No patient ever wants a confused caregiver. No caregivers wants a confused leader. How could confusion ever be helpful?

   Can chaos provoke creativity? When I became President and CEO of Nashville's Baptist Hospital System in 1998 the board was unaware that disaster was lurking in the balance sheets. Outside accountants shared the shocking truth: The hospital, originally projected to make $10 million, would report a $73 million loss!    

   Fortunately, as a former trial lawyer and CEO of two previous systems I was accustomed to emergencies. In three years we went from minus $73 million to plus $1 million by using contradictory as well as conventional solutions. One example was my immediate public announcement (to the horror of our CFO) that "We plan to hire a hundred new nurses." Another was our decision to dominate women's health services. Within two years, two thirds of Nashville's babies were being born at Baptist.* 

   Real life mocks theory. Beyond rote practical solutions lie unexpected events that require creative as well as conventional answers. Chaos triggered praxis, the process of putting ideas into practice. In three years Baptist's nightmare was transformed into a triumphant success story of patient satisfaction in the 90th percentile, high quality scores and a $74 million turnaround.

   Surrealist painter Salvador Dali (photo) wrote, "You have to systematically create confusion. It sets creativity free. Everything that is contradictory creates life."

   Because contradictory thinking creates discomfort most hate practicing it. Great performers practice chaos thinking so well that create solutions status quo thinkers cannot imagine. 

-Erie Chapman

*Other examples appear in Radical Loving Care™, Sacred Work and Inside Radical Loving Care™ at http://www.eriechapmanfoundation.net or from online sellers.