Perspectives
Five Steps to Innovation from the Healthcare C-Suite
Innovation superstars will stay on the radar of healthcare organizations, according to the Evolving Healthcare C-Suite: Trends, Predictions and Strategic Advice, a new white paper from InveniasPartners, a Chicago-based healthcare C-Suite and board executive recruitment, assessment and talent management advisory services firm. The white paper is available for download at (http://www.inveniaspartners.com).
Some healthcare organizations—hospitals, health systems, academic medical centers, medical groups and payers--will hire chief innovation officers or chief officers for system improvement. Others will embed the innovation process into current and emerging clinical, operational and financial strategies and new position descriptions. But one thing is sure: Healthcare innovation is here to stay.
Healthcare C-Suite and board leaders can facilitate innovation by adhering to the following strategies.
Identify and reward what you seek to innovate. Healthcare leaders have an opportunity to build performance appraisal systems that acknowledge involvement in the process of innovation, which typically begins with a problem or innovation challenge and moves through collaborative idea generation and evaluation to implementation of the most promising ideas. Leaders can also build compensation and incentive systems that reward the innovations of individual employees, managers, executives and clinicians, as well as innovation teams, groups, units, departments and divisions.
Absent formal incentive systems, don’t forget the power of the prize. C-Suite executives can build high-impact, low-cost reward and recognition programs that acknowledge and celebrate the innovations of individuals and groups. Consider, for example, monthly and annual awards for top financial, operational or clinical innovations or rewards for innovation leadership and team performance.
Be sure to communicate and promote your awards through all available media—print, online, social media and small groups. And don’t be afraid to use award recipients as champions of knowledge and learning. Encourage innovators to share an innovation opportunity, implementation steps, results and lessons learned through videos and small group presentations.
Respond to risk avoidance. Employees, managers, executives and clinicians have one thing in common. They tend to avoid risk, unless they feel confident that senior executives will tolerate and even embrace lackluster performance and failed expectations.
C-Suite executives can smooth the path toward innovation. They can encourage employees, managers and clinicians to step outside their comfort zones. They can urge those around them to seize the opportunity to innovate with no risk to their reputation, compensation or job security. They can nudge the people who make healthcare possible to create their courageous vision of healthcare’s future.
Recruit and retain top talent. Innovation doesn’t take place in a vacuum. Organizations need clinical, financial and operational talent to make innovation possible and sustainable. Healthcare C-Suite and boards must seek out executives who operationalize traits like risk tolerance, openness, collaboration, inquisitiveness and, not surpassingly, a sense of joy and play.
These innovators may work in health information technology, compliance, finance, marketing or human resources. But they may not come from traditional hospitals, health systems, academic medical centers or medical groups. Instead, healthcare leaders, working in partnership with executive search firms, may need to mine innovation talent in industries such as life sciences, consumer products, hospitality, financial services or entertainment.
Set boundaries. It’s true. You want executives, managers, employees and clinicians to think outside the box and drive outside the lines. But clinical, financial and operational innovation requires goals, objectives, timetables and deliverables. While you want to inspire the people who surround you to think and act expansively, be sure to turn blue sky innovations into programs and projects. Set limits on an innovation initiative by addressing issues like deadlines, funding and resources. Among the questions you may want to pose are the following:
- What’s the purpose of this innovation?
- How does the innovation mesh with our mission, vision, values and strategy?
- Who do you plan to involve in this innovation?
- What kind of results do you expect?
- What are the barriers and constraints? What could go wrong?
- What kinds of resources will you need to move forward?
- What kind of work needs to be done? Over what time period?
- How will you know that your innovation is a success?
Build credibility for innovation. People are skeptical of radical change, which is why C-Suite leaders must make innovation an integral, vibrant part of an organization’s culture. Don’t let innovations and the innovators behind them to sit in the dark. Instead, make innovation and transformation job one through the following strategies:
- Host simple ceremonies to launch innovation projects.
- Provide regular updates on innovation achievements.
- Identify fresh opportunities for innovation--especially in hot button areas like population health, clinical integration, patient engagement and performance management.
- Develop an internal work group or consortium to aggregate innovation best practices and lessons learned.
- Develop innovation case studies and issue briefs to share with members of the workforce and external groups.
Curt Lucas is president and CEO of InveniasPartners, a Chicago-based healthcare C-Suite and board executive recruitment, assessment and talent management advisory services firm that specializes in meeting the needs of hospitals, health systems, academic medical centers, medical groups and payers. For more information and to download the Evolving Healthcare C-Suite: Trends, Predictions and Strategic Advice, go to http://www.inveniaspartners.com.