Provide proper training
Thomas and his management team based their changes on thebook “Hardwiring Excellence: Purpose, Worthwhile Work, Making aDifference” by Quint Studer.
“Most of your good managers and employees want to improve,” hesays. “Once they had read the book, there was a lot of enthusiasm.Then it is a question of it not being viewed as one more thing to dobut it becoming a part of your daily work plan and schedule to workthis change in so that it is a change in how you do the work.”
Any issues that needed to be addressed because of the changeswere incorporated into the monthly management meetings and,sometimes, daily meetings.
“We were trying to roll it into their normal meetings, and thenwe implemented a few more (meetings) just to get it started,” hesays.
Thomas also brought in a coach from the Studer group to assistthem in implementing the program.
“We implemented a leadership development institute where we take our managers for a day and present different components ofwhat our journey in service excellence might look like,” he says. “Wetake them for a day and bring in speakers and also utilize our ownmanagers where they have best practices and have made a majorchange in how the perception has been evaluated by our patients.”
The organization identified which managers would be speakingbased on patient surveys. Those who had demonstrated they couldget results would share their methods with the rest of the managers.
“You talk to each individual patient and employee and engage themand try to learn more about them — what their needs are, their fears,their inhibitions, whatever it may well be,” says Thomas.
Any problems or issues are documented in a log and thenaddressed by managers and vice presidents.
However, with managers interacting with patients on a more frequent basis, that can set up an environment where employees arelooking over their shoulders. That’s why you also have to visit withemployees consistently so it becomes part of their routines.
“This is supposed to be done frequently, therefore, it’s not just aonce-in-a-while occasion,” he says. “So, the expectation is that it willoccur.”
Leaders should also begin with positive questions when visitingemployees, such as asking what is working well for them, how theirchildren are, or if there is anything management can do to maketheir job easier. The conversations can benefit an organization byidentifying a problem early before it becomes a major issue.
“Standard questions like that don’t drive a negative environment,”he says. “The more you do that, you’re there and you’re not seen asan interloper. The more you do it, the more they understand this isnothing new and this is the way it is.
“It’s not done in a confrontational environment. You try to get theemployee to be at ease so you do learn what is going on within adepartment and what needs to be addressed or is certainly a concernon their part that you need to deal with.”
