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By Kristin Baird
Patient experience literature is loaded with information about best practices. It’s tempting to dive right in and start implementing these tactics but without a supportive culture, even the best, best practices will fail. We see it all the time. Leaders from various healthcare organizations will tell us, “We tried [insert best practice here] and it didn’t work.” That comment always gets to me. Was it the tactic or the execution of the tactic in an unreceptive culture? When a faulty piece of equipment breaks down, we can point at the machine, but when we’re talking about best practices like executive rounding or hourly rounding, it’s the execution that fails. Why? The culture wasn’t aligned with connection to the bigger why. SUCCEED WITH ACCOUNTABILITY When we delve a bit deeper, into why the “best practices” didn’t work for them, we inevitably find that the best practice tactic failed due to a lack of accountability and ownership. If your culture lacks accountability and ownership, no best practices will stick. When it comes to improving the patient experience, I find that there is never a shortage of tactics. There is, however, a shortage of leadership and commitment to fostering best practices. Not long ago, my team and I were doing a culture assessment that helped reveal valuable insights. During focus groups with employees, we heard over and over, “Nothing sticks here. There’s no follow-through and no consequences.” Even the executives shared the same sentiment which was astounding to me. It was a culture that lacked accountability and ownership. Being passionate about service without follow-through won’t achieve your goals. HOW’S YOUR CULTURE? If you find that you are spinning your wheels trying to implement best practices that don’t stick, it’s time to look deeper at your culture. What are the beliefs and attitudes among staff and managers that may be holding you back? What are the leadership practices that help or hinder your progress? Delve deeper and you may find that it’s your culture that is preventing progress. Before implementing a best practice tactic ask yourself:
Planning your next event? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to schedule your ideal speaker and make your event a success!
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By Kristin Baird
In traditional training approaches, 85 percent of the organization’s effort takes place during a single, one-and-done event. Only five percent of the effort and resources are devoted to follow-up after the “event.” For training to stick, here’s our recommended approach for where to place your time and energy:
To achieve this balanced approach, you must be carefully plan training to be effective. When I look at organizations with the highest success rate for making training stick, they all have one thing in common. They plan for how they will weave the training into the fabric of the organization. It doesn’t matter whether it’s customer service training or adapting to a new computer system. The new skills need to become a way of life at the organization. Here are our four keys to making it stick. START WITH THE LEADERSHIP Connecting leadership is key to success. Help staff understand why the training is needed, how it will take place, and what will be taught. Leaders should see the entire program that the front line will be trained on. They should be prepared to reinforce the training immediately after it occurs. Leaders should also be prepared to coach and mentor staff about the program so they can help make it stick. You won’t gain the necessary traction in the culture, if leaders aren’t fully on board or aren’t prepared to effectively coach. A practice we like to incorporate with leaders is identifying tough situations or questions that staff may face. Leaders often need to discuss how they will handle resistance. We coach them to walk through these situations. Preparing for these “what if” scenarios upfront. It will help leaders gain focus. The act of “rehearsing” a response prepares them for potentially real situations that may emerge. It helps them to stay on message with confidence. PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT Skill building is best done with live practice in an interactive manner and in an environment where attendees can get feedback. In a digital world, we’re often quick to assume that doing everything online is best. When it comes to this type of training, though, that’s not the case. Remember, we’re in a service-oriented, people-centered, business. We interact with patients when they are at their most vulnerable. To manage the interactions effectively, we need to practice, in person, with real people. We need to become adept at reading nonverbal cues. We need to practice giving and receiving feedback. That doesn’t happen online. We all learn best by doing. MAKE IT PERSONAL Sharing personal stories and personal reflections helps to make the training stick. During our busy days, it’s easy for new skills to get swept aside for familiar routines, but connection to purpose will make your training memorable and give it a sense of importance. Stories help make that connection to purpose. In addition to helping leaders to build their storytelling skills, we give attendees a challenge. We ask them to think of one thing that they are going to do differently after the training. We also tell them that their unit leader is going to be asking them about that personal commitment. Making it personal takes the training from the head to the heart and hands. It moves them from thinking about service concepts, to thinking about how they’re going to put these behaviors into play with the customers they serve. Remember, not all employees have patients, but all of them have customers. We also encourage all unit managers to speak with staff