This is the conclusion of a presentation by Values Coach CEO and Head Coach Joe Tye on key success factors for positive culture change and the board's role for values and culture, with final comments on values-based leadership.
2. Key Success Factor #1
Early engagement of leaders from
appropriate constituencies including
board of directors, medical staff,
volunteers, and others as appropriate
3. Key Success Factor #2
Commitment of the executive team
is the primary difference between
real culture change and just
another “program of the month”
4. Key Success Factor #3
Enthusiastic engagement of
middle management creates
expectations within each unit
and department
5. Key Success Factor #4
Assess don’t assume – ask your
people about their perceptions of the
culture, not just whether they are
satisfied or engaged
6. Key Success Factor #5
Have a blueprint and/or a manifesto
that creates a shared vision of the
culture you aspire to build
7. Key Success Factor #6
Establish initiative coherence and
avoid identification of the change
process with any single individual
or program
8. Key Success Factor #7
Keep it visible and tangible with
refresher courses, buttons and
wristbands, physical displays, daily
huddles and the like
9. Key Success Factor #8
Start with a core group of your
most passionate and enthusiastic
“Spark Plugs” then keep growing
the community
10. Key Success Factor #8 (contd.)
Embrace the skeptics,
marginalize the cynics, and
plow through resistance
11. Key Success Factor #9
Collect and share stories from
patients, visitors, and staff
12. Key Success Factor #10
Reach out to the micro-communities
of employee families and the macro-
communities of local schools,
business, and government
13. Key Success Factor #11
Remember that the best way to
motivate people to be better employees
is to inspire them to be better people
by living their personal values...
14. Key Success Factor #11 (contd.)
And that organizational values
determine strategy while personal
values shape culture
17. Having a clear shared understanding of the
line between appropriate engagement at
the governance level and inappropriate
interference at the operational level
18. Reports on how well hospital values are
reflected in employee engagement, patient
satisfaction, workplace and patient safety,
recruiting and retention, operations, and
financial performance
19. Expecting a portion of each board
meeting to be devoted to a discussion
of cultural issues, including what is and
is not working according to agreed
upon expectations
20. Knowing when and how it is appropriate
to discipline a physician who generates
significant revenue but whose behavior
violates the organization’s values and
cultural expectations.
21. Preventing penny-wise but pound-foolish
decisions that achieve short-term savings
at the expense of lasting cultural harm –
eliminating the annual company picnic
being a classic example
22. Better appreciating, and being more
supportive of, investments in culture that
do not have a demonstrable return on
investment in financial terms (at least not
in the short term)
23. Providing feedback to leadership
concerning what they are hearing
about the hospital from out in the
community
24. Being alert to early signs that the
organization is struggling; the key
symptoms of organizational decay
described by Jim Collins in How the
Mighty Fall are cultural, not financial