What does it take to bring about a more compassionate environment? That was the question at the heart of the “What Can Healthcare Learn About Compassion from Customer-Friendly Businesses?” panel at the 2019 Compassion in Action Conference hosted by the Schwartz Center for Compassionate Healthcare.
The “What Can Healthcare Learn About Compassion from Customer-Friendly Businesses?” panel, L-R: Dr. Harris Baden, Paul Morton, Katie Bach, Sarah McKenna. Photo Credit: Center for Compassionate Leadership.
There was a clear consensus among panelists about listening closely to customers and employees about their needs, and empowering employees to act in ways that meet those needs. That consistency was not limited to this panel. In fact Paul Morton, Nordstrom senior vice president shared anecdotes illustrating the application of Nordstrom’s “use good judgment” principle that were decidedly analogous to stories from the “A Discussion of Compassionate Leadership” panel illustrating instances where hospital and hospital system leaders had pushed decision making to customer-facing employees.
Leading this way, however, is much harder than just talking about how to lead. According to the managing director of the Good Jobs Institute Katie Bach, MEc, MBA, there are very few companies who won’t say, “Our employees are our most important asset.” Unfortunately, she also added that there are “very, very few companies who actually” are acting in a way that shows they “mean it.” Sarah McKenna, Boston Red Sox’s SVP of Fan Services, gave straightforward advice on the importance of the alignment between words and actions, explaining that leaders simply need to “Say what you mean, and mean what you say.”
Do we believe that the leaders of large healthcare organizations don’t really mean it when they make statements like, “Our employees are our most important asset”? Of course they mean it. It’s just hard to act in ways that show it. Dr. Harris Baden, MD, of Seattle Children’s Hospital & University of Washington School of Medicine, expressed the challenge in very direct terms: “There is a disconnect between top management and those of us on the front line. We talk about values in an aspirational way, and the number one value is productivity.” Of course, at the root of the interest in productivity is normally a financial motivation.
At the Center for Compassionate Leadership, we see two steps that are needed to close this gap between stated values and actions. First, let’s dispel the pervasive organizational myth that there is a tradeoff between compassion and productivity or profitability. In fact, the evidence illustrates the opposite – companies with the strongest values are the most profitable. Having teams that cooperate and employees who are happy results in a more productive workplace. Once organizations understand that, the second step is implementation. That was one of the significant takeaways from this conference – highlighting the numerous programs already in motion to improve the compassionate experience in the healthcare sector.
Research from Potential Project shows that 91% of corporate leaders recognize that compassion is very important for leadership, but 80% of those surveyed do not know how to enhance their compassion. This panel was a living illustration of this dilemma. The need for compassion is almost universally recognized, but there is a “disconnect” between that recognition and the need being addressed. This is one of the reasons that the Center for Compassionate Leadership exists – to close that gap.
If you’d like to weigh in on the gap between awareness and action when it comes to integrating compassion into leadership situations, please share in the comments.
There’s still plenty more to share from what we learned at the Compassion in Action Conference, so stay tuned for upcoming posts in this series. And if you haven’t read our previous post on the conference, check out What We Can All Learn from Compassion in Healthcare.