In our first and second installment of this series, we provided tips on earning surgeon trust by adequately preparing for meetings with surgeons and sharing case data. When facilitating conversations on clinical spend management, however, supply chain leaders must go beyond planning and presenting the facts to successfully enact change.
In this third and final installment, we explore the nuances of communicating with highly intelligent surgeons who are often pressed for time. The currency in the transaction relates to overcoming clinician resistance with interpersonal skills – emotional intelligence.
You must speak the physician’s language and understand their perspective when presented with clinical data that represents their patients and involves an intimate dissection of their procedures.
Emotional intelligence is the capacity to be aware of, control, and express one’s emotions, and to handle interpersonal relationships judiciously and empathetically. It is the key to both personal and professional success.
Achieving your desired results takes emotional intelligence, visual storytelling capabilities, and the ability to speak a common language.
Data interpreters rely on modern technology to communicate, excel, and succeed. Many never experienced life before computers and smartphones. And while advanced technical and analytical skills are valuable talents for a healthcare supply chain professional today, presenting surgical case data also requires exceptional soft skills to really connect with the audience — going beyond the shared data.
Overcome resistance and improve your connection with the audience by active listening. Brad Nash, supply chain sourcing specialist, shares a tip that’s worked for him:
“Try counting to five or ten (in your head), after a key audience member has finished talking – before you resume with your angle,” he explains. “Furthermore, avoid interrupting a surgeon – or any member of the audience, otherwise you risk marginalizing them.”
“Try and trust that presentations like these have a way of self-regulating when there’s an errant response from a surgeon to something in the data,” he adds. “Be limber when this happens.”
Nash stresses that the art of storytelling and public speaking takes practice. He attributes his improved ability to communicate data in an effective manner to joining a local Toastmasters group to hone your public speaking skills.
Additionally, supply chain professionals at any level of their career can benefit from the timeless learnings in Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People.
“Whether you’re just getting started in this field or close to retiring, Carnegie’s book is full of insights,” Nash says. “The big takeaway I got was that the most important word a person is going to hear in their day is their own name. Therefore, memorize the name of every member in the audience, and get it right.”
He suggests writing down the surgeons’ names when they come in the door. “Make a note of who is sitting in which spot, and then address them by name during the conversation.”
While healthcare technology companies like Curvo provide powerful clinical supply chain data and dashboard views to help analyze clinical spend, the presenter needs the right communication skills and mediums to properly articulate the story that case data reveal.
Surgeons will listen to the story, preferably one free of acronyms and jargon, when presented with a visual representation of the case data. Give them the bottom line and the ability to think independently as they process the information.
“Surgeons want to look at data like they look at their charts: privately.” Nash says. “Give them this opportunity to do so. I let them read ahead of me and wait before I start talking about what they’re seeing.”
He emphasizes that he does not tell them what they’re seeing. “They’ll know what they’re seeing if you get the presentation right.”
Sharing information with surgeons should always include a visual data story. One study on learning found that three days after a presentation, individuals recalled only 10 to 20% of spoken or written information. In contrast, subjects remembered 65% of information presented visually.
Kelley Young, a seasoned supply chain informatics professional, shares that she’s found physicians will look at the front page and then turn to the back page of the presentation. “So it is important to put your key messages in those places,” she explains.
Additionally, she always makes sure that the details are available or that she can send them in a follow-up email soon after the presentation. This builds trust and confidence in the information.
In addition to visually telling the story, choose language that doesn’t put the surgeon on the defensive from the very beginning. Young warns the approach that presenters take when questioning surgeons can seem accusatory or feel like a personal attack.
“You want to be inquisitive and show them you’re interested,” Young says. “Don’t say, ‘You use this high-cost item all of the time.’”
Instead, Young suggests asking surgeons why they use a certain product on a particular kind of patient. This will help you better understand how they make clinical decisions. “There are two different ways of asking a question to engage the physician in the conversation,” she says.
Nash agrees with Young and recommends using the phrase “opportunity-cost” instead of “cost”. It also doesn’t hurt to call out good results.
Young shares that the first step is to “ensure you have vetted the results, usually with the surgeon leader. Then, present the positive and let the other physicians compare themselves. They will ask the questions to their peers to learn more.”
At the outset, physicians may perceive the meeting to be bureaucratic and place little to no value to it. But it can turn into something very powerful. As a supply chain leader, the presentation is your chance to inspire the surgeon to make a positive change in opportunity cost and reduce the burden on the health system. Both of these aims tie into the community at large, for whom the exercises are intended to ultimately benefit.
Throughout this blog series, Nash and Young shared several tips that supply chain professionals can leverage to win over surgeons during a presentation. Start by focusing on empirical facts to shift surgeons from a defensive to neutral position.
The right analysis and storytelling – as opposed to a solution thrust upon them – will result in physician buy-in. Nash has seen this work for him time and time again.
“The ultimate win-win” he explains, “involves the sharing of a story with accurate information where the clear solution naturally emerges. And when you get it right, it will seem like it’s their (the surgeon’s) idea instead of your own; then everybody wins.”