after they attend the training to learn what change they are working on. DELIVER A BIG DOSE Timing can be a challenge when you’re training hundreds or thousands of employees. It can take significant planning and organizing to get everyone through the training. Taking a trickle approach, offering one or two classes at a time, and spreading the training out over several months, risks losing momentum. Focus on getting the training completed in a relatively short period of time. Harness the momentum and create a palpable shift in the organization. This is much more likely when there is a big dose delivered all at once. A single training session won’t get lasting results. What you must strive for is a culture shift—a culture focused on unwavering accountability for delivering exceptional patient experiences, every day, every time, with every encounter. Creating a consistently positive customer experience requires training that builds skills but engages staff in a strong connection to purpose. Everyone needs some early wins. When done right, and reinforced by observant leaders, training will support the early win. Planning your next event? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to schedule your ideal speaker and make your event a success! By Kristin Baird
It’s no secret that small things add up quickly when it comes to the patient experience. Because high-quality and safe care is assumed by the patients and residents, it is often the small acts of kindness that stand out the most. Throughout my entire healthcare career, it has been the acts of kindness I’ve witnessed that have etched the deepest into my heart. To quote Maya Angelou, “…people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” It was as if she wrote this specifically for healthcare workers to keep as a compass. Kindness in the workplace will extend far beyond coworkers to patients, visitors, and staff. FROM PERSONAL EXPERIENCE This past week, we lost my beloved aunt. After battling Alzheimer’s for the past few years, Joan needed skilled nursing in the last month of her life. My uncle was distraught over having her go to live in a long-term care community until he saw the love and compassion with which she was treated. He was always made to feel welcome which eased the transition. But when he witnessed the loving and compassionate care, he relaxed, knowing she was in good hands. When Joan was in her final hours, one of the night nurses stopped in to say her goodbyes. She tenderly stroked Joan’s arm. She shared with my family that in addition to being a nurse, she was also a minister. Hearing this, my cousin asked if she would pray with them. Instead, the nurse/minister asked if she could sing for Joan. With her family surrounding the bed, she sang a beautiful and moving hymn. It soothed every mourning heart in the room. FOCUS ON THE SMALL THINGS Martin Luther King Jr. said, “If I cannot do great things, I can do small things in a great way.” I challenge you today to look around and find a small thing you can do in a great way. The world needs you. Planning your next event? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to schedule your ideal speaker and make your event a success! By Kristin Baird
Many healthcare positions require a high degree of technical skill, but balancing skill with patient experience is a skill unto itself. This is especially true in direct patient care. After all, if you mess up an important technical task, you could hurt or even kill someone. But it is important to remember that those tasks almost always involve a human being at the other end of the procedure – a person who is typically frightened and vulnerable. GAINING CONFIDENCE IN SKILLS I vividly recall how stressful it was to perform my first injections, my first IV starts, and my first NG tube insertions. I’m sure that during those “firsts,” I was totally focused on the task at hand out of fear that I would mess up and inadvertently hurt my patient. In the beginning, I was more focused on the task than on the person on the receiving end. Over time, as I became more proficient and gained confidence, I could safely share my attention between the human interaction and the technical task at hand. This is what most of us strive for – the balance between technical competence and the ability to relate and engage on a personal level. BALANCING HUMAN INTERACTION One of the biggest challenges clinicians face is that, when stressed, they revert to the habit of focusing on the task and not the human interaction. It’s not that task-focused people don’t care. They get busy and overwhelmed and start thinking about the lists of tasks they need to complete. When this occurs, they are often unaware that they have shifted into task mode. The result is they appear detached or insensitive. A few months ago, I was doing some shadow coaching with nurses. One of the nurses I shadowed was among the clinically adept I’d ever met. She prided herself in her skills and efficiency, yet was unaware of how she came across to patients and family members. To them, she seemed abrupt and uncaring because she focused on the task and not the encounter with the patient. With feedback and coaching, this nurse quickly grasped techniques for engaging with patients to build rapport and trust. She had always cared. She just needed to show it. Now, her patients describe her as both highly skilled and caring. She’s the one they trust and want by their sides. Take a deep dive into your organization’s patient experience. Planning your next event? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to schedule your ideal speaker and make your event a success! By Kristin Baird
