NOTE: This message was emailed to Ballad Health team members on Tuesday, Sept. 15.
Dear Colleague,
Over the past few weeks in the Critical Thinking and Problem Solving skill in the Advanced Team Collaboration program, we’ve explored how critical thinking can help us look at challenges from different angles, break problems into manageable pieces, ask better questionsand work with others to find solutions. Each tip gives us another tool to use when something isn’t working the way it should.
This week, we’ll look at two ways to put those skills into practice: managing the time pressures that can make it difficult to think clearly and working with teammates to find solutions to challenges.
This Week’s Tips
- Critical Thinking & Problem-Solving Tip #4: Managing Time Pressures
We all face time pressures at work. Competing priorities, tight deadlines and a long list of things that need to get done can make it difficult to stop, think, and give an important task the attention it deserves.
This tip introduces three techniques that can help manage these pressures:
- “Eat the Frog”: Tackle your most challenging or important task first thing in the morning. Getting a difficult task out of the way can make the rest of the day feel more manageable.
- Set aside focus time: Reserve 30 minutes to an hour a day for focused work. Put away your phone, close your email and step away from Teams messages so you can concentrate without distractions.
- Use an Eisenhower Matrix: Sort your tasks based on their urgency and importance. This can help you determine what needs your attention now, what can wait, what can be delegated and what may not need to be done.
If you’d like to build on these techniques, Ballad Health’s Organizational Development team also offers a Time Management class by request. To learn more, contact OrgDevTraining@balladhealth.org.
Call to Action:
Try one of these techniques to tackle time pressures at work or at home. What did you learn? How did it help you? How did you feel after trying it?
2. Critical Thinking & Problem-Solving Tip #5: Solving Challenges Together
When a challenge seems difficult to solve, bringing other people into the conversation can give you a fresh perspective. Your teammates may have different experiences, knowledge or ideas that can help you see a solution you might not have found on your own.
This tip focuses on three ways team members can work together to solve challenges:
- Get to know your teammates: Take time to know the people you work with beyond their job responsibilities. Stronger connections can make it easier to communicate, share ideas, and ask for help when you need it.
- Use the Most Generous Interpretation: When you don’t understand someone’s actions or comments, start by assuming they had good intentions. Giving people the benefit of the doubt can help prevent misunderstandings from getting in the way of solving a problem.
- Encourage a Challenger Mindset: Be willing to question the status quo, ask questions, and offer ideas. Speaking up when you see an opportunity to make something better can help the entire team improve.
Call to Action:
Think about a long-standing problem where you seem to be stuck. Bring your teammates into the conversation and ask them to share solutions and ideas. Assume good intent, recognize the contributions of others and create an environment where everyone feels comfortable participating.
This week’s tips give us two ways to make critical thinking part of our everyday work. Managing our time can give us the focus we need to think through challenges, while working with our teammates can give us perspectives and ideas we may not have considered on our own.
As you work through this week’s tips, take a few minutes to think about how the ideas apply to your own work. And don’t forget to leave a thoughtful comment on the tip. Share an example, a question, something you’ve learned or an idea that could help someone else. Your comments can become another way we learn from one another and build better solutions together.
The Finish Line is in Sight
Next week’s B Excellent tip will be the final tip in the Advanced Team Collaboration program. If you’ve fallen behind or missed some tips along the way, now is a great time to catch up. Taking time now to catch up on any missed tips can help you make the most of the program and finish strong.
B Excellent Toolbox
Don’t forget about the B Excellent Toolbox on the Ballad Health intranet, where you can find resources to support your B Excellent journey. Team members can access the program guide for Advanced Team Collaboration, along with guides from past B Excellent programs.
The Toolbox also includes resources for all of the B Excellent programs, as well as HRO Tipsheets that connect what we’re learning through B Excellent with Ballad Health’s High Reliability Organization journey.
If you’re looking for a refresher on something you’ve learned or want to connect a B Excellent concept to our HRO journey, the Toolbox is a great place to start.
