Great at Work: The Hidden Habits of Top Performers

by Morten T. Hansen

The following week, Brittany held another huddle where again she asked the question, “What ideas do you have for improving patient service?” A staff member suggested, “How about asking patients before we leave what else we can help them with?” Brittany followed up with: “Okay, great, when can you start doing that?” Another staff member mumbled, “Whenever we can,” and that was it. Oops, not such a good outcome, either. In the debrief, coach Marlys suggested that she needed to ask people explicitly to get involved. So again Brittany modified her plan, completing her second learning loop. In a huddle a few weeks later, she again posed the question, “What ideas do you have for improving patient service?” Staff members were now more excited and proposed more ideas, including, “How about we plan better to avoid out-of-stock items?”