Culture Change RX
Embark on a journey to the heart of healthcare, where we dissect the driving force behind every thriving organization: its culture. Drawing on her executive background and extensive work as a strategic coach, Capstone’s co-founder Sue Tetzlaff and guests will share actionable insights and practical steps for successfully navigating the people side of the business of healthcare. Join weekly to be equipped and inspired to uplevel the culture and unlock the next level of potential in your healthcare organization.
Culture Change RX
The Role of CFOs in Culture Change
Net revenue grows 69.4% in 3 years - CFO credits culture change.
Episode Insights and Takeaways
- Culture is dynamic and constantly changing, requiring intentional efforts to shape and improve it.
- Deliberate culture change can lead to significant improvements in financial performance and other measures.
- Data, celebration, and leadership are key factors in successful culture change initiatives.
In this episode, Sue interviews Matthew Streeter, the Chief Financial Officer for North Country Healthcare. Throughout the episode, Matthew emphasizes the dynamic nature of culture and the need for intentional culture change. He shares examples from his career where deliberate culture change led to significant improvements in financial performance and other measures. Matthew also highlights the role of data, celebration, and leadership in culture change, and encourages CFOs to embrace and invest in culture change initiatives.
13th Annual Healthcare Executive Forum - June 18 (afternoon) and June 19 (morning)
High Reliability, Just Culture & Psychological Safety Made Simple focuses on breaking down these critical concepts into practical, actionable strategies tailored for senior leaders in small and rural healthcare settings.
🎟 Event Registration & Details
13th Annual Healthcare Executive Forum - June 18 (afternoon) and June 19 (morning)
High Reliability, Just Culture & Psychological Safety Made Simple focuses on breaking down these critical concepts into practical, actionable strategies tailored for senior leaders in small and rural healthcare settings.
Sue
Welcome to another episode of Culture Change RX. Again, I have another amazing guest, Matthew Streeter, here with us today. And I'm going to start by just having him introduce himself.
Good morning, Sue. My name is Matt Streeter and I'm the Chief Financial Officer at North Country Healthcare. I have the pleasure of serving in this capacity and I've been working in healthcare since 2007. I've worked in a number of different organizations from very small rural to the largest nonprofit provider of healthcare services in the country. So I've seen and done quite a bit of things over the course of my career.
Prior to healthcare, I worked in banking and investments and I started my professional career in human resources back in the day. It's a pleasure to be here with you today. Thank you.
Sue
You know, I'm wondering if I kind of like forgot that fun fact about you starting in human resources, Matt. You know, I just always think of you with your financial hats on, right? You know, in particular. But now that kind of makes a lot of sense to me about the work that we've done together in our careers related to improving culture, which might seem a little odd for a culture Rx.
a podcast to have a financial officer here who I know to be very, very interested in the culture of organizations and leading culture change. So I'm going to start with a question that I often start with in the podcast. And that is, do you kind of have a definition in your mind about, you know, what is culture? It just seems like a kind of mysterious.
So what would you say is kind of your working definition of company culture?
Matthew Streeter
Yeah, that's a great question, Sue. And I have thought about this a lot over the last, gosh, probably 10, 15, maybe 20 years, but more so in the last 10 years as culture has become not just a buzzword, but a true...
asset within our organizations and the chief financial officer, my role number one is to protect the assets of the organization. So in my mind, we've been saying all of our lives that our people are our greatest asset, but no one thinks the financial officer has any role in the people, but that doesn't make any sense to me. So, so absolutely, I think our people are so important. I think every financial officer should be thinking about what we can do to protect our largest asset.
in our organizations. And I, you know, you used the word odd before and I would say I am odd. I am an odd CFO in that not only did I start my professional career in HR, but my undergraduate work is in psychology. It wasn't until later that I got my MBA. So my passions have always been people in leadership and this is just how I get to do that.
Sue
love that so much.
Matthew Streeter
Oh, I didn't answer your question about culture. Holy crap.
Sue
They interview her and forgot her question, so I'm glad that you remembered my question.
