Organizational culture can be a complicated concept to articulate, even for veteran senior managers and administrators. How exactly do you describe the practices and philosophy that go into every daily decision made at every level of a healthcare organization? And how does an earth-shattering event like the COVID-19 pandemic test the very nature of that culture?
Shane Jackson, president, Jackson Healthcare, spoke on the topic at MGMA’s 2021 Medical Practice Excellence: Leadership Conference. He said a primary purpose of his session was to help healthcare decision-makers more clearly understand the personal influence they have on their organization’s overall culture.
“My goal is that the leaders have some clarity on how culture works, what drives it and how they can impact it – but not just from a philosophical perspective,” Jackson said on an episode of the MGMA Insights podcast. “What’s driving this for so much of us is this phrase, ‘unprecedented time.’ We’ve heard it (often) over the last year and a half, and there’s a reason for it. All of us, as leaders especially, are being faced with decisions for which we were not prepared and not trained. I do not remember a course in grad school about how to decide whether or not to mandate vaccines.”
Hear more from Jackson in this episode of the MGMA Insights podcast:
Jackson interacts with a vast network of providers in every state and has seen the impact that the pandemic’s stresses have had on operations of every size. He said that understanding and working to positively shape workplace culture is a key measure of success for all teams.
“Culture is the atmosphere that results from the decisions that a group makes in trying to accomplish their purpose,” he said. “Culture is not just this kind of feel-good thing. Culture is helping people understand what we do and what we don’t do as part of this team.”
Jackson said that workplace culture has faced unforeseen challenges as so many employees have shifted to remote work arrangements during the pandemic and that complications, such as mask policies and social distancing, have disrupted the personal connections which often help build and define workplace culture.
“[Leaders] can do a lot more remotely than they thought … and I think that’s been eye-opening for most of us,” Jackson said. “But the opposite of that is also true – I think it has made so many of us really appreciate the value of person-to-person, human interaction.
“If you think about this from a cultural perspective … how do I learn that this is something we do in this culture or something that I don’t do in that culture? How does that happen remotely? How does it happen when you create literal physical separation? How does it happen when you limit the way in which people can interact and you take away some of the social experiences?”
Jackson said that by having a more clearly defined idea of company culture, managers can also provide more adaptive role modeling for their employees, no matter the situation.
“As a leader, you never get a break from culture,” he said. “I can’t train you for every single situation you’re ever going to encounter. I can’t teach you the answer to every question. But if I can help you understand the principle behind the decisions that we make, then when you get to that new situation, you understand the way that we want you to approach it. We try to constantly help our leaders understand the why behind the action, give them the context, help them become experts in what we do and not just how we do it.”
Shane Jackson, president, Jackson Healthcare, spoke on the topic at MGMA’s 2021 Medical Practice Excellence: Leadership Conference. He said a primary purpose of his session was to help healthcare decision-makers more clearly understand the personal influence they have on their organization’s overall culture.
“My goal is that the leaders have some clarity on how culture works, what drives it and how they can impact it – but not just from a philosophical perspective,” Jackson said on an episode of the MGMA Insights podcast. “What’s driving this for so much of us is this phrase, ‘unprecedented time.’ We’ve heard it (often) over the last year and a half, and there’s a reason for it. All of us, as leaders especially, are being faced with decisions for which we were not prepared and not trained. I do not remember a course in grad school about how to decide whether or not to mandate vaccines.”
Hear more from Jackson in this episode of the MGMA Insights podcast:
Jackson interacts with a vast network of providers in every state and has seen the impact that the pandemic’s stresses have had on operations of every size. He said that understanding and working to positively shape workplace culture is a key measure of success for all teams.
“Culture is the atmosphere that results from the decisions that a group makes in trying to accomplish their purpose,” he said. “Culture is not just this kind of feel-good thing. Culture is helping people understand what we do and what we don’t do as part of this team.”
Jackson said that workplace culture has faced unforeseen challenges as so many employees have shifted to remote work arrangements during the pandemic and that complications, such as mask policies and social distancing, have disrupted the personal connections which often help build and define workplace culture.
“[Leaders] can do a lot more remotely than they thought … and I think that’s been eye-opening for most of us,” Jackson said. “But the opposite of that is also true – I think it has made so many of us really appreciate the value of person-to-person, human interaction.
“If you think about this from a cultural perspective … how do I learn that this is something we do in this culture or something that I don’t do in that culture? How does that happen remotely? How does it happen when you create literal physical separation? How does it happen when you limit the way in which people can interact and you take away some of the social experiences?”
Additional resources:
- Creating purpose and sustaining culture via better virtual meetings
- Cultivating a culture of learning through mentoring and coaching
- Battling Bias: Sustaining inclusion through organizational culture
Jackson said that by having a more clearly defined idea of company culture, managers can also provide more adaptive role modeling for their employees, no matter the situation.
“As a leader, you never get a break from culture,” he said. “I can’t train you for every single situation you’re ever going to encounter. I can’t teach you the answer to every question. But if I can help you understand the principle behind the decisions that we make, then when you get to that new situation, you understand the way that we want you to approach it. We try to constantly help our leaders understand the why behind the action, give them the context, help them become experts in what we do and not just how we do it.”
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