52 weeks, 52 words: Action

Since just before the quarantine started, I have had a literal pain in my ass. What started out as a lower back pain I attributed to a bad night of sleep eventually became debilitating and quite painful. But, perhaps due to the grind of work and the stress of competing priorities, my self care was not top of mind and it was only after finally being cajoled into getting an MRI that I discovered a bulging disc and a pinched nerve in my lumbar spine.

Only the possibility of something more dire on the initial read by the radiologist spurred me to action.

Over my career, too, I have had several figurative pains in my ass – in the form of finnicky, high-maintenance clients; high-strung or lazy colleagues; and uncomfortable situations based on dynamics of KOL interactions or inter-agency collaborations.

With that duality in mind, and with Webster’s Dictionary recently expanding the definition of “literally” to also have an alternate definition that also means “figuratively,” I am seeking to find the common ground for these pain points – as well as what might be the salve for both.

So, now, every week I am going to physical therapy and being put through the ringer of any number of stretches, exercises, and movements to both strengthen my core and muscles and alleviate the pain. My realization in both the day-to-day of work from home and during the PT is that sudden, jerking movement tends to exacerbate the pain but sustained, smooth movements offer some lasting relief.

The biggest driver to address these pains is action. And not just action for action’s sake, but a true driver of change.

The urgency to take action must take hold in order for any shift in the norm to emerge. The author Johann Wolfgang von Goethe famously wrote in his great work, Faust, “Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now.” and that serves as the exact catalyst we must have to move past any pain or fear and drive forward toward new horizons.

Action on both fronts starts with increased activity.

That activity, in order to be sustained, has to become routine or it will either fall off with friction or deteriorate with distraction.

The more I move throughout the day and the more I stay active, the less intense the pain I feel is. That is true at work as well. The more in motion I remain with my clients and colleagues the more unlikely it is that those relationships will stiffen. Or, worse, that I will stiffen!

Our greatest challenge in medical communications can be boiled down to identifying strategies for overcoming inertia.

From a client engagement perspective, we may fear the initiation of outreach, but taking action can have amazing results. Regular action keeps joints limber in a literal and figurative way and will optimize the opportunities for achieving client engagement in meaningful ways. If you are afraid and unsure of how to get the ball rolling, here are a few tactics you can use to take action with your clients:

1. Give Them The Power - Frame questions in a way that indicates that the power over the issue rests in their hands. Ask questions such as: What have you tried? What could you try? What would you like your experience to be?
2. Keep The Questions Coming - The more questions, the better. Period. When it comes to client engagement, questions show interest and curiosity on my part, but get the client talking more than me, which is where insights can emerge. So, for clients who resist taking action themselves, keep the questions coming and your own activity will be noticed.
3. Listen To What They’re Saying And What They’re Not Saying - Powerful questioning will help the client reveal, realize, and understand how to resolve the issue without threatening or “pushy” dialogue. Listen to what the client is saying and not saying; this will help you come up with newer, better questions that ignite reflection. When clients comes up with the solution on their own, they are more likely to take action through heightened awareness.
4. Explore The Larger Vision - Keep your client connected to the larger vision that they are striving toward. Encourage them to remind themselves of that vision with you so they can bring that positive energy into the present moment. Once you’ve brought that vision back into focus, remind the client that there is more than one road they can take to get to the destination, and explore options that excite them to move forward together.
5. Think About What’s Next First - The very first question you should ask yourself every time you endeavor to engage a client is, “What’s the next action?” In other words, what’s the objective and potential outcome of this particular interaction and what is the next step? If you are waiting until that moment to think about what’s next, you’re putting time for inaction into the mix and even encouraging rest and inactivity.

And with toxic clients, the greatest action we can take may simply be in walking away. That may be a bold action and one fraught with fear, but not taking action is likely only to increase or prolong the pain that underlies your current situation. The shocking action of separation – pulling that Band-Aid off – may feel scary but is not nearly as scary as the alternative.

Action comes from a place of information. The more information we can collect the more insightful our position can be and the more action-oriented we can become.

Armed with information and a motivation to overcome paralysis and inaction, we can go far beyond the limits of our imaginations and do that which we might fear most. That's a troubling conceit but one that we will regret later if we don't.

I was oddly reminded this week of my time studying abroad in college and living in Strasbourg, France. Amongst all the cathedrals across Europe, my bias is toward the cathedral in Strasbourg as a pinnacle of architectural awe. Its mesmerizing spire high above this Alsatian city that has vacillated between being part of France and part of Germany is iconic and was the motivation to shock Goethe into action. Now, Goethe didn’t have a pain in his ass as I do (at least as far as I know) but he did have a debilitating fear of heights. His bold plan to combat that acrophobia was to have someone tie a rope around his waist and cinch him to the spire of the Strasbourg cathedral and force him to gaze downwardly with anxiety and gorge rising on a regular basis – in essence to shock himself into overcoming fear.

I am not suggesting we take draconian measures such as this to overcome whatever is driving our inaction in medical communications, but the prescription pill we must swallow is born from the same mindset: our station and situation will not change or advance by rote measure or blithe indifference.

While it’s true that inaction is inherently an action, inaction is not going to effect change and will only lead to stagnation (and eventual deterioration).

 Even if it feels like we are making a deal with the devil, we must take action!

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