Have you ever wondered how your organization could improve client experience, increase employee morale, and boost organizational efficiency? goShadow offers a variety of free tools to kickstart your improvement journey. Through methods such as direct conversation and shadowing, purposeful conversation and active listening, and perception mapping you can aim to involve client and employee in any improvement effort. Client and employee feedback is vital as they are the ones experiencing challenges in their day-to-day, whether it be an inconvenience like long wait times or scheduling difficulties to larger organizational problems such as burnout or feeling unheard. 

Before embarking on large organizational changes, it is important to take a step back and assess opportunities to improve. Shadowing provides a first-person perspective on pain points clients and employees of the organization face. Shadowing provides an immersive experience, things such as employee mood, reaction to performing tasks, and communication pathways are uncovered. Through shadowing, the shadower is able to collect both qualitative and quantitative data. Wait times, the number of patients seen by each provider, time spent with provider/patient, and total visit time are valuable pieces of quantitative information but do not tell the whole story. Nuances such as the complexity of the appointment, whether the patient arrived before or after their scheduled time, or whether the patient asked extra questions play into those quantitative metrics mentioned above. By recording qualitative data such as whether the patient brought along an advocate or companion, whether there was dedicated staff to check patients in, or if clear directions are provided to find the appointment location, check-in area, or necessary documents, light is shed on the nature and the “why?” of behind the problem. Shadowing does not only uncover potential improvements. Shadowing after the implementation of change will measure improvement and uncover what works and does not work. 

After shadowing and collecting feedback, it is important to compare what perceives processes and experiences to reality. Perception mapping is a visualization tool to map out what each individual's thoughts lie, and shadowing helps stakeholders uncover the current state. This allows for identification of pain points , opportunities for improvement, and recognition of what goes well. 

Alongside shadowing, including clients and employees in the decision-making conversations will lead to initiatives that better target problems and initiate a personal attachment to solving them. Having purposeful conversations and practicing active listening will make clients and employees feel heard on concerns. Purposeful conversations get to the ethos of “What Matters to You?”, ask questions tailored to the individual user to uncover their perspective and the problems they are facing. In an inpatient setting, tailored questions could include:

• What challenges do you face scheduling a follow-up appointment?
• What barriers are in the way of rounding on your patients every hour?
• What would you change about your experience?

Through active listening and creating a safe space to share honest opinions, and feelings, psychological safety is built which allows for deep conversation that leads to change. This action-oriented feedback can be used to determine the gaps, build consensus, and determine the next steps of the improvement journey. 

goShadow’s suite of tools can be used in conjunction with another or stand-alone. They are intuitive, low-cost, and deliver results almost immediately. 

Check out goShadow’s free tools under the Resources tab on www.goshadow.org. For more information about goShadow and its suite of tools or to get support for your next patient or staff initiative, contact info@goshadow.org.