New strategy for change in the RT Cave

In my past few posts I emphasized the problem that has caused low morale in this RT Cave, in this post I will state the proposed solution to improving morale.

Actually, the best way of improving morale is to have happy employees. If you have happy employees, everything else simply falls into place.

Yesterday I told my supervisor I was going to quit. I was serious. In fact, as soon as I got home I downloaded an application to another hospital, filled it out, and then went to bed. However, by the time I woke up I had a more level head on. I was ready to tackle the problem head on. The time had come. I had nothing to lose.

At first I thought my bluff wasn't taken seriously. But, when morning came about, and the hour of 4:00 rolled by and I didn't hear from my supervisor, I knew something was amiss.

And, as I was just about to wrap things up for the day, the head RT boss approached me and wanted to see me in his office. Apparently, the supervisor had told him I wanted to quit, and he asked me what the problem was.

"The problem is simple", I told him, "that I have gone home miserable the past few days, and while I had planned on working another 22 years at this place, I refuse to be miserable for 22 years."

"Well," he said, "How can I make it better for you." Wow. Is that all I need to do to get some attention -- threaten to quit. I suppose the squeaky wheel gets the grease. I'm taking advantage of this.

"The answer to that is simple," I said, "Communication. I think that we all seek the same goal of improving the department, but you guys decided you were going to do something and didn't' tell us about it, and then all of a sudden you expect us to be perfect in our charting. That's simply poor business. Thus, I propose, simply that you better communicate."

I could have sat in his office complaining about how poor of a communicator he is, or how stupid the administration at this hospital is, which is what the RT Complainers may do anyway, but I didn't want to stoop to that level. I wanted this meeting to be productive.

"What do you mean by communicate?" he said.

"Exactly like you are doing right now. You are listening to me, and allowing me to speak. And, I am sure, you will explain to me why you are all of a sudden cracking down and expecting us to chart perfectly."

"That makes sense." And he proceeded to explain to me why the crackdown. He explained economic hard times. While the hospital might be really busy today, it has had many slow days. So, when random procedures don't get charted, that amounts to money that is not made for the hospital.

He said, "Okay, any other ideas."

By golly I did. I rattled off a list off the top of my head:

1. I would like a 12 hour leeway in which we can do our charting, or fix any errors in our charting.


2. At the end of the day, I want to be able to print off a sheet that lets us know what we charted, so if we didn't chart something, double charted, or didn't chart something at all we'd be able to see it right then so we could fix it. He thought we had this list already, and I explained we didn't. There, one communication problem fixed.


3. Another co-worker I talked with proposed that instead of leaving notes every day that we made a mistake, that we create a monitoring system where this data is recorded, and at our monthly meeting we can monitor progress or lack there of. If a certain person has more charting errors than the average RT, then he should be set aside and a plan should be worked out to determine how this might be improved. If the department as a whole is making the same errors, then perhaps a new strategy for charting should be implemented.

After I left his office, I coincidentally picked up a book I had in my basement and read it, considering it was only 174 pages long and pertained exactly to the situation at hand in our RT cave. The name of the book was The Effective Executive by Peter Drucker.

In this book he talks about a model for effective executive leadership. It shows a way to turn a failing model around into a successful model. And, considering the new policy in our department that attempted to make us RTs perfect on a dime, and that resulted in excessive complaining, animosity and low morale, this situation was on my mind as I read the book.

According to Newt Gingrich in his new book Real Change, Drucker's strategy goes something like this:

1. What do you VALUE?


2. What VISION of success do you have for achieving what you value?


3. What METRICS would tell you whether you are making progress toward your vision?


4. What STRATEGIES would enable you to achieve your vision?


5. What PROJECTS would enable you to implement your strategies successfully?


6. What TASKS have to be done well to complete each project?

Before I left his office I cracked a joke to lighten up the atmosphere, and then I told him I felt better now that we communicated, and I thought it would be a good idea to communicate like this with the rest of the staff as well. I was impressed when one of my co-workers called me to inform me she was to have a meeting with the boss later in the day, as has every other RT in the Cave.

"What the heck did you tell him," she said.

"Everything," I said, "What did I have to lose."

We value more communication and good morale in our department. We want back what was stolen from us when this new policy was enacted. Our vision of success is involving the entire department in the decision making.

Jane Sage is the one who thought of a strategy for metrics, and this is her idea was to create a monitoring system that showed us what we were doing wrong and whether it was the entire department or if some of us were more more prone to making mistakes than others, and what exactly were the mistakes.

Metrics is more than just the statistics that are pounded on us at each department meeting, statistics that show ups and downs in the monthly financial status, or how well the hospital is perceived within the community, or the RT department for that matter (as a side note, we are viewed as excellent on a regular basis).

While the statistics can show some trends, statistics cannot show morale. Likewise, statistics can become stale. Thus, having good metrics is a far better means of solving a problem.

By my meeting with the head RT boss I listed some of my ideas for improving the problem. And, as he plans on talking with other RTs, they will list some of their strategies, projects and tasks, and then we will get together in our next departmental meeting an analyze all the information accumulated and try to implement a plan.

Newt Gingrich, in his book Real Change writes that "Albert Einstein had a firm rule for thinking about new solutions. He asserted the following: thinking that doing more of the same will lead to a different outcome is a sign of insanity (Emphasis added).

Thus, even before any of us had read any book on the subject, we were on the right track to obtaining better communication and, perhaps, better morale.

Thus it only makes sense for the RT bosses to implement a new strategy to achieve their goal. This meeting I had with the boss was only the first step, I'll keep you guys updated on how things progress from here.