Frontline managers

A unit-based team includes all managers, physicians, dentists and partnership union members in the work unit. All employees in the unit participate and support the team in meeting its goals and objectives.

UBT members

For the team to move up and become high performing, its important for all team members  to:

• complete UBT training
• attend and participate in meetings
• represent the interests and perspectives of others — not just their own
• use UBT processes collaboratively and with an open mind toward mutually acceptable results
• maintain open, direct, and respectful communication
• support partnership principles
• communicate regularly with staff in the department
• honor confidentiality agreements
• actively support all team decisions

Visit the Team Member Engagement toolkit to learn more. 

UBT co-leads

Each UBT has a management and labor co-lead. In departments with physicians, it’s ideal to have a physician co-lead as well. Co-leads organize the team’s meetings and huddles and make sure the team’s performance improvement work stays on track.

The role of UBT co-leads is to:

• advocate for partnership success
• prepare for meetings and huddles
• use appropriate meeting management tools
• communicate early and often
• troubleshoot where appropriate
• act as point person for information
• keep team records
• ensure team is following charter and charter is relevant
• communicate with others (including sponsors and stakeholders)
• make off-line decisions when needed
• build relationships and share expectations with co-lead partner(s)

Visit the Leadership toolkit to learn more. 

UBT sponsors

Sponsors are the go-to people for UBT co-leads, providing resources, guidance and oversight for teams.

The role of UBT sponsors is to:

• review the team’s progress on department’s UBT goals
• promote the use of the Rapid Improvement Model (RIM+) to improve department performance
• support full team engagement
• remove barriers and assist, as needed, with attaining data for team’s performance improvement projects
• recognize the team’s accomplishments
• spread successful practices

Visit the Sponsorship toolkit to learn more. 

Bernie Nadel is director of customer service and call center operations at Patient Financial Services in Southern California. He co-chairs the Regional Operations LMP Council, bringing together 27 business units, including the regional laboratory, central refill pharmacy and optical services.   

None of us was born into a unit-based team. Partnership is learned. Teams and their leaders need guidance and a playbook.

I tell other managers partnership makes my job easier. I have 10 other people helping to come up with solutions. I know some managers are uncomfortable with that approach. They act as though they can opt out of the Labor Management Partnership. It’s as if they said, “I know we have KP HealthConnect™, but I want to use this other computer program.” I say, if you don’t want the LMP, don’t work at Kaiser Permanente. You don’t get to opt out of the company’s policy.

Owning the work

Recently, our UBT went through a list of issues to work on. Call volume is up 30 percent, and we’re figuring out how to deal with that. We are going to do several tests of change. UBT members are gung ho about it. If I were to try to make those changes myself, I’d miss things. I would not get the insights of the people who interact with our members every day. And the people doing the work wouldn’t have the ownership and energy that comes with having a voice. Employees know I believe in partnership—and I give them the time to do it. That is a challenge. But you can’t solve the problems if you don’t invest.  

Not that long ago this call center was a toxic environment. There was low trust and low morale. All that has switched 180 degrees. A big step was my predecessor attending a sponsorship training class, which led her to involving UBTs more in day-to-day operations. I wanted to build on that.  

Taking the first step

LMP is a dance between labor and management, and management has to take the first step. When labor sees that management is serious, that’s when it changes. We’ve shown that you can change the culture.

Recently, we had a meeting with top executives about improving the consumer financial experience. Our UBT representative group prepared a report, and it gave our executives insights they couldn’t get any other way. It was not slick, it was real. I’m grateful to the group for the experience, commitment and knowledge they bring to this work every day.