you're running with a partner a lot and maybe the same core group of people. you talk amongst each other but in a volunteer situation, you don't often work with the same people all the time. Especially in our world (university town) where the churn happens because they graduate and they leave. So you end up always with new people and you don't have that comfort of, well this person knows me, I've been running with them for 10 years or 5 years or whatever. Right. It's a new person. So your shields are up a little bit around that new person and you're probably more in that mentor teaching role.Greg:                                12:19                  And they look to you as the wise one and you talk about positive things with them and encourage them to be better, not bring them down. So it's hard to take somebody that you're trying to mentor and, and say, “I had a really crappy call.” EMS isn't what you see on TV. It's not all emergency calls and resuscitations you know, a lot of it is nursing home calls and people who are too poor to get medical attention. So they call you because of whatever, you know, or they need to go to the ER because they can't afford a copay or if they even have insurance or they might not even have it.Megan                             13:19                  So you see a lot of cross section of people that uh, they're calling you because you're the only medical help they're going to get.  So I think what I'd like to do to end is bring it back to Color Code, which is what my podcast is based on. Remember it's a personality assessment tool. I asked you to take that test and you scored a little bit higher on Yellow, which is someone who's motivated by fun and likes that variety and excitement in their work. And that makes a lot of sense because that drew you to this field, which I imagine, you know, you never know what you're going to get into. There are folks who really like that. That's an adrenaline thing. Exciting. But you also tested fairly high on Blue, which is motivated by relationships again, makes perfect sense because you're working with people, you're motivated to help them. Those two colors happen to be very emotion-based so you can see how someone like yourself after 20 some odd years of doing this, it could be pretty draining because it's a highly emotional thing. It does make sense and helpful for people to think about that. That's why that's such an important tool because it helps you understand why you're responding the way you are and helps you make some decisions and understand how you can help yourself.Megan:                            14:52                  Well with that, Greg, I so appreciate it. Interesting topic and wish you all the best in your retirement and enjoy yourself after so many years of service that we really appreciate.Greg:                                                           Thanks. You bet. Okay. With that, this is What's your MO in Healthcare?Megan:                            15:12                  Thanks for listening to what's your MO in Healthcare? You can find us on Apple podcasts or on Podbean. If you like this podcast, we encourage you to subscribe and to let us know what you think. You can also follow us on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. Our website is MOinhealthcare.com

Megan Guido: Welcome everybody, this is Megan Guido with What's Your M.O. in Healthcare? And today I have a very special guest, Amber Roberts, who is a certified color code trainer. She and I have worked together for over a year now teaching color-code and I'm thrilled to have her on the program as a fairly new color code trainer. She is a red-yellow and I love to have red-yellows on my show because those are the colors that I am the least of and I think we make a great compliment as a team.Amber Roberts: Hi, glad to be here. Thank you.Megan Guido: Amber, you are a nurse. And then tell me what your capacity is as a nurse and what you're currently doing.Amber Roberts: I've been a nurse for 22 years years. And for 17 of those years, I worked as an obstetrical nurse, and so labor and delivery, postpartum nursery. And for the following seven years I was an assistant nurse director. And then since 2015, so the last four years, I have been a nurse educator but that includes education for everybody that works in a hospital, not just nurses.Megan Guido: Great so you made a bit of a career change there. So Amber, can you tell us a time at work where you had a strong reaction as a red personality, and that interaction didn't go well, in hindsight now that you know the color code skills, you could have handled that interaction differently?Amber Roberts: Yes, absolutely. I was actually a working manager and we had a delivery and we had a situation where a baby was not doing well, didn't have a heartbeat, wasn't breathing. And I had all my equipment out and this and that and I went to grab a piece of equipment that's always there and it wasn't there. And long story short, it's because the baby area didn't get stocked by somebody else. And when we were doing the delivery, I said, "Please go check, make sure everything's set up and we'll be ready to go. I'm expecting a shoulder dystocia so this might not be a good baby." And so I trusted that they did all of that, well long story short when it was time to get the baby back to this world I didn't have the necessary equipment. The baby did live and did great and was fine and wonderful.Amber Roberts: But how I handled it