Why the "Reply to All" Button Should Be A Privilege You Earn

Some of you are aware of the shifting that is occurring at my workplace. Due to the difficulties we have been facing, we had a lot of turnover in the leadership of our revenue cycle operation. Our dean tried to recruit a new leader without success (go figure). So he appointed somebody who has grown up in the organization, has no degree, and has never lead an operation of this size. Her name is [Amber].

[Amber] is full of ideas, and has formed a committee for getting stuff done, which I will call the "BIGCOMMITTEE". The BIGCOMMITTEE is staffed by 80+ invitees whose responsibilities span across all areas of the college's clinical operation, not just our revenue cycle. The BIGCOMMITTEE is then chaired by a 10-person "steering committee", which is led by two revenue cycle individuals, [Katie] and [Lauren] who, again, have grown up in the organization, have no degrees, and to my knowledge (and my ever-growing suspicion) have never done anything like this before.

The larger problem is that the BIGCOMMITTEE released a scope document, and it is clear that revenue cycle improvement is a minor detail of their master plan. The scope document largely focuses on areas for operational and clinical improvements, areas in which these individuals currently have no responsibility, not to mention experience or training.

By the way, not one physician has been asked to serve on the BIGCOMMITTEE, or is even marginally aware of its existence.

Because there is such an operations-heavy focus, I have been asked to serve on the steering committee. I have agreed, hoping I can help "steer" these folks in the right direction, but because they have never really worked with me before, I am sensing that I don't have their respect, and my suggestions for structuring their work largely fall on deaf ears. Also, I am the only guy on the steering committee. Not sure how much that is playing a role or not.

I have also tried to voice my concerns about the existence of the BIGCOMMITTEE to the dean and to our VP for Medical Affairs. On two occasions they have agreed with me and said, effectively "okay we need to talk to [Amber]." We even set up a meeting to talk with her about it, but it got canceled. I'm not sure about the lack of response from the dean and VPMA...maybe they've just been too busy. But this type of unawareness has generally plagued the college over the years, so I can't say I'm too surprised.

All of this is bringing me around to share with you a glorious display of email incompetency. This string makes a terrific case for why "reply to all" should be a privilege you have to earn by demonstrating you can be trusted with such power. As you will see, I shy away from hitting "reply to all" as much as possible. I only did it the one time, which was probably a mistake. But I was presented with conflicting information from two individuals on the list, so I went ahead and hit it to ask my question.

Here goes nothing (FYI, just about everybody's identity has been redacted or altered):

From: [redacted], Laura [redacted]
Sent: Thursday, August 20, 2009 12:00 PM
To: DL-BCM-BIGCOMMITTEESteeringCommitte
Cc: [redacted], Amber [redacted]
Subject: BIGCOMMITTEE post meeting wrap up

Steering Committee,

Two action items resulted from this morning’s meeting. Please respond by Monday 8/24 at 1 with approval to the proposal or suggestions of alternatives.
1. Proposed voting structure
2. Proposed alternate task team leads
Please see notes attached.

Thanks!
-Laura

Then this:

From: [Katie], [Redacted] J
Sent: Thursday, August 20, 2009 1:44 PM
To: [Redacted], Laura [Redacted]; DL-BCM-BIGCOMMITTEESteeringCommitte
Cc: [redacted], Amber [redacted]
Subject: RE: BIGCOMMITTEE post meeting wrap up

Thanks, Laura! A note on #10: Jennifer [Phillips] has offered to lead this team, so perhaps we can work with her to engage Del and Margaret? What do you guys think?

Thanks!
KB

I am the steering committee lead for #10, so my ears perked up on this last point. One minute later, the email below hit:

From: [Redacted], Mary Kathlene
Sent: Thursday, August 20, 2009 1:45 PM
To: [Redacted], John R; [B], Michael P; [Evans], Jennifer L
Subject: RE: BIGCOMMITTEE Access Standards

Roger~

I appreciate your feedback and your wiliness to help with the project. I am excited to be on this task team. When I was in family medicine we worked quite a bit on access standards. I have contacted Jennifer [Evans] and she has agreed to be on the team and actually be the task team leader. In the next few weeks we will work to establish our team and focus and will probably be in contact with you and others. Thanks again and I look forward to working with you.