Matthew Streeter
Yeah, well, an interviewee forgot to. So let's do that again. So what is culture? So what is culture? You know, I've been thinking about this and I kind of have come to the conclusion that a culture is really the amalgamation of all of your people's values, mindsets, priorities, how engaged they are with all of the things I just mentioned.
and how aligned we all are as an organization. I think all of that makes up culture and so much more beyond that. But I think the reason I think that culture is an amalgamation of its people is that we have to be cognizant that as people change, as there's attrition, retirement, people move on and new people come into the organization.
We can't ever assume that our culture is static. It's dynamic. It's always changing. It changes with our people. And we need to be aware of that because if not, then we're going to fail if we think that culture is a static thing in our organizations.
Sue
That is a great definition that collective nature of all the people coming together that create the culture, which brings up two points. One you made, which is it's always moving, right? But it's also hard to change. So while it's always in flux, it's also hard to intentionally change. So by default, just by the change of people,
without putting a lot of intent in hiring who those people are, you know, your culture is gonna change, but also when you intentionally want to change it, it's not just like building a building and just having, you know, a plan and a builder and just go, it's people. And people don't like to necessarily change as we know. I know I have to admit.
Matthew Streeter (05:11.958)
Absolutely. Right, of course. Well, I think we always joke that change is the only certainty anymore, right? Besides, you know, death and taxes, as some people say. But you're right, and change is very, very hard. But change is also hard because we as humans, we sometimes make it hard.
Sue
Yes.
Matthew Streeter
You know, even if none of the people on your team have turned over, the culture is still changing because people's experiences are always adding and subtracting from the collective, you know, group's mentality, if you will.
That's why rounding is so important because we have to be continually hearing from our people what is important to them. And we get that through harvesting wins because as they change, what they consider a win will change. That's what's so important about culture work. It's not just checking the box.
It's really paying attention to people and thinking about the things you've seen and heard and how they represent what's happening in the organization. It's not just checking a box to say, yep, I rounded out my staff this month. I'm done now till next month. It's really thinking about and reflecting on the things you've gathered to measure all the time. How is the environment changing? How is the culture changing? And are we keeping up with it or are we falling behind?
as our employees progress and expand and advance within their own roles.
Sue
You know, you mentioned being in healthcare for a pretty long time and in different organizations and types of organizations. You're probably much like me in this regard. And I bet you patients and family members and employees of all like are like this too. But some of us have our radar on and antennas up and really alert and really watching for some of this. But as much as I'm a measurable kind of person, I love data, I love information. You must too.
in your roles is we like the data. It's palpable, isn't it? Like you can walk into an organization and you can get a sense of their culture. And I find that in healthcare, I'm more astute maybe there and walking in and observing, you know, whether my mom's a patient there and I'm there with her or I'm a patient or just in my role, but in other businesses too, like it's palpable. Like the culture is something you sense.
And changing that sense over time is to your point about it's the collection and it's dynamic because that sense can change over time. Do you find that you're pretty kind of like aware of that when you walk into even other business, but definitely healthcare about how does this feel?
Matthew Streeter
Absolutely. You said it so well and you're right. It's not just healthcare. It's every organization, every business. And let me give you an example. I'm sure you've all had this experience where you walk into a business and it's just a little dingy and there's maybe some clutter on the counter where you're trying to check out and the staff are having a conversation with each other about their weekend and...
You know, you immediately kind of get the impression that, you know, I'm not maybe as welcome here as a customer as I would want to be or maybe these folks don't really enjoy their work that they're doing. And then on the flip side, you have an experience where you walk in and it's clean and fresh and bright and you're immediately welcomed and the staff are engaging and they're, you know, providing eye contact and inquiring about my experience as opposed to their coworkers weekend.
That's a big difference in culture and that results in a big difference in service and the perception of service from a customer. So when we think about our facilities, what is the experience like for someone walking in? Is the greeter friendly? Is security intimidating? Is it dingy? Is it dark or is it bright and welcoming? These are the things we have to think about because that's part of our culture.
