Sometime ago I was asked about my philosophy of management and what it was that guided my decision-making from day to day. Well, here it is for what it may be worth to our readers.
Over the course of forty years in the field of health care services, experience taught me change should be evolutionary and virtually never revolutionary. The popular notion flowing from inexperience inevitably urges rapid changes as a daily prerequisite for organizational survival.
The reality of this latter approach of managing change in this manner creates a harsh and unstable environment for staff who need a calm, centered safe environment in which to care for patients. Thousands of dollars are being spent currently on technology on the backs of staff who often have little say in the selection or choice about that technology and who virtually have whiplash from the constant change management creates without their input and without any concern for the impact on the dedicated front line caregivers.
Service product lines matter. Marketing is definitely useful, but it’s always been my philosophy we have the best products available with a Team committed to quality.
Our products are not technology; it’s not data, it’s not anything physical – it’s service.
Our patients really don’t care about what suppliers sell us, they only care about what we have that can help them. Our focus has always been to explain how we can improve their lives – give them the tools to be happy, healthy, and to unshackle them from the chains of addiction and mental illness. I have been unalterably opposed to the profit motive of the behavioral health treatment market place which inevitably results in higher rates and denies access to many who need care.
In the end, a customer, staff oriented management culture is self-sustaining. The velocity of change in today’s economy requires commitment to a fundamental system of people oriented values. Without these basic values in place staff have nothing to hold on to, everything is up for grabs and people lose their way. Telling folks, here’s what’s changing, – here’s what’s not changing: who we are and here’s what we stand for permits change to occur in a natural sequence.
The lesson learned always comes back to delivering on our promise of quality services, access to care for patients of all means, and service to our Staff, Board and Community.
I think we are learning during this pandemic that we cannot devalue our employees over dollars because people are making choices about who and where they are willing to work.
