CEOs Have to “Get” People Development
On July 22 & 23rd the hospice world moved forward as the most important topic was intensely explored! It is very difficult for me to comprehend how we overlooked the obvious for so long. Perhaps this is the nature of evolution. However, as the class moved through the challenging material, exercises and structures, you could palpably feel shifts happening. It became even clearer how a hospice’s People Development efforts could improve the care experience by thousands of percent. A world class training “experience” must be created. This experience only comes from methods based on actual human behaviors. It also often means discarding many traditions of hospiceland. THE METHODS WE HAVE USED IN THE PAST WILL ONLY PRODUCE THE SAME RESULTS AS WE HAVE NOW! It’s time to move on! This is the most significant program MVI has offered. I know it has changed me, personally, and my ideas about hospice. “World Class” has an entirely new definition. The equation is this
Not World Class in People Development = Not World Class
I will delve more into this topic in future Flashpage articles. However, here are a few important things that need to be stated:
- The CEO – The CEO (the Gatekeeper of the Model) must “get” the utter importance of People Development. The statement, “Our staff is our most important asset”, is simply a glittering generality and borders on being a lie at a hospice if People Development is not given “immense” consideration. In fact, the CEO is the lead teacher as the entire organization takes its behavior cues from this person. The CEO must determine that the hospice will become an extraordinary teaching organization. This must be part of his or her vision which is relentlessly pursued.
- People Development Space – Space must be made for People Development. It is ridiculous that hospices have built offices and IPUs costing millions of dollars and can’t find space to train their “most important asset.” This space includes the formal training space as well as the synthetic training space.
- A WOW! Faculty – A faculty of top-rung, inspiring and experienced talent must lead this area. With this said, beware of academics without proven performance experience in the field. Example: A teacher of clinical leaders needs to teach the conceptual steps as well as how it “feels” to fire an employee. This ONLY comes from experience. Students smoke out teachers without experience in moments. These talented teachers must learn to utilize master teaching methods.
- The Primary Duty of Clinical Leaders is Training the Teams they Lead – I will let you think about this statement. With this said, the Clinical Leader Program will be changed accordingly.
I will go ahead and make a statement. There will be a revolution in the People Development area with outlier hospices over the next year. The transformation to teaching organizations, first and foremost, will be the strategy that these hospices use. They will be the providers of choice and the favorites with MCOs and ACOs.
We will be holding another People Development & the Model on November 4th and 5th for those that aspire to live on the extremities of the bell curve.
Your objective friend ~ Andrew
