Teams learn best when they use action learning to put what they are learning into action.
A large Chicago community hospital recruited Stan to be the director of facilities management. The hospital had also promoted 10 of his 12 managers to their roles within the 12 months prior to Stan’s arrival. Only two of his direct reports were seasoned in their role. Stan originally planned to hold an off-site teambuilding retreat to discuss the division’s values, mission, and vision and conduct teambuilding exercises. Instead, Stan decided to use an Action Learning process.
The Joint Commission of Healthcare Organizations had scheduled the hospital for survey in nine months. The hospital CEO charged Stan to achieve superior results on the survey. This gave Stan a clear time-specific goal and key results to carry out. To reach their goal, Stan and his leadership team needed to:
- clarified the vision of what the division would look like if they were well-functioning, and
- develop the structures for each department within the division that would support that vision (both for the success of the survey and for the long term)
With specific survey standards in mind, Stan and his leadership team held brainstorming sessions that resulted in action plans to meet the survey requirements for each of the 12 departments. After that, they met regularly to debrief both their plans and their progress on meeting all the survey requirements. The results? The hospital achieved a superior rating for facility management in the Joint Commission survey. In addition, “” Stan and his team set in place the leadership and the structures to ensure sustainable facilities, reduce stress and save time and resources.””
QUESTIONS
- What performance goal do you have for yourself and your team?
- How might you collaborate with your team to achieve your goal in a way that will empower them for sustainable success?
Chuck Scharenberg is the Founder of More Profit More Freedom, a consultancy that supports the execution of large-scale growth for small businesses. His practice has successfully grown businesses with processes that identify potential roadblocks and mitigation schemes to accelerate realistic execution.
Solving the Right problems by asking the Right questions!