Keynote Session Recap: Your checklist for CDI success

May 25, 2016
CDI Strategies - Volume 10, Issue 23

It’s 8:15 a.m. and nearly 2,000 people in the ballroom at the Atlanta World Congress Center are waving their arms and singing along to “Here comes the sun.” Just after the line, “… it’s all right,” keynote speaker Vicki Hess, RN, MS, CSP, author of SHIFT to Professional Paradise cuts off the music.

“That’s what I want you to remember,” Hess said. “It’s all right.”

Then she asked the 2016 ACDIS attendees a question: Why can work be like paradise? Living in a professional paradise only requires “shifting” ones’ perspective, she told the crowd.

Prior the conference, she phoned a few conference attendees and asked them what challenges they faced and what they appreciated most about their jobs. They told her they like the challenges, and they enjoy being able to make a difference for their physicians. Finding that passion makes all the difference in one’s profession, said Hess.

“Why don’t people make that change,” she asked the crowd and then told attendees to take 60 seconds to talk to those around them and discuss what barriers individuals face in approaching change. Attendees then approached the microphones and shared their thoughts.

“It takes effort to change one’s attitude,” one attendee said.

“It’s easier to blame someone else than to take responsibility for one’s own attitude,” said another.

“Maybe they have seasonal affective disorder,” another joked.

All these things are components, Hess agreed, adding fear and additional to office drama and set patterns of behavior as additional obstacles.

Hess told attendees to change their mentality in a few simple steps:

  • Stop and breath
  • Harness harmful knee-jerk reactions
  • Identify and manage negative emotions

“Sometimes,” Hess says, “the negative occurrences in our lives seem too big to shrink. But by simply shifting those ‘pows’ to ‘wows,’ you can change not only your own perspective, but help create a positive space for those around you to work and success as well.”

With that, Hess pulled up a photo of the word “wow”—with the central ‘O’ a smiley face. She then told the crowd to put up three fingers of each hand and hold them next to their faces.

“Look,” she said. “Now you are all ‘wow.’”

Throughout the day, ACDIS attendees posed for team photos and selfies using Hess’ tip. It was truly a “wow” moment.