And ultimately, when our staff care as much as they should or could, all those little things somehow just get taken care of because everybody wants when they care, they want that experience to be amazing. When no one cares, that's when there's litter on the floor and dust on the tables and all that other stuff. Because quite frankly, nobody really, you know, nobody's concerned about the experience that the customer or the patient in our case is having that day.
Sue
Yeah, yeah. And I just have found myself now to be hyper aware and sensitive to that. And I make a lot of decisions about where I spend my money, where I eat, where I shop, those kinds of things. And so and that's true in health care, right? That, you know, like we can be magnets for talent, we can be magnets for patients, we can be the provider and the employer of choice.
based on some of these things. You know, it's not always about our whistles and bells of what services we offer and the technology. It's all important. I don't want to minimize it, but it's all part of a collective or a package for sure. And like you said, an important asset. A very important asset. Can you think of an example in your career? I know you likely can, I think.
Matthew Streeter
Absolutely.
Sue
You know, it's hard to get through our careers this far without being able to think of an example of where you've been in a situation where you've really noticed a deliberate before and after. It wasn't just like by happenstance or fate that the culture got better or worse, but that there was some real intent and designed actions that led to culture improving.
Matthew Streeter
Absolutely. So, you know, I, I, I, I'm stuttering.
Sue
Hahaha!
Matthew Streeter
I've had the pleasure of working on culture in four different organizations now.
in various stages, you know, twice now at the very beginning of the journey, if you will. In fact, I still today, it's just ingrained in my head now that this is doesn't matter what organization or what you want to call it. It will always be the journey to excellence in my head, which I define two ways. It's the journey to become the employer of choice and the journey to become the provider of choice in health care. So when people ask me, what is the journey to excellence? That's what I tell them. It's really to become the provider and the employer of choice. And I've done it, you know, I've done it in various degrees.
Sue
Yeah.
Matthew Streeter
four times now in my career and and I will tell you the more deliberate the more planned and the more standardized you can be in your approach the easier it is for a couple of reasons number one everybody knows where we're going of how we're gonna get there that's super super important if it's too ambiguous and no one really gets it
it's just gonna be spinning wheels and very little in terms of measurable outcome. The other reason I like it is exactly that, you can measure your outcomes. If you have a clear plan and you know exactly what it is, the needle you're trying to move, then you'll know if you moved that needle or not. Whereas if you go into it sort of willy nilly or you don't have a regimented plan or process, then you can't possibly expect to have clear results either.
Sue
Hmm. Yeah. You know, in that kind of brings up something that I hear in my line of work where I serve as a strategist, trainer and coach to organizations that want to go on these journeys to excellence, become the employer of choice and provider of choice. And there is cultural work to make that happen. It's not just process work. It's not just service line work and those kind of things. So.
You know, one of the things I'll hear sometimes is that one, yes, there's a pathway, but we don't want it to be cookie cutter. And two is, you know, kind of behind the scenes, I'll hear people say, even if there's a proven pathway, I'm not sure it's possible for us. I'm not sure it'll work for us. I mean, did you ever in the four journeys that you mentioned experience kind of that that kickback of, you know,
Yeah, there's a mapped out way, but it worked for somebody else. I'm not sure it'll work for us kind of sense.
Matthew Streeter
Absolutely. You know, if I had a dollar for every time somebody pushed back on the evidence -based leadership framework, I'd probably have $600, $700 by now. Who knows? I don't know. But you get the point. It's change, of course. Nobody likes that. But the other thing, too, there's a...
let's just say 50 % of the population really don't want to be told what to do. I'm one of those people. I don't do well being told what to do. I like to be a little more creative, a little more autonomous. And I started my very first journey as an A naysayer I thought this was all crud. You know, like this was just one more thing I didn't have time for as a young leader in healthcare.
And I was exactly the person you just described. I was like, okay, I'm going to check the box so that they think I did this, but I'm going to do it my way. And of course it doesn't work. And I'm, I'm generally a very compliant person. I mean, you kind of have to be if you're going to be the CFO of a health system. And, and I, you know, of course don't like to have criticism in my performance evaluation. So I decided I was, I was going to do this, even if I didn't believe in it and I didn't want to.
