Last night, my wife and I were joyfully binge watching one of our favorite shows when the power went out. There was no inclement weather; just a sky full of stars. It did, however, leave us in a pitch-black living room. I stood from the couch where we were sitting, walked into the kitchen, and retrieved a flashlight. I did this without being able to see anything, and, more importantly, without injury to any of my toes. I didn't even bump into a wall, despite not being able to see a thing. 

Change can be like traveling to a different country and driving on the opposite side of the road.

In January of this year, I was afforded the opportunity to travel to Australia to work with a new client and bring them on to our platform. I made sure I had all of my travel documents, a comfortable neck pillow for the 15-hour flight, and plenty of movies downloaded on my iPad. When we landed in Melbourne, I was all smiles as I experienced what an amazing country Australia is for the first time. My co-worker asked if I minded driving first, and I said not at all. I opened the door on the left side of the SUV to get in, and to my surprise, there was no steering wheel. Yup, in Australia, you sit on the right side of the vehicle and drive on the left side of the road—the opposite of what I'm used to in the United States.

The holidays are upon us. All is calm; all is bright. But not in your local Emergency Room. Or at your community’s fire station. For providers of healthcare and EMS services, the holidays can feel even more stressful than any other time in their busy work lives. In addition to the usual stress they encounter as part of their job descriptions, they are burdened with being away from family and loved ones, making their shifts even harder.

Did you miss last week's blog that introduced a model for managing complex change? Check it out here!

It seems simple: just download the Pulsara app from the App Store or Google Play store, and voilà! We've reduced communication errors, decreased door to balloon times, and we given our stroke patients a better chance at an improved quality of life after their recovery. It's that simple, right?

Not so fast ... the technology is only about 5% of the solution. Process workflows account for another 15%. But 80% of successfully implementing the Pulsara platform is about PEOPLE!

Think about it -- something as seemingly simple as asking a paramedic to use an app on their smartphone actually requires a significant change in their current process. And, it's a process that they've been repeating their whole careers, multiple times a day. Considering that, it's no wonder teams can be resistant to change! So how can you alleviate this fear of change and get your people on board? Read on!

A perfect implementation of change doesn't exist, though if you read my colleague's blog from last week about change management, you're well equipped with a framework that Team Pulsara has seen great success following. You've seen that change management is possible. But even with this framework, you'll undoubtedly still encounter challenges from within. Below are ten actionable tips to help you implement change successfully in your organization.

The secret to effective communication is knowing how and when to share your message. This is something that, after 20 years of marriage, I am finally starting to grasp the concept of.

Let me explain: When we communicate with others, we can do so in two ways -- in real-time (synchronously), or we can deliver a message that can be consumed by the recipient when it is convenient for them, (asynchronously).

For instance, I have found that when communicating with my wife about an injury to one of my children, a phone call, no matter what time of day or night, is warranted. Information is shared between us that is used to make decisions in the care and treatment of those injuries, and an action plan is set in place quickly. This real-time, synchronous communication lets us be as efficient as possible under time-sensitive conditions. 

... No, it's not chocolates and flowers.

The medical research community is continually providing us with exciting new technology and clinical findings that can make our jobs in EMS easier and our treatments more precise. So why are we not always sharing these findings with our patients? Well I’m here to tell you, those 80’s parachute pants were great 35 years ago but it’s time to buy some new britches.

The holidays are upon us. All is calm; all is bright. But not in your local Emergency Room. Or at your community’s fire station. For providers of health care and EMS services, the holidays can feel even more stressful than any other time in their busy work lives. In addition to the usual stress they encounter as part of their job descriptions, they are burdened with being away from family and loved ones, making their shifts even harder.