It seems everybody wants a magic wand to fix culture and live the organizational values. Immediately. The reality is that your culture wasn’t shaped in a week, nor will it be shifted quickly. One of the surest ways to create and sustain a desirable culture is to get anchored in your values. Simple, right? Just not as easy as it sounds. When senior and mid-level leaders call on us to help them “fix” their culture but need to consult their website, wall plaque, or the back of their name badge to recall their values, it’s usually a clear sign of what’s broken. If you need to look up your values, you’re not living them. WHAT IS ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE? We define culture as how you really do things. In other words, it’s not the plaque on the wall or the list of enticing words on your website declaring your commitments that shape your culture. It’s how everyone lives those commitments at every point of the human experience, from the digital front door to the final bill. Here are a few questions to start your organization-wide assessment:
Their values are a living, breathing element of daily life. For them, the values aren’t just lip service or a plaque on the wall. Each associate knows and lives the values, and it was obvious from the first encounter to the last. Want to improve your culture? Make sure your values are off the wall and into everyone’s hearts and minds. Planning your next event? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to schedule your ideal speaker and make your event a success! By Kristin Baird
A few years ago, I was invited to meet with the executive team of a healthcare system. The team included two CEOs – one led the hospitals and the other oversaw the medical practices. While waiting in the lobby prior to the meeting, I saw a beautiful display featuring their values. I was impressed that the values were so prominently displayed. To me, it implied that they were foundational to the organization. Respect and dignity were two of the values listed. When it was time for the meeting to begin, both CEOs were absent, and we were told to wait for them. One was 15 minutes late and the other was 20 minutes late. Only when they were both in the room, was I invited to begin my presentation. I was only five minutes into my presentation when I noticed that both CEOs were reading and responding to emails on their phones. Within minutes, several other executives followed suit. At one point, one of the CEOs took a phone call and stepped out of the meeting for a few minutes but told me to keep going with a dismissive hand gesture. VALUES START AT THE TOP The CEO’s behavior was appalling. What they modeled for the rest of the executive team was blatant disrespect. No wonder they all followed suit. Ironically, I was invited to speak with them about their culture which gave me a clear starting point. There was no way they were going to make significant culture change until they began living their values. The whole experience was awkward for me but gave me a great opportunity to re-introduce the CEOs to the values and how they are clearly not a driving force in their leadership. I called each of them separately to discuss my observations and point out that they had clearly breached two of their core values including respect and dignity. Both were apologetic and clearly taken aback that I would confront them. They both told me no one had ever called them out on their behavior before. The next day they asked the executive team to reconvene. They apologized for their behavior at the previous day’s meeting and committed to begin living the values consciously and consistently. Our discussion created a new beginning and over the next several months they made great strides in the culture. They took ownership and committed to making the values more than a display on the wall. Planning your next event? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to schedule your ideal speaker and make your event a success! By Kristin Baird
If your recruiting efforts include hiring Gen Z, now is a good time to review your hiring practices. “I can get a job anywhere. I’m looking for a culture.” This statement was made by a bright and talented Gen Z woman at the top of her graduate class. Her education and qualifications make her a desirable candidate for just about any organization. It was clear that she will have her pick of jobs. Here is what I gleaned from our conversation:
WHAT’S IN A CULTURE? Like many millennials and Gen Zs, she wants:
MAKE THE MOST OF THE INTERVIEW I was recently talking with an experienced manager who was having difficulty hiring for open positions. In our coaching conversation, I asked her to walk me through a typical interview. “Carla” described her process for reviewing the resume with the candidate and having them review the job description. There are a few major flaws in this approach:
A great employee relationship starts with a single interview. How are you making the most of those precious interview opportunities? Planning your next event? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to schedule your ideal speaker and make your event a success! By Kristin Baird
It’s almost Christmas which means your already-hard-working staff is now working holiday shifts. It’s always a balance between maintaining high-quality care and leaving a little space and time for some lighthearted festivities. Years ago, I heard a healthcare leader talk about the four hospitals within every hospital. He said that there was the daytime hospital, the nighttime hospital, the weekend hospital, and the holiday hospital. He went on to say that, while all four existed in the same facility, each operated differently with its own set of cultural norms and related practices. In other words, what you see at 11:00 am may not be the same as what you experience at 11:00 pm, on weekends, or Christmas Day. I’ve worked as a nurse on the PM, night shifts, and day shifts. I can tell you each shift had its own pace and set of responsibilities. Holidays could be a bit more relaxed and allow for a bit of festivity. CARVING