Once, a well known philosopher, Rumi said, "Respond to every call that excites your spirit," likewise, as writers, we need to welcome unique ideas into our writing.
Stating the facts in journalistic writing
Journalistic writing fails children all the time. All we ever do is report the reality, instead of the fairytale. That is the challenge of writing for various audiences. Often we write to just state the facts, what happened, instead of how we felt about it or even what our views are on the subject. As trained journalists, our own point of view was often even considered misleading the public into some sort of bias; and correctly so, of course, because we don't exactly know the truth of what happened, only what the facts tell us - what occurred. For example, a tree fell on someone's lawn, a plane landed early because of a bomb threat, an innovating technology got great results and consumers are happy about it. Our journalistic writing is often about the simple daily events that for the most part go unnoticed by the rest of the public. Everyday someone wins the lottery somewhere, some couple gets engaged, married, or divorces. Everyday, some other person rests in a hospital waiting for one more day to live their life, praying that they will have more time tomorrow.
Answering our own call and following our own destiny
Sometimes I hear songs about heartbreak that are aimed at providence or destiny, and they worry me, because we do not understand how things happen the way that they do. Why certain friends leave, why the people we care about, or why we ourselves fall short of our hopes for ourselves or the future. Why our fate occurred this way, and not a different way. Why something or someone we cared about left us for someone else, or for something we may have wanted but couldn't keep, or leap to embrace. But in due time, it is because our destiny has provided our own call to answer. And the call that we need to answer is sometimes learning to appreciate understanding outside of ourselves-- things and information outside of our knowledge. Understanding our own ignorance certainly isn't great for our ego, but allows us to feel humbled, and then to learn something new. So, it is the same with good writing. Just because another author somewhere already wrote on a topic that we are choosing to write about or are already an accomplished musician, or artist, or scientist, or someone whom we aspire to be; doesn't mean that our efforts should be erased off the face of the earth, it means that ours also has a purpose and a story, and a correct time, and the correct audience to be told to as well. Our own experience is also rich with depth, imagination, and spirit that this other author may have really personally experienced and perfected skills of story telling. Of course, we didn't live his or her life to know all his trials and tribulations and reasons for certain decisions, but we know our own experience the most. And that makes our own writing worth writing, not just copying someone else's work word for word, even a great teacher will say "teaching is not so that you follow the teacher, a great teacher simply opens the door to your own knowledge." A good teacher will do that and a student will understand the teaching through his own eyes much better.
Appreciating the building of our own writing
Sometimes it is not the building that matters but the spirit with which the people who gather there that matters. Same with good writing, sometimes a person who is just learning English can bring the most amazing insight and thought and belief in the written word, and is able to communicate the way that English speaking people who have spoken the language for many decades cannot really bring themselves to do. I believe everyone can learn to write well, but also to listen not with the ears but with what's between his and her ears, with the mind, and ultimately with the heart. Of course writing varies, some serves the Ego, some serves higher purpose, some is persuasive and attempts to clarify a point of view that we haven't considered before. Good writing occurs in the mind and in the heart together. Without the heart, the mind often becomes cynical, and without the mind the heart would probably not be able to speak or find the right words to put together into sentences. The heart is compassion, love, understanding, so it's a place of love, yet is often silent and does not really challenge anyone.
For a paper to be correctly presented in academic setting
Most papers need a Title page, numbers listed through out the document, and citations or references page.
Also, the academic paper should be original and have a unique perspective, not one that a teacher could easily find through a Google search. In today's world of internet access where countless essays are online for us to read plagiarism is widespread and is the shortcut that many are taking. I hope that are few who refuse to take that shortcut and who do want to invest in themselves. Writing requires original thought and accurate supporting evidence. Perhaps a good example would be a legal case: we need evidence that is both emotional and factual to prove our case. Emotional because it would make the audience care and factual so that the writing is taken seriously and not considered erroneous. Of course, if you're writing a journalistic article, then do try to be objective in your work, and consider neutral wording instead of writing that is too opinionated or flamboyantly favoring one side of the story versus another. Vivid examples and details do help to make the story come alive for the readers who were not there, yet for whom the story might be of interest.
If you need help with your writing, I may be of help to you. Contact me and we can go from there. I can help you brainstorm topics, proofread the paper for errors, or to translate the document into English, or to even edit the paper for English wording (if that is what you are seeking). I hope to help individuals who want to improve their writing.
Journalistic writing fails children all the time. All we ever do is report the reality, instead of the fairytale. That is the challenge of writing for various audiences. Often we write to just state the facts, what happened, instead of how we felt about it or even what our views are on the subject. As trained journalists, our own point of view was often even considered misleading the public into some sort of bias; and correctly so, of course, because we don't exactly know the truth of what happened, only what the facts tell us - what occurred. For example, a tree fell on someone's lawn, a plane landed early because of a bomb threat, an innovating technology got great results and consumers are happy about it. Our journalistic writing is often about the simple daily events that for the most part go unnoticed by the rest of the public. Everyday someone wins the lottery somewhere, some couple gets engaged, married, or divorces. Everyday, some other person rests in a hospital waiting for one more day to live their life, praying that they will have more time tomorrow.
Answering our own call and following our own destiny
Sometimes I hear songs about heartbreak that are aimed at providence or destiny, and they worry me, because we do not understand how things happen the way that they do. Why certain friends leave, why the people we care about, or why we ourselves fall short of our hopes for ourselves or the future. Why our fate occurred this way, and not a different way. Why something or someone we cared about left us for someone else, or for something we may have wanted but couldn't keep, or leap to embrace. But in due time, it is because our destiny has provided our own call to answer. And the call that we need to answer is sometimes learning to appreciate understanding outside of ourselves-- things and information outside of our knowledge. Understanding our own ignorance certainly isn't great for our ego, but allows us to feel humbled, and then to learn something new. So, it is the same with good writing. Just because another author somewhere already wrote on a topic that we are choosing to write about or are already an accomplished musician, or artist, or scientist, or someone whom we aspire to be; doesn't mean that our efforts should be erased off the face of the earth, it means that ours also has a purpose and a story, and a correct time, and the correct audience to be told to as well. Our own experience is also rich with depth, imagination, and spirit that this other author may have really personally experienced and perfected skills of story telling. Of course, we didn't live his or her life to know all his trials and tribulations and reasons for certain decisions, but we know our own experience the most. And that makes our own writing worth writing, not just copying someone else's work word for word, even a great teacher will say "teaching is not so that you follow the teacher, a great teacher simply opens the door to your own knowledge." A good teacher will do that and a student will understand the teaching through his own eyes much better.