Sue
you
Matthew Streeter
And unfortunately or unfortunately, fortunate for me and the organization, unfortunate for my ego, it worked. When you follow the framework, it works. And I found my name and departments in the top decile of our very large organization at the time in terms of our performance from an employee engagement perspective. And then I suddenly realized, whoa, what happens if I start putting some actual effort into this thing?
And that's when it took off. So to your question about standardization, absolutely there are barriers and people are going to say, oh, we don't have to do it this way. We can customize. We can, everybody can do it their own way. The reality of it is you're not going to see the same results and it makes measurement much harder. And, and really I would encourage anybody who's, you know, hesitating, just do it, just try it, just start, do something.
and get going on it and you will be amazed. And then even if you have to keep tweaking it to get closer to the standard, that's okay. But don't hesitate because you're afraid to try it.
Sue
Yeah, you know, that also makes you know, your answer that makes me think about the fact that sometimes and whether it's initiatives like this, or other ones that are strategically important to our organization's future and success is that we get in our mind that we have to have consensus and buy in an agreement before we start versus.
Committing to starting because it's the right thing to do. It's strategically a priority to do it and then gaining that momentum support consensus buy -in like the example you shared. You know, you didn't say yes, let's do this and then jump right on board and say I'm going to be an early adopter. You did it for your own reasons, but it was only when you started experiencing the positive benefit and proof.
that now you say, wow, yeah, this is the right thing. And sometimes we have a mantra to start, which is, you know, for that reason is in my own experience, we took three years to decide whether or not to just start. And in those three years, our community and its members didn't have great access to great healthcare. Shame on us, right? Because we were not willing or brave.
to just start even without buy -in and consensus or maybe even a perfect roadmap yet.
Matthew Streeter
Yeah, yeah, that's sort of where we're at in my organization today. And what I would say to that is healthcare is not a democracy. We don't vote. Leadership does not work if that's how we're gonna do things. Consensus is another, we will never get consensus. So if that's what you're waiting for, you're gonna be waiting a long, long time, because it'll never come. There are times as leaders that we just have to know what the right decision is.
make that decision and then you know sometimes I hate to use the word force but sometimes we have to compel others to get on the journey with us. It doesn't take long though usually in my experience for people to to see the value so they forgive you pretty quickly after the fact for forcing them to get on the bus.
Sue
I feel like sometimes as a leader, but also now as a strategist, trainer and coach kind of really working in partnership with organizations that are bravely and boldly going on this journey is that sometimes I feel like they're borrowing our confidence in them. They're borrowing our knowledge of what's on the other side of this.
that we can see it and they can't yet and that we're just kind of like lending that to them until they can see it themselves, I guess. And it's kind of a fun perspective because we can see the light at the end of the tunnel. They've never seen the light before, possibly, and they've never taken that journey there. And so, yeah, sometimes that's one of our major roles is just lending them that confidence, even when they're...
Matthew Streeter
Yeah.
Sue
Not sure they really know what's going to happen next.
Matthew Streeter
You know, that's a good point, Sue. And I'll tell you that now that I'm on my fourth try at this, it sort of lends some new credibility to me as a leader to be able to say, guys, I've done this before. Let me tell you how it works. Here's what you can expect.
And it's true, and it is exactly that, Sue. And so for anybody who's doing this for the very first time, it's maybe a little bit scarier and tougher each time it gets easier. And if you think, oh, I'm only gonna do this once, probably not. Most of us are gonna do this multiple times in our career, even if it's at the same organization.
Sue
True.
Sue
Yes, that's a good point. Some of the organizations that we've been working with now in our work through Capstone, they're kind of on a V2 or a 2 .0 version. It's like in strategic planning where we say there's an S curve and you might have a strategy defined for three years and it might look pretty similar in two or three strategic planning cycles, six years, nine years, where the core strategies are pretty solid and...
kind of similar and you're not really having a huge change up. And that could happen in your cultural journeys too, is that the plan really looks similar for a long period of time until you're kind of getting to that point where you go, wow, there's something distinctly different. I remember that happening in my organization when we created a new strategy around high reliability. So when we were really, really poor in safety and quality and in our culture around that.
