Identify the problem
Before he could start to implement a solution, Chouinard wanted to know a couple of things: Where did the problem of inconsistency originate in the first place? Why were his employees unclear about how they were expected to perform on the job?
Chouinard had to get out and talk to his people to get to the bottom of the problem.
“You can’t just stay in your office and hope people will come to you,” Chouinard says. “You have to create the process whereby you get the information.”
The gears that set that process in motion are greased by your approachability.
“When I go there and I talk to our employees, it’s to listen,” Chouinard says. “I make sure they understand that they can express any concern they have. I’m not trying to go over our management. Because we have local management, it’s very important not to go out there and start making decisions.
“When you deal with people, it’s to always understand their frustration and pain. Try to get to know them more on a personal level than to just treat them as a number.”
Chouinard learned through his conversations with others in the company that it was time to look in the mirror. Leadership was giving employees a mixed message as to how they were expected to perform their job.
“A lot of pressure was put on achieving certain goals and numbers,” Chouinard says. “And on the other side, we were asking them to provide the best quality of care. I figured it doesn’t have to be opposed to each other. We can combine this. By focusing on quality of care, the performance will come out of that. It was an effort to realign the focus of the message we were sending and making sure we were sending the right one, really focusing on providing the best quality care out there.”
Chouinard needed employees to see how the inconsistent pricing was causing problems for the company that would ultimately turn off customers and have a negative effect on business.
But more important, they needed leadership to give them a better sense of what they were expected to do and who they were doing it for.
“If you make your decision and it’s always focused on the patient, it might not be a good thing for the employees or the shareholders,” Chouinard says. “If you make a decision that only benefits the shareholders, in the long run, you’re going to have issues with your patient or your employees. We’re trying to give them the tools of reasoning to make decisions.”
He needed employees to see how their role as the customers’ contact point fit into the big picture. He needed to attach a clearer sense of purpose to his employees’ jobs.
“You have to help them understand what the vision of the company is,” Chouinard says. “Sometimes, it’s a misunderstanding on where we’re going and what we’re trying to accomplish. Then you need to clarify that. You need to use feedback to reinforce your message to the field.”