Appreciating the building of our own writing
Sometimes it is not the building that matters but the spirit with which the people who gather there that matters. Same with good writing, sometimes a person who is just learning English can bring the most amazing insight and thought and belief in the written word, and is able to communicate the way that English speaking people who have spoken the language for many decades cannot really bring themselves to do. I believe everyone can learn to write well, but also to listen not with the ears but with what's between his and her ears, with the mind, and ultimately with the heart. Of course writing varies, some serves the Ego, some serves higher purpose, some is persuasive and attempts to clarify a point of view that we haven't considered before. Good writing occurs in the mind and in the heart together. Without the heart, the mind often becomes cynical, and without the mind the heart would probably not be able to speak or find the right words to put together into sentences. The heart is compassion, love, understanding, so it's a place of love, yet is often silent and does not really challenge anyone.
For a paper to be correctly presented in academic setting
Most papers need a Title page, numbers listed through out the document, and citations or references page.
Also, the academic paper should be original and have a unique perspective, not one that a teacher could easily find through a Google search. In today's world of internet access where countless essays are online for us to read plagiarism is widespread and is the shortcut that many are taking. I hope that are few who refuse to take that shortcut and who do want to invest in themselves. Writing requires original thought and accurate supporting evidence. Perhaps a good example would be a legal case: we need evidence that is both emotional and factual to prove our case. Emotional because it would make the audience care and factual so that the writing is taken seriously and not considered erroneous. Of course, if you're writing a journalistic article, then do try to be objective in your work, and consider neutral wording instead of writing that is too opinionated or flamboyantly favoring one side of the story versus another. Vivid examples and details do help to make the story come alive for the readers who were not there, yet for whom the story might be of interest.
If you need help with your writing, I may be of help to you. Contact me and we can go from there. I can help you brainstorm topics, proofread the paper for errors, or to translate the document into English, or to even edit the paper for English wording (if that is what you are seeking). I hope to help individuals who want to improve their writing.
Anne Canfield: Portraits and Landscapes of Inner Selves
by Olga Dvornikova
Within the white rotunda walls of Sam Quinn Gallery in West Philadelphia, nearly a dozen of Anne Canfield’s 12″x12″ pastel-toned paintings adorn the white gallery walls, weaving a fairy-tale like narrative for gallery visitors among various abstract sculptures by Anna Hernandez.
The “Fiber of My Being” series reveals a delicate visual language depicting Canfield’s personal landscape of majestic animal characters, reminiscent of Maxfield Parrish’s landscapes, mixed with Egon Shiele’s evocative aesthetic and Alice Neal’s abstract portraiture.
When viewing Canfield’s art, the viewer should have an open imagination and curiosity to see beyond the literal objects within the painting, to reach into him or herself and stretch contemplation on a visual, emotional, and spiritual level.
Canfield grew up with a rich visual vocabulary around the Pennsylvania Dutch area of Lancaster, PA and attended Moore College of Art for her Bachelor of Fine Arts. She has also studied at the Yale Summer School of Painting in Norfolk and is a recent alumna of the Center for Emerging Visual Artists in Philadelphia. Her work has been displayed in numerous galleries and several museums, including The Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Ice Box Project Space, Maryland Art Place, Woodmere Art Museum, Sam Quinn Gallery, Cerulean Arts, and Seraphin Gallery.
Anne Canfield’s realm of mythological creatures exudes playfulness: several intricate cats, quiet dogs, a merman, a ubiquitous mermaid, and a goose are juxtaposed with each other and house-hold items in a contemplative and serious way. The viewer cannot help but chuckle. Other times, the animals appear apprehensive and startled, reminding you slightly of Get Fuzzy characters. Yet, these sometimes-at-odds characters create a sense of family and home, from a symbolic, surreal, and mythological perspective.
This realm is a collection of places and memories, ranging from courtyards and paved English streets and train-stations to Bruges, Lichtenstein, and Italy. The work is portraiture in the most abstract sense of the word, where the traditional figure and face is replaced by the abstract relationships between her characters and the landscape. Her work is highly more personal than a simple figure portrait, and it delves far deeper into the meaning of reality. A visual similarity can be found in illustrations of intricate Germanic fairy tales, such as “The Bremen Town Musicians” from The Brothers Grimm.
“I am less fearful of making the type of art that pleases me. I have passed the idea of limitation and discernment. I realized that I did not have to do everything and accepted that the illustrations from my childhood are what made me love art and what continues to inspire me in my work,” says Canfield, in regard to her personal development as an artist. “Growing as an artist requires that you get rid of all of the outside information [about what makes good or bad art] and follow through on your own hunches.”
Canfield allows the viewer the freedom of interpretation. Just as fables are sometimes hints at the meaning of a story, so are Canfields’ landscapes, they are portraits of her, yet they are entirely separate and delicately rendered in themselves. An example of universality of visual language, Slavic/Russian literature scholars will recognize these characters as those of Alexander Pushkin’s fairytale “Ruslan and Lydmila” that starts with the lines:
On seashore far a green oak towers,
And to it with a gold chain bound,
A learned cat whiles away the hours
By walking slowly round and round.
To right he walks, and sings a ditty;
To left he walks, and tells a tale….
