Children were dying. The experts had all the right skills, all the right tools, and the right procedures in place. Still, far too many deaths were tallying up.
Of all the places for a child to die, a hospital seemed like the cruelest irony. Specialized, skilled doctors. Medical carts filled with the proper equipment. Standard operating procedures. Detailed backup plans. Perhaps that was the best they could do. Perhaps they had to accept a certain level of fatalities.
That was until an unlikely partnership arose: a Formula 1 pit crew.
What did they know about hospital procedures? Nothing? What did they know about pediatric medicine? Even less. But they knew something different, something invaluable in their world: efficiency.
For a pit crew, every millisecond matters. Same with lifesaving resuscitation. At the race track, tools and equipment had to be lined up, sequenced, and prepared for use immediately. Same with medical instruments. For the mechanics, knowing not only their own role and procedures but exactly what their colleagues’ roles and responsibilities were, and how they fit together was essential to team success. For the doctors, this is even more true.
Odd as it seemed, the match was perfect, so the partnership was struck.
The pit crew witnessed trial runs and live medical episodes. They took notes and made critiques.
A half second here, a better prepared cart there, a better aligned device, and an improved floor plan flow, and all of a sudden, the fatalities began disappearing. The humility and willingness of the doctors to invite in strangers returned more than they could have dreamed.
They knew the stakes mattered – human lives – so they set aside their pride and notions that only they could critique their field.
It was outsiders who made the difference. And it can work the same in every industry.
Very often, fresh eyes or eyes primed with years of expertise to see the world from a different vantage point is exactly what makes the impact elsewhere.
So, imagine a contractor, locator, or utility company. Imagine an 811 Center or an emergency response professional. Imagine a 30-year veteran of the damage prevention industry opening their doors and welcoming someone to shed new light, see things differently, and offer candid feedback.
This isn’t abstract, it’s real, and it’s happening. And the most fertile ground is not technical practices or operational procedures needing reform, it is organizational and team culture.
Fresh perspectives that can watch how a team is operating, diagnose bad hand offs like a pit crew may see, and offer sincere and informed recommendations is essential. It is as needed in the C-Suite as it is in the field. Culture pervades every role and every job. So why leave it only up to review by the same people from the same backgrounds primed to see the same things? The stakes are too high.
It is time to welcome outsiders. Strike up unique partnerships. It is time to open our doors and lower our defenses. That’s how we’ll tighten up our culture, improve our operations, and at the end of the day, save more lives. Perhaps the most valuable expertise is knowing when to borrow someone else’s.
Benjamin Dierker is the Executive Director of the Alliance for Innovation and Infrastructure and author of Holding Back Disaster: Protecting Lives and Infrastructure Through Excavation Damage Prevention.