One Flew Over the Cubicle's Nest

Training Doctors, Part III

Amazing what a difference a week—and change of venue—makes. This week I was in Dallas, Tx, and the results were vastly different, a glowing experience by any trainer's standards.

Was it the venue?

Was it  my presentation?

Or was it just luck of the draw?

Or maybe all three. I was  better prepared, and focused more on making sure I met some of their needs/issues (ex: dealing the cynical audience, or even hecklers). I also had more fun with this one. After the last week's experience, I decided to inject more humor, a dose of irreverance and play off the doctor's humor--and there was plenty.

I had good luck breaking them up into groups and then having them take turns presenting openers, and then parts of their speeches. I kept the pace a little faster, did less lecturing, and more “facilitating”—passing the baton to my doctor audience members for them to share. That's good, since  the workshop is aimed at developing facilitation skills vs presentation skills.

Being a native Texan didn’t hurt either. I was able to pull out some of my old Texas stories, and of course, talk about how much I missed the state, the colorful news stories (I was a business writer at Business Week when I lived in Houston; I grew up on the Gulf Coast, in Beaumont), my family, and the ever-fascinating characters…(“some of whom, unfortunately, are in jail or going there,” I mentioned). Even though they’re doctors, they’re still Texans, and no people (besides maybe New Yorkers) are so proud of their state. Bottom line was I connected with them the first two minutes and it lasted through the workshop.

 (My last group was mostly Californians)

Then there’s the luck of the draw.

Training Doctors

I got a chance to do a presentation skills program with a group of 16 doctors recently. They were actually specialists, including cardiologists, and the focus would be on facilitation skills--more on that below. It's always interesting teaching a group with this much education and power. Doctors, by their nature and titles, are accustomed to being praised and highly respected. Now they're sitting around a big table, raising their hands to ask questions and preparing to practice openings and closings, some of them nervously.

I'd heard the horror stories about their egos, and expected a hard time.  One trainer told me one had a cell phone that was constantly going off. When she asked him about it, he challenged her--"I"m a doctor, and doctors are always on call." Another time, she said a doctor had almost run her out of the room, challenging her:"Why don't we just do a poll now, and see how everyone thinks you're doing?"

Ok, this sounds like fun.

But it turned out to go pretty smoothly.

The  session started a little rough--I could almost see some of them looking at their watches, wondering if it was going to be worth their time. But I found that as soon as I could get them up and practicing, and interacting, their attitude improved. They seemed to enjoy practicing--and sparring--with each other (one practice has different doctors taking roles of problem-causing audience members--the challenger, the procrastinator, etc.)

As the session went on, I also tried to delve into their issues--look at the world from their eyes.