Greg Forester COMM 560 Comm. Issues for Leaders Rider
University Catching FISH! At Temple University Hospital
Slide 2
About Temple Univ. Hospital (TUH) Major Philadelphia hospital
and academic medical center Flagship facility of Temple University
Health System (TUHS) 600 patient beds in cluster of buildings along
N. Broad Street Specialty & tertiary care including Heart,
Lung, Cancer, GI, Ortho, Neuroscience, BMT & more 4000 FTEs
& $600 million/year in annual revenue
Slide 3
Key Figures for Organizational Change TUHS CEO, TUSM Dean,
& Senior Executive Vice President, Temple Health Sciences Larry
Kaiser, MD In 2011, brought established record of excellence at
Penn Medicine & University of Texas Health System to TUHS
Well-respected by physicians and staff TUH CEO Sandra L. Gomberg,
RN, MSN Rose through the ranks, with a nursing background Generally
respected despite friction in 2009 nursing strike Good grasp of
leadership theory and strategy. Always willing to implement new,
forward-thinking strategies
Slide 4
Problems Facing TUH in 2011 Structural budget deficit Poor
payer mix of approx. 80% medical assistance (Medicare &
Medicaid) Organizational Inferiority Complex But Were Only Temple
2009 Nursing Strike-related tensions
Slide 5
First FISH! Tenet: Be there To be there for another person has
a powerful effect. Being there means giving someone undivided
attention and focusing on needs and feelings vs. not being there,
as in someone who barely looks at you. Includes listening but goes
beyond that to Dialogue vs. Debate
Slide 6
First FISH! Tenet: Be there Debate: focused only on info.
related to attack and retort & drowns out good listening.
Dialogue: first step is actually listening to the person. Listening
properly means discarding our own preconceived notions/judgments.
Being there is not easy due to distractions of the modern world and
workplace.
Slide 7
First FISH! Tenet: Be there Putting in the effort pays
dividends in better understanding, reduced mistakes More valuable,
profound relationships based on deep understanding. According to
FISH!, being there requires awareness, commitment and
practice.
Slide 8
Being there at TUH Nursing Strike-related tension offers TUH
leaders great opportunity. Implement the first tenet of FISH! and
Be There for marginalized, adversarial stakeholders by mastering Be
There focus and applying it to TUH. End of strike was not end of
strife: Nurses union continues contentious relationship with
management. Disparages TUH and its leaders in media and incendiary
communications.
Slide 9
Leadership recommendation: Be There for union members by
proposing Retreat and/or series of sit-down meetings regarding
ongoing grievances. Seek common ground, prepare to negotiate, but
initially listen to union members about their genuine concerns
regarding compensation, benefits, tuition remission.. Go beyond
FISH!...by pursuing shared meaning via dialogue. Potential areas of
common ground include concern for patient safety and attention to
hospitals long-term fiscal sustainability. Good Faith effort in
listening & dialogue could yield results. Being there at TUH
(cont.)
Slide 10
Second FISH! Tenet: Play FISH! advocates incorporating play
into daily workplace environment. Invigorate work responsibilities
Lighten challenges with energy and enthusiasm. FISH!: Plays impact
best innovations in the world are a result of play Even serious
organizational environments with dire responsibilities benefit from
playfulness.
Slide 11
Second FISH! Tenet: Play (Cont.) Allows organizational
stakeholders to tap into their inner, innovative being Play helps
organizations with unearthing that which helps (us) fly forward
into the future. FISH! Says play speaks to that kid we all still
have deep inside of us. Results in engagement and involvement. Play
draws out the Why? or How come?
Slide 12
Second FISH! Tenet: Playing at TUH TUH leadership already has
some success in incorporating play into daily workplace. Human
Resources leadership understands value of invigorate work
responsibilities and makes frequent attempts (Thanksgiving
Build-A-Meal, Uniform Donations, Wellness Campaign). However, play
opportunities are uneven in terms of departmental participation,
especially between clinical units vs. support.
Slide 13
Second FISH! Tenet: Playing at TUH (Cont.) Counteract disparity
by asking support departments such as Environmental Science and
Patient Transport to Play within initiatives that stimulate
feedback, dialogue, and development of useful innovations. Apply to
serious envts such as CT Surgery, Security, and Oncology. Key
Leadership Idea: ensure Play opportunities tap into TUHs diverse
workforce by ensuring participation of staff members at all levels,
not only in actual Play events and initiatives but in their
development.
