======================= JeffNEWS, July 12, 1994 ======================= Building Group Teamwork Skills for Physicians --------------------------------------------- By Robert Doughty, MD, PHD Associate Dean, Jefferson Medical College, and Medical Director, A.I. duPont Institute Developing awareness of and putting into practice skills in self-awareness, leadership and interpersonal relations are increasingly important in health care today. Gone are the days when a doctor worked autonomously in providing patient care. Now he or she is a team member, along with perhaps a therapist, one or more nurses, nutritionist, pharmacist, home healthcare specialist. Moreover, this team may well be part of a larger administrative, managed care team. So there is a growing need for doctors to be adept at working with teams of people. Teaching these skills is complex. By necessity, much of medical education focuses on didactic approaches and not on how individuals perceive one another. That need is best addressed by what some people call "experiential" learning. In helping educate students and residents at Jefferson, A.I. duPont Institute and Pennsylvania Hospital, experiential techniques are used to conduct workshops and seminars designed to enhance self-development and growth, such as leadership skills, interpersonal relations, and communication and team concepts. One dramatic example of the power of such skill building and self-awareness techniques occurred June 28 during a retreat for senior residents of Jefferson and Pennsylvania hospitals conducted by JMC's Residency and Affiliated Hospital Programs. As part of an experiential workshop, about 40 senior residents completed a Myers-Briggs Personality Type Indicator and were organized into groups according to their indicated personality preference or "type." Two empty chairs were placed in the center of a large room, facing each other, and the groups were asked to describe what they saw. Always, the results are striking. One personality group usually limits its description to the physical appearance or "data" of two chairs - eight legs, straight backs, no arms, brown fabric seat covers - writing in neatly organized rows or columns. Another group generally skips the physical properties altogether, instead reporting in symbolic or figurative language, seeing the possibilities of what the two chairs might represent: a conversation, a bridge, anger, waiting for a third chair, two people about to meet or who have just left. The groups' differing perceptions closely match the strength of their personality preference. Some individuals strongly view the world through data while others' perceptions are based on an intuitive sense of what "the data" might represent. The implication of this perennial difference in perception is profound - once you experience it. None of us really knows how another person "sees" things. Most of us presume somebody else perceives something exactly as we do. That's seldom true; yet most of us go through life thinking it is. Rather than involve participants in this "experiential" activity, one could tell them: "If there are two chairs in the middle of the room, different people may view them differently." By contrast, experiential learning permits participants an opportunity to concretely appreciate individual differences by experiencing them. One reason why Myers-Briggs and another instrument we use - the Thomas-Kilman Conflict Mode - are such powerful tools is that they help to illustrate how invalid many assumptions about human relations are. Recognizing what is valid will go far to enhancing all human relationships, including those critical for building effective healthcare and management teams needed to face the future in health care. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Information provided by: Editor, JeffNEWS (215) 955-6204 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------