(LIVE BLOG from Rewiring Healthcare: Foundation to Future, April 28-29, in Atlanta, GA)
As healthcare evolves, we’re all having to rethink, refine, and rewire how we work. But here’s the question for leaders: Are the changes we’re asking people to make actually doable?
At the Rewiring Healthcare conference, during his presentation titled Diagnose. Design. Treat. Leading Change That Works, Quint Studer introduced a doability assessment. The purpose is to help leaders determine whether a change is truly viable inside their organization before they try to roll it out.
So what is doability? It hinges on four components: Experience, Skills, Resources, and Barriers. A little more about each:
- Experience
Change often fails when organizations try to do too much, too fast, too soon with inexperienced leaders or staff who may not yet have the skill set they need. At the same time, Quint noted the most experienced people can struggle more with change than the brand new person. You might think it’s the opposite—but though these people have been through change before, they may also be more set in their ways.
- Skills
We tend to underestimate the skills people will need to use a new tool, process, or technique. Before implementing change, we need to ask: Do people have the skills they need to be successful?
- Resources
Once the needed skills are identified, leaders should ask what resources are necessary to support the change. The answer may be different for different people or teams. Some may need tools, training, time, coaching, or other support.
- Barriers
Finally, leaders need to identify what barriers must be reduced or removed. Sometimes these are simple things, like overhead paging, noisy equipment, or other small obstacles that make it harder for the change to stick.
Change works when certain conditions are met:
- There’s lots of clarity.
- Those moving first are recognized.
- Organizations invest in skill-building.
- Questions are collected and answered.
- People understand “What’s in it for me?”
- And they understand what being “all in” looks like. Senior leaders must role model this to the extreme, and their visibility needs to be at an all-time high.
- Those who are not “all in” are moved out.
Finally, Quint reminded us to expect turbulence. It might sound like (for instance), “We’re moving too fast!” Sometimes we have no option but to move fast. Bottom line: We need to make sure what we’re asking people to do is doable…and when turbulence hits, we need to keep the throttle down.