What marvels there! A mermaid sitting
High in a tree, a sprite, a trail
Where unknown beasts move never seen by
Man’s eyes, a hut on chicken feet,
Without a door, without a window,
An evil witch’s lone retreat;
The woods and valleys there are teeming
With strange things….
Dawn brings waves that, gleaming
In Canfield’s “Half Way”, the wise cat is alongside a mermaid. In literature, the mermaid figure appears in Hans Christian Anderson’s tale of “The Little Mermaid”, and also “Undine” by Friedrich de la Motte Fouque. Both stories end tragically for the majestic sprites, yet in some way the archetype speaks to the emotional level of women and men for hundreds of years.
Canfield’s landscapes have a timeliness and a stillness that’s very aware of itself and reminiscent of the religious paintings of the Renaissance. The animals stand poised in contemplation, and their gazes turn inward, slightly anxious and humble around the colorful environment that surrounds them.
Although Canfield’s landscapes hint at sensuality, the feline serves a slightly different purpose in her realm. She relates to the grandiose nature of sacred, powerful cats such as the Egyptian Goddess Bastet, and “The Cat That Walked by Himself” in Rudyard Kipling’s Just So Stories. She was directly inspired by Haruki Marikami books where the anthropomorphic animals symbolize parts of the fragmented self. These characters represent the wilderness within the civilized landscapes. What once was a panther, is now a house pet; and likewise, what once was a wolf, is a dog bound by a fence.
In part, the work is a reminder and reminiscent of our wilder selves, personas, if you will, and how with “Meet Halfway” these characters can only look at each other somewhat suspiciously, never touching the ground. Symbolism and surrealism takes shape in her canvases, especially in work like “The Great Escape” and “The Golden Room”, weaving a circuitous thread throughout the narratives. There is also layering of the landscape in “The Hideout” and “Kept by Dogs”, where the protagonist is trapped within the earth beneath her guardians.
In her work, daily relationships intertwine into another dimension, and the longer the viewer spends contemplating her painting, the more the canvases reveal. In a world saturated with the electronic and transitory, her art lets the viewer experience the contradictory forces at play and thereby creates a higher form of connection.
Click the thumbnails below or visit Anne’s website to view more of her work.
Article originally published in Too Shy To Stop: http://www.tooshytostop.com/2009/11/23/anne-canfield-portraits-and-landscapes-of-inner-selves/
Observing the Healthcare Body
How to build a successful team
By Olga Dvornikova
Article originally published in RT-Image
available online at: http://www.rt-image.com/0301observing
Think about it: Even a simple, everyday task like tying your shoes involves a complex symphony of muscles, tendons, bones – each movement orchestrated over a network of neurons, electric signals and messages. Even more remarkable is that this mix of thought and movement is coordinated to accomplish a single goal – the ultimate symbol of teamwork. Through daily interaction with patients, imaging and therapy, professionals are well aware of the intricacies of the human body. Yet, there is still much to learn. All too often, techs, therapists and physicians act as separate units, blind to how their duties affect the overall function of the department.
Building a successful team depends on each member focusing on specific roles and tasks. Some team members will direct and orchestrate, but it's just as necessary to be the arms and legs of a team, sacrificing personal gains for the good of the group.
At the Top
Like the brain controls movements of the body, leaders must direct a team. Natural leaders often exhibit specific traits, and these leaders can be chosen based on a variety of qualities For example, some are chosen because of their popularity among the team, ability to influence people in a positive way or organizational skills. Regardless, the most important factor is to be sure the cream of the crop eventually rises to the top. "If one member tends to be liked by everyone on a team and always acts as a natural leader, have him or her take the team leader role," says Kenneth Gray, RT(R)(CV)(CT), director of Radiology at Children's Memorial Hospital, Chicago.
The view from the top can be dizzying, says Gray. The leader carries the responsibility of picking the right members for the team to succeed, assessing immediately the employee's hard and soft skills so that the team consists of members with varied talents and roles. Skills such as technical background, communication ability, motivations and likes and dislikes should be taken into account when choosing team members. Evaluations of the employees' skills can go into their personnel file for later use when a new team needs to be formed. Having the information about employees at arm's length can save time when choosing the right members because there will be less duplication in terms of member's skills and motivations, which is also a key ingredient to a successful team.
It's important to have a variety of personalities for team balance, says Hellen Davis, CLU, president and CEO of Indaba, Inc., a Valley Forge, Pa.-based, management, consulting and training corporation. "You need a couple of naysayers on the team to say, "Slow down. We really need to rethink this issue,'" she says.
Once you choose the right mix of members, set ground rules in order to avoid conflict. Take on the role of the director and define the scope of the project, outline the responsibilities of each member and communicate with them in writing to avoid conflict. Davis says verbal communication is OK, but major decisions should be outlined on paper to avoid confusion.
Accountability needs to be addressed as well: How will the leader measure the team members on an individual basis and as a part of the team? The authority levels of each member need to be determined so members know who has authority over whom and what resources they can use. For example, if a person is dying from thirst and has a broken arm, he will give priority to his thirst and walk as far as he is capable in order to get replenished, forgoing the pain in his arm. Thus, the team needs to take priority over individual members. "If responsibility, authority and accountability are set up-front, the team will be more successful than most others who do not do that," says Davis. Not only do members need to understand and agree with their roles they need to rotate them to keep the team efficient at sharing information.
It's important to rotate the leader's position at a meeting so that members can educate their co-workers about their specialized portion of team activities. "Rotating the responsibility of the roles at a team meeting is a key to building a successful team," says Davis. For instance, someone who is more technically knowledgeable can take the lead in a meeting that deals with technical aspects, whereas someone who deals with customer satisfaction can take the lead at a subsequent meeting dealing with that issue. Davis adds that it's imperative for members to understand and value their positions in a team, even when rotating duties and filling unenviable roles. Members must focus on the good of the team first. They must remember that each member is important in a team effort. The team body depends on cooperation from all members. Without cooperation the whole body is in jeopardy. For example, when a patient receives a heart transplant and the surrounding tissue does not accept the transplant, the body as a whole cannot function. "Ultimately in healthcare, people's lives are at stake," says Davis. "If you don't communicate as a team, you are putting people's lives at risk."
