When Bill Corley needed help with part
of a $170 million expansion, he turned to
his employees.
Corley, president and CEO of Community
Health Network, a $1.17 billion health care
provider, was overseeing the expansion of
his Community Hospital North facility. The
patient rooms needed to be as functional
and comfortable as possible, so he sought
out employee input to help make that happen.
Rather than studying a pile of drab, lifeless blueprints, officials transformed a
room at one of the company’s existing locations into a mock-up of the new accommodations. Employees were then asked to
provide their feedback.
“You put furniture in it, you put a hospital bed in, you put where the oxygen outlets are going to be, and then you say,
‘What changes do you think we should
make?’” Corley says.
Those who had proposed specific
aspects of the room had a chance to
explain the reasoning behind their idea to
the board of trustees. When the project
was completed, the pride of those who had
taken part was clearly evident.
“We had over 1,000 changes, and they
were little things, but they were suggested
by employees,” Corley says. “When we had
the open house, the employees were there.
“When somebody has passion for an idea, I
think you engage that person by just asking
questions to try to get that employee to
fully develop the idea or the concept. By
showing that kind of interest and then
using someone’s idea and giving them credit for it, you have an employee for life.
“If your employees are an asset, the point
is you have to listen to them. When you listen to them, sometimes they have ideas.
The question is: How many of the ideas or
the improvements do you try?”
Tapping into the imaginations of your
employees is a key step to building a
healthy and fulfilling culture that will keep
an organization moving forward.
“It’s the employees that build the reputation of the company,” Corley says. “A lot of
leaders sometimes think it’s them. … When
you read the autobiographies or stories about various leaders, the message almost
is that this person was bigger than life.
Everybody in the organization helps the
organization to be successful.”
By fostering a spirit of enthusiastic participation among his 10,700 employees,
Corley has helped Community Health
Network to be one of the top 20 integrated
health care networks in the nation. Here’s
how he does it.
