Best Practices

Strong Core Values Lead to Deeper Sleep

By Maureen Waddle

As I travel to various practices, I regularly ask owners and administrators, “What keeps you awake at night?” Their most common responses are about staffing issues and relationships with employees. “How do I keep them motivated? How do I stop (fill-in the blank) behavior? How do I keep them engaged and working hard? How do I deal with apathetic and unappreciative employees?” These questions plague most of my clients, day and night.

While changing a practice’s collective attitude will not occur overnight, it is possible to address some of these concerns by creating a better work culture through the use of core values. Regularly, organizations that clearly communicate behavior expectations as defined in core values win on multiple fronts including higher staff satisfaction, lower staff turnover, higher productivity and happier customers (not to mention happier managers and owners).

Character Shapers

Core values shape the character and culture of an organization and are generally defined as the owners’ most important values. These values are resistant to external forces and do not change. To transform your organization, you must clearly articulate your core values, hire people with matching values, teach those values and hold people accountable for adhering to the values.

When employees understand the core values in the context of the purpose and vision of the organization, they become better thinkers, ask better questions and make better decisions. Each “cast member” at a Disney park grows and thrives because of training and management around a specific set of identified basic values: safety, courtesy, “the show” and efficiency. This helps Disney parks to consistently reproduce that “magical” feeling. It’s similar to what you are trying to do in your practice — consistently reproduce a “satisfying” patient experience.

You probably have a vision for your practice and have identified certain behaviors that you expect employees to exhibit to help achieve that vision. Don’t assume people know your desires and expectations. Write out the values that will guide decision making and how people will treat each other in your practice. You cannot simply throw darts at a list of values to pick as your primary organizational beacons. They must have meaning. Core values are your guiding principles, and you want team members who will abide by those values in every action.

Questions to Get There

When selecting your values, start with a clear picture of the ideal practice and work situation. Think about the behaviors required to achieve that ideal. Also, ask a few key questions:

► Who are my mentors? What qualities or characteristics attracted me to them?

► What characteristics and behaviors are intolerable — that is, would cause me to fire someone immediately?

► How do I want others to treat my patients or me?

► What would make me proud of my team?

► What value am I always willing to defend in any argument?

Usually, the first core values list comes in a bit too lengthy. It is not that the values are not worthy or good; it’s just that you need to do some editing and focus on the primary tenets.What are the most important values?

Next Step: Indoctrination

Once you’ve identified the core values, the next step is to indoctrinate the practice. This is not just about memorizing the words. It’s about embracing and instilling the expected behaviors associated with your core values. The following guidelines will help ensure these tenets permeate the entire practice:

► Rewrite interview questions so that you can screen candidates according to behaviors that match your core values.

► In performance reviews, include discussions about behaviors that demonstrate adherence to the core values.

► Recognize team members when they demonstrate exceptional behavior consistent with one or more of the values.

► Discipline, when necessary, will usually include a discussion about how the behavior was contrary to the organization’s core values.

Steadfast adherence to a meaningful set of established core values creates a harmonious work culture that will help your practice be more productive and responsive to staff and patients. Core values will allow owners and managers to rest more easily at night. OM

Maureen Waddle is a senior consultant with BSM Consulting, an internationally recognized health-care consulting firm headquartered in Incline Village, Nev., and Scottsdale, Ariz. For more information and resources, visit the BSM Café at www.BSMCafe.com.