later, about an hour later, was asking that CNA (certified nurse assistant) what they were thinking, and the person happened to be pregnant, the girl, and I said, "What if that was your baby in there? Would you have wanted me to have the equipment or not to save your child?" Which was very, very direct and unnecessary really. And so I was under stress. I felt I delegated, which is typical behavior of a red under stress, And then I let them know how I felt exactly after which they didn't ask me for the feedback. I just offered it.Megan Guido: So looking back on that now that you know what you know about yourself and what some of the other strengths are from the other colors, how do you think you might have had that conversation?Amber Roberts: I definitely think I needed to retract myself out of the moment for a day or two and really think about what happened. I mean, we had a good outcome. I didn't need to go rant right away, nothing was going to get solved. And really grabbed from some of my blue strengths which would have been to process and then have a conversation calmly and be like, "I have a problem and I need your help, how can we make sure that this doesn't happen again? Because in our delivery the other day I didn't have," I can't remember what it was the ET tube or something. And just process it together instead of it being an accusatory thing because I could have easily double-checked it earlier, but I didn't. I delegated it during a stressful time and so there were things that we both obviously needed to do. It wasn't just a one-person show. So definitely grab from another color.Megan Guido: And reds have a tendency to be pretty reactionary and even being able to say what emotions you were feeling at that time could be pretty impactful to a blue to appeal to them because they understand feelings.I think everybody has those episodes at work and not just in healthcare that you could look back and say, "Wow, now that I have these tools, how could I have managed that differently or had a conversation?" But what's so neat to see is that because you do have that awareness now of yourself, you can look back and say, "I probably should have taken a day to process this and think it and also learn, as a manager, what we could do to avoid that situation." So those are really great examples of how powerful color code can be.Amber Roberts: Not only in your work life but your personal life.Megan Guido: Amber, thank you for taking the time to talk to me and to be part of my new podcast and enjoy working with you as a new trainer and I appreciate who you are.Amber Roberts: Thank you.

Megan Guido:                   Hi, it's Megan Guido with, What's your M.O. in Healthcare? If you've ever been called overly sensitive, it's likely you're a blue personality. I should know, I'm a strong blue, and throughout my life I've always been called overly sensitive. Of course, I don't like that because I'm sensitive and I don't like being called that. Being sensitive isn't necessarily a bad thing though, particularly in healthcare. We want sensitivity, we want compassionate healthcare providers who are empathetic, who listen and believe in the work that they're doing. That's what everybody wants.Megan Guido:                   But in healthcare, I mean, let's face it, it can be pretty stressful taking care of people, and if you're overworked or under a lot of stress, it can come out. The limitations of a blue can really come out. So, a possible example is an overworked, stressed-out blue nurse seeing way too many patients, and maybe they're understaffed. That person may come across overly critical or judgmental of their patients or their coworkers. Rather than being empathetic and understanding, they're passing judgment. They may come across as self-righteous and even come across as a bit of a martyr, "No one works as hard as I do, the hours I'm putting in. This nurse is not helping me out. Those CNAs, they just don't have the work ethic like a blue does."Megan Guido:                   So, what can you do if you are managing stressed-out blues? Well, there are a couple of key things that are really important to a blue. You need to stop and listen, and that takes time and patience, but that's really important. They don't necessarily want you to solve things, but you do have to take the time to listen to their concerns and acknowledge their efforts and all the hard work that they're doing, not in a condescending way.Megan Guido:                   It needs to be sincere, but you need to acknowledge what they're doing and that they're under a crunch and that there is maybe an end in sight. Help them create some boundaries. It's okay for a blue to say no. It's very hard for them to do it and they're often very guilt-ridden, but you as the manager, that's your job to help them identify where it's appropriate to draw boundaries, and you need to draw some of those boundaries for a blue if they're not able to do it themselves.Megan Guido:                   And help a blue realize that folks have positive intent, different colors express their connection to human beings and patients and coworkers differently than a blue, and you need to be respectful of that as a blue. It's not always going to look exactly like you think it should. So, those are just some tips for helping blues, who you work with a lot in healthcare, and you as a manager can help them during tough times. I hope that's helpful. For now, this is Megan Guido with, What's your M.O. in Healthcare?

