Teaming

Originally posted on 03/04/23 in Publications Update # 6

Last week I sent an article highlighting the value of a consistent surgeon-anesthesiology diad performing complex surgeries. But the article mentioned that the median number of cases where a surgeon worked with the same anesthesiologist was one over a year. In other words, we will likely encounter people in the OR/clinic who we may or may not have worked with previously.

One solution to the problem is that we fix the issue, and the same anesthesiologist/nurse/APP works with us all the time, but it's unrealistic in all situations. What do we do to solve this problem?

We learn how to team up quickly and strive for a mutually desirable outcome for all team members.

In my quest to find out what steps I should take, I came across the work of Prof. Amy Edmondson. She studies "teaming" - the ability of a seemingly unrelated group to quickly team up and produce a desirable result in complex situations. According to her research: 

Three pillars of teaming include curiosity, passion and empathy.

Here is her excellent TED talk discussing teaming.