Is your strategic plan getting your program where it needs to be? You have a strategic plan, right?

Thursday, June 14, 2018 | MedAxiom

As health care leaders we all understand the importance of good planning and the value of measuring the work we perform. If the purpose of strategic planning is to set goals for your business and develop actions to achieve those goals, it sounds like a pretty straightforward process. However, the reality we are seeing as we work with many programs is that strategic planning may be occurring, but the expected outputs are not. So, I want to share with you some pitfalls to avoid and tips from programs that are achieving actionable strategic planning.

Here are some common reasons for strategic planning failure: 

• The planning work does not have the right people and engagement
• The strategic plan lacks resource and talent allocation
• Growing market share is a strategic goal

Let’s dig a little deeper.

“We are not following the strategic plan because it was created by the previous leadership team.”

This is a challenge for many programs and may be more specific to the health care industry. We know leadership positions and business relationships are evolving and continue to change rapidly in health care. This turnover in leadership is highlighted in the 2013 Black Book poll that finds the average hospital CEO tenure is under 3.5 years. Leadership turnover makes it hard for programs to create well-thought-out plans that have deep engagement. If the strategic plan and selected priorities cannot translate above personnel changes, there may not have been adequate buy-in from the team.

It is difficult to predict all leadership changes, so a good question every leader should ask prior to strategic planning is: do I have the right people involved in planning to deliver execution? Sometimes the leadership team can plan for expected turnover. For example, if a medical staff/director position is up for election, wait until both the outgoing and incoming roles can participate in strategic planning. Ensuring broad engagement beyond the C-suite is a tactic used by programs succeeding in strategic planning.

“Our strategic planning session was great, but it fell off the radar because of day-to-day fires.”

Resources, data and time requirements are serious considerations that require commitment prior to holding the strategic planning event. Time and talent in the cardiovascular leadership arena is in short supply. Performing strategic planning without the intent of funding the work with the appropriate resources is frustrating to all involved. Programs that avoid this pitfall have the discipline to select only strategic goals that have the following attributes:

• Ability to measure the goal and dedicated resources to gather the data
• Scheduled forums for review of progress – time on the owners’ calendars
• Ability to remove or consolidate meetings or work that is completed or less impactful, specifically to refocus owners of the strategic plan
• Can limit goals to what can be supported

The good news is that at least doing a plan is better than giving up all together. Planning does bring the team together and can create positive energy. To be effective, the plan must move to action – your strategic plan is not like a good wine that increases in value as it ages.

“Our strategic plan is to grow cardiovascular market share.”

Most of you are probably thinking: of course, growing market share cannot be a strategic goal, but it could be a measurable outcome from a strategic goal. I would agree whole heartedly with that comment. However, the reality is that creating strategic goals that don’t have defined ROIs is a challenge. Strategic planning is facing the same barriers in transitioning from volume-to-value as areas like capital planning and professional compensation. It is easy to measure the impact of strategic planning when you are measuring volume growth. It is more difficult to put a measure around a patient centric metric such as coordinated hand offs between health care providers. We strongly believe that best-in-class systems are driving strategy around patient centric metrics. Imagine a provider that can provide a single bill to the patient for open heart surgery? Or a provider that respectfully coordinates visits between the primary care physician, heart failure clinic, device clinic and cardiology group. We believe best-in-class programs can and will develop these metrics and will be able to see market share growth as an output. 

Illustration: Lee Sauer