Just as the brain takes care of the body's needs, the leader should take care of the team members' physiological and psychological safety. Leaders should make sure that the employees are working reasonable hours to avoid exhaustion at work. Communication and lively atmosphere should be encouraged for the optimal health of the team body.
Taking care of all the team members results in better patient care, because employees are more aware of the common goal. "Teambuilding lets the group build meaning and passion from the mundane to life threatening," says Pamela Brill, EDD, licensed psychologist and author of the upcoming book, The Winner's Way, A Proven Method for Turning Any Situation into a Personal Best (McGraw Hill, 2004).
How the team communicates also plays an important role in teambuilding success. The brain communicates simultaneously to all the organs and body parts, but in a team, communication is the most important way of sharing information. "We talk to others the way we communicate with ourselves," says Brill. "By learning to reprogram how you use words, you can move from debilitating yourself and others to motivating yourself and others." All the members must work as a body and encourage each other's efforts as the project or task gets accomplished.
Another aspect of successful teambuilding relies on the team members sharing values. Honesty, integrity, teamwork, accountability and communication, if nurtured, can lead to a culture that is both respectful and trusting, says Brill. The key is to have the members come up with values for the whole group so that it's not what the administration wants, but what the members want for themselves. The values will unite the team members into a cohesive body.
Playing Solo
Many careers require people to work alone. These people may not be used to working in a team setting. But just as you wouldn't want to lift a heavy weight with one hand, team tasks are best shared among members. "Even the leading radiologist with the best equipment and reading rooms will not be able to get the job done effectively if they don't embrace their support staff, administrative staff, colleagues and interns as team members, whose contributions are just as important as their own," says Brill. Solo players need to understand that a change in their day-to-day mindset needs to occur if they are to participate on a team. Understanding that teamwork results in payoff, in terms of better product, better patient care, better technology, or better pay, can motivate reluctant solo players to join the team."
Sometimes solo players are simply afraid of working with others because they do not know how a team operates. In such cases it is best to familiarize yourself with a team environment by becoming an assistant coach for little league baseball or soccer, says Davis. Another way to find out about team participation is by asking a senior employee to act as a mentor. Asking the mentor to give tips about how to behave in a team setting can serve as an opportunity to let him know that you are interested in volunteering for the next company team.
Changing Posture
We've all experienced back pain at some point in our lives. Something so simple as a strained muscle can result in total body pain. Correcting the back ailment takes time, exercise and dedication. Similarly, when deciding to implement a team culture in a company or hospital, the culture cannot form in a matter of days; instead they must take a slower approach at correcting the problem. Sometimes a team workshop can help a team take shape. "If a workshop is knowledge based and has goals, it will accomplish teambuilding. If it doesn't it's a waste of the company's money," says Davis. Looking at the return for investment is the bottom-line when deciding whether or not a team should go through a workshop.
— Olga Dvornikova is the editorial intern at RT Image magazine. Questions and comments can be directed to [email protected].
By Olga Dvornikova
Article originally published in RT-Image
available online at: http://www.rt-image.com/0301observing
Think about it: Even a simple, everyday task like tying your shoes involves a complex symphony of muscles, tendons, bones – each movement orchestrated over a network of neurons, electric signals and messages. Even more remarkable is that this mix of thought and movement is coordinated to accomplish a single goal – the ultimate symbol of teamwork. Through daily interaction with patients, imaging and therapy, professionals are well aware of the intricacies of the human body. Yet, there is still much to learn. All too often, techs, therapists and physicians act as separate units, blind to how their duties affect the overall function of the department.
Building a successful team depends on each member focusing on specific roles and tasks. Some team members will direct and orchestrate, but it's just as necessary to be the arms and legs of a team, sacrificing personal gains for the good of the group.
At the Top
Like the brain controls movements of the body, leaders must direct a team. Natural leaders often exhibit specific traits, and these leaders can be chosen based on a variety of qualities For example, some are chosen because of their popularity among the team, ability to influence people in a positive way or organizational skills. Regardless, the most important factor is to be sure the cream of the crop eventually rises to the top. "If one member tends to be liked by everyone on a team and always acts as a natural leader, have him or her take the team leader role," says Kenneth Gray, RT(R)(CV)(CT), director of Radiology at Children's Memorial Hospital, Chicago.
The view from the top can be dizzying, says Gray. The leader carries the responsibility of picking the right members for the team to succeed, assessing immediately the employee's hard and soft skills so that the team consists of members with varied talents and roles. Skills such as technical background, communication ability, motivations and likes and dislikes should be taken into account when choosing team members. Evaluations of the employees' skills can go into their personnel file for later use when a new team needs to be formed. Having the information about employees at arm's length can save time when choosing the right members because there will be less duplication in terms of member's skills and motivations, which is also a key ingredient to a successful team.
It's important to have a variety of personalities for team balance, says Hellen Davis, CLU, president and CEO of Indaba, Inc., a Valley Forge, Pa.-based, management, consulting and training corporation. "You need a couple of naysayers on the team to say, "Slow down. We really need to rethink this issue,'" she says.
Once you choose the right mix of members, set ground rules in order to avoid conflict. Take on the role of the director and define the scope of the project, outline the responsibilities of each member and communicate with them in writing to avoid conflict. Davis says verbal communication is OK, but major decisions should be outlined on paper to avoid confusion.
Accountability needs to be addressed as well: How will the leader measure the team members on an individual basis and as a part of the team? The authority levels of each member need to be determined so members know who has authority over whom and what resources they can use. For example, if a person is dying from thirst and has a broken arm, he will give priority to his thirst and walk as far as he is capable in order to get replenished, forgoing the pain in his arm. Thus, the team needs to take priority over individual members. "If responsibility, authority and accountability are set up-front, the team will be more successful than most others who do not do that," says Davis. Not only do members need to understand and agree with their roles they need to rotate them to keep the team efficient at sharing information.
