I want to use more of my brain

Over the weekend a neighbor hosted a party where they put up an inflatable movie screen and we watched a movie in their backyard. This has become an annual event, one that I look forward to attending. I enjoy it for the social aspect; neighbors and new people to meet. Another part I enjoy is watching a movie that I might not have chosen. This weekend the movie was Limitless (2012), an interesting look into the idea that we don’t use all of the capacity of our cognitive abilities and what it might look like if a drug could change that fact. At the same time I am reading the book Immunity to Change by Kegan and Lahey, providing evidence on how and why we are so often stuck in what we think and do. These two ideas seem to be colliding in my thoughts.

In health care are we caught fighting change because we don’t see everything we have in front of us? In the movie Limitless the main character, through a drug enhanced state, takes in subtleties of the environment and is able to connect data to create new understandings faster and more accurately than others. Through the work of Kegan and Lahey these authors are attempting to do the same, but without the drugs. If we understand when we are up against an adaptive challenge and we back up to see how past behavior will not support finding a new solution, our eyes will be opened to new possibilities. But it isn’t easy and we have to face some difficult ideas about ourselves and the industry. What are we missing in our limited view of health care? How can we better take the individual views of our team members to build a more comprehensive picture? How do we establish trust and improve communication so everyone sees their role as part of the change?

I am not done reading Immunity to Change, and the authors hint that there are tools in the book to help individuals and groups identify and overcome barriers to change. For now I am focusing on what fears I have that prevent me from doing what needs to be done and how this knowledge will benefit my work projects and the industry. These thoughts will just have to collide in my brain for a little while, with the hope of future clarity and a higher use of my resources.