Whether inspired by the personal passion of caring for patients, or the increasing transparency in quality and patient experience metrics, healthcare professionals feel an unprecedented urgency to improve how their organizations deliver care.
Combine that with the pressure to provide better care at a lower cost, and it's easy to understand why organizations may quickly move toward tactical solutions to make improvements faster. In working with hundreds of organizations, Studer Group has learned what's needed first is an important pause to ensure that leaders are aligned in driving the improvement process and that a good diagnosis comes before action.
In this Insight, we will explore the first part of a two-tiered Studer Group solution to meet this challenge: (Tier 1) the Evidence-Based LeadershipSM (EBL) Framework for leadership alignment, action and accountability. In the second installment, we will explore (Tier 2) the Driving Performance Model for the engine that powers effective execution of these framework components.
Tier 1: Evidence-Based LeadershipSM(EBL) Framework
Alignment, action and accountability
The EBL framework promotes best practice leadership alignment strategies and behaviors, and is based on more than a decade of evidence harvested from hundreds of Studer Group partners. When implemented effectively, EBL lays the foundation for an organization to create a more accountable culture with laser-focus on organizational improvement priorities. It also creates the urgency needed to accelerate the rate of improvement in patient experience metrics, quality measures, turnover, physician or employee engagement and more.
Evidence-Based LeadershipSM Components:
Aligned Goals: accountability and skill development
This section of EBL focuses on implementing an objective evaluation system to provide leaders with clear expectations for performance and establishing a plan for frequent leadership development opportunities.
Accountability:
A leader is hired to get results and should be evaluated impartially based on whether or not this is accomplished. Through objective, measurable goals that are clearly aligned with organizational improvement priorities, leaders are held accountable to work with urgency on the right metrics. This often eliminates the static of traditional evaluations that rewarded longevity and working hard, despite the fact that they may not have helped to improve the organization's strategic direction.
Leadership development:
Frequent access to continued learning opportunities positions leaders to achieve goals and manage change with resiliency, actions that are strengthened when leaders have greater confidence in their own skill set.
Note: Organizations that fail to complete the aligned goals section of the EBL framework before moving forward in the model to implement tactics often experience significant variance as an unavoidable consequence of moving too quickly from framework to footwork.
Aligned Behaviors: best practice actions
This section of EBL identifies evidence-based, best practice behaviors (Must Haves®) proven to positively move results in patient experience, quality, employee or physician selection and engagement, as well as turnover. To be successful, implemented behaviors should be exemplified at the highest levels of leadership, cascaded to front-line staff as the standard, and validated for competency regularly. Once expectations have been clearly defined as mandatory and not optional, Performance Management strategies may be used with leaders, employees and physicians to effectively align, elevate or remove outliers.
Aligned Processes: next level accelerators
This section of EBL focuses on organization-wide standardization of best practices to reduce variance in both culture and results for a more consistent performance in clinical and non-clinical settings. In addition, several Studer Group software accelerators are available, national-caliber speakers, conferences and literature, which often act as catalysts for exciting breakthroughs that propel an organization to the highest levels of performance.
While the EBL framework creates the structure needed to ensure foundational elements are put in place to establish a culture of alignment, action and accountability; it is only a framework. There are two things that will make it successful: (1) a commitment from senior leaders to use the framework consistently and (2) their understanding of the Driving Performance Model to execute the framework effectively.
Watch for part two of "Better Together: Framework and Engine" as we explore the Driving Performance Model.
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