It's important to rotate the leader's position at a meeting so that members can educate their co-workers about their specialized portion of team activities. "Rotating the responsibility of the roles at a team meeting is a key to building a successful team," says Davis. For instance, someone who is more technically knowledgeable can take the lead in a meeting that deals with technical aspects, whereas someone who deals with customer satisfaction can take the lead at a subsequent meeting dealing with that issue. Davis adds that it's imperative for members to understand and value their positions in a team, even when rotating duties and filling unenviable roles. Members must focus on the good of the team first. They must remember that each member is important in a team effort. The team body depends on cooperation from all members. Without cooperation the whole body is in jeopardy. For example, when a patient receives a heart transplant and the surrounding tissue does not accept the transplant, the body as a whole cannot function. "Ultimately in healthcare, people's lives are at stake," says Davis. "If you don't communicate as a team, you are putting people's lives at risk."
Just as the brain takes care of the body's needs, the leader should take care of the team members' physiological and psychological safety. Leaders should make sure that the employees are working reasonable hours to avoid exhaustion at work. Communication and lively atmosphere should be encouraged for the optimal health of the team body.
Taking care of all the team members results in better patient care, because employees are more aware of the common goal. "Teambuilding lets the group build meaning and passion from the mundane to life threatening," says Pamela Brill, EDD, licensed psychologist and author of the upcoming book, The Winner's Way, A Proven Method for Turning Any Situation into a Personal Best (McGraw Hill, 2004).
How the team communicates also plays an important role in teambuilding success. The brain communicates simultaneously to all the organs and body parts, but in a team, communication is the most important way of sharing information. "We talk to others the way we communicate with ourselves," says Brill. "By learning to reprogram how you use words, you can move from debilitating yourself and others to motivating yourself and others." All the members must work as a body and encourage each other's efforts as the project or task gets accomplished.
Another aspect of successful teambuilding relies on the team members sharing values. Honesty, integrity, teamwork, accountability and communication, if nurtured, can lead to a culture that is both respectful and trusting, says Brill. The key is to have the members come up with values for the whole group so that it's not what the administration wants, but what the members want for themselves. The values will unite the team members into a cohesive body.
Playing Solo
Many careers require people to work alone. These people may not be used to working in a team setting. But just as you wouldn't want to lift a heavy weight with one hand, team tasks are best shared among members. "Even the leading radiologist with the best equipment and reading rooms will not be able to get the job done effectively if they don't embrace their support staff, administrative staff, colleagues and interns as team members, whose contributions are just as important as their own," says Brill. Solo players need to understand that a change in their day-to-day mindset needs to occur if they are to participate on a team. Understanding that teamwork results in payoff, in terms of better product, better patient care, better technology, or better pay, can motivate reluctant solo players to join the team."
Sometimes solo players are simply afraid of working with others because they do not know how a team operates. In such cases it is best to familiarize yourself with a team environment by becoming an assistant coach for little league baseball or soccer, says Davis. Another way to find out about team participation is by asking a senior employee to act as a mentor. Asking the mentor to give tips about how to behave in a team setting can serve as an opportunity to let him know that you are interested in volunteering for the next company team.
Changing Posture
We've all experienced back pain at some point in our lives. Something so simple as a strained muscle can result in total body pain. Correcting the back ailment takes time, exercise and dedication. Similarly, when deciding to implement a team culture in a company or hospital, the culture cannot form in a matter of days; instead they must take a slower approach at correcting the problem. Sometimes a team workshop can help a team take shape. "If a workshop is knowledge based and has goals, it will accomplish teambuilding. If it doesn't it's a waste of the company's money," says Davis. Looking at the return for investment is the bottom-line when deciding whether or not a team should go through a workshop.
— Olga Dvornikova is the editorial intern at RT Image magazine. Questions and comments can be directed to [email protected].
Here Today, Gone Tomorrow
Simple ways to rid your workplace of absences
By Olga Dvornikova
Article originally published in RT-Image
Article available online at: http://www.rt-image.com/0105absence
According to the September Conference Board survey from the Charlotte Business Journal and CNN, less than half of all Americans are satisfied with their jobs. The decline in satisfaction is found in workers of all ages, income brackets and regions. Dissatisfaction with work and environment breeds absenteeism, which can be a great problem for the highly stressed medical field and can cost facilities millions of dollars each year. Solutions to absenteeism involve better management strategies and better absence policies.
ArLyne Diamond, PhD, management consultant and professional development coach of Diamond Associates, Santa Clara, Calif., lists three main problems for absenteeism: unhappiness at work due to interpersonal problems or poor management, feeling that the job is unimportant and illness and/or illness of family members with no clear resources to help. In a nutshell, these are the prevalent topics managers have to face and cope with to keep their employees motivated.
When assessing employee absence, Diamond says the first thing to do is start listening and try to assess the problem. Once the problem is identified, create strategies to ameliorate the cause. "Sometimes it's helpful to create small group discussions about the problem in a department without it being a fault-finding mission," she says.
Make Goals, Decisions and Buddies
Set up a meeting with the employee in question to find out why he or she has been missing work and try to find a mutual solution to decrease absences. "Set up goals that by the end of a month, the employee can have only one absence and so on. Make sure to set up a specific plan and stick to that plan," says David A. Harrison, professor of management at Smeal College of Business Administration, Pennsylvania State University, University Park.
Diamond says another way to boost attendance and worker morale is to involve employees in decision making by giving them opportunities to shine and do a good job. "You can take the most routine job and change it into something they can feel proud about by giving them the chance to teach you ways they can do their job better," she says, "then rewarding the employees for those ideas and for teaching other people how to do the job better will increase their morale and make them feel more involved."
