One thing that we have done at Nurse Next Door to live our core values is to find an operational best practice or system to act as the foundation of each of our core values.

As an example, “Find A Better Way” is one of our four core values. Find a Better Way is all about continuous improvement and out of the box thinking. In our “Heart and Soul” of Nurse Next Door (our document that tells every employee how to actually live our core values), here is how “Find a Better Way” is defined:

“We will always promote an entrepreneurial culture where individual initiative and out-of-the-box thinking is the norm. We will seek creative ways to deliver the best service to our clients and continually adapt to their needs. We will always search for a better way to provide our services and work with the optimism that we can always change things for the better.

We know that we have a long way to go in becoming a world class company – we know that we will endure ongoing challenges as we grow – but we have an undying commitment to continuously improving and we will never be satisfied with what we have done. This can be hard, but it is what will separate us from the rest.”

So how do we ensure that create a culture that lives up these lofty words?  How do we ensure that everyone, everyday is up to the task?

To achieve this, we have weaved in a best practice that forms the foundation of each core value. The best practice that we chose to live “Find a Better Way” is a concept called “Lean.” ( Lean is a methodology created by Toyota to eliminate “waste” from a process or a system, but do it through the eyes of the customer by asking “would a customer pay for this?”)  In a nutshell, Lean is about continuous improvement.

At Nurse Next Door, we continue to study and practice Lean and it forms the basis of how we build systems at Nurse Next Door. By embracing the Lean philosphy, it helps all of us  constantly “find a better way”, even when it may seem challenging to do so.

My point to all of this? Go out, find a best practice and make it the foundation of each of your core values. Study it, implement it, teach it and make sure you sustain it (the 5th “S” and hardest “S” in the lean philosophy).  If you can do this, you will ensure that your core values live on a daily basis inside of your company and will greatly increase the probability of them standing the test of time.

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