Hospitals and health systems can sustain a true competitive edge if their cultures accelerate business performance.
A report from Booz & Co. discusses how key behaviors can have a deep, lasting effect on the performance of an organization — a correlation some leaders do not heed in their decision-making.
"Too few leaders recognize the outsized influence of these key behaviors, however. Their efforts to improve performance remain ill focused and diffuse. They find it hard to resist the temptation to pile one directive on top of another; even when those efforts are aligned to the same ultimate goals, they often undermine one another," according to the report.
The report explores four specific indicators that reveal whether an organization's culture is boosting the business.
1. The culture taps into the waiting reserves of energy within many people. If a hospital or health system's culture is focused on a certain set of performance outcomes — and employees have a stake in it — people begin informal reinforcement with one another. "Simply put, they increasingly help one another feel good about what they need to do," according to the report. This leads to a greater level of emotional commitment to the work that is most important.
2. The culture guides down-the-line decision-making. Organizations with strong cultures do not need prescribed policies for every situation. Employees rely on cultural influences to help determine what they should do. "You simply do not need all those formal sign-offs when you have the right kind of cultural support," according to the report. "When nobody is there to give the approval, the culture guides the individual in how to act."
3. Your culture builds enduring execution capability. Over time, critical behaviors turn into habits, and people become faster and better at executing. Hospitals and health systems may see evidence of greater patient loyalty, higher levels of employee engagement, higher degrees of emotional commitment to what the organization is focused on and a more rigorous pursuit of continuous improvement, according to the report.
4. Behaviors in normal times match positive behaviors during crisis situations. Executives often praise the collaborative, selfless and energetic behaviors of their organizations during a crisis, but lament the fact that they don't see these types of interactions daily. "This difference is in large part explainable by the activation of cultural forces that occurs during a crisis," according to the report. "When you are focused on activating those forces all the time, you get that 'special' level of performance all the time."
More Articles on Hospital and Health System Cultures:
The Google Approach: How Hospitals Can Create Cultures That Drive Employee Engagement, Satisfaction
6 Necessities for Deliberate Culture Change in a Hospital
Building a Culture That Works: 5 Traits of High-Performing Healthcare Organizations