Give feedback to get
feedback

Peter F. Bastone
president and CEO, Mission Hospital

Peter F. Bastone, president and CEO of
Mission Hospital, says you should establish
a process through which your employees
see how their ideas are moving through the
organization.

“Once you engage them, and once you
ask a question and they give you input, you
have to assess that input and get back to
the people,” he says.

Even if you don’t see an idea immediately
being stitched into the fabric of the organization, you still need to show the employee
who originated the idea that his or her
thoughts were carefully considered.

“If that’s the case, we get back to them
and say, ‘Great idea, but we don’t have the
infrastructure,’ or, ‘This is a systemic issue,
but we may be able to do it in the future,’”
Bastone says. “It’s a matter of cataloging,
being an active listener to the people who
are in those meetings, assessing the value
of the recommendation and getting back to
the group or individual who made the recommendation with a yea or nay.”

Whether you reject the employee’s idea
outright or simply place it on the back burner, your reasoning doesn’t matter as much
as the fact that you took the time to consider the idea. Bastone says that if you show
you value employees’ thoughts, you will
improve the quantity and quality of the
feedback you receive and also reap the
rewards of having happier, loyal employees.