Its Quite Likely No Accident….

Every organization can stand some occasional refinement.  Sometimes those at the top are truly proactive and put systems in place for this periodic automatic refinement automatically.  By so doing, you keep things functioning in a customer friendly and regulatory compliant way.  In other situations, drama and crisis strikes and refinements are forced upon us, making us more reactive than proactive.  Why is this so?

It could be that our management team is ineffective for a variety of reasons or perhaps just not up to the totality of what we need.  In other instances – including in the business of care – the focus shifts to money and success – and away from daily best practices.  Regardless of the specific failure ingredients, the after affects can be deadly if we are constantly managing one crisis after another.

Our organization gets involved – a bit less these days than previously due to time constraints – in assisting care providing organizations to:

  1. Develop systems for automation of daily practices

2. Evaluate personnel to prepare them for heightened efficiency

3.Evaluate management personnel to help them manage relationships with appropriate professional distance and appropriate managerial practices

4.Create audit processes that ensure ongoing, consistent regulatory compliance

We also assume responsibility in some cases for human resources functions, including employee evaluations and documenting how best to address individual deficiencies. 

If the Plan of Personnel Refinement does not work or help, we often assume the role of having to dismiss the person standing in the way of the refinement that the organization’s leadership is promoting.

In the process, in pretty much every situation, somebody wants to stand in the way.  Why is that?  Would not everyone want things to be better?  Not necessarily.  Somehow they are not operating at the top of their game, although they talk well.  These same people have become very comfortable with that reliable paycheck and their long-range vision is about self, not the business.

In some cases, they have even decided the business is dependent upon their contribution.  Problem is, the business will only suffer under this approach.

Some who contract with agencies who place residents in residential care facilities may also develop a comfort level.  They might reason, “I do not worry about complaints; they are the bogus work of the disgruntled.  I fight and survive every complaint.”  However, eventually even if that is at least partially true, an agency could just get tired of your name coming up so much in association with organizational performance issues.  Regulators could begin to feel the same way.

It might be a “drip-drip” for the moment but as guardians study the Special Investigation Reports and agencies begin to slow down the pace of referrals, the business can dry up before you know it.  That confidence can be shattered.

The right 5-Point Strategy can help which includes:

1.  Act Before You Need to – Even if it Means Addressing Delicate Issues with Unresponsive or Over-Compensating Management

2.  Communicate Regularly with Professional Flare – The Way You Look is The Way You Are.  Even staff will judge you as unconcerned about image if everything from your forms to your communications are substandard.  Stick to the highest standards.

3.  Let No One Conclude the Success of the Business is Tied Solely to Them – That staff member with the savior complex and no sense of team building will fight to protect their “perceived” turf.

4.  Hire and Train Managers Who Understand Professional Distance – Who Focus on the Priorities of the Business and Who are Not Busy Playing the Personality Game

5.  Look for that Combination of Humility, Discernment and Professionalism in Executive Staff.  You want that person who can juggle 5 things and get them all done correctly.

Change and refinement can be very healthy.  Just be willing to make it when necessary.

_________________________________________________

Another Blog Post from the minds of Direct Care Training & Resource Center, Inc.  Photos used are to complement the written word.  They do not imply an endorsement by or affiliation with any entity or individual.

To learn more about our commitment to the success of Small-Scale Assisted Living join the LinkedIn group:  Small Scale Assisted Living Success Strategies.

America's Largest Multi- Discipline Continuing Education Portal...

Would you like to be reminded annually of your continuing education (CEU ) requirements? Leave your name and email address here.

Please enable JavaScript in your browser to complete this form.
=