Looking for Love in all the Wrong Places

Do you feel sometimes in your health care environment that it’s hard to find the love? Of course, I’m not talking about relationships between individuals, but I am talking about a healthy, caring, and yes loving work environment for colleagues. If an organization is experiencing high turnover rate, low employee engagement, poor patient satisfaction scores, and struggling to be the provider of choice; along with meeting the daily demands of multiple task in a typical patient care environment. It is hard to see the love in these situations.

Employees and leaders experiencing operational issues may begin to imagine what it would be like to wake up eager to get to work and enjoy an environment that is positive and engaging. To fantasise place where excellent care is always delivered, with the reputation of high quality, backed up by 5-star rating in the public eye, where patients desire to use the services offered.

The problem with a fantasy is that, eventually, reality sets in. The fact is, one cannot buy pixie dust, and there are no magic wands on the market to vaporize these problems.

Frontline staff and leaders spend much energy, efforts, and time brainstorming and searching for answers and solutions to bring to their organization to make the love work environment a reality. There is a tendency to believe that since the problems exist internal to the organization that to solve these issues the answer must come from outside the organization. This may be the case for the short term, but this could not be further from the truth.

Problems that directly and indirectly involve employees, providers, and patients – such as turnover, poor engagement for employees and providers, and low patient experience – will ultimately be solved within the organization, and be accomplished with all colleagues, and middle and executive leadership.

When we peel back the surface of these issues, they fall in the category of people relationships. Employee relationships among those who deliver services, and relationships with the people who receive the services.

When we are dealing with people-related problems and issues that arise from how we interact and connect, then the root cause of the problem, or the love solution will be found within the culture of the organization.

The culture of the organization is the most important component of an organization. Developing, building, and investing in the things that affect the culture of the organization must come first.

If an organization desires to be the employer, provider of choice for consumers, and considered a high reliable, accountable and functioning organization in quality, finance, compliance and governance; then the culture of the organization must be excellent, constant, and have a laser-focus priority. Every single moment of the day, culture must come first. The reason behind this fact is that culture will drive your organization forward or hold it back. It will lift your organization up, or take it down. Culture eats all aspects of the organization: quality, finance, compliance and governance for breakfast, lunch, dinner and all snacks in between.

Unless the culture of the organization is consistently evaluated by leaders, it is easy to get drawn in other directions to address problem that could be solved internally. Culture is an internal organizational component and issues dealing with culture must be solved within the organizations, because the solutions are found within the walls, among the collective people of the organization.
There are many external, shiny products and services that are sold to healthcare organizations, but do not address culture and cannot solve problems at the systemic root.

Leaders may sometimes believe that fixing one specific area of concern in their organization will fix everything else by default.
There are specialized needs to improve function of services, but these services will not be optimal, sustainable, or successful without having a strong culture foundation to stand on. Simply stated, the love we seek to find in our organizations comes directly from the culture that exist in the organization. Culture influences everything in an organization and the one word to remember as the definition for culture must be PEOPLE.

People make or break an organization and drive success or failure. In the healthcare industry, people can build a culture that heals or a culture that can kill.

With the agreement around the role that culture plays and how it impacts an organization’s success, then the question becomes this: “How does an organization possess a culture of success or excellence?”

Healthcare leaders know that that if having a sustainable culture of excellence was easy, every organization would possess it.

The culture answer is not random luck, but from an intentionally designed cultural infrastructure. Leaders should be comfortable to seek expert consultation for culture improvements, knowing that the purpose is to grow this knowledge within the organization.

Think of it like this, when we are sick we go to a specialist doctor for a certain protocol of care for our health condition. When our organizational culture is not well, we need to look to an expert culturist or guru for assistance. Cultural development sustainability must be intentional and comes from a well-designed protocol or curriculum to align with the healthcare infrastructure.

We know that finding the love in our organizations will be found in the people that work in the organization daily. Being aware and sensitive to this fact means we have taken the first step to securing an excellent culture. The protocols and curricula for success for organizational cultural excellence exist and is sizable and scalable to any organization. Does your organization need to get serious about developing a sustainable culture that will deliver highly energized and engaged colleagues, providers, and patients? Today is the day to start looking for love in all the right places!

Visit www.CorporateTranscendence.com to learn more about culture transformation resources available today.