Slide 14
Third FISH! Tenet: Choose Your Attitude Common to attribute
cause of the most negative attitudes and emotions to external
forces. Negative emotions are often related to unpleasant
experiences or negative people. FISH! states while external
pressures may triggerfeelings, we (wear) those feelings. FISH!
Presents a choice for stakeholders comprised of either being
subservient to external events, few of which we have any control
over, or we can take charge of our own response.
Slide 15
Third FISH! Tenet: Choose Your Attitude (Cont.) Important
note:Choosing your attitude does not mean adopting false external
emotions and dispositions that do not reflect true sentiment. FISH!
Accepts genuine anger or sadness, using it as a jumping point to
emphasize the importance of choosing ones attitude. With attitude
awareness, stakeholders are less likely to externalize emotions.
Choose your attitude helps stakeholders shape emotions more
productively and more satisfactorily. You control your attitude,
not the other way around.
Slide 16
TUH inferiority complex stimulates widespread externalization
of attitudes, related to organizational dysfunction &
self-fulfilling prophecy of cultural attitude infecting effort and
reducing value of results. Negative emotions at TUH are usually
linked to other physicians and staff or faraway bureaucratic
departments and entities. Leadership Idea: Develop FISH! Workforce
program to instill FISH! Ideas into all levels of the organization,
especially attitude tenet. Helping Staff Choose Their Daily
Attitudesand Improve TUH (Cont.)
Slide 17
TUH physicians and staff must understand negative attitudes and
mediocre work and customer service impact all areas of the
organization, especially those in direct contact with patients.
Negative staff emotions incite negative patient emotions that may
very well end up on Patient Satisfaction surveys. Pat/Sat surveys
soon linked to insurance reimbursement, providing strong incentive
to TUH to grasp attitude choice and enhance Patient Satisfaction
scores. Leadership Idea: Following attitude seminars, offer Play
opportunities linked to Pat/Sat scores that encourage collaboration
and offer prizes/recognition.
Slide 18
Make Everyones Day at TUH Make their day runs the full spectrum
of larger events and productions of showing appreciation and
kindness to simple actions (with) potential to brighten someones
day. Tenet means taking a genuine interest in..gifts of others.
Regardless of planning, Make Their Day actions denote those in
which stakeholders make the effort to brighten someones day without
reference to the potential for punishment or reward. Two-way
process, because doer receive(s) an internal gift that makes
lifemore meaningful. FISH labels a making their day-type action as
a win-win.
Slide 19
Make Everyones Day at TUH TUH has recently taken up the mantle
of Make their day on an organization-to-employee basis via Service
Awards. Program recognizes staff members for five-year employment
milestones and retirements after a lengthy tenure at TUH. Other
organizational recognitions include lauding efforts of specific
clinical units within Pat/Sat and Env. Safety programs. Less
organized recognitions include opportunities for staff to recognize
colleagues at Town Hall meetings. However, TUH has room to
institute a more widespread culture of Making Everyones Day via
educational seminars and more stakeholder collaboration on new
programs.
Slide 20
Make Everyones Day at TUH With taking a genuine interest in the
unique gifts of others in mind, TUH could encourage clinical &
support departments to develop their own programs for recognition.
One idea: propose a program of Secret Shoppers who perform Direct
Observations of staff members, with employees who perform good
deeds eligible for every-changing recognition. Plan removes
transactional nature by using different rewards and recognition,
which could be slowly phased out if either culture changes or the
program fails. In the event of success, the hope is that recognized
staff members gain the internal gift that makes lifemore meaningful
that encourages continued Make Their Day actions in the future, and
among other staff.
Slide 21
Conclusions. FISH! tenets offer attractive addition to TUH
initiatives aimed at closing the structural deficit and ensuring
sustainability: cost- cutting, smart purchasing and staffing,
directed marketing and expansion, and talent recruitment. Beyond
these additions, FISH! Tenets could harness potential of dormant
employee groups and enhance organizational culture. FISH! features
like Play and Make Their Day promise a more engaged workforce more
likely to go beyond work duties. Choose Your Attitude offers
opportunities in enhancing staff relationship with patients and
visitors, as well as other emps. Be There offers an opportunity to
put to rest the key conflict remaining between nursing staff
members and management.