Thanks to today’s towering demand, you’ve likely received the call to serve as a leader.

Collaborative, innovative, risk-taking leaders are needed at every level, which matters more now than ever before.  It is critical to sustaining competitive advantage in increasingly complex businesses like healthcare. Whether you work in healthcare or in another industry, you have a distinctive point of view from your own experiences.

Is the system and overall process taking adequate care of you and those you care about, and could the experiences be better? The value chain is dynamic. How skilled are you at partnering to consistently influence improved outcomes?

The Wake-Up Call

Like many businesses under intense pressure to manage costs and deliver more quality solutions and new operating models, as examined by The Boston Consulting Group, are essential to remain relevant with changing consumer needs and preferences.  Within the industry, the shift from fee-for-service based on volume - to fee-for-value based on quality results - is designed for wellness to reduce patient costs and increase overall health of diverse populations.

The focus is on prevention and well-being vs. episodic care, for which hospitals have traditionally served. The vision is a “Continuum of Care” for all phases of life, all “walks of life” for better overall quality of life.

The Call to Action

What can you do in your circle of influence to co-inspire, co-discover and co-create better solutions?

What brought you ‘here’ will not get you ‘there’, unless you proactively seek deeper insights and embrace feedback from multiple sources to improve and fulfill unmet needs of customers and employees.

When you've had positive healthcare experiences, it is likely based on real-world, patient-centered solutions found through team-based, value-driven, action-learning principles. Diverse teams using data and feedback, the disciplines of continuous improvement, design thinking and innovation with empathy for human-centered design are fundamental.

Florida Hospital’s Innovation Lab (FHIL) is an example of an in-house culture transformation and collaboration space for all to meet and solve problems. FHIL is specially designed to cultivate ideas to improve customer and patient satisfaction, enhance care and lower costs. The process builds leader capability at all levels to successfully research challenges through observation, interviews, brainstorming, proposals, executive sponsorship, and validates project alignment with business priorities.

Value Impact Factors

• Deliver value with better quality for internal and external patients and customers, families and employees, and observe what works to eliminate barriers.
• Seek and value diverse perspectives and contributions of all employees across functions according to the discipline of innovation and design thinking. Who doesn't want their voice to be heard for improving situations and experiences? Involvement in the solutions builds engagement and commitment.    
• Clarify your values as a leader and use your beliefs to drive decisions, action and commitment to fostering a supportive culture of innovation. Facilitate transformation in leadership potential and boost strength to achieve the organization’s full potential.
• Pop-up Innovation Labs offer just-in-time opportunities for teams across boundaries (sectors, organizations and functions) to collaborate, and also accelerate the development of new processes, products and services with an entrepreneurial framework and spirit.
• A high reliable organization (HRO) in healthcare, commercial aviation and nuclear power relentlessly pursues problems to eradicate or minimize catastrophic errors, which can lead cultures where employees are afraid to speak up, question authority or the status quo.
• Creating a safe environment for patient and customer care, and for employees, to respectfully challenge approaches and advocate positive change is a delicate and important balance.

• Make a Difference

You can make a difference by modeling the way.  Ask questions, listen, observe and create a safe, collaborative atmosphere to take risks for quick wins and lessons learned with coaching and feedback. Effective leadership coaching is a solid ground for organizations to become agile – ready to adapt as needed to fit seamlessly into ever-changing environments.

Start building your own continuous learning and innovation leadership capabilities at the 2017 HCI Learning & Leadership Conference, on Sept. 18-20, where you’ll gain opportunities to explore challenges, share success stories and best practices, and deliver quality outcomes and experiences.