Hold employees accountable
Once you’ve established the companywide plan, as well as departmental contributions, hold people accountable to it.
“Starting with management, you’ve really got to link the accountability piece to performance evaluation and compensation,” says Cripe, explaining that part of managers’ compensation is base pay and part depends on achieving the strategic plan. “There’s just complete integrity and continuity in clearly articulating … what their job is and what they need to do to be successful.”
In addition to compensation, reporting results to everyone is crucial for maintaining alignment to the vision. Department managers at CHOC regularly address employees about where they’re meeting goals and where they’re not.
If a department falls off track, involve its employees in designing the correction. To do that, they need visibility.
“You’ve got to have a structure so that people can see clearly their progress and identify when they’re not meeting their targets,” Cripe says. “We’ll ask a manager, ‘OK, you’re not on target. What is your plan to mitigate?’ Sometimes they need different resources; sometimes it’s just a timing issue. But look specifically [at] why and what can we do to get back on track.
“If people are tracking their goals, they’re aware that they’re not hitting them. [If] they think through why, you can get back on track. What’s difficult is if you wait till the end of the year and you go, ‘Oh my gosh, we didn’t make it.’”
On the other hand, if they are meeting goals, don’t let it go unnoticed.
“The human touch and engagement is, honestly, the single most important thing we can do — stopping and thanking people and being specific, not just, ‘Hey, thanks for doing such a great job,’ but, ‘Thank you, John. I heard yesterday that you were working with a family and they needed (something) and you were able to provide it.’ People really want to know that you know what they’re doing and how they’re helping.”
By creating, clearly communicating and following up on her plan to vault CHOC to national status, Cripe has kept employees focused on the vision. Over the past decade, it has become one of the fastest-growing freestanding children’s hospitals in California. It has also been ranked the 17th-busiest children’s hospital in the nation, with admissions increasing 130 percent since 1998.
“I think people genuinely want to do a good job,” Cripe says. “If you’re clear on what you need them to do and everything is linked back so there isn’t any mixed messaging or lack of clarification, it works well.”
How to reach: Children’s Hospital of Orange County, (714) 997-3000 or www.choc.org