Welcome to what's your motive in healthcare, the podcast that's all about understanding the core motive of the people you work with and manage in healthcare. Hi there, I'm Megan Guido, your host for what's your motive in healthcare. And today I have a very special guest, Dorcas Hirzel. She is a fellow color-code trainer and healthcare professional who's worked in hospital settings as a nurse in charge of risk management, regulatory and quality control. Dorcas, thanks so much for coming on my podcast and we have worked together for a very long time. We have, and I'm just thrilled to have you here. How  long have you worked in health care? ----more----Dorcas:  I received my RN license in 1975 and so really long, really long time. how has healthcare changed in that? Oh, it's just been amazing. It really has been amazing. I mean, the technology, just keeping up with the technology is such a challenge. I mean, I really admire the people that are doing clinical care and in all aspects, not just nursing but respiratory, respiratory care and other areas. and being part of the care team. Megan: Yeah. And now, I know you worked in regulatory for quite awhile. Dorcas: I did, yes. I, probably my most recent job started in 1989 and I retired in 2015. Cool. And what was life like working in the regulatory field in healthcare? it was very dynamic. I think it was a challenge in the sense that a healthcare organization has its own culture and sometimes finding that compatible with regulatory requirements is, is a big challenge. Megan: And in addition to the work as I'm doing regulatory, also became trained as a color code facilitator. I did. And provided that service to the hospital that you were working for for a long time. I’m teaching it at new employee orientation. And then I know you've taught it at different organizations as well and that's, you were really my mentor and that's how I got involved in it. how long did you teach color code then? Dorcas:. Actually has been 30 years. Wow. And why is it so fun for you? Why do you like Color Code? I think it's, for me it's a labor of love. It really made sense to me and gave me some real insight, not only in my work life and my work relationships, but also my personal life and for instance, my children and, a lot of things became very clear. It's amazing how it does that. It's like the light bulb goes off. It does. Yep. So maybe you can share with the audience, I've gone into some of the traits and wants and needs of the different colors. You are a strong red. Dorcas: Yes, yes I am. Megan: And how did that translate into your work life? Dorcas:. I think for one thing, I was very driven and being productive is huge and I was in a job where that was important as well. So it seemed to mesh pretty well. but I think, there are challenges, especially I think healthcare attracts quite a few blue personalities because of that human connection and that human bond. And I think that, just learning sort of the composition of our healthcare facility and understanding more about how we were as an organization, sort of what colors we reflected really helped me in terms of approaching others and working with teams. I, I did work a lot with teams. and it just, it, it clarified a lot and gave me some tools that really helped me be more proactive, not just reactive, to be able to really anticipate how people receive information differently, how they communicate differently, how they process differently. It was all very, as I said, insightful and again gave me a lot of tools. Megan:. So in your role in regulatory, I mean that's a very somewhat rigid world disciplinary defined what the rules are, etc. How do you color code kind of give you a, a balance to that? Dorcas:. I found out pretty early in my career that telling people that something is required by law doesn't always give them a lot of incentive to do things differently. But what I found was if I could somehow blend the culture of the organization with the requirements, the regulatory requirements, and show how we are meeting those based on our own culture base based on how we do things. That was a real plus. I think people appreciated that because it wasn't like they had to change because they were, they, they were doing things right. It's just that it was a matter of finding a way to communicate sort of our unique culture to the regulators and help them understand how we, in fact we're meeting these very important requirements. Megan:.So a key part of doing that I imagine was incentivizing people like, okay, the joint commission is coming and we know that we have to have all these things in place. How do you motivate a yellow, for instance, who is very motivated by fun, to get on board and be all about roles for awhile? Dorcas:  we had training events and actually I engaged a yellow coworker to be the party planner because I knew that wasn't really my strong point. so she was able to put together these, these great events that, where people were learning what they needed to learn. And, and I, I think becoming more comfortable with questions that may maybe asked of them, but at the same time we're able to have a good time. So. Cool. So that was a direct way to use what you know in terms of people's motives and what drives them to produce a successful outcome. Dorcas:. Right. Yes. And I think, for the most part we had great attendance and great response and we use that, many times because healthcare is a pretty serious business. And to give people an opportunity to have some fun and eat some food.Megan:. Yeah. So speaking of serious, safety and healthcare, huge topic, they've been talking about it probably since the early two thousands when I know the, To Err is Human  came out and that was such a kind of breakthrough, in terms of the role of safety and it was a wake up call. Yeah. A wake up call. So we've done a good job in terms of realizing the role of human beings and healthcare and the importance of reliability and, ensuring that processes are in place, et cetera. how would, I mean it seems like kind of a leap, but it really isn't. Color-code is all about communication and improving communication and relationships. How would that relate to safety in the hospital? Dorcas:.I think that if you understand where the other person is coming from and that includes what their motive is, their driving motive, then you can approach them in a way that isn't threatening, isn't condescending that you can actually communicate with them in a way that helps them understand what's happening. Like for instance, if you're doing a handoff, which is a care team turning over the care of a patient to another care team, if you know what the motives are of the folks on the team, you can approach them in a, in a very appropriate way. For instance, with a red, they think in and, bullet points. They do not think in stories. So you try to tell them a story, you'll lose them. So just get the pertinent information to them as efficiently as possible. With a blue blues tend to like stories. So they want to know everything about their patient and they'll