One Great Unit
Improving Organizational Performance By Eating the Elephant "One Bite at a Time"

Cheryl Boldt

Healthcare's most valuable resource is people. If organizational leaders team with front line staff by sharing organizational goals and expectations…the CHANGE that is needed to grow happens "bite by bite" as we eat the Elephant (aka Problem) One Great Unit at a time.

Leadership actions required to move organizations forward cannot be fads or gimmicks, and must be sustained. The traditional way facilities managed in the past was "top - down" with management making decisions and rolling out the new systems facility wide. Changes involved implementation by a certain date following a mandatory "all staff training session(s)". Very soon echoes of "I told you it would not last" would be heard through the halls and employee break areas.

Organizational improvement will only be achieved and sustained if front line teams are involved in the design and enforcement of new systems and requirements. It is through working with front line teams that the "One Great Unit" concept has been implemented successfully in facility after facility. Whole facility implementation is very difficult to champion all at once.

A Unit Team can better design, pilot a process and measure success by keeping "score" on their own Unit. The One Great Unit Team can then mentor the implementation of the same process on the next Great Unit, and so on. Before you know it…"One Great Unit" teams have successfully eliminated recurring problems with attendance, attitude, communication, customer satisfaction, turnover, and clinical areas such as pressure ulcers and falls…throughout the facility.

OBJECTIVES:

At the completion of this program participants will be able to:

1. Identify pilot locations for process improvement within the organization.
2. Coach Unit Teams on how to keep score daily on targeted goals.
3. Implement team based reward and recognition for achieving targeted results

Session Length is 1.5 hours. The targeted audience includes Chief Operating Officers, Operational and Nursing Executives, Long Term Care Consultants, Nurse Managers, Department Managers, and Front Line Employees who have a willingness to participate in Organizational improvement. This is an Intermediate Level Presentation which utilizes Power Point Presentation and handouts, Lecture, Success stories, Audience discussion, and Humor.