Practice lessons from naval submarines, part 1
Living in San Diego in the shadow of America’s nuclear navy, I once had the privilege of touring a real, live submarine, courtesy of an admiral friend. In 60 minutes, I learned more about the value of staff cross-training than I had learned in all the previous years as a practice consultant. I also picked up lots of other management pearls. I’d like to share a few of these insights with you.
Virtually all members of a 135-man submarine crew (U.S. submarines are essentially all-male) are interchangeable, with the exception of the captain and one key officer. What’s more, submariners shift from boat to boat throughout their career; fully half or more of a submarine’s sailors turn over every year; and sailors migrate from ship to ship, in an environment that’s vastly more complex and more stressful than the average ophthalmology practice.
It was fascinating to visit with the ship’s officers and to hear the emphasis they place on procedure development, documentation and training. Staff redundancy is as vital a key to success in the modern, resource-constrained U.S. military as it is in modern, resource-starved ophthalmology.
Most of the practices I advise, especially mid-size and larger practices, have staff that have become slotted to narrow job duties. Carried out to extremes, your practice can be left in a condition in which individual staff specialists are the only people in the organization who know their jobs. Lose them, and you have to start all over again. Staff generally (at least subconsciously) love this. It’s great for job security and for bidding up wages, but it can spell disaster for the organization when a key individual is lost.