I'm not a cookie-hater. I just like some things more than cookies - like getting a shout out from the chief of surgery, or receiving a thank you note from the hospital president. I can get my own cookies at Walmart, but those other things are worth far more (to me) than 4 for a $1. But what do cookies have to do with recognition? (and why am I obsessed with talking about food and Sterile Processing?) Let's get right into the meat of this foodie-inspired conversation.
To encourage all you cookie-lovers out there, I've got good news. Cookies aren't always for chumps. But anyone -- leader, frontline technician, coworker, or customer -- who has ever gotten recognized for doing something great at works knows that people respond in different ways to different kinds of recognition. This next sentence is the entire point of this article: Successful recognition of your Sterile Processing team can not be cookie-cutter. There is no silver bullet (or chocolate chip cookie) that will hit everyone's hunger for recognition in the same way. Sometimes cookies are just the ticket for making someone's day in SPD. Other times they can totally miss the mark. Let me flesh this out a little bit more for those in the back:
1) Recognition from Leaders
There are some folks out there (like me!) who thrive off of recognition from their leaders - OR Managers, Directors, VPs of Surgical Service, and COOs, CEOs, and CNOs. Nothing hits the spot like my boss seeing something I did and taking the time to give me props for it. How they do it is not nearly as important as the fact that they do. No amount of other recognition types can compare to it.
2) Recognition from Co-Workers
Many of our department recognition programs are built around the concept of peer-to-peer or co-worker recognition. For some folks, this is where its at. They desire nothing more than working hard, having their team members notice, then getting recognized in front of that group of their peers. After all, no one really knows who is slacking and who is killing it except those folks who are actually right beside you doing the work. Yeah, it's nice for these folks to get a shout out from the manager, but when everyone else thinks you're doing a great job too, that's what really gives them the juice they need to keep going.
3) Recognition from Customers
There are others on our team who don't really care what the boss or their coworkers think about them, but they care very much about impressing their customers. These are the folks in Sterile Processing who are addicted to great customer service, and the feedback & recognition that comes when they go above and beyond to make sure the customer is happy with their Sterile Processing products. People like this can become very deflated and depressed if they give their jobs all they got, but never get that customer feedback they hunger for. No amount of manager pats-on-the-back or peer recognition can fill that customer-shaped void.
Recognition in Real Life
Those of you who are a little saucy this morning may be thinking, "That's great Hank, different people value different types of recognition -- tell me something I didn't know." Well, how about this gut check? There may be people on your team who haven't been recognized for doing something positive in years. We don't know what our technician's lives are like when they go home. They may clock out of our SPD's into a thankless world where no matter what they do, it never seems to be enough. Perhaps they are taken for granted by their spouses. Maybe they are treated like failures by their parents, or used by the folks they thought were their friends. And the one place they could find encouragement, refuge, and yes - recognition, is in your Sterile Processing department. But do they even find it there?
Nice people aren't the only ones who deserve recognition. Even the trouble makers and complainers in our department do things that could be praised. In fact, folks on our teams may be angry and complaining specifically because of the lack of recognition they get outside and inside of work. But recognition can have a funny effect on people. It can actually change them. There's a Bible proverb that says, "Pleasant words are as an honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones." (Prov 16:24) Anyone who has ever gotten recognition for something out of the blue knows that it is indeed sweet to the soul. And the more of it you get, the healthier your self-confidence becomes. You start to see your real value to the team. You begin to trust your contributions to the larger mission. In short, you feel recognition in your bones... [Read the full blog here: https://www.beyondcleanmedia.com/post/cookies-are-for-chumps-getting-sterile-processing-recognition-right]
To encourage all you cookie-lovers out there, I've got good news. Cookies aren't always for chumps. But anyone -- leader, frontline technician, coworker, or customer -- who has ever gotten recognized for doing something great at works knows that people respond in different ways to different kinds of recognition. This next sentence is the entire point of this article: Successful recognition of your Sterile Processing team can not be cookie-cutter. There is no silver bullet (or chocolate chip cookie) that will hit everyone's hunger for recognition in the same way. Sometimes cookies are just the ticket for making someone's day in SPD. Other times they can totally miss the mark. Let me flesh this out a little bit more for those in the back:
1) Recognition from Leaders
There are some folks out there (like me!) who thrive off of recognition from their leaders - OR Managers, Directors, VPs of Surgical Service, and COOs, CEOs, and CNOs. Nothing hits the spot like my boss seeing something I did and taking the time to give me props for it. How they do it is not nearly as important as the fact that they do. No amount of other recognition types can compare to it.
2) Recognition from Co-Workers
Many of our department recognition programs are built around the concept of peer-to-peer or co-worker recognition. For some folks, this is where its at. They desire nothing more than working hard, having their team members notice, then getting recognized in front of that group of their peers. After all, no one really knows who is slacking and who is killing it except those folks who are actually right beside you doing the work. Yeah, it's nice for these folks to get a shout out from the manager, but when everyone else thinks you're doing a great job too, that's what really gives them the juice they need to keep going.
3) Recognition from Customers
There are others on our team who don't really care what the boss or their coworkers think about them, but they care very much about impressing their customers. These are the folks in Sterile Processing who are addicted to great customer service, and the feedback & recognition that comes when they go above and beyond to make sure the customer is happy with their Sterile Processing products. People like this can become very deflated and depressed if they give their jobs all they got, but never get that customer feedback they hunger for. No amount of manager pats-on-the-back or peer recognition can fill that customer-shaped void.
Recognition in Real Life
Those of you who are a little saucy this morning may be thinking, "That's great Hank, different people value different types of recognition -- tell me something I didn't know." Well, how about this gut check? There may be people on your team who haven't been recognized for doing something positive in years. We don't know what our technician's lives are like when they go home. They may clock out of our SPD's into a thankless world where no matter what they do, it never seems to be enough. Perhaps they are taken for granted by their spouses. Maybe they are treated like failures by their parents, or used by the folks they thought were their friends. And the one place they could find encouragement, refuge, and yes - recognition, is in your Sterile Processing department. But do they even find it there?
Nice people aren't the only ones who deserve recognition. Even the trouble makers and complainers in our department do things that could be praised. In fact, folks on our teams may be angry and complaining specifically because of the lack of recognition they get outside and inside of work. But recognition can have a funny effect on people. It can actually change them. There's a Bible proverb that says, "Pleasant words are as an honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones." (Prov 16:24) Anyone who has ever gotten recognition for something out of the blue knows that it is indeed sweet to the soul. And the more of it you get, the healthier your self-confidence becomes. You start to see your real value to the team. You begin to trust your contributions to the larger mission. In short, you feel recognition in your bones... [Read the full blog here: https://www.beyondcleanmedia.com/post/cookies-are-for-chumps-getting-sterile-processing-recognition-right]