At 2:50, [Laura] feels the need to express her enthusiasm to twenty people with this riveting message:

From: [Redacted], Laura [Redacted]
Sent: Thursday, August 20, 2009 2:50 PM
To: [Katie], [Redacted] J; DL-BCM-BIGCOMMITTEESteeringCommitte
Cc: [redacted], Amber [redacted]
Subject: RE: BIGCOMMITTEE post meeting wrap up

I think that is a great idea!

Sure, sure...it's a great idea. !!!! Yay!

In the meantime, I'm finally getting around to reading this pablum at 6:00pm. "Who are we talking about anyway?" I wondered.

From: [B], Michael P
Sent: Thursday, August 20, 2009 6:04 PM
To: [Redacted], Laura [Redacted]; [Katie], [Redacted] J; DL-BCM-BIGCOMMITTEESteeringCommitte
Cc: [Redacted], Mary Kathlene
Subject: RE: BIGCOMMITTEE post meeting wrap up

Is Jennifer [Phillips] or Jennifer [Evans] leading the team on access standards? See below….

Michael

And I got these responses from [Katie]

From: [Katie], [Redacted] J
Sent: Thursday, August 20, 2009 6:06 PM
To: [B], Michael P; [Redacted], Laura [Redacted]; DL-BCM-BIGCOMMITTEESteeringCommitte
Subject: RE: BIGCOMMITTEE post meeting wrap up

[Phillips]

From: [Katie], [Redacted] J
Sent: Thursday, August 20, 2009 6:06 PM
To: [Katie], [Redacted] J; [B], Michael P; [Redacted], Laura [Redacted]; DL-BCM-BIGCOMMITTEESteeringCommitte
Subject: RE: BIGCOMMITTEE post meeting wrap up

Just kidding – clearly I can’t read…

Okay fine. But which Jenifer is it already? Normally I would have just picked up the phone--always the best idea. However, fed up with these people, I decided to start messing with her.

From: [B], Michael P
To: [Katie], [Redacted] J
Sent: Thu Aug 20 18:13:33 2009
Subject: RE: BIGCOMMITTEE post meeting wrap up

Do you mean that it’s [Evans], then?

Michael

No response. But as you can see, later on, past 10:00pm last night, people still felt the need to weigh in on this matter of utmost importance:

From: [Redacted], Laura [Redacted]
Sent: Thursday, August 20, 2009 6:36 PM
To: [B], Michael P
Cc: [Katie], [Redacted] J; DL-BCM-BIGCOMMITTEESteeringCommitte; [Redacted], Mary Kathlene
Subject: Re: BIGCOMMITTEE post meeting wrap up

Yes, it was my understanding that Katie was referring to Jennifer [Phillips].

-Laura [Redacted]

From: [Redacted], Mary Kathlene
Sent: Thursday, August 20, 2009 10:17 PM
To: [Redacted], Laura [Redacted]; [B], Michael P
Cc: [Katie], [Redacted] J; DL-BCM-BIGCOMMITTEESteeringCommitte
Subject: RE: BIGCOMMITTEE post meeting wrap up

Jennifer [Evans] volunteered for task team leader.

Thanks,
KM

-----Original Message-----
From: [Redacted}, Daisy
Sent: Thursday, August 20, 2009 10:38 PM
To: [Redacted], Laura [Redacted]; [B], Michael P
Cc: [Katie], [Redacted] J; DL-BCM-BIGCOMMITTEESteeringCommitte; [Redacted], Mary Kathlene
Subject: RE: BIGCOMMITTEE post meeting wrap up

I don't recall Jennifer [Phillips] volunteering. I will verify with her!

Daisy

Love the enthusiasm, Daisy! Are these people even on the same planet? Guess what-- you all fail. No more reply to all buttons for you.

Still don't know if it's Evans or Phillips. And at this point, I really don't care.