want to know how the best way is to care for them. And those are important points to point out with the white. I think what you need to do is probably just give them the facts, their logic based like the red is blues and yellows are emotion-based. So to know that they're logic-based to provide them with what is necessary for them to do their job with a yellow, I think it's important to make sure that they feel like they can manage the project, whatever it is or manage the care. And so it's important to keep it small, keep it confined, don't give them a whole thing at, in one session. But keep them on task, keep them focused. That's very important. And, and I think that provides an opportunity for success of that team. Also I think is important that the team understands who they are, what their team members are and what motivates them as well. We have had a lot of conversations around that. Megan:. Yes, the composition of the team, by virtue of its makeup and the different colors that are on the team is going to have a certain personality or there might be someone who's a little bit more dominant. But as someone who has an understanding of those colors, you can see how to more effectively communicate with them individually, but then it might be more of a challenge as a whole. Dorcas: I think collectively, I think we need all the colors. And so the ideal team has some of all the colors. but we didn't use color code to actually formulate teams. We basically got the people in there that were closest to whatever process we were looking at and be able to have their input in terms of where improvements need to be made or, and, or changes needed to be made. Megan:.  And you're not going to always have the luxury of putting together the team that you want to have. Right, yeah. On team. Yeah. And then there are some downsides to having like everybody who thinks like you may not always be the most productive or the best way to go. Dorcas:. Absolutely. That's why I say, the most balanced team is where you have all the colors represented. And that again, you don't always have control over that, but at least you can recognize the gifts that each member brings to the team and really look at how you can optimize those gifts. Megan: Exactly. Focus on the strengths. Absolutely. So let's talk a little bit about that, that whole idea of strengths and limitations that each color has. And I know that I'm pretty familiar with my limitations as a blue, as a blue purist. And, and they usually come out when I'm under some amount of stress and I can even, because I'm pretty familiar with color code and I think I'm gaining on self-awareness, I can even feel myself going into those limitations of a blue. How about you? In terms of a red, how have you had to navigate through your strengths and limitations? Dorcas:  I, I am, I feel like I want to be very productive. I want to be, I want to contribute. I am not a processor. so that has been a challenge. I'm not very patient. That also has been a challenge. I've had to work on those things. But I think one thing that I found is that if I know someone, for instance, instances a strong white, I have to really tone down my intensity because I just scares them. And so if I can just be a little bit more mellow, make a more relaxed environment for them, then that will help them feel more relaxed as well. And I think it's a great tool to use.Megan:  Isn't it? When you can know, and we talked about a hundred percent responsibility and that you have control over this situation because you have that tool and you know how to approach that person. Absolutely. To have the most effective relationship. So it really is a gift. Dorcas: and it is, it's about diversity. It's about meeting people on their own ground, not expecting them to change for you or not ex, not expecting them to accept you, or to try and change them. Right. Because we'd like to try and change people.Dorcas:  Well blues do.  Megan: Yeah. I should speak for myself. Yeah. So as a blue, I know that some of my challenges have been not taking things so personally. being able to kind of step back and let someone else run the show. blues are pretty controlling. Dorcas: Just like the reds we like high quality. Megan:. Yes. We like the high quality and then, and being on the, what I call the moral high ground, probably want one of my biggest challenges is working with, and you brought up whites, yellows I, I have trouble with because I have a little sliver of yellow and it's so foreign to me. It's probably what I'd like to be. I'm very envious of yellows. I want to be, I don't want to be a yellow want to be, but I've had to learn to embrace yellows. And what I might think is kind of flighty behavior is, is them being them. And like you said, kind of giving them small tasks and not just laying the whole thing out and certainly not talking about any negatives. that's not going to go over well with the yellow. Dorcas:.No. And I think with the whites is similar, in the sense that you give them tasks that aren't overwhelming and then leave them alone so they can do those things because they know how they know how to do it. probably better than you, but just to let them have their autonomy and have their blues are like that too. They like to have their autonomy. but I also think it's very helpful to understand how people process information and make decisions. Because for me that was a big Aha. I thought everybody thought like me and they don't, so I was impatient with them. Such as, “Why can't you make a decision about this?” And I think it's so important to be able to say, some people need more time to process information and come up with a solution or decision while others can do it pretty easily on the spur of the moment. those are your crisis management people. but I think being able to, one have permission to say, I just need some time to think about this and I'll get back to you I think is so valuable as well as on the other side. For instance, a red going, "I know you need some time, get back to me when you can.".MeganRight? Having that awareness and that's something that I know has grown with you in terms of, what I've seen and our personal relationship and how color-code has taught you that, which is pretty cool.And I think what happens is that, again, this is, this is also about empowerment, about taking responsibility for your relationships and understanding that it's not their problem. It's something I can fix. It's something that I can, I can, I can do to change. And that growing and evolving. And developing in life is what it's all about.This has been a wonderful time just chatting with you about one of our favorite subjects, which is color code and how it's impacted our life. And just happy to have you as a regular guest. Always appreciate your insights as someone who has taught me so much, and I hope we can do it again real soon. Dorcas:. I certainly enjoy our being able to work together and teach together and learn from each other. Megan:. So thank you. Okay, thank you. Until then, this is what your mo in healthcare.