Another way to solve office absenteeism is to create a mentoring buddy system. "This kind of system will force people to protect each other. It will have a structure to encourage personal growth and help the employees in the time of trouble," says Diamond. "The buddies are there to give help and get past the social discomforts, since absenteeism is often due to social discomforts." Bottom line, if an employee feels uncomfortable in the social network at work, they are less likely to show up, adds Diamond.
Eliminate Cliques
If you notice absences as a trend in a certain department, start looking at the cliques in that department. Somebody might feel left out by their co-workers or have personal problems with another employee. "It's very commonplace that people create closed-circle cliques in healthcare and hospital settings for a variety of reasons," says Diamond. The healthiest reason for a clique is that employees deal with trust issues on a daily basis so they form informal teams. Another reason is that employees are people from different backgrounds and they tend to feel comfortable with people of similar cultural interests. However, these cliques can be detrimental if groups advance stereotypes in the workplace. "It's very common that in these kinds of situations people wind up being scapegoats for other people's problems," Diamond says. "The managers need to identify the problem, sit down with upper management and work out strategies that have to do with accountability, standards of courtesy and drawing clear lines of what's expected of the employee."
Create Absence Policy and Quality Measurements
"It is terribly wrong to demand that people give you reasons for their absences. I think a good policy states you have x number of days per year and you can use those days for mental health days, vacation days, sick days or any other way you want to use them," Diamond says. "You should be able to let management know in advance if you are taking off more than one day, of course. I think it's good enough to set the limits – this is what you are allowed. Anything above and beyond a certain number is without pay."
Having an explicit policy will help reduce absenteeism, Harrison says. Having a norm of attendance among a group or a team will do the trick. Penalties for the additional burden on employees who do attend when someone misses will decrease the rate of absence in the workplace. "Part of developing a culture of attendance is to have tasks where other people feel the pain if somebody misses," Harrison says. "If people are easily replaced, they don't feel bad about showing up. If you are vital to a team effort you are more likely to come to work."
Another way to develop a culture of good attendance, according to Harrison, is to develop informal rewards for attendance, such as highlighting top employees' attendance record, thereby making attendance more important to other employees.
Yet another option is to have a sickness/ absence pool for the whole department or unit. Instead of all employees getting five to 10 days of sick leave having an absence pool decreases number of days off. "We would be less likely to dip into that pool for not-so-great reasons because we would know that we were taking a day away from someone who might really need it later," says Harrison. The concept of a common absence pool discourages the sense of entitlement to be able to take sick leaves.
Of course, it's important to reward people for not being absent when this time-off pool is in place, adds Harrison. It can be advantageous to pro-rate employees on the basis of how many days each person did or didn't take during the year and reward them accordingly.
Managers often measure their employees based on quantity: How many patients have they covered? How many reports have they filed? How many scans did they do in an hour? According to Diamond, this kind of measuring leads to employees feeling over-stressed to do their job in a hurry, often doing their job based on how much they need to get done instead of providing the best care for their patients. "If you are being clock-watched and managed by the numbers the employees are going to be really rude and rushed and they are not going to be as careful at their job," says Diamond.
"There have to be qualitative measures and there have to be rewards for quality, which in the end will make a big difference in employee attendance," says Diamond.
Motivate and Set Missions
All good managers need to encourage, motivate and set up structures in which employees will feel successful. Simple statements that reaffirm the employees' decisions or a job done well are often the easiest and simplest ways to motivate employees. "Saying something genuinely nice about a person or what they have done is a wonderful tool for employee motivation," says Diamond.
"People want to go to work where they can express their creativity, where they are in an environment of mutual respect and support, where they feel that what they do makes a difference and that's not the case for many people," says Scott Hunter, JD, professional speaker, facilitator and author of the upcoming book Making Work Work (2004, Cameo Publications LLC).
Having an inspiring mission or goal for any company and aligning employees with that goal can help create a successful company where everyone is moving in the same direction. Hunter says implementing an incentive for the employees based on company revenue will make concrete the idea that the company has one common goal that includes all the employees. Taking a percentage of the company earnings at the end of the year and dividing it among workers according to a particular formula will encourage employees to continue working for that company and to continue showing up.
Empty "Files" and Train
It's a fact of life: People have expectations of other people, about what they want others to be and often other people don't live up to those expectations. "If you don't communicate disappointments it becomes like a metaphorical file on that person [into which you] deposit disappointments each time the disappointment isn't communicated," says Hunter. "In business and interpersonal relationships you have to communicate disappointments and empty "files' about people, because the biggest problem in companies is the unspoken, under-the-surface files that everyone has on each other." Hunter teaches people not to store files or keep them empty, but to communicate appropriately, to learn to listen when others communicate to them, to listen with compassion and to take responsibility for their own upsets instead of being upset at others for no apparent reason.
Most professionals in healthcare are not taught to manage others, instead they are taught how to be the professional – how to be a physician, but not how to be a manager or a leader. According to Diamond, when you are dealing with people you create a sphere for them either to succeed or fail.
"If you don't know how you set parameters, how you motivate, how you balance all the personal items that come up, they tend to happen willy-nilly," says Diamond. Likewise, poor managers create poor employees; so getting management training sometimes can be the first step to solving problems with employees and absenteeism. Knowing what is reasonable is also very important to the knowledge of an effective employee.
— Olga Dvornikova is the editorial intern at RT Image magazine. Questions and comments can be directed to [email protected].
By Olga Dvornikova
Article originally published in RT-Image
Article available online at: http://www.rt-image.com/0105absence
According to the September Conference Board survey from the Charlotte Business Journal and CNN, less than half of all Americans are satisfied with their jobs. The decline in satisfaction is found in workers of all ages, income brackets and regions. Dissatisfaction with work and environment breeds absenteeism, which can be a great problem for the highly stressed medical field and can cost facilities millions of dollars each year. Solutions to absenteeism involve better management strategies and better absence policies.