We couldn't have a vision for high reliability and zero defect. Like that was just like, if we thought even average quality scores was a big stretch, thinking of high, but once we added that, once we got there and we're like, okay, now we have to go for high reliability. We realized we had to change our culture to do that. You know, like our culture needed a new iteration, an up level in the strategy to go from good to great, and then great to even greater. So to your point is,
It's just not a constant maintenance and do over once you've been on this journey for a while. There's going to be these moments.
Matthew Streeter
You're right, and you alluded to this, but as you embark on the journey and you start to see results, your goals change, your targets change, and you kind of said this, but in the beginning, your goal might be to get into the top half. And then two years down the road, you're realizing that what you thought was impossible, maybe the 75th percentile, top quartile, isn't impossible. And then all of a sudden, you're starting to shoot for top decile. Excuse me, top decile.
And in the beginning, you would have never thought that to be possible and would never have written a goal to be top decile. And that's why the journey is often version two, version three, because you realize, and as does everybody else on your team.
We can do a lot better than we thought we could. And now we have the tools to do that. So let's raise the bar. Let's see how far we can push this and redefine excellence to whatever excellence 2 .0 is going to mean for the organization. It might've been 75th percentile and now it's 90th, or it might've been, you know, whatever net revenue or percentage of margin. And now it's X because you've, you've matured as an organization, you've evolved.
Sue
Yeah, yeah. I realized that, especially with the new generation of workforce, I've heard these comments is they love it when organizations keep track. They love it when they set measurable goals. Like that's aspiring, that's exciting. And so I think that compels us that when we're on these cultural and behavior change and
you know, elevating high standards and things of that, that kind of seems soft and unmeasurable and whatever, is that we really have to connect them to things like, you know, growth goals or patient experience goals or market share increases or things like that. So that they see that it's the action plan that's part of hitting those numbers, that this stuff that seems soft really has a hard number impact. And they can watch that number change as the culture and the...
behavior changes.
Matthew Streeter
Absolutely, and that's exactly the importance, at least in my mind, of the pillar boards or communication boards, depending on which version you use or what you call it. But having those measures and being transparent with them...
That's the whole why behind it, because it becomes positive reinforcement to the journey. It's another thing you can celebrate. And quite frankly, the reason I like the pillars is because it's not only about money or about patient experience. It's also about things like average wage for staff or percentage of participation in the retirement plans, because those are indicators of engagement and great place to work as well. And that's why looking at things from all
five or six of the pillars, depending on which version you like, it really breaks it down to more than just the things we would think of immediately as goals, like patient satisfaction scores, quality outcomes, your CMS star rating. There's way more that a culture can measure or that we can measure when we're talking about culture that then become positive reinforcement and drivers to keep that momentum building and building until...
everyone in the organization is so excited about the journey that that becomes the new culture and what a reward that is for everybody involved.
Sue
Yeah, I think data savvy cultures are really amazing. It's an important aspect of the culture is that we use data to understand what to work on and if what we're working on is working and that that employees learn to understand that as much as any leader would. And I find it exciting when I watch those light bulbs go on in employee driven teams where now they're really owning that employee data from the annual survey or.
however frequency they do, or they're the ones owning the patient voice and the survey data in that regard. And even things like really understanding finance. I remember the first time a plumber came up to me and we had a goal to increase day's cash on hand and he could speak to that. And he was like, he knew what it meant and whatever. I'm like, yeah, this is so cool to have such a data savvy culture. And that that really is something that we can teach.
Matthew Streeter
Right.
Sue (26:05.334)
and encourage. And, you know, I've been a part of a leadership team where, you know, we hid a lot of data from employees, not intentionally, I don't think, but we just felt like it wasn't theirs to know, or they didn't care, or they couldn't care. And what would they do with it?
