VA of Greater Los Angeles

At the VA of Greater Los Angeles (VA GLA), the mission and vision are clear: Do anything and everything to serve and care for veterans.

On its team’s ongoing journey to bring patient-centered care to veterans in the Greater Los Angeles area, they didn’t look out — they looked in.

They wanted to rally all their staff around a set of service standards that would help them collectively embrace and care for veterans. And they wanted to take the experience one step further.

They saw the letters representing who they are — GLA — as an opportunity to create a homegrown set of service standards.

With a balanced representation of leadership and frontline staff, they identified three key actions. These actions would be universal and powerful for every veteran and staff member to receive at the VA:

• Greet
• Listen
• Act, Plus

They added “Plus” (styled as “GLA+”) to include the unique opportunity for VA employees to show our veterans true gratitude.

IDEAS’ Innovation for Better Care

The VA GLA team came to IDEAS to assist them in bringing this story and training to life.

They were eager to build upon the service excellence standards that two institutions had brought to life:

• Walter Reed Army Medical Center
• Army Medical Department of the U.S. Army, Back to BASICS training program

It was also crucial to them to keep that training’s organic nature.

At IDEAS, we’re committed to telling a person’s, group’s or organization’s story in a way that’s personal, memorable and meaningful to them and their audience.

So we got right to work for the VA GLA.

First, we brought together our team to get to the heart of the GLA+ story:

• Instructional designers
• Storytellers
• Video producers
• Editors
• Graphic artists

Next, we collaborated closely with the VA GLA team.

The result was an interactive and engaging, two-hour, face-to-face training. It will begin a new chapter of how employees deliver services at the VA GLA. All 5,000-plus employees will attend this two-hour training experience.

As true believers in sustainment, we developed a story-based sustainment toolkit that supervisors and leaders will use in the months after employees complete the GLA+ training.

This will ensure focus and allow them to continue conversations about how they make GLA+ a reality. We’ll also incorporate additional recognition programs so that GLA+ stays front and center in delivering quality care to veterans and fellow staff.