Grow or die! Every business is a growth business! The growth imperative! To read these slogans, you'd think growth is squarely on everybody's mind, every day, all the time. You'd be wrong.
Especially in health care, there's frequently a missing, albeit crucial step: DECIDING to grow! What's that you say? Of course we've decided to grow! OK, let's think about that for a moment.
What was on the agenda at your last all-hands leadership meeting? More importantly, what was FIRST on that agenda? Budget? JCAHO? Compliance? HIPAA? Quality? Satisfaction? Policies and Procedures? All important topics, for sure. But where on that agenda was BUSINESS GROWTH?
When was the last time you identified someone who managed to grow her business in spite of all the usual organized resistance and inertial drift, pulled her out of the audience and made her a hero? You do that for leaders who hit their budgets, don't you? For those setting the patient satisfaction benchmarks, too, right?
Maybe you think growth isn't worth spotlighting. Maybe you think it's a happy accident or due mostly to circumstances beyond your control. Maybe the growth agenda is firmly locked away behind the the executive suite's paneled door. And, come to think of it, why make someone a hero when she was lucky to be in the right place at the right time? For heaven's sake, what message would THAT send to the rest of the organization?
Oh, I dunno. That growth matters, maybe. That it's everyone's responsibility to stretch themselves, think differently, compete furiously. That you grow market share zip code-by-zip code and doctor-by-doctor. That sometimes you do get lucky and that there are such things as happy accidents, but track records are made from consistently winning the small battles for customer loyalty.
So decide! Decide to compete. Decide to win the battles, large and small. Decide to make it #1 on everyone's agenda. Decide to be tough to compete against. Don't take it for granted. Decide to grow.
Especially in health care, there's frequently a missing, albeit crucial step: DECIDING to grow! What's that you say? Of course we've decided to grow! OK, let's think about that for a moment.
What was on the agenda at your last all-hands leadership meeting? More importantly, what was FIRST on that agenda? Budget? JCAHO? Compliance? HIPAA? Quality? Satisfaction? Policies and Procedures? All important topics, for sure. But where on that agenda was BUSINESS GROWTH?
When was the last time you identified someone who managed to grow her business in spite of all the usual organized resistance and inertial drift, pulled her out of the audience and made her a hero? You do that for leaders who hit their budgets, don't you? For those setting the patient satisfaction benchmarks, too, right?
Maybe you think growth isn't worth spotlighting. Maybe you think it's a happy accident or due mostly to circumstances beyond your control. Maybe the growth agenda is firmly locked away behind the the executive suite's paneled door. And, come to think of it, why make someone a hero when she was lucky to be in the right place at the right time? For heaven's sake, what message would THAT send to the rest of the organization?
Oh, I dunno. That growth matters, maybe. That it's everyone's responsibility to stretch themselves, think differently, compete furiously. That you grow market share zip code-by-zip code and doctor-by-doctor. That sometimes you do get lucky and that there are such things as happy accidents, but track records are made from consistently winning the small battles for customer loyalty.
So decide! Decide to compete. Decide to win the battles, large and small. Decide to make it #1 on everyone's agenda. Decide to be tough to compete against. Don't take it for granted. Decide to grow.
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