{"id":34,"date":"2012-03-01T22:54:27","date_gmt":"2012-03-01T22:54:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.practicesolutionsinc.net\/?p=34"},"modified":"2012-03-01T22:54:27","modified_gmt":"2012-03-01T22:54:27","slug":"eliminate-eggshells-elephants-talk-about-tough-stuff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.practicesolutionsinc.net\/blog\/2012\/03\/eliminate-eggshells-elephants-talk-about-tough-stuff\/","title":{"rendered":"Eliminate Eggshells &#038; Elephants:  Talk about Tough Stuff!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s the eggshells that stop us from talking about what we need to do or stop doing to elevate team performance.\u00a0 What are eggshells?\u00a0 Eggshells are the <em>fragile<\/em> <em>feelings<\/em> that arise when we try to talk about what\u2019s not working or what could be improved.\u00a0 The tough stuff.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<em>Eggshells<\/em> are a result of what we perceive based on our past individual experiences and not necessarily the other person\u2019s intent.\u00a0 Some of the <em>Eggshells<\/em> I am referring to are; fear, anger, judgment, retaliation, insecurity, nothing changes, peer pressure, hurt feelings, disrespect, or it&#8217;s not my problem.\u00a0 <em>Eggshells<\/em> stop us from addressing the <em>Elephants<\/em> (the unstated issues or concerns) in the office.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0We create barriers between each other by laying our eggshells all around ourselves and worrying about stepping on those that others have laid around themselves.\u00a0 We believe if we talk about what is not working or what needs improvement we will step on their eggshells.\u00a0 Almost everything becomes too uncomfortable or off-limits to discuss.\u00a0 So we don\u2019t!\u00a0 Instead we just keep everything inside to avoid the eggshells and the practice environment deteriorates.\u00a0 The chance to make good things happen, (better results, better relationships, and more responsibility) disappear.\u00a0 What appears instead is a herd of elephants.\u00a0 Everyone knows they are there and yet no one will talk about them for fear of stepping on an eggshell.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The problem is, if we don&#8217;t discuss the issues as they happen, they don&#8217;t go away.\u00a0 Instead the issues become elephants and the herd continues to grow until it takes over the entire practice.\u00a0 We end up tiptoeing around each other\u2019s eggshells and pretending the elephants don\u2019t exist.\u00a0 Communication between team members becomes emotionally charged or non-existent.\u00a0 The office environment becomes stressful and negative.\u00a0 Performance and patient experience plummets!\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0To overcome the eggshells we need to first acknowledge they exist.\u00a0 Have a team meeting to talk about the eggshells in the office.\u00a0 Have each team member identify which eggshells they surround themselves with most often.\u00a0 They are their hot buttons and can be set off very easily.\u00a0 Once the eggshells have been identified discuss the necessity of talking about what is working and what is not as it happens regardless of their existence.\u00a0 This proactive communication helps to prevent and remove the elephants in the room.\u00a0 Reinforce the message; we are all working together towards the same goal of a healthy office environment.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0Talking about tough stuff as it occurs will eliminate the eggshells and elephants and promote a happy, healthy, high performing team environment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s the eggshells that stop us from talking about what we need to do or stop doing to elevate team performance.\u00a0 What are eggshells?\u00a0 Eggshells are the fragile feelings that arise when we try to talk about what\u2019s not working or what could be improved.\u00a0 The tough stuff.\u00a0 \u00a0Eggshells are a result of what we [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5,10,12,17,18,19,20,21,22,24,25,26,30,37,38,39,40,49,51,53,1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Eliminate Eggshells &amp; Elephants: Talk about Tough Stuff! - Practice Solutions Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.practicesolutionsinc.net\/blog\/2012\/03\/eliminate-eggshells-elephants-talk-about-tough-stuff\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Eliminate Eggshells &amp; Elephants: Talk about Tough Stuff! - Practice Solutions Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It\u2019s the eggshells that stop us from talking about what we need to do or stop doing to elevate team performance.\u00a0 What are eggshells?\u00a0 Eggshells are the fragile feelings that arise when we try to talk about what\u2019s not working or what could be improved.\u00a0 The tough stuff.\u00a0 \u00a0Eggshells are a result of what we [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.practicesolutionsinc.net\/blog\/2012\/03\/eliminate-eggshells-elephants-talk-about-tough-stuff\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Practice Solutions Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-03-01T22:54:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Judy Kay Mausolf\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Judy Kay Mausolf\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.practicesolutionsinc.net\/blog\/2012\/03\/eliminate-eggshells-elephants-talk-about-tough-stuff\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.practicesolutionsinc.net\/blog\/2012\/03\/eliminate-eggshells-elephants-talk-about-tough-stuff\/\",\"name\":\"Eliminate Eggshells & Elephants: Talk about Tough Stuff! 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