Undercover Boss?

On a few occasions, I have watched the CBS TV show, "Undercover Boss" with intrigue.  For those who haven't seen the show, the basic premise involves the CEO of a large organization going into disquise and working with the front-line employees doing the daily jobs that make their organizations tick.  Through this process they get to see first-hand the good, bad, and ugly about their organizations and the people who work within them.   As the show concludes, the CEO is revealed to the employees they worked along-side and the CEO pledges to make changes to various aspects of the company that they saw needing improvement while recognizing some of the unsung heroes they encountered. 

At first, I was shocked to see how many employees could work side-by-side with their CEO and not have a clue as to who they were - not to mention with camera crew in tote following them around!  But then I realized that these are large national organizations and many of these employees have likely never had the chance to meet, talk, or interact with their company leadership before and so maybe that wasn't so far fetched to expect.   I was also interested to see how some of the employees in different episodes treated their new "trainee" as they described to their boss unknowingly the job and culture of their company.  Through both good and bad examples, it becomes very clear to see how every company is a representation of their people and not just their product. 

All of this has me intrigued to wonder what I would "discover" if I could go undercover in our hospital?   While I humbly believe it would be difficult to go completely "undercover," I am interested in walking-in-the-shoes of some team members to see first hand what they experience and how we can continue to live up to the mission of our hospital.  What would I find that surprised me? What would I find that needed to be improved?  Who would I find going above-and-beyond yet never getting the recognition they deserve?  I'd love to hear your thoughts on these questions and others that you may be wanting to share.

 

Undercover Boss?

Mono-Blog-ue or Dia-Blog-ue?

After a rather interesting month of travel for both personal and professional reasons, I have realized that an entire month has gotten away from my blogging. While I am always encountering situations that I think would be good topics to blog-about, I'm apparently still lacking the discipline to commit the time to actually sit down and write. To my loyal readers, I apologize and promise to do better about getting back on schedule!

When I do get to write, one of the questions that I am always asking myself is whether or not I am discussing topics that are interesting to you. In other words, am I hitting the mark or not? Are the posts relevant, meaningful, and engaging or are they so-so, watered down, or not all that worthwhile? I realize that is putting myself out there for a wide array of comments, but personally, I would prefer to know than to keep on guessing. To help with this, I have added a new "reaction" feature to the blog comments (special thanks to Jonathan at Press-Ganey for helping me figure this out!). At the bottom of each post there are now check-boxes that can be clicked like on Facebook to let me know if you "Like it!" find it "Interesting" or politely want to tell me that you didn't find it all that worthwhile by checking "No thanks." Of course you can also leave me a longer comment by clicking on the "Make/Read" comments link. While I do allow anonymous comments, I do have to preview them before they are posted to ensure there is nothing completely off-color or that would violate any of our privacy rules at the hospital.

When talking at the hospital in team forums, meetings or just the hall-way, I have always said I prefer to have a dialogue vs a monologue and to keep this meaningful, I'd prefer the same online. So now is your chance...let me know what topics you'd like me to cover and write about and please let me know what you think when I do. Thanks again for making this a worthwhile experiment!

Mono-Blog-ue or Dia-Blog-ue?

Survey Question: How do you spell communication?

Out of curiosity, when you hear the words "Facebook," "Twitter," "YouTube," or "Blog" what comes to mind? These applications which have become synonymous with the overarching term of "social media" have become so pervasive they can be found in nearly every aspect of life. I have heard of these applications talked about everywhere from the news, talk shows, and magazines, to everyday conversations between friends and even in church. No matter where you go, it is hard to find a situation in which these terms don't emerge in some way, shape, or form. In fact, many speculate that social media will become the preferred method of communication and marketing in the coming years dethroning conventional methods of advertising such as TV and commercials. Is this a surprise? Maybe, but when you think about it, its entirely plausible and this shift is arguably already taking place.

So why is this happening, and why do some still resist joining in on this movement? As with most any significant change, there are always multiple camps of people. The early adopters (who are always trying to stay on the forefront of where the world is going and figuring out how they can be part in shaping it), the naysayers (who will find a way to criticize, discredit, or dispel any change that threatens their own status quo), and the fence-sitters (who are waiting to see which of the two previous groups will prevail). So it is not a surprise that while social media has invaded most every aspect of our lives and so many are participating, there are still those who are "holding-out" and refusing to buy in to where the world is going.

This poses an interesting a challenging dynamic to manage in the workplace. While there is a clear new direction in which the world is moving, not everyone has gotten on board yet and we have to find meaningful ways of remaining connected with everyone regardless of where they fall on the social media adoption curve. Seeing that our hospital is on the leading edge of healthcare organizations that are trying to utilize social media tools in the workplace, my professional association, the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE), has asked me to participate in a educational panel discussion next week on how to best utilize social media in healthcare.

In preparing for my presentation, I have done a lot of research on the topic, but more importantly I wanted to solicit your opinions on this topic and see if your thoughts and ideas match up to what my perceptions have been thus far. Since my first blog post in January of this year, I have considered this to be an "experiment" for both myself and our hospital. From my perspective it has been a very worthwhile endeavor, but I would like to know what you think.

While I always appreciate your comments (which can be left by clicking on the "comment" link at the bottom of each post), I would also greatly appreciate a few minutes of your time to complete a quick survey. One of our marketing team members is finishing her Master's degree and has developed this survey (click here) as part of her graduate thesis to better understand how people are using social media to communicate in their everyday lives and at work. It only takes a few minutes to complete and your feedback will help us to be more effective in connecting with our team. Clear and effective communication is key to how successful we can be as an organization. Please help us get it right! (And don't forget to connect with me on Facebook and Twitter!) Thank you!

Survey Question: How do you spell communication?