Matthew Streeter
Right.
or we as leaders, we discount, they won't understand it or it's not relevant to their position. But the reality of it is when an employee cares about the organization, it is relevant to them and it is something that they wanna see. And if nothing else, as leaders, we can demonstrate why it's important and that having data as opposed to assumptions or anecdotes is substantially better and something that we can hopefully get them to be involved in.
You know, you talked about.
I forgot how you said it exactly, but immediately in my head, I pictured starting department meetings in front of the pillar board so that the leader can explain to everybody on the team why the things on that board are there and what they mean for the success of the organization. I've watched that happen. And then I've watched to the point where the staff start to ask questions and they start to hold the leader accountable to say, hey, by the way, you didn't round on us last month. What's going on? And that's great. I mean, some leaders...
leaders are a little squirrely about that, but the reality of it is a good leader wants that feedback and accountability from their team because it's a demonstration that they care about you as a leader. They want you to be successful too. It's all part of building a better culture.
Sue
Mm -hmm.
Sue
Yes, you bring up such a great point about that it's over time in that consistency that it's not the first time you round. It's not the first time you stand in front of that pillar board and explain it that everybody gets it. Like it's just, that's just not going to happen, but it's through that routine, consistent practice of some of these things that we know.
can make these kind of changes in organizations that it becomes, this is how we do it around here, right? We set goals, we measure things, we transparently report them, we have high standards, we build relationships through rounding, it just becomes, it's not extra work, it's how we do our work. But it's not that first time that you get that reinforcing hit that this is gonna make this big of a difference.
Matthew Streeter
Great.
Matthew Streeter
Right, it's like the first time you get on the treadmill, story of my life, but every five years there's a new initiative to get healthier, lose some weight, right? I mean, I'm a midwesterner by birth, so this is an eternal struggle for me, but you don't get on the treadmill the first time and then get off and go, wow, that was amazing, my whole life is better now. No, it's awful. In fact, it takes more work to go back the next day than it did the first day.
And sometimes you have to just keep doing that and pushing through that burn, if you will.
until you start to see the results and they will come. And once you see the results, that's when I feel like the momentum starts to build. And that's where you have to celebrate it too. Like don't take that for granted. When you see the needle move, even if it's tiny, celebrate it. Pizza parties, streamers, whatever you need to do. It's so important to acknowledge that and then to keep that going because you're right. It is so hard in the beginning.
Sue
That positive reinforcement and celebration, you know, we've had this discussion, you know, offline of this podcast before in our history of knowing each other is I've always been fascinated how challenging it is for organizations to turn on that part of their culture in which they celebrate. It's one of those things that it seems like it should be an easy thing to incorporate into.
This is what we do. When we win, we celebrate the win. Even when we have, it's like my son when he plays hockey, I don't wait till the game's over and then I clap. It's like every great hit, every great save, every great goal, you're gonna celebrate all along the way. And in our journeys, we need to celebrate, there's really no finish line, right? There's no end to the game, so.
Matthew Streeter
No, because the game keeps changing as we play it. So we always have to adjust how we play the game, going back to what we first started in the very beginning. Your culture is always changing. So if you want to have a good culture, you have to keep up with those changes. So that's an important part of this.
Sue
Absolutely. Well, you know what I was thinking when I was preparing for our time together today, I was thinking maybe you'll anticipate a question like this and I can't not ask. I'm sure our audience is saying, hey Sue, you got a CFO there. And you need to ask them what's the return on investment? What's the ROI on investing in culture change and enhancement? Like where does the rubber meet the road on ROI?
Matthew Streeter
It's a great question. It's a question I've been asked multiple times as a CFO who is a proponent of this work because it is a little bit tough sometimes to measure the outcomes. Again, I'm going to go back to PI boards and your strategic plan and the rest of those measurements should be developed with culture in mind because what you'll find is as your culture improves, so will pretty much all of the measures that you're watching as well.
