Articles from prior issues of The Advocate

July/August, 1999

Dealing with Change
by Tom Christopher, Wisconsin DDS

MANAGING CHANGE AND DEALING WITH stress are frequent themes at training sessions. Sometimes these sessions can be great and sometimes they can be clockwatchers. Don Ferguson treated the attendees at the Great Lakes Regional Training Conference to a great experience. Don, who is the Clinical Director for the Department of Psychiatry at the Dean Medical Center In Madison, WI, had a nice blend of substance and humor. Don covered dealing with change from how individuals deal with It and how groups deal with it. There are substantial differences from individuals to groups. Regarding stress, Don explained that each of us has a stress level point up to which we can handle stress reasonably well and we actually need a reasonable level of stress to be most effective. However, when we or others put us beyond our stress level point, our behavior becomes counterproductive. Don explained the individual defense mechanism each of us use to cope with stress and how valuable these defense mechanisms are for us. He cautioned us that frequently people tend to over-compensate when under stress. Typical behavior is to work longer hours to try to get caught up or to start consuming drugs or alcohol as a way of “dealing” with our stress. Either of these will affect us adversely over the long haul. In group situations, “groupthink” frequently occurs. This is natural and normal, but not very productive. The key is for the leader to step back and to not take the “groupthink attacks” personally. One way for an organization to better channel energy within the organization is to break up existing groups into smaller mixed groups and give them a project to work on. This frequently allows them to see the errors in their groupthink mentality and eventually channel their energies into much productive use for the individuals and for the organization. He concluded his interactive session by discussing leadership. He stressed that the key need for any leader is to be honest and to do what is fair or right. All leaders will have groups and individuals project other values onto the leader and to combat this the leader must remain honest and continue to do what is right and fair.