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“One of the most sacred relationships among teams of people is that between leaders and followers. This relationship, so central and crucial, depends to an extraordinary degree on the clearly expressed and consistently demonstrated values of the leader as seen through the special lens of followers. That is why leadership and ethics are inextricably woven together.”
–Max DePree: Leadership Jazz
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When we started working on building a Culture of Ownership at Midland Health in February of 2014, one of the questions asked on the first all-employee survey was whether: “Our people reflect positive attitudes, treat others with respect, and refrain from complaining, gossiping, or pointing fingers.” Only 36% of respondents agreed with that statement, with only 5% of those strongly agreeing. When Joe presented results in all-employee sessions that spring, he asked whether people were happy with those results, and if not, how they would commit themselves to the work of building a more positive Culture of Ownership.
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We described some of the subsequent results in our Introduction, including record-high employee engagement and patient satisfaction, meaningful improvements in care quality and patient safety, significant productivity enhancements, and greatly improved reputation in the community.
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During a leadership team meeting in October 2018, Bob used live polling technology to ask his colleagues to share the one word they would use to describe the Midland Health culture. Results of this strictly anonymous question are shown in the figure. The word Ownership clearly dominates the field, but if you look more closely you’ll see that, out of more than 100 responses, not one of them is negative. Not one. This would not have been the case when we started four years earlier.
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The principles and strategies we have shared in this book really do work if you make a commitment to them.
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Creating a Cultural Blueprint for the Invisible Architecture of your organization really will foster a shared cultural vision and establish common expectations regarding attitudes and behaviors on the job.
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The Pickle Pledge and The Pickle Challenge for Charity really do give people a gentle way to confront toxic emotional negativity and help you foster a more emotionally positive workplace environment.
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The Self-Empowerment Pledge really does help people overcome the inner barriers that have prevented them from achieving their most important dreams and goals.
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The Twelve Core Action Values course really does help people be their authentic best selves at home and at work and achieve the goals that mean the most to them. And by connecting the dots between personal values and the values of the organization, it really will help to achieve the outcomes desired in the mission and vision.
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And if you sustain your commitment, your results really will be as impressive as they have been at Midland Health and the many other organizations that have committed to building a ...