Do you ever feel like your practice is stuck in a scene from West Side Story, with the Sharks (admin team) and the Jets (physicians) always ready to battle over every issue, big or small?
If so, you might have an “us vs. them” problem.
I’d be willing to bet that no one in your practice could say exactly when, where, or why it started. Nor are they quite sure how to fix it. But everyone wishes it could be fixed. After all, no one wants a turf war at work.
You and all of your colleagues want a sustainable workplace where good teamwork leads to great care, right?
That starts with clarity. Clarity around what the practice expects of its physicians and what the practice gives its physicians in return.
If you don’t have clarity, all you have is assumptions (and you know what they say about assumptions).
I’ve been working with a gastroenterology practice where the physicians and administrators can’t seem to agree on anything. The practice had changed its physician compensation model to try to motivate different behavior but the “us vs. them” divide only got worse.
So, I sat down with the docs and with the admin team and asked each of them two simple questions:
- What does your ideal practice look like?
- What’s keeping you (the physicians) from practicing that way?
The honest conversations that started with these two questions opened the door to common ground and smarter ways of working together. Once everyone felt heard, it was easier to move past the tension and focus on what really matters: taking care of patients and making the practice work better for everyone. Those conversations didn’t just clear the air; they got people talking like teammates again.
Leave the drama on the Broadway stage. Try asking your physicians these two questions and really listen to what they have to say.
