Most organizations have printed documents, posters and other marketing materials that herald its mission and values. While these vehicles might visually communicate mission and values, much more is needed for the organization’s people to feel connected to, and be guided by, the mission and values in their everyday work.
There are many ways that leaders can bring an organization’s mission and values to life in their everyday work. These are five examples:
- Every time a leader is asked to address an individual or group inside or outside of the organization, (s)he begins and ends their comments by quoting the mission in some fashion, weaving in how the subject being addressed helps the organization to deliver on it.
- New employee orientation session should include a welcome by an executive leader who spends time talking about the organization’s mission and values, using relevant stories that illustrate how clinicians and staff throughout the organization contribute. It is important that these stories include not only caregivers but also, support and non-patient care-facing staff (e.g., a housekeeper, a security guard, a billing agent, a receptionist).
- In governance, management and staff-level meetings, the leader might begin the meeting by sharing or asking for examples of “mission moments”—times when staff demonstrated the mission and/or values of the organization in their everyday work. These stories don’t need to be extraordinary. They simply need to help staff emotionally connect the work they do to the mission and values. Often, once a few stories are shared, others are keen to contribute so as to highlight the role that their areas play as well.
- When giving performance feedback to clinicians and staff, the mission and values of the organization can be used as a framework. What are the ways the individual contributes to the mission? Do they exemplify the values of the organization in their everyday work? What might they suggest as ways to strengthen the organization’s ability to deliver on its mission?
- As leaders wrestle with difficult decisions and choices that they must make, when communicating about them to stakeholders, they can directly refer to the organization’s mission and values as the basis for how such a decision or choice was derived.
Susan A. Reeves, EdD, RN, CENP, is system chief nurse executive for Dartmouth Health, headquartered in Lebanon, N.H. (susan.a.reeves@hitchcock.org).