OUT ROOM FOR THE HOLIDAY With Christmas and New Year’s just around the corner, it’s time to tune in to your team and set the tone for the holidays. Now, more than ever with staffing issues and high census, it’s important to stay connected to the team working through the holidays. Do they have what they need? Will they be seeing you (their leader) on the holidays? How will you show your appreciation? After all, they are sacrificing time at home with family. Helping them make the most of working over the holidays is key. While you want to make sure that the patient experience remains positive, high quality, and trust-generating, there is still room for sharing the holiday spirit among those dedicated associates who are covering the holiday shifts. As a nurse, I have fond memories of our holiday potlucks, secret Santa, and white elephant gift exchanges. The break room was usually full of goodies and offered a nice reprieve from the hustle of the unit. These are all important for building camaraderie and engagement. Encourage your team to enjoy the holiday spirit, but always – always – keep the patients’ needs at the center of every action. Make sure your “Holiday Hospital” delivers on the brand promise just as consistently as any other day. Planning your next event? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to schedule your ideal speaker and make your event a success! By Kristin Baird
Today’s workforce has more choices than ever before about how and for whom they work. That’s why employers must think differently about recruitment and retention strategies especially in healthcare settings. Why? Because the loss of staffing continuity can have life-threatening impact on patient outcomes; not to mention staff morale. Last week, I was speaking with a CEO about her recruitment challenges. Operating with a lean structure, she was devastated with three resignations in just under two weeks. While many healthcare organizations have recruitment challenges, they can be magnified for those in rural settings or those struggling to maintain competitive wages. EMPLOYERS MUST DO RECRUITMENT TO FILL POSITIONS BUT ALSO NEED TO RETAIN THE ONES THEY HAVE. Here’s the chicken and the egg situation. I’ve witnessed organizations spending huge amounts of money on recruitment tactics and very little on retention strategy to address the high levels of employee turnover. When you have good employees, what are you doing to ensure that you are creating and sustaining a culture where they not only want to stay but are actively recommending your company to family and friends? This is the multi-million-dollar question. RECRUITMENT ISN’T GOING TO BE AS BIG AN ISSUE IF LEADERS FIRST FOCUS ON RETENTION AND KEEPING THE GOOD ASSOCIATES THEY ALREADY HAVE. Sign-on bonuses are a tactic that attract candidates but do not influence retention. In fact, I have found sign-on bonuses to be counterproductive. Long-term, loyal employees are often resentful of sign-on bonuses especially when their wages are stagnant. During a focus group, one 20-year veteran nurse said of sign-on bonuses, “I’m insulted. I have given two decades to this organization and they (administration) will be paying a new hire a bonus while I will be the one helping to bring her up to speed.” This sentiment is not unusual. Another nurse stated, “I guess I will have to leave and reapply to get in on this good deal.” Culture and employee engagement are the backbone of retention. Planning your next event? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to schedule your ideal speaker and make your event a success! By Kristin Baird
“I thought she was a really strong supervisor. I had no idea she was creating friction in the department.” This was a statement made by someone I coach after she learned, while conducting stay interviews, that two of her staff were about to resign because of conflict with a shift supervisor. Drilling down into the situation with her, this manager discovered that she had a blind spot for the supervisor, preventing her from seeing the impact on the team. Unfortunately, this isn’t unusual. Many leaders have blind spots preventing them from identifying poor leadership that can erode morale and hurt employee engagement. However, proper coaching frequently reveals these blind spots and can be essential in course corrections. Proper coaching can help you keep the good employees you have In this case, the manager had promoted a staff member to shift supervisor. During her onboarding process, they focused on priority tasks to be accomplished during every shift. Because the tasks were consistently accomplished, the manager saw the supervisor as a solid performer. The problem was that she expected leadership but trained a taskmaster without emphasizing the leadership skills needed to foster a cohesive and engaged team. When hiring anyone who will be leading others, it’s imperative to set expectations and provide the tools needed to create a high-performing team and proper employee engagement. This requires more than a task checklist. Help the new leader understand the department vision and values, clarify expectations and how results will be measured, and offer support and leadership development. Never underestimate the impact of supervisors, shift coordinators and charge nurses on employee retention. I once had a director say, “Oh she is just a supervisor. Everyone really reports to the manager,” when discussing morale issues. That may be true on paper, but the direct reporting relationship and power structure means the supervisor has significant impact on the daily work environment. Watch, listen, and learn. Your blind spots may be creating a revolving door. Planning your next event? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to schedule your ideal speaker and make your event a success! |
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