Jessica O'Connor COE, OCS, CPSS
Prior to working in ophthalmology, I spent 5 years working at Starbucks as both a barista and a manager. This was the golden age of Starbucks; when the company was focused on presenting a craft coffee house experience and before they became more of a fast food style chain. At that time, they had a phenomenal conflict resolution technique they required all supervisors and managers to be thoroughly trained in: LATTE. Any time you were presented with any customer complaint, concern, or dissatisfaction, you were to L. listen attentively, A. acknowledge what you heard them say, T. thank them sincerely for telling you their concerns, T. take action to resolve or improve the situation, and E. explain what the resolution was to the customer. The beauty of this method is that 1. it provided a fail-proof pattern of conversation and behavior for individuals to follow, preventing a staff member from becoming flustered or fumbling for a response, and 2. it created a dialogue with the customer that required active listening and engaged response by the staff member rather than simply responding with a generic answer.
As I began working in healthcare, particularly in clinical management where I was the escalation resource for upset patients, this conversational framework I had brought with me from my days at Starbucks proved to be a fool-proof strategy for calming and working with upset patients. As my staff members saw my success in de-escalating situations with patients, they started to mimic the techniques I used and “channel their inner Jessi” as they jokingly called it to explain and resolve issues with patients. This basic conversational tool was giving patients the opportunity to feel heard, staff the ability to convey their empathy and understanding of the patient’s frustrations, and was resulting in adversarial situations becoming positive patient satisfaction experiences.
As time progressed and I moved from my role in operations management into my current role of IT problem solver and HIPAA / security watchdog, I continued to utilize this strategy; this time not with patients, but with my peers and subordinates. This ‘LATTE’ process of information gathering, verifying information, expressing gratitude for participation & feedback, taking action to resolve issues, and then making sure I provide timely feedback has led to much greater buy in and acceptance of change from staff members. In addition, it also ensures that I am understanding and correctly addressing the true problems that my staff members have. One of our physician’s feedback was, “Whenever I bring you a problem, I always know that you understand what I need, and you make sure I know what you’re going to do to fix it if it can be fixed.” For me, that is the definition of successful communication; they feel heard and understood, and because I communicated what the solution will be and provide an opportunity for response, they have buy-in and ownership over that outcome.
This technique is incredibly simple to teach, easy to use, and applicable in any difficult conversation you may encounter in your daily life. My closest friends I worked with at Starbuck are now teachers, senior Apple store staff members, non-profit directors, event coordinators… we have careers that span so many fields, but when we talk about our time at Starbucks, the one thing we all go back to is how that communication strategy we learned in our early 20’s has carried us through every conflict situation that we have faced in our widely varied careers.
In addition, this course also looks at how we approach individuals and ask them to engage in communications with us. I draw from the book/TED Talk presentation, “The Art of Asking,” by Amanda Palmer to develop strategies for inviting individuals (both staff and patients) to participate in the communication process. Approaching situations with empathy and a goal for mutually beneficial outcomes or win/win solutions is emphasized as a crucial component for the LATTE strategy to yield the most optimal results.