Paving the road to maximum productivity.

Abstract

"Job security" is an oxymoron in today's environment of downsizing, mergers, and acquisitions. Workers find themselves living by new rules in the workplace that they may not understand. How do we cope? It is the leader's charge to take advantage of this chaos and create conditions under which his or her people can understand the need for change and come together with a shared purpose to effect that change. The clinical laboratory at Arkansas Children's Hospital has taken advantage of this chaos to down-size and to redesign how the work gets done to pave the road to maximum productivity. After initial hourly cutbacks, the workers accepted the cold, hard fact that they would never get their old world back. They set goals to proactively shape their new world through reorganizing, flexing staff with workload, creating a rapid response laboratory, exploiting information technology, and outsourcing. Today the laboratory is a lean, productive machine that accepts change as a way of life. We have learned to adapt, trust, and support each other as we have journeyed together over the rough roads. We are looking forward to paving a new fork in the road to the future.