How do we make sure that we are doing engagement right, that we are enhancing engagement? Well, let's take a look. It's really important to engage by creating trust and also paying attention to what motivates people. So make sure that as you are trying to get people to change their behavior, you are acknowledging that they are caring people, that they are doing a good job, that they are concerned with patients as they are North star. And go ahead and tell them or remind them about any kind of incident, or issue, problem that they had that really affected a patient and that shouldn't be allowed to happen again. So remind the team why preventable harm is really not acceptable, and try to give it to them in terms that will really bring it home and bring it into that area of the heart as they hear the story. Acknowledge your teams are competent. So again, we are not trying to tell anybody that they are not doing a good job or they are not trying as hard as they can, but we do want to say that here is the evidence, and it looks like sometimes in our specific processes it's not working out perfectly, and we want to make sure that it does. And so, demonstrate whatever early successes the project is able to obtain, and show that it's a better state of affairs than where you were before, and let them know that that's because of their efforts and because of their work. And try to balance your use of extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. So what these mean are essentially, extrinsic things are things like financial or regulatory pressures, social pressures to bring about change. Those tend to be less motivating to people than intrinsic motivation, which is around their own sense of meaningfulness, their belief in their own autonomy, their belief in their mastery and their purpose. If you can tap into these kinds of motivations, you will find that people are more engaged with what you are trying to do because it's personally meaningful to them. So, some of the communication tips that are important in engagement include the idea that you have got to communicate prior to the start of projects, you need to tell them ahead of time what's going to happen, what's expected, what are the measurements, who's watching, and don't have surprises. Those tend to turn people off and make people upset, and will automatically start them out with a bad taste in their mouths regarding whatever change you are trying to bring about. So be sure to communicate well and often prior to your implementation. Listen to people and include people who are not very interested in the intervention. You need to value the fact that they don't agree 100 percent with what you're doing, and that may just be because they have noticed an actual flaw in your plan. You need to know about that flaws so that you can address it. I also like to say that when there's one person who is unhappy, there is more than one person who is unhappy and you just don't know it. So you got bring those dissenters in, learn what their issues are so that you can address them and bring everybody around. And then of course, it's important for you to create mechanisms that allow you to continually feedback the results to the people who are trying to make the change. And this is important so they know how it's going, but it's also important because as the changers, they deserve to know how things are going. It's not just data that you are collecting for the paper that you want to write about this later, it's actually something that's very important for their own understanding of how things are going. So, create those mechanisms and continually feedback that information. Let them know what's happening with the project generally, where there have been successes, where there are things that need to be worked on. I would definitely not ignore the problems that other people don't want to acknowledge. Just because something is not perfect, doesn't mean you shouldn't talk about it. There's nothing that ruins trust faster than people believing that you are not telling the full story, that you are hiding the parts that are not as nice. And they are going to say that there are problems with having enough time to get this done, there are problems with resources. And so, go ahead and openly talk about those problems and try to come up with solutions. Acknowledge the fact that these are problems and that you understand and care about them. Otherwise, you will create a situation where people feel that you are not trustworthy. You're only worried about the results that you care about, not all of the other issues. So if necessary, use champions. And if you have an executive partner, try to help them have them help you address concerns as they are raised. And again, use those early wins to talk about how there's more good with what you are doing than there is bad with what you are doing. It's always important for engagement to recognize the good work that's being done and praise people when they have done something extraordinary for towards the realization of the goal. So when people have great ideas, you got to tell them they are great ideas. Share their ideas, put out the plans on posters, let people see it and be recognized for the work that they are doing. Highlight their value in meetings, and in newsletters, and any other time that you have an opportunity to do that. Thank them for their time, effort and expertise and make it clear that you know there are other things they could be doing with their time. And finally, reward participation in any way that you can think of, doesn't necessarily have to be a monetary reward. But give them the things that make them feel part of the team, part of the club such as, candy bars for everyone who is washing their hands today, or that kind of thing so that there's a clear reward for participating that's actually short-term tangible as well as the long run more extra intrinsic reward.
