Scale deep. 9 lessons for transformational change

January 29, 2025 Published by Sharee Johnson

The goal of our work Coaching and with Recalibrate© is to create insight and behaviour change that is long lasting for doctors and their patients. We are looking to create ripples that impact wider and deeper, leading to better medicine individually and systemically.

For patients we want to see better health outcomes and positive interactions within the care system that enables and enhances health and wellbeing. For medics we want to see high levels of professional fulfillment including joy at work, careers that have longevity and teams that uplift human potential. 

I recently learnt a new phrase from The Systems Sanctuary: Deep Scaling. 

Deep scaling describes the way we work in Recalibrate© and in our longer coaching programs, beautifully.

In essence deep scaling is less about endless growth and more about relationships, interconnectedness, root causes and healing. Deep scaling is much more applicable to healthcare than the consumer model of endless growth.

Often in our programs less is more. Not necessarily less work, perhaps less expectation, less perfectionism, less stoicism, less academic study, less self-flagellation, less worrying about what other people are doing or thinking. 

17 years ago, my world was turned upside down when my husband Tim was suddenly very ill. A gallbladder operation did not resolve anything and three worrying months later he was diagnosed with cholangiocarcinoma. Amazingly a combination of faith, hope, optimism, gratitude and presence, eastern and western medicine and an extraordinary support network gave us nearly four more years together.

The reason I am telling you this now is because my journey with Tim into a foreign land, known as the healthcare system, taught me some things that have shown themselves to also be helpful for doctors. They require deep presence and commitment to healing, relationships, interconnectedness, and shifting root cause. 

While a three day course or retreat might help, they won’t get you much depth. It’s in the deep that you can make abiding change, it will take time, trust and commitment. It will be worth it for you, your family, colleagues, and your patients and their families.

Just as Tim and I needed some support from those who knew the healthcare landscape, you will benefit from guides too as you scale deeply. Here are nine lessons that have shown themselves helpful for medics and patients alike.

1. There is more outside our control than within it. There are many factors that can change the trajectory of our lives no matter how organised, clever or fit we are. Our response is what we can control. Focusing on our own response keeps us connected to our values, reduces the stress response and gives us a sense of autonomy allowing us to continue even in rough seas. 

2. We can always choose our attitude, in every moment, and it will make a huge difference if we do, for ourselves and everyone around us. Attitude is one of the things you and only you can control, it’s your choice. 

3. Full rich lives of connection and adventure will include experiencing the full spectrum of emotions, emotions are in every decision, every interaction. Learning to work with our emotions as sign posts, is so much more fulfilling and useful than resisting or denying them. And a much better use of our energy. 

4. Relationships are all that really matter in the end, that’s really all people who are dying talk about, don’t wait until it’s too late. Your relationships are hands down THE best place to put your energy. You get to choose who you want to be in relationship with, and how you want to be in that relationship. Choose wisely and be consistent in your relating.

5. There are skills and insights we can learn that will help us be well and interact well, be healthy in our human connection. So that we can continue to live full open lives, even when we carry deep sadness, disappointment, shame, resentment, guilt or grief. Get the help you need to improve your interpersonal skills.

6. Having a deep understanding about what you are on the planet for is steadying, clarifying and motivating. Articulate your why at least to yourself and use it as your anchor and your north star.

7. Remembering that you choose your values, purpose and people, is empowering. Lean into your power and use it for the greater good, be curious about others rather than all knowing. 

8. No-one can take your agency and power away, when you remember you are responsible for your life.  Be radically response-able for your life and your legacy.

9. We all need other people, compassion is hardwired via evolution as a survival skill, as much as fight-flight is. Humans are social creatures, loneliness kills.

Our doctor clients regularly tell us that short training courses and online self paced learning is too transactional, and while interesting, it hasn’t really changed their lives. 

Our doctor client’s beliefs and the social norms of medicine, have made them time poor and disillusioned in an endless rat race for more credentials and more ‘proof’ that they are good doctors. This inculcated desperate effort to keep up with a flawed story of what doctors should be doing, only adds to their exhaustion and disenchantment. Deep work can change all of that in a relatively short time frame. The challenge is in admitting you are not happy, not satisfied and in trusting yourself to show up for yourself as an investment in your future. Trust yourself and commit to scaling deep in your why, your relationships and your attitude. You’ll feel the difference and wonder what took you so long to start. It’s lifelong work, a great place to start is Recalibrate© or a 12 month coaching program. Be the hero in your own life, scale deep.

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Sharee Johnson is the Founder, Managing Director, Principal Coach at Coaching for Doctors. She is the bestselling author of The Thriving Doctor: How to be more balanced and fulfilled, working in medicine and a Registered Psychologist. She has written extensively about doctor wellbeing, performance and coaching, delivers workshops to doctors and speaks at medical conferences. You can connect with her on Linkedin and Instagram.

The Thriving Doctor

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Sharee Johnson’s book The Thriving Doctor is available in all good bookstores or online.

Sharee has been coaching doctors since 2014, find out more about her work