ArLyne Diamond, PhD, management consultant and professional development coach of Diamond Associates, Santa Clara, Calif., lists three main problems for absenteeism: unhappiness at work due to interpersonal problems or poor management, feeling that the job is unimportant and illness and/or illness of family members with no clear resources to help. In a nutshell, these are the prevalent topics managers have to face and cope with to keep their employees motivated.
When assessing employee absence, Diamond says the first thing to do is start listening and try to assess the problem. Once the problem is identified, create strategies to ameliorate the cause. "Sometimes it's helpful to create small group discussions about the problem in a department without it being a fault-finding mission," she says.
Make Goals, Decisions and Buddies
Set up a meeting with the employee in question to find out why he or she has been missing work and try to find a mutual solution to decrease absences. "Set up goals that by the end of a month, the employee can have only one absence and so on. Make sure to set up a specific plan and stick to that plan," says David A. Harrison, professor of management at Smeal College of Business Administration, Pennsylvania State University, University Park.
Diamond says another way to boost attendance and worker morale is to involve employees in decision making by giving them opportunities to shine and do a good job. "You can take the most routine job and change it into something they can feel proud about by giving them the chance to teach you ways they can do their job better," she says, "then rewarding the employees for those ideas and for teaching other people how to do the job better will increase their morale and make them feel more involved."
Another way to solve office absenteeism is to create a mentoring buddy system. "This kind of system will force people to protect each other. It will have a structure to encourage personal growth and help the employees in the time of trouble," says Diamond. "The buddies are there to give help and get past the social discomforts, since absenteeism is often due to social discomforts." Bottom line, if an employee feels uncomfortable in the social network at work, they are less likely to show up, adds Diamond.
Eliminate Cliques
If you notice absences as a trend in a certain department, start looking at the cliques in that department. Somebody might feel left out by their co-workers or have personal problems with another employee. "It's very commonplace that people create closed-circle cliques in healthcare and hospital settings for a variety of reasons," says Diamond. The healthiest reason for a clique is that employees deal with trust issues on a daily basis so they form informal teams. Another reason is that employees are people from different backgrounds and they tend to feel comfortable with people of similar cultural interests. However, these cliques can be detrimental if groups advance stereotypes in the workplace. "It's very common that in these kinds of situations people wind up being scapegoats for other people's problems," Diamond says. "The managers need to identify the problem, sit down with upper management and work out strategies that have to do with accountability, standards of courtesy and drawing clear lines of what's expected of the employee."
Create Absence Policy and Quality Measurements
"It is terribly wrong to demand that people give you reasons for their absences. I think a good policy states you have x number of days per year and you can use those days for mental health days, vacation days, sick days or any other way you want to use them," Diamond says. "You should be able to let management know in advance if you are taking off more than one day, of course. I think it's good enough to set the limits – this is what you are allowed. Anything above and beyond a certain number is without pay."
Having an explicit policy will help reduce absenteeism, Harrison says. Having a norm of attendance among a group or a team will do the trick. Penalties for the additional burden on employees who do attend when someone misses will decrease the rate of absence in the workplace. "Part of developing a culture of attendance is to have tasks where other people feel the pain if somebody misses," Harrison says. "If people are easily replaced, they don't feel bad about showing up. If you are vital to a team effort you are more likely to come to work."
Another way to develop a culture of good attendance, according to Harrison, is to develop informal rewards for attendance, such as highlighting top employees' attendance record, thereby making attendance more important to other employees.
Yet another option is to have a sickness/ absence pool for the whole department or unit. Instead of all employees getting five to 10 days of sick leave having an absence pool decreases number of days off. "We would be less likely to dip into that pool for not-so-great reasons because we would know that we were taking a day away from someone who might really need it later," says Harrison. The concept of a common absence pool discourages the sense of entitlement to be able to take sick leaves.
Of course, it's important to reward people for not being absent when this time-off pool is in place, adds Harrison. It can be advantageous to pro-rate employees on the basis of how many days each person did or didn't take during the year and reward them accordingly.
Managers often measure their employees based on quantity: How many patients have they covered? How many reports have they filed? How many scans did they do in an hour? According to Diamond, this kind of measuring leads to employees feeling over-stressed to do their job in a hurry, often doing their job based on how much they need to get done instead of providing the best care for their patients. "If you are being clock-watched and managed by the numbers the employees are going to be really rude and rushed and they are not going to be as careful at their job," says Diamond.
"There have to be qualitative measures and there have to be rewards for quality, which in the end will make a big difference in employee attendance," says Diamond.
Motivate and Set Missions
All good managers need to encourage, motivate and set up structures in which employees will feel successful. Simple statements that reaffirm the employees' decisions or a job done well are often the easiest and simplest ways to motivate employees. "Saying something genuinely nice about a person or what they have done is a wonderful tool for employee motivation," says Diamond.
"People want to go to work where they can express their creativity, where they are in an environment of mutual respect and support, where they feel that what they do makes a difference and that's not the case for many people," says Scott Hunter, JD, professional speaker, facilitator and author of the upcoming book Making Work Work (2004, Cameo Publications LLC).
Having an inspiring mission or goal for any company and aligning employees with that goal can help create a successful company where everyone is moving in the same direction. Hunter says implementing an incentive for the employees based on company revenue will make concrete the idea that the company has one common goal that includes all the employees. Taking a percentage of the company earnings at the end of the year and dividing it among workers according to a particular formula will encourage employees to continue working for that company and to continue showing up.
Empty "Files" and Train
It's a fact of life: People have expectations of other people, about what they want others to be and often other people don't live up to those expectations. "If you don't communicate disappointments it becomes like a metaphorical file on that person [into which you] deposit disappointments each time the disappointment isn't communicated," says Hunter. "In business and interpersonal relationships you have to communicate disappointments and empty "files' about people, because the biggest problem in companies is the unspoken, under-the-surface files that everyone has on each other." Hunter teaches people not to store files or keep them empty, but to communicate appropriately, to learn to listen when others communicate to them, to listen with compassion and to take responsibility for their own upsets instead of being upset at others for no apparent reason.
