Over the past week, I asked many of my co-workers this question; “Why does a soldier make his bed first thing in the morning?”. Many gave me a blank stare, some attempted to come up with a creative answer but none got it right. I too, learned about this myself recently and once told it made perfect sense.
Do you know the answer?
OK, let’s reveal the answer; “A soldier makes his bed each morning to perfection to set his day up for success”. That makes perfect sense doesn’t it. Now, do you make your bed each morning?
Military leaders believe that by making your bed with crisp corners and holding oneself to strict standard work will lead to better work the remainder of the day. A soldier is less likely to cut corners on projects that need to be executed due to the fact that his behavioral capacity is on high alert for perfection.
You can adopt this philosophy with your children or even at work minus the inspection of the bedroom at your staff members homes of course. However, bringing this example back to your leadership huddle and challenge them to take a different approach to their morning routine could lead to improved performance.
Especially in Healthcare, we live and work in a dynamic ever-changing environment whereby we need to remain nimble and often have to be very creative in our approaches to satisfy our patients and deliver excellence in care.
If your mindset is on crisp corners and following standard work, you are more likely to deliver a patient to his/her final destination when asked for directions rather than merely pointing them into the right direction. Same goes for sterilizing/sanitizing skin for an IV insertion or cleaning a bed after discharging a patient.
Start your morning off right by doing the right things right!
-W
TheDutchMentor 