How to honor operations. Healthcare leaders have a new role in the changing system

Healthcare executives are no longer present as coaches, leaders, or the visible personification of their institutions' values. Instead, they are engaged in a battle for survival, immersed in the compelling changes required to design a better delivery system. "Honoring operations" is a poignant phrase to describe a sum of intangibles that adds up to the moral goodness within many Catholic and mission-driven organizations. The coordination of care and excellence for those we serve happens at a microscopic level. It happens nearly, but not totally, independent of managers' delusions that they make it happen. Healthcare leaders' most powerful act is to value the intangible gifts of those who carry out the tasks that add up to today's complex healing. By honoring operations, healthcare executives sustain excellence at the microscopic level, which is where it counts for the patient. Some suggestions for honoring operations are establishing inviolate core rituals of honor, forming one-on-one relationships with physicians, maintaining a core presence, communicating in the language of meaning, and speaking on the value of good medicine and good caring.