The 8 PRACTICEs is a coaching methodology designed by SurgeonMasters founder Jeffrey M. Smith, MD, FACS, PCC, to bring awareness, intentionality, and purpose to our actions. Jeffrey M. Smith, MD, FACS, PCC, developed The 8 PRACTICEs through his personal experience and studies. Applying the 8 PRACTICEs in a high-performance cycle of reflection, goal setting, and intentional adjustment allows us to systematically create a plan and execute it with buy-in from stakeholders while remaining true to ourselves.
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- Reflection: Raise awareness and analyze your practices.
- Goal Setting: Develop a strategy to improve your performance, create a new habit or achieve a goal.
- Intentional Adjustment: Incorporate changes. Repeat the cycle for continued learning and practice
Select a letter below to learn more about each PRACTICE.
Passion for Performance Improvement involves embracing growth and improvement by understanding the underlying motivations of individuals or teams.
It is essential to recognize that performance improvement applies to all aspects of life, as everything has the potential to deteriorate due to internal or external factors. When highly intelligent or skilled individuals witness a decline or setback, their passion may wane, and they may resist change. Therefore, it is crucial for teams to have sufficient energy and support to foster learning, growth, and adaptability. Another critical aspect of this skill is identifying and leveraging the individual and collective purpose of everyone involved.
Although getting into medical school is quite difficult, many people pursue this challenge because they envision doing good things for other people. When they are not able to see that dream come true, or worse they see the opposite, they experience moral injury. Recognizing that all of the following PRACTICEs have a positive and negative side, each one of these has the potential to work in your favor.
You can build positive energy and more passion for performance improvement by increasing positive experiences in the healthcare environment or decreasing negative experiences.
Reciprocity of Roles and Relationships entails understanding when the balance of giving and receiving in professional relationships is not appropriately aligned.
Healthcare professionals, including physicians, are inherently compassionate and giving individuals. However, regardless of their generosity, there is a natural desire for something in return and a certain level of reciprocation that is necessary to maintain a positive perception of the relationship.
For example, a physician doesn’t need every patient to thank them or give them a 5-star review for being a great doctor. However, if they get a thank you and a positive remark only once per year, the reciprocity of the doctor-patient relationship will likely sap their professional fulfillment. Similarly, physician champions and successful leaders often find themselves taking on increasing responsibilities to support their colleagues. Yet, there is a limit to what one can effectively accomplish without depleting other crucial relationships, both within and outside their professional sphere. Flourishing organizations recognize the ebb and flow of individual physical, mental, and emotional energy, as well as the importance of reciprocity.
Granting individuals agency in finding solutions to imbalances, or effectively managing unsolvable challenges, proves to be the most effective approach in fostering physician engagement and satisfaction.
Attitude Resilience emphasizes the integration of positive resilience skills to counterbalance the prevalent focus on building resilience solely in response to negative experiences.
Traditionally, medical training and healthcare systems have emphasized learning through mistakes and employing shame and blame tactics. Given that our main adversaries are aging, injury, and illness, it is inevitable that some unfavorable outcomes will occur despite our best intentions and skills.
Physicians have demonstrated they are capable of learning from mistakes. However, there is not enough emphasis on learning from successes. Negative attitudes and behaviors amongst physicians can arise from burnout or the persistence of undesirable behavior without proper feedback. Prevention proves to be the most effective approach, focusing on cultivating healthy resilience and a positive mindset.
Communication with Mutual Understanding is to seek understanding even if mutual agreement or compromise is not achievable.
While effective listening skills are undeniably crucial, investing dedicated time and effort to genuinely grasp another person’s perspective is a complex endeavor. While technology is advancing at a rapid pace, our ability to communicate with each other finds new challenges to be sure that communication is mutual.
- Have I truly absorbed and comprehended the thoughts others have expressed?
- Have you genuinely understood the significance of my viewpoints within our relationship?
- Are you addressing me in the capacity of a director, a colleague, or perhaps in another role, perhaps related to the XYZ committee?
Frequently, these dynamics can be quite confusing. Most relationships call for a fluid and interactive form of communication, where a reciprocal exchange ensures a shared understanding at a high level. One existing example in medicine is the SBAR technique where mutual understanding greatly increases patient safety.
Time/Life Management Using Rhythm appreciates that most physicians are not seeking a one-to-one balance of work and the rest of their life.
While some physicians might be aiming for work-life integration, others enjoy keeping their personal and professional lives very separate. Work-life rhythm encompasses the management of time that converts being busy or juggling so many things to a flow that recognizes that quality time is more important than plenty of poor or distracted time.
A mindful focus on being one’s best self during critical times comes from many time management skills, such as decreasing multitasking and distractions. Rhythm recognizes that our schedule, commitments, and priorities fluctuate based upon so many factors including what time of year, where we are in our career and other life events.
Rhythm for teams is like an orchestra playing a beautiful piece of music. Each section and instrument can anticipate what the other is about to do based upon prior rehearsal, staying with the planned sheet of music, and the conductor.
Inspiring to Shared Goals aims to recognize and define the common objectives that can inspire physicians and leaders to collaborate synergistically in their pursuit.
By fostering an environment that encourages physicians and medical leaders to unite their efforts toward shared goals, we can unlock the potential for transformative change.
This entails identifying the collective objectives that bind them together and understanding the shared challenges they face. Through this process, we can create a roadmap that aligns aspirations, leverages strengths, and addresses the collective hurdles we encounter. By inspiring a sense of purpose and fostering collaboration, we can ignite a powerful movement toward positive outcomes, career fulfillment, and collective success.
Physician wellness is essential to maintaining a high-functioning healthcare system.
Complex Problem Solving Through Simplicity entails dissecting complex challenges, such as those encountered within healthcare, into smaller, more manageable parts.
Although not all problems are complex, those that are can seem overwhelming. Start creating incremental adjustments or “baby steps” toward the intended outcome. When there are competing needs or values, there isn’t always a solution. Keep it as simple as possible. By breaking down these complex issues into simpler tasks, we can create positive momentum and foster a more accessible management approach.
This method simplifies the process and enables us to activate stakeholders that are not early adopters and garner support from advocates who were previously hesitant to embrace change.
Energy for Personal and Practice Wellness encompasses the vital elements of physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual power and the most critical element of recognizing how each needs rest and recovery between phases of demand performance.
Paying attention to our own health and wellness is one of the most underappreciated hypocrisies in medicine.
- Physically, maintaining a healthy lifestyle through exercise, proper nutrition, hydration, and rest has both day-to-day and long-term impacts on our peak performance, health, and sustainable careers.
- Mentally, engaging in activities that stimulate the mind, such as patient care, continuous learning, adding knowledge that pushes us beyond our current comfort zone, and alternating these with mental rest, hobbies, and mindfulness practices enhances cognitive functioning and clarity.
- Emotionally, fostering self-awareness, and emotional intelligence, and cultivating positive relationships nurture emotional resilience and fulfillment to counterbalance compassion fatigue.
- Spiritually, acknowledging the significance of all areas of energy and engaging in practices that align with personal values and purpose allows for a deeper sense of meaning and fulfillment. By nurturing and balancing these diverse sources of energy, both personally and within our practices, we can unlock our full potential and achieve a state of holistic wellness.
Recognizing the interconnected nature of these energies is also crucial for achieving overall well-being.