And I can give you a couple of specific examples. You know, about a decade ago I joined an organization that was on the verge of really some amazing things. But...
but we weren't there yet. Our employee engagement scores were around the 30th percentile. Our net revenue had been decreasing year over year. We had lost market share. And the executive team had been completely replaced by the board of directors. And all four of us came in within a very short period of time with the assignment to improve the organization. And the first thing we did was look at culture, of course. But...
By default, as we worked on our culture, we saw everything else improve. Our CMS star rating improved. Our net revenue grew in three years. It grew 69 .4%. Here I am 10 years later still quoting that number because it was so astonishing that you could move the needle on culture and improve your financial performance at the same time.
Those are the sort of return on investment that you can't necessarily plan for in advance, but you will reap the benefit of as your journey progresses. On the contrary, I've been part of an organization where the culture and the journey started to fall apart. And quite frankly, it was because...
Matthew Streeter
As an executive leadership team, we failed to recognize that the culture is dynamic. And so we felt that what we had always done is what we should continue to do because it served us so well in the past. And unfortunately, that hospital is in serious financial trouble. The entire leadership team is now gone. And that's an example of the return on the lack of investment. If you don't invest in your culture, that's what you can expect to have happen.
Sue
Yeah, you know, it just goes right in line with the analogy you gave about your health, right? If you know the plan that works for you is to do X, Y, and Z, and you keep doing it, but at a certain point you hit a plateau, and then at that time you decide, okay, so I'm going to stop getting on the treadmill, but you don't replace it with anything else. You don't, you know, try to see what else it might be, then yeah, you're going to slip backwards in your results and how you feel. So both...
subjectively how you feel, but also measurably some of those metrics. And organizations are just like that. I find that organizations are very much like humans, like a human and all those body systems, right? Working together. So this has been such a delightful conversation. I anticipated it would be, and it did not disappoint. I do want to leave our guests with one final question to you that,
Matthew Streeter
Very much.
Yes. Yeah.
Sue
Just to make sure it's kind of one of those questions we use in rounding, you know, is there anything else you want us to know or or that that you want to ask? But you know, is there a key message, lesson or tactic that you haven't brought out in this discussion already? You brought out so many things, but is there a special message, lesson or tactic that you'd want to make sure got included in this episode for our audience to benefit from?
Matthew Streeter
That's a, you know, I probably...
could spend three more hours, right? Talking about culture and the things I want people to know. You know, I think first thing is, don't be afraid of your CFO. I think CFOs maybe got a bad rap in the 80s and 90s, but there's a whole new generation of us that are not just accountants who actually have personalities and thoughts and can quite frankly be a major contributor to your cultural journey.
Sue
I know!
Matthew Streeter
Don't discount your finance officer. That's my one plug for my peers out there. But...
Sue
I love that. And I have to say, I'm seeing a change in that. Like when we're getting approached by organizations that are looking for help in this way, it's interesting how many times recently it's actually been the CFO that's reached out to us, not, you know, patient experience officer or HR officer or the CEO. It's actually been CFO.
Matthew Streeter
Well, and that follows if we continue to say that our people are our greatest asset, then every CFO listening, if you haven't picked up the torch, it is time. You owe it to your organization to take this seriously. And as we talked about the return on investment, quite frankly, I don't know where else you're gonna get the kind of return that you will on your culture.
Sue
Hmm. That is a magic final message there, Matthew. That is just great. And you know, I could say the same thing, but it wouldn't land as well coming from me as it would be from you, given your background experience and credibility in your part of the industry that's specific to that as well. So thank you so much for being here.
Culture Change RX, this is a fun platform for us to be able to bring guests like you forward to people who are interested in this kind of work. And maybe they're just thinking about starting it. Maybe they've started it. Maybe they're well into it. Maybe they're ready for that next iteration that you spoke about. But if they're listening, they probably at least are interested and maybe very involved in this work. And I know you've added value to them. Thank you, Matt.
Matthew Streeter
It's been an absolute pleasure, Sue, catching up with you and to all of you listening, best wishes on your journey and as Sue said before, just start. Stop overthinking it and just start.
Sue
Great words. Thanks Matt.
Matthew Streeter
Thanks, Sue.
