Case Studies: Problems Solved
How Do I Get My Medical Staff Engaged In Planning?
A small community hospital based in Minnesota knew it needed to develop a new strategic plan that would allow it to capitalize on growth in its market. But they had a history of having little to no involvement from their physician stakeholders, and without them, little could be implemented. Maureen Swan brought a robust planning process that included interviews with all medical staff, a statistically valid community phone survey, and analysis of market demographics, market share and future healthcare demand projections. She developed and led a planning retreat with the medical staff that focused on key data conclusions and provided multiple opportunities for their input. The result: the hospital developed a shared vision and set of strategies with ownership by the physicians and the physicians now anticipate and ask about the annual retreat .
How Can We Get Competing Providers to Develop A Collaboration Strategy in Their Product Line?
A large Midwestern University wanted to expand their presence in surgical services and had an opportunity to explore a collaboration with a local community based surgical group. But given the history of competition, care was required in the approach. Maureen developed a process designed to receive frank input from all surgeons and then bring them together in multiple events to develop a shared understanding of needs, where they shared a common vision, and identify critical success factors for collaboration. The result: the groups achieved ownership in a collaboration model that both sides felt good about.
How Can I Get A Large Member Based Organization to A Common Vision and Set of Strategies?
A Washington, D.C. based national association with thousands of individual and institutional members was struggling with its priorities. With so many voices, it was difficult to get a focused plan that would allow for greater impact. Maureen developed and led the board through a process to identify its core mission, where it would compete along the value chain in its industries and the few core competencies it would provide to members. With that clarity, re-writing the mission and defining a clear vision became easier. The board defined five core strategic pillars with measurable targets, and also identified current programs that really didn’t “fit” their focus and needed to be transitioned to closure. The results: new clarity, focus and opportunity for strategic impact in its field.
How Can We Get Competing CEOs to Engage Around Health Policy Strategies?
A hospital association board needed to engage it members in a new way to create shared ownership for its policy strategies. Maureen used a process developed by Shell Oil called “scenario planning” to develop four plausible but divergent future scenarios that could face the association’s hospital members. A retreat allowed the board trustees to engage in a deeper level of conversation than in the past and to identify the critical “must do” strategies for the association. The result: Deeper engagement from competing members and clarity of focused priorities for the association staff.
