In my last post, I talked about the value of shadowing to help CEOs learn the truth about the challenges and successes of their front-line workers and operations.
Operations are key to success. You can have the most brilliant strategy implementing transformational technology, but if your operational workflows are dysfunctional, that brilliant strategy may never be implemented.
The CEO is critically important in identifying and fixing operational dysfunction but rarely is deeply involved in the work. Other senior leaders - the COO, CFO, CIO, and Chief Medical and Nursing officers - have more bandwidth and should be more directly involved.
There are a couple of options to get other senior leaders engaged. One is to assign each senior leader the responsibility of shadowing on their own. This can work and should be a part of each leader's standard work.
Immersion Day
A great way to kick off a senior leader's commitment to shadowing is to hold an "Immersion Day". This is a day when senior leaders all commit the full day to fan out across the organization, spending two sessions of 2-3 hours each shadowing a variety of workers in various departments and locations. They then reconvene at the end of the day to debrief, identify issues of greatest importance, and develop a follow-up plan.
Some organizations invite their board of directors to immersion day as well, often spurring higher levels of commitment from the board.
There are a number of key factors to consider for this approach to ensure a positive experience for all participants. I talk about this in my book, "Preventing Physician Burnout: Curing the Chaos and Returning Joy to Patient Care."
I'm happy to share specific guidance with you personally.
If you'd like to learn more, you can schedule a call. I'd love to explain the process.
Dr. Paul DeChant is a leadership coach dedicated to helping CEOs create organizations where their people and their business thrive.
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