Navigating the New Normal: Insights from Day Health for a Successful Strategic Plan
Since the spring and summer of 2020, when COVID-19 shook the healthcare system and raised awareness of an ongoing racial reckoning, much has changed in healthcare. As a result, leaders are rethinking their strategic plans. They must navigate a constantly changing “new normal” and confront systemic inequities within the healthcare system while maintaining their focus on emerging priorities. They need a solid process to reimagine their future and ensure results. Many are at a loss for where to begin.
Day Health Strategies can help. We’ve worked with hospitals, health centers, primary care associations, state agencies, and many others from across the healthcare sector to craft and implement new strategic plans.
Do you need a new strategic plan? Do you want to ensure results?
Here are 3 tips:
Start with a mix of qualitative and quantitative data for goal-setting and ongoing monitoring.
Before embarking on a strategic planning process, it is crucial to gather timely and relevant data about the market, your competitors, and your firm’s current state. It’s best to have a mix of qualitative and quantitative data. An effective discovery phase should involve internal and external stakeholders and should offer opportunities for candid and constructive feedback. Often, an external party is better positioned to collect honest input from stakeholders, making your findings – and the response – more functional.
For a deeper dive on your firm’s current state, Day Health has developed a proprietary assessment tool called the MOSAIC Maturity Model™, which we use to gather perspectives from staff and management about organizational maturity across five key areas. Using MOSAIC results, we help organizations prioritize areas for growth and development, even spotlighting staff challenges those leaders may have missed.
The qualitative and quantitative findings from an internal assessment, like MOSAIC, combined with a market scan, interviews, and other data collection activities, will give you a clear picture of your current state and contextualize future goals. Establishing key data points as a baseline will help you stay on track over the lifecycle of the plan and make your victories quantifiable!
2. Make a plan to move from strategy to execution. Focus on change management.
To ensure results, organizations should supplement traditional strategic planning with implementation planning. This includes developing a roadmap to meet the goals laid out in your plan. Moving from strategy to execution is not easy. A strategy won’t be implemented if your organization isn’t ready for it.
To succeed, you need to assess your change management readiness. With this information, you can develop a clear plan for a change process as part of your implementation roadmap. Included in this change process is identifying “change champions.” These are committed individuals who are instrumental in socializing the plans for change, building engagement with the process, and leading from where they are in their organization. This is crucial in all aspects of your business but is fundamental to ensuring that your strategic plan gets implemented and endures.
Day Health has helped to identify and coach many dedicated change champions. We have seen the crucial role these individuals can play, and we enjoy helping them succeed along the path to implementation of their strategic plan.
3. Bring in a partner who can guide you and keep you on track.
It’s hard to find the time and space to be forward thinking, particularly in a challenging and ever-changing environment. Engaging an outside partner helps. A consultant with deep expertise in the strategic planning process can bring objectivity and insights that can’t be found in-house.
You will also benefit from best practices and avoid pitfalls common to the strategic planning process. An experienced partner can guide you in collecting actionable data, drawing the right conclusions, and envisioning the future. They can lead you through an evidence-backed process for planning and implementation. This rigor also brings accountability -- they can hold you to your timeline so that you stay on track amidst competing priorities.
Day Health firmly believes that stewarding the process and keeping you focused are key to the value we provide during strategic planning and implementation. We do this using proven tactics to ensure that internal champions remain engaged with the work despite competing priorities.
Day Health stands ready to support healthcare organizations in developing strategic plans that are timely, actionable, and forward-thinking. For more information about how Day Health can help you with strategic planning, visit our website or reach out for a free consultation by emailing contact@dayhealthstrategies.com.