By Amber Orton, MBA, MSN, RN, NE-BC
Our team was thrilled to join thousands of nurses and other healthcare professionals this year in Philadelphia at the 2022 ANCC National Magnet Conference and ANCC Pathway to Excellence Conference. The excitement was palpable! Hopefully you had a chance to stop by our booth, say hi, enter our raffle, and learn more about the tools and support we offer to help you build and sustain a culture of excellence.
Anyone who has been to the conference knows it’s a great opportunity to recharge, get inspired, learn about best practices, and network with your peers. But how do you carry this excitement and passion back to your organization? Here are a few tips to help keep the passion alive after the conference:
1. Begin where you are. It’s hard not to compare your organization to others while at the conference. But it’s best to look where you are as opposed to where others are. Start where you are and grow from there.
2. Debrief. If you haven’t already, schedule some time to debrief with any colleagues who attended. As a team, talk about the sessions they attended, what they learned, best practices or ideas they found most helpful, exhibitors they talked to, and any “ah ha’s” they had during the conference. Summarize they key takeaways you want to share along with any necessary follow up or action items.
3. Develop a plan. Create a formal plan for when and how those that attended will share what they learned with their peers. Make it fun!
4. Focus on cultural transformation, not a check list or set of tasks. A culture of excellence is not built with a check list or by trying to replicate the success of others. By focusing on cultural transformation, you will lay the groundwork for enculturation and sustainment. Take time to develop your structure before implementing processes and to think strategically about enculturation, not just implementation. As Simon Sinek said, “it’s better to go slow in the right direction than to go fast in the wrong direction”.
5. Agree to small steps. It is OK to have BHAGs (big hairy audacious goals). It’s how you manage these goals that is important. Remember the adage…”How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.” The same is true for BHAGs. Focus on chunking out the work in small manageable pieces. Small wins and achievements will be priceless motivation.
6. Conduct periodic progress checks. Set up a calendar for reporting out on progress toward your plan and goals. Don’t wait until the completion date looms. Reporting out on even small steps can be motivating. Periodic looks back at how far you have come are equally beneficial.
7. Follow up with those you talked to at the conference. The conference was full of opportunities to talk to people from across the country and internationally as well as those at various phases in a journey to excellence. Keep connected and learn from each other.
8. Believe you can and you are halfway there! A positive mindset and a vision of success will keep you moving forward on the road to success.
We have a lot of great workshops, summits, and webinars coming up in 2023 to support you in creating and sustaining a culture of excellence.
We look forward to the opportunity to bring the CHCM solutions to your organization.
