Conundrum 9
When emotion gets in the way of effective working
 

‘So there’s no way we should even begin to think of playing their game’ said Rick, angrily and dramatically. Beverley knew she needed to change the mood of the meeting, Rick had been so emotional, so angry, about the proposed new arrangments that it would be difficult to get the team to think about them clearly and carefully, and make a reasoned response. This was a familiar dynamic, Rick seeing everyone outside the team as an enemy, unwilling to consider any proposals constructively. Eager to persuade him to think more positively, she had recently asked him, in one such meeting, to list all the positive aspects of the proposal then under discussion. He had angrily retorted that he couldn’t see any, and then had damned it with faint praise by mentioning a few peripheral benefits. The others had laughed and continued in a similar vein. She had, on another occasion, tried asking someone else to give an alternative view, but Rick had sulked until they had finished and then given the meeting another blast of his anger.

He was a good clinician and cared passionately about offering a good service, so Beverley was generally a fan of Rick’s, but these meetings just worked so much better when he wasn’t there. She would have to find a way of handling it, but what?

What can Beverley do when Rick contributes so destructively to the discussion?

Commentary 9

Beverley rates Rick as a clinician and would value his views if he could give them in a way that contributed to a reasoned discussion. What she needs to do is ignore the emotion and concentrate on the content - not how he is saying it but what he is saying. She can then repeat the content, putting the arguments clearly and fairly. What’s more she can do the same whenever the discussion becomes heated, and could usefully summarise the argumnets regularly through the meeting, to keep the discussion on track. Her role as chair is to ensure that views are heard and addressed, and that informed decisions are made. Succinctly introducing a topic and then using summary to guide the direction and record agreement, is an effective way of doing this.

Good chairs stay detached enough to see where the discussion is going and to decide what intervention is needed, observing emotions without becoming entangled in them. If Beverley has not been used to doing this she may find it useful to prepare for these meetings by visualising them, as described in some of the earlier conundrums.

Chapter 6 of Really Managing Health Care gives more information in this area

Please send any comments and suggestions to
conundrum@reallylearning.com