Today I'm talking about Color-Code, a personality assessment tool that I've been using for more than 10 years in healthcare settings to help teams be more effective. There are lots of personality tests out there, right? There's Myers-Briggs, there's DISC, but Color Code is different. It was developed by a psychologist, Dr. Taylor Hartman and Color Code goes beyond just the behaviors of people, which most personality assessments look at the what, what is someone doing? It digs in deeper to the why, their motive for doing what they do. In other words, trying to understand why that person always needs to be right, or why that person seems overly sensitive. You know, "I can never say the right thing. It always offends her." Or "Why can't, a person does make a decision? They seem really indecisive." Color Code helps you understand why someone behaves the way they do by understanding their driving core motive. It's more than just a fun assessment. It is a valuable tool that will help you navigate relationships and be a more effective teammate and manager. I should know, I've been teaching it, like I said, for more than 10 years in hospitals and healthcare, healthcare organizations. And I see that incredible impact it has on people. Like the light bulb goes off for people. All of a sudden they're like, "Oh, that's why I'm not getting along with that person because they see the world and they're motivated by things totally different from me." The benefit of color code is it can help you as a manager except and utilize the strengths and talents of your teammates and of the people that you manage more effectively. It can help you communicate with them based on their needs and their wants. And isn't that an incredible gift as a manager to know how to work more effectively with your team? ----more----There's a key thing to understand about Color Code. It's based on this premise that your core motive is a Nate. So just like lady Gaga, I was born this way, my core color is blue. I'm a blue purest, which means that about 68% or higher in your primary color, you become a purist. And I'm at about 60% so I'm a strong blue. Another way to look at a core motive is what gets you, gets you up out of bed every morning. What gets you excited? What drives your behavior? So let's get into the colors. What everybody wants to know the code behind the colors. Reds always have to go first. So we always talk about the reds first. Reds are motivated by power. Now most people immediately go to, oh, they're control freaks. While they do like to control things, just like the blues, but a red, it's all about getting things done. They're super productive and they enjoy taking off their to-do list and they want challenging adventure. They're attracted to leadership positions because that's where the action happens. That's how you get things done. So reds in healthcare could look like an emergency room physician or a surgeon.Blues are motivated by intimacy. And so that doesn't mean sex as the reds think. No. It's about deeply connecting with people and doing meaningful, important work. That's what drives a blue. They need to be understood. So think about blues in healthcare, maybe a nurse or a social worker who builds those strong relationships with their patients. Whites are motivated by peace. They want peace within themselves and their external world. And if something's out of sync, you better watch out because their productivity will drop and they're not as happy. It's pretty apparent they feel off, but they need to be accepted for their individuality. What kind of positions do you think a white would do in healthcare or hospitals? You might find them in it or maybe as a data analyst. Those are the kinds of things that a white is okay with. They like routine. Yellows are motivated by fun. That's pretty self-explanatory, explanatory, right? So it doesn't mean that they're always wanting to party, although they do usually know where a good one is at. They can be productive, but they want to do their work in a fun environment. They process the relationships that they have in the work through the lens of fun. Work doesn't have to be a drag. You can have a good time. Yellows are charismatic and they want to be adored. Do they have a place in healthcare? Yeah, they do. You might find them in marketing or community relations or planning events. So every color can do every job, but just some of them are going to be a little bit easier for certain colors based on their needs and their wants. That wraps up the overview of the colors. We're going to go into those in a lot more depth than future podcasts, but hopefully, that gives you some sense of the different colors, their drive, their core motive, their needs and wants. And you're beginning to see some of the people in your work setting who might match up with those traits. So if you're interested in knowing what your primary color is, head on over to color code.com you can take a free personality assessment that will tell you what your primary color is. And then, of course, I'm going to be talking about it in a lot more depth going forward.

