I just finished reading “Better” by Atul Gawande, a frank yet compassionate study of the question of how physicians can do a better job of providing care. I highly recommend it for anyone who is a doctor, might ever want to be a doctor, or might ever visit a doctor.

At the end of the book Gawande provides some recommendations on how physicians can begin working to close the gap between best intentions and best performance. He calls them “Suggestions for Becoming a Positive Deviant.”

My work does not have life-and-death consequences and yet Gawande’s suggestions resonated with me. So, here they are, with my own commentary related to business communication and marketing:

1. Ask an Unscripted Question. It’s an old truism that the best sales people are good listeners. But listening is important for all of the things we do in the world. Part of listening well involves asking questions that initiate full responses. Start asking open-ended questions and you may find out more than you wanted to about your client’s summer vacation in the Poconos, but ultimately you’ll know each other better.

I actually play a couple little conversational games: one is to try to come out of the conversation having said nothing about myself. That’s good evidence that I asked, listened, and asked follow-up questions. My other game is to open up conversations with people I might not normally think of talking to. (Who knew that the UPS driver has a son who’s a chess champion?)  When you work a little harder to ask questions and listen to the answers from customers, suppliers, the woman who sits near the copy machine, and that quiet guy in your yoga class, you may be surprised at the new ideas and perspectives you hear.

2. Don’t Complain. My boss is big on this one, too, I wonder why ; )  Still it’s true that although work (and life) are often frustrating, if we complain we get pulled into a kind of negative conversational gravity, bringing others down with us. After a session of kvetching about everything that’s wrong with the world, do you walk away feeling better? Of course not! “It’s boring, it doesn’t solve anything, and it will get you down,” as Gawande writes. Find something else to discuss: a problem you are trying to solve, an idea that interests you, a joke; but resist the impulse to gripe.

3. Count Something. A friend of mine used to say, “50% of my marketing budget is wasted – I just wish I knew which 50%.” How often are we or our clients engaged in an initiative, and 6-12 months later we have no measure of its success? Gawande proposes that, “if you count something you find interesting you may learn something interesting.” Maybe you can find ways to count what was formerly uncountable.  I recommend that you build measurement into your plans from the start of a project.

4. Write Something. I am a huge proponent of blogging. I agree with Gawande that you shouldn’t underestimate the effect of your contribution, even if you think it’s small. Also, the act of writing is very powerful, even if you don’t publish. When you write, you’re forced to step back and order your thoughts, think about the big picture, and even check your facts. Gawande hints at how writing for an audience affects the writer. “An audience is a community. The published word is a declaration of membership in that community and also of a willingness to contribute something meaningful to it.” In an individualistic culture, we often lose sight of how satisfying it is simply to communicate with others.

5. Change. We talk about early adopters (Brian in our office had an iPad the first day they were on sale), late adopters (Robert just got his first smart phone), and resisters (Mike prints all his emails).  The point is not to become a different kind of person, but rather to think about why we resist certain ideas and practices, and to stay open to new input, even if you think you’ve already made your decision. We all like consistency, but take a tip from Albert Einstein. Try something else. Actively look for inadequacies in what you do – even ask others for positive criticism. If you are open to change, solutions may come more easily.