What You Permit, You Promote

Liz Jazwick and I have been colleagues for more than 10 years. We first met at Holy Cross Hospital in Chicago, IL.  Liz is a great presenter and a difference maker. My favorite thing I learned from Liz is, “What you permit, you promote.”

When I became president of a hospital in 1996, 23 percent of employees had late evaluations. I became aware of this issue when I mentioned to some employees our organization’s value of respect. An employee said, “If we are so respected, why is my evaluation late?” Thus, my search led me to find that 23 percent of our employees were waiting for an evaluation to be completed and some had been waiting for weeks and months. If an employee’s evaluation was late, nothing happened to the leader who did not complete it by the deadline.

I guaranteed all staff that in 60 days there would no late evaluations. I put in systems and consequences, positive recognition to leaders with no late evaluations, and connected the dots on why an on-time evaluation is crucial to show staff respect and retain employees. Sixty days later, there were no late evaluations nor were there any while I was there. I believe the system of on-time evaluations and results is still strong.

A few years back, we had a meeting with Studer Group staff members and posed the following question: “What are we permitting, thus promoting?” When people are asked that question, one will hear some good feedback and some ways to improve. For example, one may hear, “You are permitting us to hire our co-workers, thus promoting responsibility and ownership for new hires.” We also heard that we needed to do a better job walking the talk in some areas, and this caused us to tighten up. While the journey was not comfortable, it was worthwhile and made us better.  

In our travels, we find that many organizations are not fully aware of what they are permitting, thus promoting. Here are some examples:

• A leader who consistently is not meeting patient satisfaction goals is not dealt with, or worse yet, still gets a good review. We are promoting poor performance. 
• A vice president who is not sharing information that others are sharing.  We are permitting inconsistent communication.
• Staff not following agreed upon and signed standards of behavior (performance). We are permitting staff to not live the behaviors agreed upon, thus hurting the organizational results.
• Allowing a physician to intimidate staff. We know from research that if staff are scared, they may not address patient issues with the physician. By allowing intimidation, we are not providing staff or patients the safest environment.
• A leader keeps blaming the data for results. We are permitting, thus promoting, excuses.
• A person is on his or her BlackBerry during a meeting. We are permitting lack of respect, thus promoting lack of attention.

You get the gist of it.

Ask yourself: “What am I permitting, thus promoting?” At your next senior leader meeting, put on the agenda “What are we permitting, thus promoting?” At the next department head meeting, take some time to ask leaders what they feel the senior leaders are permitting, thus promoting. At your next staff meeting, ask staff what is being permitted, thus promoted. While you may be disappointed in what you hear, you will not be disappointed in the opportunities presented to improve the organization or the outcomes that will be achieved.

Once you address what you are promoting, leaders may feel they need more training.  It may be that at times leaders permit things because they do to not know how to handle them.  For tips to help your team, click here to access the article Communication Transparency: Clarity Creates Trust by Beth Keane, a Studer Group expert.