Leadership and culture

Sorry this is kinda late, I usually post my entry before now but H1N1 is a nasty little bug.  I am feeling better but for days I couldn’t even get out of bed, much less type!  Anyway on to the post.

As always, I try to relate what I am reading to my organization, strictly to my department and Schein has given me a lot to think about.  Recently we were asked to do a SWOT (Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities for Improvement and Threats) analysis.  The senior techs and supervisors were told they had to do one and the staff was asked to do one.  Two people turned in the staff one, myself and another dayshifter.  No one from other shifts turned one in.  Right after the forms were turned in I was informed I was getting a promotion and would now be a senior tech (yeah for me!!).   So my SWOT was counted with the senior/supervisors and that left one lonely SWOT from the staff.  We were split into groups to analyze the SWOT.  I am in the strengths group.  We have to group the answers and then come up with action plans to help our strengths remain strengths.  This was not too bad but I read the weaknesses entries and thought, I am glad I didn’t get that team because I wouldn’t know where to begin.  The main point, especially from the to staff members was lack of effective leadership.  The lack of leadership was not directed at our manager directly, but at our supervisors and seniors.  Most our supervisors.  The supervisors for all three shifts are not doing a very good job at leading the staff.  The dayshift supervisor is a pushover, does not keep up with the technical side so he is not a resource for staff and doesn’t communicate with staff.  He has been with the department for over 30 years and has not evolved with the changing times, he can barely use the computer.  The evening shift supervisor is apathetic and is so close to retirement that she lets her staff do whatever they want and behave however they want.  The night supervisor is new and her staff pretty much runs all over her.  She sets her own schedule and does not follow up on things.  Each shift has its own culture but all shifts must work together for patient care.  I don’t think our manager knows what to do with the three of them and everything he tries seems to fail.  On top of that there are other personality issues and competencies issues that compound the problem.  My initial question was how do we change the culture of our environment, but after reading Schein, I know see that we may not necessarily be able to change to the culture but we have to change the way we look at the culture.  Unfortunately, I still don’t know how to do that.  I don’t know where to start.  My fellow senior Natalie has a good start but I don’t think it is broad reaching enough.  She gave a leadership presentation about practicing what you preach and setting a good example and I have seen minor differences.  She changed the way she did some things and in suit so did I and I have seen some notice taken but where do we go from here?

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