Today I'm going to talk about a key concept around color code. It's this idea of a hundred percent responsibility, so what do I mean by that? Well, most of us consider relationships kind of a 50 50 2-way street, right? We are taught to believe that if you bring 50% to the relationship, hopefully, your partner or your colleague will bring 50% that isn't always the case. In fact, color-code is turning that on its head and saying, no, you need to bring 100% responsibility to the relationship. You may think that's not fair. That seems like a lot of work. What about the other person? Well, most people in life know that you really can't change other people. ----more----The only thing you can change is your behavior and isn't that pretty cool that you can change up to a hundred percent of your behavior and have incredible impacts on the quality of your relationships with your coworkers? So how do you do that? Well, it really goes back to self-awareness, awareness of your core motive and awareness of others. And hopefully, if you listen to my podcast, you're beginning to identify some people in your life as certain colors. They have certain traits and personalities and innate qualities that identify them as one of the four colors. That is a huge gift that color-code brings to you, that you have some awareness of what drives other people's behaviors, what their motives are, what their needs are, what their wants are, and that can really boil down to how they want to be talked to, how they want to receive information as they go about their work in a healthcare setting. We're going to go into that a little bit more as far as tips that you should know about how to talk to various colors. Red, blue, white and yellow because they like to receive their information in different ways. I think back to one of my very first professional jobs where I worked as a communications director and my boss was a very strong red, so if you remember, reds are motivated by power. They want to get things done. They're movers and shakers and they don't have a lot of patients. I look back to my relationship with her and I did everything wrong when it came to communicating with her. I found her pretty intimidating and hard to talk to, but what I should've done and with the knowledge I have today, I could have had some really good relationships and conversations with this gal. She needed information very quickly and concisely and I did the exact opposite. I would often want to talk to her and process things out loud, kind of him and ha or talk through the pros and cons of a decision. That's about the worst thing you can do with a red because they want to know that you had done your homework and that you're coming to them with a recommendation. They respect that you are bringing them information and an opinion, that's what they expect from you. So for someone like myself who's a blue, I tend to want to process out loud. I want, I tend to want to be collaborative and hopefully make those decisions together. That's not a red style. Now I know when I work with a red how to present information to them very factually. Bottom line, if I present different sides of a case, I need to do it concisely and I need to spell it out and then I need to boil it down to here is my opinion on what we should do. Reds really respect that. So that's a little nugget. Think about people in your life who might be a red people that you work with and think about how are you going to take a hundred percent responsibility for the quality of that relationship? They might be totally different than you, but they're not going to change. You're the only one who can make the relationship better. So what relationships in your workplace are less than what you want them to be? Can you identify them? Are you ready to take a hundred percent responsibility for the quality of that relationship with color code and tips that I'll be presenting in future podcasts? You can. Until next time, thanks for listening.

I'm Megan Guido, and I'm so excited about starting a new podcast called, What's Your M.O. in Healthcare? So, everybody has challenges around communication, building strong relationships, teamwork, working with people of different generations, and understanding what drives people because I don't know about you, but there are some people I just don't get. And that's what this podcast is all about, but it's dedicated to people working in healthcare.Why healthcare? Well, healthcare is going through an incredible evolution. Things are changing all the time, whether it's government regulations or reimbursement models or just the stress from taking care of people and burnout and those kinds of issues that everyone deals with. So, those are unique to this industry. That's why I'm hoping that you will join my for, What's your M.O. in Healthcare?, to help you navigate those changes and to help you build strong quality relationships, understanding people's core motives, understanding what drives them, understanding what values different generations have, and we'll throw in a little bit of coaching and tips on communication.I hope you find value. I'm super excited. We'll have special guests, people who have been doing this for a long time, have worked in healthcare and understand those challenges. So, join me for, What's Your M.O. in Healthcare?