Laurie's Blogs.

Here’s what I learned this week.   There is a saying “Fire Fast, Hire Slow”.   This week challenged me on both of these fronts.  We had a mass staff upheaval at my clinic this week.  Long story short, in less than 48 hours, I lost two employees, gained one back, fired another, and hired two more.  

When poop hit the fan, I immediately went onto Facebook to scroll through my contacts to see who I knew (that actually lives in the country, let alone Calgary & area) that might be right to bring onboard. Fortunately, the two people I contacted were very interested in coming on board to work at my clinic.  No need to get into specifics, just that the rest of the shuffling was done to address the situation and move forward.

The dust has not settled just yet, and my business partner and I have been putting in plenty of long hours to get us through until everything / everyone is up and running autonomously again.  Questions we needed to look at?  As a business owner, one always needs to look internal and ask themselves, ‘What role did I play in this?’  (Really, for any conflict, you need to ask yourself that question!)  Accept your role.  Learn from it.  Deal with the situation at hand. Then, move forward. Perhaps the road ahead is not in the least painful direction, but in the best direction to mitigate the situation (i.e. Fire fast).

Hiring slow… well, in this scenario, we didn’t have that luxury.  However, I feel confident that in hiring people we knew, and hand selecting two to invite on board, that we may have just as much information about these two individuals as we would get from interviewing 2 complete strangers.  So maybe, we didn’t fail in that regard after all.

Sometimes being thrown into adversity is a blessing in disguise.  I’m sure my clinic will be stronger coming through this than ever before. 

Those of you who are clinic owners or managers will understand the complexities of this situation.  But what can those of you who work in rehab learn from this tale as well… outside of ‘staffing and human resources’ insights?

1. Be prepared to think on your feet.  For example, when dealing with a neuro dog.  No amount of ‘planning to treat a new neuro case’ can prepare you to think on your feet and treat the dog in front of you.  Neuro cases in particular are ones you simply need to ‘think as you go’, ‘plan as you learn’, ‘test, try, and treat’.  I see questions come in on vet-rehab forums asking for help to plan what to do for a neuro dog coming in next day or week.  You CAN’T plan.  You have to assess and then trust in your knowledge and skills to respond to what you find RIGHT THEN AND THERE!

2.Don’t be afraid to change directions.  If you see a deterioration in your patient, be prepared to respond; to change direction; to re-evaluate; to refer back; to refer on.  Don’t be a malingerer yourself; be the circus master and orchestrate change!  The same could be said for a dog that is improving quickly.  Don’t stick with the same old plan… progress that dog faster as well!  Respond to the dog in front of you!

3.Build your network.  Who do you have that you can ask questions to?  Where can you go to get answers or learn more?  Who could you network with?  If you were in a pinch, who could call on to help out?

There you go, you get a blog that wraps up both management and clinical practice lessons all in one!  Keep on doing great work out there!

Until next time!

Cheers!   Laurie