Shield your frontline technicians. There's a reason that sur-
geon's angry email is tacked up in my office and not the depart-
ment break room. Some feedback isn't well suited for public con-
sumption or encouragement. The SPD leader should be willing to
"take the heat" for the department's process failures up front, and
then repackage those process lessons to engage his frontline staff for
solution-oriented conversations. Nothing kills a CS culture quicker
than a fear-induced follow-up to process failures. Instead, commit to
protecting your techs, cast a vision for continual improvement, recog-
nize the wins and then highlight the victories.
Celebrate your improvements — great and small. Because
you're trying to change the culture, it's critically important to high-
light each improvement as it happens on your team. Publicize that
"something is going on" in the CS basement. Are your technicians get-
ting certified? Send a recognition email to your surgeons. Are you adding
labels to your storage racks? Give a 5-minute update at the weekly OR
meeting. Find ways to drown out the naysaying and recover the interest
of those who may have tuned out of your department news. Surgeons
and the OR team need to see and hear that the CS department is,
metaphorically speaking, "Under new management!"
Your true colors
In the world of Sterile Processing, you rarely get the opportunity to
build your reputation or the reputation of your departments from
scratch. And even if you could, because mistakes are part of human
nature, your CS/SPD techs will have to overcome a process failure
at some point in their professional experience. But those failures
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