Find and Fill in Your Gaps

If you've ever encountered a surgeon you know how extraordinarily confident (I'm being PC here) they are.

When they are going to work on you or a loved one, you want that confidence. You don't care if they are nice or funny or comforting or just human. You want them to know what to do and know they can do it. You kind of want them to be super-human.

Meanwhile, when they are working on your loved one, you are worried and waiting and wondering and wanting information and comfort and consolation.

But that same surgeon is almost always really terrible at giving understandable information or comforting or consoling.

So they need to surround themselves with those types to pick up that slack. They need a nurse or a consierge of some type to relay news in non-medical speak and update regularly and comfort and console.

It's not a bad thing to not be all things to all people.

It's bad to NOT realize where your gaps are and fill them with others who embody the talents needed.

I think that is why some organizations are so successful and others limp along. They make sure they have every base covered. They hire and train people to do all the things well. They value the different talents every day. They aren't lopsided.

Yeah, I was in the hospital waiting room again tonight and it wasn't fun and it didn't go fast and it wasn't comfortable. And the nurses acted like we were intruding on their "real" work by asking for updates. I'm not a happy camper. But I realized that hospitals aren't the only place where people don't "belong". Where we don't know what is happening behind a wall for authorized personnel only. Where a few words now and again make a huge, gigantic, comforting difference. And I might choose to come back again to that kind of place. Like the place where you work.