Most professionals in healthcare are not taught to manage others, instead they are taught how to be the professional – how to be a physician, but not how to be a manager or a leader. According to Diamond, when you are dealing with people you create a sphere for them either to succeed or fail.
"If you don't know how you set parameters, how you motivate, how you balance all the personal items that come up, they tend to happen willy-nilly," says Diamond. Likewise, poor managers create poor employees; so getting management training sometimes can be the first step to solving problems with employees and absenteeism. Knowing what is reasonable is also very important to the knowledge of an effective employee.
— Olga Dvornikova is the editorial intern at RT Image magazine. Questions and comments can be directed to [email protected].
International Symposium on Endovascular Therapy
16th annual preview
Article originally published in RT-Image
Article available online at: http://www.rt-image.com/120803IU
Physicians and scientists from the fields of cardiology, interventional radiology and vascular surgery will meet for the 16th International Symposium on Endovascular Therapy (ISET), Jan. 25-29, 2004. ISET is presented by the Miami Cardiac & Vascular Institute and jointly sponsored by the Society of Interventional Radiology. Endovascular and cardiac specialists from around the world gather each year in Miami Beach, Fla., not only to learn about the latest research in their field, but also to experience live cases that demonstrate new technology and approaches.
This year's highlights include an emphasis on corotid stenting, new technologies and device development. Corotid stenting is a procedure used as an alternative to surgery. "The procedure has been under investigation for several years and it has a high chance of approval within the next 12 months," says Barry T. Katzen, MD, program director.
Two other main topics on the list for discussion will be aneurysm therapy and treatment of aortic aneurysms in thoracic aorta and abdominal aorta. Another topic of interest is simulator education, which would allow physicians to train on simulators instead of real patients. "As always, the ISET program committee remains focused on using the latest technology to provide insight into the future of this changing field," Katzen says. "Our mission is to provide the most practical information that every endovascular specialist will need in the next 12 months."
While providing physicians with the most recent information on endovascular therapies including drug-eluting stents, embolization and stroke, ISET also gives a snapshot into the reality of what is actually happening in endovascular medicine. ISET offers a multidisciplinary international faculty that ensures representation from a variety of fields and encourages lively interaction. Last year more than 2,000 individuals representing 22 countries were in attendance. This year even more attendees are expected to arrive from all over the United States, Europe and Latin America.
Following the symposium's theme of looking forward, 60 companies are expected to demonstrate current and forward-looking technology at ISET 2004. Newly developed endovascular devices will be featured in a special forum.
Each year endovascular specialists from around the world gather at ISET not only to learn about the latest research in their field, but also to experience live cases that demonstrate new technology and approaches. Program faculty will draw registrants into the procedure room through sophisticated technology that allows attendees to become participants in live case demonstrations. Attendees will be involved in each case through computer polling and decision-making.
In addition to case demonstration, several guest speakers will be recognized at the symposium including John Simpson, MD, with the Annual Innovators Award; vascular surgeon Hugh Beebe, MD, with Distinguished Career Award; and interventional radiologist Gordon McLane, MD, with the Charles J. Tegtmeyer Lecture.
For more information, call 888-334-7495 or visit www.istet.org.
— Olga Dvornikova
© Olga Dvornikova
Article originally published in RT-Image
Article available online at: http://www.rt-image.com/120803IU
Physicians and scientists from the fields of cardiology, interventional radiology and vascular surgery will meet for the 16th International Symposium on Endovascular Therapy (ISET), Jan. 25-29, 2004. ISET is presented by the Miami Cardiac & Vascular Institute and jointly sponsored by the Society of Interventional Radiology. Endovascular and cardiac specialists from around the world gather each year in Miami Beach, Fla., not only to learn about the latest research in their field, but also to experience live cases that demonstrate new technology and approaches.
This year's highlights include an emphasis on corotid stenting, new technologies and device development. Corotid stenting is a procedure used as an alternative to surgery. "The procedure has been under investigation for several years and it has a high chance of approval within the next 12 months," says Barry T. Katzen, MD, program director.
Two other main topics on the list for discussion will be aneurysm therapy and treatment of aortic aneurysms in thoracic aorta and abdominal aorta. Another topic of interest is simulator education, which would allow physicians to train on simulators instead of real patients. "As always, the ISET program committee remains focused on using the latest technology to provide insight into the future of this changing field," Katzen says. "Our mission is to provide the most practical information that every endovascular specialist will need in the next 12 months."
While providing physicians with the most recent information on endovascular therapies including drug-eluting stents, embolization and stroke, ISET also gives a snapshot into the reality of what is actually happening in endovascular medicine. ISET offers a multidisciplinary international faculty that ensures representation from a variety of fields and encourages lively interaction. Last year more than 2,000 individuals representing 22 countries were in attendance. This year even more attendees are expected to arrive from all over the United States, Europe and Latin America.
Following the symposium's theme of looking forward, 60 companies are expected to demonstrate current and forward-looking technology at ISET 2004. Newly developed endovascular devices will be featured in a special forum.
Each year endovascular specialists from around the world gather at ISET not only to learn about the latest research in their field, but also to experience live cases that demonstrate new technology and approaches. Program faculty will draw registrants into the procedure room through sophisticated technology that allows attendees to become participants in live case demonstrations. Attendees will be involved in each case through computer polling and decision-making.
In addition to case demonstration, several guest speakers will be recognized at the symposium including John Simpson, MD, with the Annual Innovators Award; vascular surgeon Hugh Beebe, MD, with Distinguished Career Award; and interventional radiologist Gordon McLane, MD, with the Charles J. Tegtmeyer Lecture.
For more information, call 888-334-7495 or visit www.istet.org.
— Olga Dvornikova
© Olga Dvornikova