EXCUSES vs. EXPLANATIONS
It is a tee shirt quote I had never seen. Alan Maiccon's wrote, “Be stronger than your strongest excuse. Be greater than your most negative voice."
Hospitals have a factual excuse for current staff shortages. But most complained before COVID hit.
"Yes, I know Sarah makes mistakes but she's so compassionate,” one Chief Nursing Officer told me in 2018, ignoring Sarah was hurting patients.
“But he's brilliant with a scalpel,” one OR director told me to excuse an instrument-throwing surgeon who terrorized nurses.
You may hear explanations but never excuses at The Mayo Clinic, arguably the best medical center in the world. Their success turns on their culture, "The Mayo Way. To remain employed you must deliver excellence. "Ordinary" is intolerable.
"SET THE STANDARD"
No patient wants "average." Sadly, that is what most hospitals deliver.
That is why every leader should order Chris York's new book, Set the Standard, The Antidote to Average (Amazon, etc.) Read it, learn a new take on excellence & forward this essay to leaders you know. It signals why Community Health Systems CEO, Tim Hingtgen, recruited Chris from Baylor to head their Northwest Health (Arkansas) group of five hospitals.
Check his opening sentence, "Why get out of bed to be average?" If the answer is obvious why do so many ignore it?
Our family's culture starts impacting us in infancy. Yes, many peak performers have overcome terrible early influences. But, generally, culture determines behavior & leaders determine culture. Look to the leader.
If physical therapy, dietary, or nursing is underperforming look at leadership. They have the biggest influence on morale.
SOLUTION
Want to improve organizational performance? Read Chris' book & look to Radical Loving Care®, the approach Chris infused into the cultures of both Baylor hospitals he led. Apply our Mother Test™ because it asks leaders one core question: Do you have any team member you would not want caring for your Mom?
If so, retrain or remove them. Simultaneously, make your stars the standard. Thus elite performance becomes the norm, not the exception.
What could matter more? The path to excellence itself begins improving patient care in small ways immediately.
When the wind changes direction so do the ships that depend on it.
Be the wind. Use The Mother Test™. Your patients are counting on you.
-Erie Chapman
