Dealing with Disruption
June 5, 2011
Posted by chcablogadmin in : Innovation, Leadership
Managing change has become part of our business acumen and is more prevalant now than ever. We’ve asked change specialist Seth Kahan to offer several blog entries for CHCA CEOs on leading change. Some of you may remember Seth Kahan from his closing session at NACHRI’s Creating Connections conference in Baltimore in March. Seth has a unique approach to innovation and successfully managing change. — JR
by Seth Kahan
Seth Kahan
There was a time when change was all about dreaming up new ideas and implementing them. Today it often seems it is more about keeping afloat amidst a raft of policies and disruptions that make life much more difficult, pushing us into questions we hoped we would not have to answer or choices we preferred to avoid. For example, given current reimbursement and funding declines, how will we cut cost out of the organization while maintaining current clinical programs? Or, understanding that the old payment model will soon be extinct, how do I make sure the organization is open to innovation and new care delivery models?
Innovation has never been more important. Long considered a nice to have, innovation has become a necessary tool that is called upon again and again. Innovation is about more than blue sky. It provides ways to evolve capacity in a challenging world. Here are three guidelines for leaders who are serious about innovation in today’s challenging market:
1. Place a premium on talent, both development and recruitment. People with the right mindset are extraordinarily valuable. You need people who are not afraid of the pressures of the marketplace, but instead dive into challenging situations with an eagle eye for spotting solutions and the talent for crafting new processes in response to changing conditions. This means partnering with HR like never before. HR needs to come to the strategy table with solutions and help bring in the talent with the critical skill sets. Not all these skills need come from new people (though some will). There should be education, learning programs, knowledge sharing that builds the capacity of eager staff within, creating a core with the capability to take current factors into account and generate productive ways forward.
2. Take a market centric view, not an organization-centric perspective. An organization-centric perspective is one in which everything is about maintaining the organization, working out its survival. The mindset severely limits the options. Instead, focus on the market and how you are positioned to provide the most value. This way of looking at the world will open up options otherwise obscured from view. An organization-centric point-of-view misses new possibilities, emergent needs in stakeholder groups, shifting customer bases, and new opportunities.
3. Invest in intelligence. Every leader should be conducting a systematic effort for the early identification of risks and opportunities in the market before they become plain to see. This includes the examination of market statistics, financial reports, news, trends, forecasts, and business analysis with the goal of yielding the competitive edge that spells out success for the future. There is both strategic intelligence — looking at long-term growth strategies — and tactical intelligence — driving revenue in the short term. This is a non-negotiable in my mind, for leadership in our rapidly changing world.
Seth Kahan (Seth@VisionaryLeadership.com) is a Change Leadership specialist. He has consulted with CEOs and executives in over 50 world-class organizations that include Shell, World Bank, Peace Corps, Marriott, Prudential, American Society of Association Executives, International Bridge Tunnel and Turnpike Association, Project Management Institute, and NASA. His book, Getting Change Right: How Leaders Transform Organizations from the Inside Out, is a Washington Post bestseller. Visit GettingChangeRight.com for more info and a free excerpt. Learn more about Seth’s work at VisionaryLeadership.com.
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