How to manage the Pace of Change
Jack Welch said, "If the Rate of Change on the outside exceeds the rate of change on the inside, the end is near." More than ever, organizations' need to adapt to the ever-changing environments and expectations around them is accelerating. Over the past few months, as I have been refining a comprehensive transformation framework and playbook, I have been diving into "bad news" announcements from Healthcare systems. These are a few.
There is no reason to why picked these three links. I do not intend to be critical. I am making a bold observation that Jack Welch's comment holds. Healthcare organizations are experiencing rapid changes that have a domino effect throughout their business model(s). Kaiser's statement above mentions rising consumer expectations. When framed in a business model, that means that the sought-after progress they expect Healthcare systems to help them make is changing. Statements regarding changing payments, labor markets, and inflation reinforce that the elements of business models and the environments around them are rapidly changing.
Leaders must ask, "What implications do changing expectations have on our business model?" "How capable are we of adapting to the new environment around us and the changes within our direct business models?" One you pick the criteria for assessing impact, I suggest scoring your answers on a 1, 3, and 9 scale, with 9 being fully capable of adapting. Imagine a CEO saying, "I have confidence in our revamped transformation performance model supported by our innovation system that will enable us to adapt to the speed of changes in the market." The underlying cause of being confident in the business is dependent on a transformation performance model that can help them stay in lock step or ahead of changing consumer expectations and the environment surrounding their business model.
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Key Takeaways
Questions for Leaders
Former Southwest Airlines CEO Howard Putnam offers, "When the time to perform arrives, the time to prepare has passed." I offer, "When the time to adapt has arrived, the time to have a system has passed." I am not suggesting a big announcement that you will innovate nor is this is about an innovation reputation. This is far less about innovating for reputation and far more about a relentless internal system for transformation. So what are organizations to do? Design and deploy a transformation performance model supported by an innovation system that enables healthcare systems to be adaptable! Reach out.
A True Transformation Partner--Activating Next-Level Change, Coaching, and Leadership Disciplines with Clients to Achieve Sustainable Organization Success
1mo@GiffConstable and Todd Dunn , You guys are spot on. It's about Disciplined pursuit of innovation. Too often these efforts are treated as something provided TO the organization--as if the org, and the less important souls in it, are a charity or lucky child. REALITY - There are many resources you can "gift" an organization--e.g., Innovation methodologies, 1,000 mgt consultants and innovation "implementers" exist...as do internal Change, Project Mgt, and Innovation offices. That's "stuff." Here's the mindset shift I facilitate with C-suite teams that may benefit the world you're calling for--the "missing link" in the Innovation Evolution, if you will. Stop seeing "Innovation" as a strategy, program, or capability to be installed in your organization, then check it off your list. If you do not address your own responsibility to re-fit the entire performance eco-system so that the innovation "umph!" is sustained, you're wasting capital. This mindset applies to both enterprise-level change and division-specific changes (e.g., even "skunk works"). No time for rest or self-congratulatory B.S. Without ACTIVELY reconciling new - old structure, culture, systems, etc., you will not yield the desired outcomes.
Author, fmr CPO at Meetup, fmr CEO of Neo
1moIt's funny Todd, back when I was very involved in large-company innovation, I developed a certain cynicism that C-suite executives would have the patience, resilience, and grit to stay the course on innovation, rather than put their companies through endless start-stop initiatives that get nowhere. However, at the same time, I had empathy for exec frustration with innovation teams because so often those teams lose their way, get disconnected from business realities, and are not focused enough on being practical and building momentum in day-to-day execution. Then, career-wise, I went back in-house. In running large software product teams, I ran into the same challenge: how to build good judgement within my teams and keep them really practical, moving, and connected to both customer value and business realities. Nothing works without a few linchpin leaders at all levels of the organization who are constantly bringing people back to these key principles of working. Otherwise it seems that there is a natural tendency for teams to lose their way. For as much as everyone loves talking about AI these days, it still comes down to people. You don't even need that many of these leaders, but you do need the key few in the right places.