Sidewalks, lighthouses remind us of need to change

About one-half of my career has been in a typical doctor/patient clinical medicine setting.

The other half has been in administrative positions as superintendent at Winnebago Mental Health Institute and later, as executive director of the Fond du Lac Community Mental Health Services Board and the Mental Health Center.

When I was in those administrative positions people often asked if I missed the clinical work.  My reply was that in many ways there is no difference.  Patients have anxieties, sometimes lethargy, disappointments, pessimism, unrealized potential, creativity, successes as well as failures, and good or bad morale.

Likewise companies, corporations, agencies, clinics and all different sized organizations have anxieties, sometimes lethargy, disappointments, pessimism, unrealized potential, creativity, successes as well as failures, and good or bad morale.  Part of the administrative challenge is helping an organization, just as with a patient, realize its potential, deal with its hang-ups, maintain an atmosphere of optimism, value its employees, find and maintain its identity and flourish.

I wanted my organizations to flourish, just as I wanted my patients to do so.

In those administrative positions I did learn two valuable lessons however.

Whenever we built new buildings during my time as CEO we used architectural and construction consultants of course.  There were many of those.  There were even sidewalk and driveway consultants telling us where to place those concrete paths interwoven with the expensive sod surrounding the building.

What I noticed over time, though, was that staff and patients who used the building often walked all over the expensive sod, ignoring the sidewalks.  They did that because, on careful review, their entry way and exits to the building were more direct and made more sense than the paths of expensive sidewalk consultants.

Thus for the next building I build, if I get the chance to do so, I am going to put sod all over the ground around the building, wait one year and then put the sidewalks where the well worn, user friendly paths emerge.

All organizations — corporations, universities, schools, stores, malls, churches, factories, city and county halls, media, state and local agencies public and private — need to regularly re-arrange their sidewalks to accommodate the way their patients, customers, clients, students, members come to and from their buildings and services.

Those routes of entry change over time.  Keep off the grass signs will be ignored and the customer/client/patient pathway choices will prevail.

Those companies, services and agencies that don’t re-arrange their sidewalks periodically will find either an abundance of well-worn sod, or maybe no traffic at all.

Sometimes in our persuasion that we know best, we pull rank, become obstinate and resistant to such change, even about our sidewalks.

An admiral noticed an ominous image on the radar screen of his ship which was clearly on a collision course with what appeared to be another vessel.  He radioed ahead: “We are on a collision course; change your direction 10 degrees to the north.”

The radio reply came back: “Yes we are on a collision course; change your direction 90 degrees to the south”.

The now irritated admiral radioed a new message: “I am an admiral, change your direction 10 degrees to the north”.

The message came back “I am a seaman second class; change your direction 90 degrees to the south”.

An even more enraged admiral radioed back: “This is a battleship; change your direction 10 degrees to the north”.

The message came dispassionately back: “This is a lighthouse; change your direction 90 degrees to the south”.

Sometimes lighthouses and realities prevail.  So lessons about sidewalks, battleships and lighthouses should be learned by any administrator regardless of stripe or rank.

Guest columnist  Dr. Darold Treffert of Fond du Lac is a psychiatrist and the world’s leading expert on Savant Syndrome.

His latest book: “Genius: The Bountiful Mind of the Autistic, Acquired and Sudden Savant,” won a gold award in the Psychology/Mental Health Category at the 2011 Independent Publisher Book Awards and a silver in the Psychology Category at the ForeWord 2011 Book of the Year Awards.

His earlier book “Extraordinary People” was the first work to comprehensively summarize what is known about this fascinating condition. Treffert was also a consultant to the movie “Rain Man,” in which Dustin Hoffman portrayed an autistic savant.

Visit daroldtreffert.com/about.htm.