Business Goals: What You Can Learn From The Patient From Hell
January 10, 2008
Are you struggling to achieve your main business goals?
If so, you may be misdirecting your energy – like the patient from hell.
Fourteen years ago, I’d just had a pretty big operation in hospital. And I was recovering peacefully in a room alone, when a nurse brought in the patient from hell.
I’ve never really understood why they call them patients, because some of them are anything but patient.
Apparently, the woman had been transferred from another ward (lucky them). She’d slipped on the ice whilst she was shopping and broken her leg. And she was desperate to go home for Christmas, as she had a young son. But she wouldn’t make the effort to take a single step when the physiotherapist tried to get her to walk.
I felt sorry for the woman. All she had to do was take a couple of steps on her crutches and she was free to leave. But, it soon became apparent why she was not able to do so. You see, instead of focusing on her goal of going home, she threw all her energy into trivial things.
First, she had to have the window open. It was December and it was freezing outside. In fact my body temperature was so low that I was close to hypothermia. But after buzzing the nurses several times and complaining loudly, she got her way.
The nurse pulled the curtain by my bed across, to shield me from the draught. But, that didn’t please the patient from hell. “I feel isolated,” she shouted. So, her wailing, moaning and buzzing the nurses went on, until they agreed to pull the curtains back again.
Next, she wanted a cigarette. This also involved another round of buzzing, moaning and complaining. And at this point, I would have done anything to shut her up, but I felt too weak to get out of bed. And besides, I figured I’d probably get into a heap of trouble if I put a pillow over her face.
But, in the end, all the moaning was driving me mad. So the nurse put the patient from hell in a wheel chair and I pushed her down to the smoking room, dragging my drip stand beside me.
Well, I discharged myself a couple of days later, so I could go home and get some rest. But, the patient from hell didn’t get out of hospital for Christmas. I know this, because she’d persuaded the nurses to put a phone by her bed so she could call me to complain – several times a day!
Have you ever done this in your business? Have you ever become so wrapped up in meaningless things that you don’t focus fully on your main goals? If so, here’s a few simple steps that will help you to get back on track:
Cut The Trivia Out Of Your Working Day: Make a list of everything you have done today. Now, be honest with yourself, how many of these things have been trivial, non-urgent and not likely to move you towards your main business goals? When you’ve identified these time wasters, cross them out. You shouldn’t be doing them at all.
Identify The Small Stuff: Next identify those things which are also non urgent, but essential – they definitely need doing at some point and put them to one side. You can spread those out throughout the week and do a couple each day after you’ve completed your main tasks.
Focus On The Important Tasks: Now, go through the remainder of the list. Hopefully, you will be left with the tasks that are important – the ones that will move you towards your main business goals. These are the ones you need to concentrate your time on and the rest can wait.
Of course, you could just carry on doing the trivial stuff, but like the patient from hell – you won’t reach your main business goals.
Comments
8 Responses to “Business Goals: What You Can Learn From The Patient From Hell”
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Successful And Outstanding Blogger
Great post, but I don’t think I would have given her my phone number! (shows that you are much nicer than I!
I have to start the day with a To-Do Today list. I try not to let mysself go home until it is done. That way if I play, I pay!
Well – I don’t know what she actually said for me to give her my number, but I suppose I must have felt bad for her. I did wind up unplugging my bedroom phone so she couldn’t get through though!
The to do list is the only way to do it. I always wind up writing mine in the morning, but if you can do it the night before, it saves a heap of time.
If the stuff you hear about non-males being better able to multi-task than the not-non-males is true, then that’s where I fall down.
Apart from hating political correctness, I think it’s sometimes wise to celebrate differences which could be true.
Bear with me a moment. Unless of course you’re close-minded and judge comments which verge upon controversy a little too quickly.
In fact it could be very liberating for many if we all just realised that if opposite genders were actually wired-up differently and we can benefit from a recognition and application of those differences in a positive way, then we could all get on better together then great.
Before I get roasted, the reason I say this is that I envy some proposed differences between the genders for multi-tasking.
You see I love the concept of separating urgent from non-urgent tasks. And the ability to do perhaps focus proportionally between those two extremes.
But there is also a difference “important, urgent” and “important, non-urgent”.
Now the theory that males cannot multi-task, I think, is a load of bull.
But there may be something in it.
I can do more than one thing at once. I can do “important” versus “urgent”. But beyond 2 things at once, I personally begin to struggle.
But at least I can (perhaps when in single task mode only) appreciate the conept of “important, non-urgent” as a singular concept.
In other words, we are all sometimes reactive to the person who shouts the loudest. Or the thing that demands our attention more than other things.
I’m trying to focus on the important stuff. Being a feeble male, if the theories are true, than that’s about it. I won’t be able to differentiate between “important-urgent” and “…non-urgent”.
So from a business point of view, my amazing colleague taught me a lesson last night.
He looked at my messy and disorganised whiteboard. And I’ll verge into political-incorrectness for a moment (if I haven;t already!) and tell you what he did.
In a blokey-way (that’s a politically incorrect name – the “blokey” bit – for a non-female-humanoid), he asked me to name the 3 most important things out of list of too many things to do.
He then asked to short-list those three.
And in his blokey way, he said forget the rest and focus on that one thing.
And I was inspired. In fact, out of the shortlist I had separately drafted of about 6 things (as opposed to 37), we got our company target down to one thing.
And he’s right. The ultimate shortlist of one, can automatically fulfill the other goals that his whiteboard eraser decimated.
In the words of my daughter:
“Girls rule and boys stink”.
She’s right and wrong. The smell’s bad. And if the first thing is right, we need to celebrate our differences rather than fight for power.
God that was political. I’d better hit submit before I’m tempted to edit and tone it down.
We don’t want to spend 2008 watching our P’s and Q’s do we?
On an unrelated note, did you know that American hospitals can “fire” patients? The patient just can’t be in need of life-saving care–they’re legally required to provide that. But afterwards, they can actually kick out someone who’s too disruptive/abusive/etc.
Ian – good point. I can multi-task, but the trouble is when you’re in the middle of several things at once, you can accidentally forget a couple. It really is always is easier to do one thing at a time and usually much more effective.
I felt the nurse in the hospital that night was not good at prioritising tasks either. I was seriously worried that I was going to die just because she put the person who shouted the loudest first!
Mrs M – that is interesting. And I can understand them wanting to do that in some cases – eg – drunks in A and E etc.
When I was a student – a consultant wanted to ban an abusive patient. He told me to make a banned book and put the guys details in it! He was being deadly serious but I thought it cruel – and besides, IMHO the consultant was a bigger pain in the a.. than the patient. So I threw it out as soon as he’d gone.
This was a very funny post Cath! Lol! But I do understand the message behind the story. I would say that for me personally, I have too many vices that get in my way of getting things done like randomly searching for various information on the internet when I should be working on my blog! Maybe I have too many interests?! IDK.
Hi Dwayne – Glad you enjoyed it. It’s funny looking back – but at the time, it was hard work.
I think that for things like research on the internet, it could be useful to allocate a certain time of day to doing it. And also give yourself a time limit. Otherwise, it is all to easy to get distracted.
Catherine,
This advice is great, not only in business, but in our personal like.
Small stuff…reminds me of a book I read years ago named: “Don’t Sweat The Small Stuff….And It’s All Small Stuff”. A very eyeopening book. It made me think twice about many aspects of my life.
I’m big on list making too. If I put it on my list, I can take it out of my head…that way I’m not trying to remember too many things.
BTW. I enjoyed your story of your hospital stay.
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