Strive to do more
The mission and values for the health care system aren’t static.
As Hawthorne sees it, those elements should change and grow
with the organization.
Within the last few years, Hawthorne says he felt it was time for
a checkup. He wanted to inspire employees and the organization’s
leadership to new heights, so he embarked upon a new project:
creating a promise statement.
Hawthorne says there was no specific measure that told him it
was time to do it. He thought the organization was strong, but that
it had more capacity to give. He felt that the organization was
plateauing in some areas, and that in today’s world, that’s moving
backward.
Hawthorne says good CEOs have to rely on gut feelings at times.
“That’s an observation place a CEO has, the ability to look out
over an organization,” he says. “When I characterize my role here,
it is built around relationships, and the relationships are multiple.
Part of that is to monitor, to be constantly observing the tenor of the
organization. My sense was that we were making great progress on
an incremental basis year on year in our relatively short life, but it
was time to take transformational movement for the organization.
But in order to take big steps, and do hard, sweaty work, we needed to be sure we had something that was clear across the organization and bound us together.
“The mission and vision did that early on in our life, and they
were the foundation for us. We needed something that we could
deal with a little more day-to-day in the fine points of what they do.
We needed something that was so much of a commitment that we
hold it so dear, that no one wants to break the promise.”
Hawthorne brought together about 400 staff members to create
the promise statement, which emphasizes individual care of staff
members for each other so that they can then, in turn, provide good
care to patients. The organization took it a step further with nine
promise standards that expand upon how the promise statement
works.
Staff members have collected stories from within that are shared
at meetings and in internal educational materials that give testimonial accounts of how employees have felt cared for on the job.
“It truly is something that is top of mind as we go through our day,”
Hawthorne says.
Also, the organization began to address the promise in its hiring
practices to make sure the company is hiring the right people.
Texas Health Resources recently created a series of scenarios and
questions that centered around the promise. Those scenarios and
questions are incorporated into the interview.
“We can begin to assure ourselves that the people who work here
already have a sense of what we’re after, from a sense of caring for
one another and, ultimately, caring for others,” he says.
Hawthorne is continuing to move the organization forward by
changing the way THR plans. He has introduced a 10-year plan that
begins this year, which is a new model. Previously, three-year plans
were the norm.
“It’s aggressive,” Hawthorne says. “It gives people a sense of longevity, that we are really here for the long term. It creates an opportunity
for an aspiration. It sets a pathway and expectation and gives people
a level of comfort that we have a direction.”
HOW TO REACH: Texas Health Resources Inc., www.texashealth.org