Wow, how time flies!

Almost two months since I wrote my last blog post. When last we left our hero (grin) he was off to Philadelphia to engage in mortal combat on the dance floor at the AOTF Dancing with the Stars event at Annual Conference. If you have not seen the photos on the NorthCoast Medical facebook page you can check them out here:

https://www.facebook.com/#!/media/set/?set=a.145488335524908.35510.124857874254621

The long and the short of that story is that after hours of rigorous practice and both group lessons and individual coaching, my dance partner (Dr. Francie Baxter of TWU) and I were victorious! We are the 2011 AOTF Dancing with the stars champions!!!!!!

After conference I came back to a flurry of activity and have been digging deeper into my job as the Director of Rehabilitation Services at MD Anderson Cancer Center. The honeymoon is officially over and I can barely claim to be "new" anymore! Lots of time on lots of different things, but it is time for an update on strategic planning and visioning in my Department.

Here's where we are!

  • We are continuing our assessment of culture and a focus on developing trust through open and honest communication. We have completed our "Continue, Start and Stop" activity and will begin talking about the underlying values that drive our behaviors. We also had a Department wide exercise on trust and communication facilitated by our Department of Organizational Development.
  • We have a draft of a revised mission statement!! (Woo Hoo!) and will be sending it out in the next week to our key stakeholders for their feedback. Our revised statement is hopefully more reflective of contemporary language (e.g. participation pulled from ICF language) and addresses all of our customer groups (i.e. families, caregivers and the community in addition to patients).
  • We have identified key concepts to include in our vision statement and I have distributed a very rough, rough draft to staff (as food for thought).
  • We have started a systematic evaluation of employee engagement in the department including all of the mechanisms for staff involvement (e.g. our Rehab "Congress," our PACTS [Professional Action Coordinating Teams], the suggestion box, employee rounding, Brown Bags with the Director etc.)

A next major step will be deciding how we will group the broad strategic goals and start to identify specific goals................

For now, here is the old mission statement and our draft revised mission statement.............

Previously our mission statement read:

"The mission of Rehabilitation Services is to enable people with disabilities related to cancer and/or its treatment to achieve their maximum level of function and independence and thereby improve their quality of life."

Our DRAFT revised mission statement reads:

"To optimize participation and quality of life of persons with cancer, their families and caregivers, and the community through the development and application of best practices in oncology rehabilitation."

We will gather feedback from our customers and key stakeholders.....but wonder if any of you have feedback?

I'll try and not be gone from my blog for so long again!

Thanks