The HR Binge: The Pitt

The Study Material: The Pitt, HBO Max

Binge Sessions: Episode #1 7:00am, and Episode #2 8:00am

Time Commitment: 1-hour episodes

Your Trainers: Dr. Robby (Medical drama OG Noah Wyle) and Charge Nurse Dana

The Pitt on HBO Max (I'm sorry, but as a Millennial, I can't just call it "Max.")

The Spoiler-Free Background: The Pitt is a drama series with 15 episodes representing each hour of the day shift in a trauma center. In the first hour alone, we have a naked man on the loose, a dead pedestrian, one unconscious kid, a person hit by a train, a tooth lodged in a lung, head injuries, heart attacks, a waiting room full of very angry people, and an incredibly graphic lesson in what an “ungloved” ankle looks like.

Editor’s note: The ankle isn’t the only uncomfortable moment; The Pitt can be a stressful watch. Trigger warnings abound.

Amidst the absolute non-stop medical trauma, there’s business talk, too. At least 3 people contemplate quitting in the first 10 minutes. Rumor has it they are going to sell the hospital? Are they understaffed locally or is it a national staffing shortage? Metrics, average number of patients seen, Press Ganey scores? Will patients recommend this hospital to others? Basically, can they provide high-level hospitality in a world obsessed with a good experience?

“This is an emergency department, not a Taco Bell.” Dr. Carter...I mean, Dr. Robby.

Plus, this is a teaching hospital, so a handful of med students are here for their first day. They range in qualifications, personality quirks, and ability to stay upright without fainting. Highly-relatable bonus feature: everyone is dealing with personal issues, trauma and PTSD. The whole thing is a nightmare soup and makes me glad I did not pick medicine as my career.

Binge Lesson: Good Managers Are Invaluable

It’s common to idolize people as leaders. LinkedIn and corporate marketing will wax poetic about people who lead, who inspire other leaders, leaders who lead from the back/front/side/remotely. The Pitt, however, idolizes people that can manage.

That’s not to say managers aren’t leaders, of course. But we frequently run right past training good managers early on in their careers and overemphasize a sprint to the pinnacle of leadership. Leadership focus usually leans on vision and long-term goals, often seen as challenging the status quo and guiding their team toward the future. Management focuses on efficiency, processes, and day-to-day operations.

See It: Dr. Robby argues with Gloria, the Chief Medical Officer, Episode #1 at 15:00 and Episode #2 at 29:00

Managers ensure that plans are executed effectively and that team members are organized and follow established procedures. Managers are more task-oriented, focusing on delegation, performance evaluation, and ensuring team members meet specific objectives. While leaders are tasked to operate in the future, managers operate in the present.

See It: Any time Nurse Dana is on screen. She's an absolute menace when it comes to project management. Nurses are amazing.

Management gets a bad rap. That’s exactly why getting the management development part right is so critical from the very beginning of an employee's development. Most people will get moved up the leadership ladder for doing their projects well, for handling business, for appearing to have that future/strategy mindset. The problem is those same leaders are not always held accountable for their people management skills.

See It: Episode #1, 2:33: Dr. Robby has barely made it in and he is taking the time to check in on his colleague. Then Nurse Dana checks in on a pregnant doctor while also preparing her for a rough day.

The residents and attending doctors on The Pitt have incredible skills, but we quickly see that they are also good at managing: managing care, tasks, crisis, and people. When they fail to manage people, the rest of the list falls apart.

In fact, one of the biggest tools in the ER team’s kit is very real and very effective

Model It: Close the Loop

The characters on The Pitt talk. A lot. Through every life-threatening injury and body fluid clean up, there is talking and loud responding, hearing issues and finding an answer. If there is no immediate answer, there is always follow-up. There’s follow-up to the follow-up, creating decisive communication that indicates their goals and who is responsible for what actions. No one assumes anything.

This is something called closed-loop communication and it's very common in medical, military, and other high-risk jobs where mistakes can mean life or death.

Tough Love: most of our subscriber list is not in those categories. You have a lot going on, but you don’t have the nuclear codes or a beating heart in your hands, which means implementing this should be a bit easier for you.

Chaos thrives in the unsaid. When employees feel like concerns don't warrant a response, work is slowed, mistakes are made, and your culture takes a hit. Dr. Robby follows up so much that if his process was turned into a drinking game (which I'm definitely not suggesting), there would be a lot more people in that ER.

Leaders and managers mistake giving announcements as giving direction. Whether an employee asks a simple question or needs your guidance on something big, make a commitment to giving them an update.

Steal It: The big digital board in the center of the ER

In the middle of the ER in Nurse Evans territory, you will see doctors and nurses reading patient statuses on a digital board. This is the brain of the trauma center, helping the staff understand what is going on at all times.

The Board. Just looking at it gives me RESP FAIL.

Visualizing information for your entire team is proven to be beneficial. And if you don't have something like this, it's time to make one. It can help you become a highly-efficient follow upper!

You might have an awesome HRIS or Project Management software that helps you visualize the work and assign accountable parties. If you do, make sure to review that information at your team meetings or in 1:1s, updating status and deliverables. Make it a training and mentoring tool and encourage your team to update it regularly.

If you don’t have the cool tech, no problem. In The Pitt, they're using an Excel spreadsheet. Whiteboards, post-its, and bulletins boards can help you do the exact same thing. Make it a practice to post timelines, deliverables, or major task lists in a highly visible area. Or try the kanban board method here.

For more personal follow-ups, you can create a to-do list to note questions. Make it a rule that at the end of the week, all outstanding items are given a status update and the employee is notified.

The HR Binge is a series from PCG, where pop culture meets learning & development. If you have an hour, why not blend your education and entertainment!? Want to see more of our zeitgeist-y mashups? Check them out here!