SHSMD: 10 Tips for Strategic Planning

As healthcare organizations propel headlong into healthcare reform, making a plan for the future can seem daunting. But why should they bother with a strategic plan if the future is uncertain?

David Kantor, president of OH-based Kantor Consulting Group, has an answer. He shared it before an audience at the Society for Healthcare Strategy and Market Development (SHSMD) conference on Wednesday.

"Understand the uncontrollables and how they will impact your organization going forward. If you plan, you'll be able to get a consensus on allocation of scarce resources," he said.

Kantor asked the audience: "What is the burning issue you have with strategic plans?"
Answers from around the room indicated much grappling with how to:

•    Disseminate information all the way down to the front line
•    Have operational leaders take ownership of the planning process
•    Keep the strategic plan a living breathing document once it is finished
•    Help bridge the C-suite's vision to the rest of the organization

Crafting a strategic plan starts from the top down, starting with C-suite leadership.  It outlines what the organization as a whole wants to accomplish over a predetermined period of time, whether it be over three years, five years, or 10 years.

SHSMD speakers including Kantor, Diane Caslow, vice president of business and strategic planning at MD-based MedStar Health, and Susanna Krentz, president of Chicago-based Krentz Consulting LLC, shared 10 tips to help organizations craft a strategic plan. The ideal outcome is to produce a single document (around 35 pages.  outlining an organization's goals and vision.

1.  Keep the momentum

The normal process of developing a strategic plan will take 5 – 8 months. Half the time is used for interviewing people for data and analysis. The other half of the time is for leadership group meetings. Typically there should be five to seven meetings, Kantor says.

Homework in between meetings can include using online survey tools to have middle management evaluate their strategic goals. Using existing meetings to address strategic questions saves time.

2.  Don't develop analysis in a vacuum

Anticipate who will be your competitors in the future. Also, do not assume you know the priorities of your organization.

3.  Don't succumb to analysis paralysis

When gathering strategic data, less is more. In order to make a strategic decision what are the top three things the organization needs to know? If the data is not clear, the decision will not be clear, the speakers said.

4.  Don't take the path of least resistance

In order to keep the momentum going with strategic planning, leaders are often hesitant to include the physician who tends to complain or speak out against policies. This is the person who needs to be in the room for the strategic planning process.

"It is really important to bring all the stakeholders into the mix," Kantor says. "Even the big jerk has to be in the room."

5.  Don't allow key individuals to opt out of the process

Who should be involved in strategic plan meetings?  It's a balancing act two few versus too many, Kantor says. Too many people there are time delays and it's difficult to build consensus the conundrum of over-inclusiveness.

"Meeting after meeting people melted always like an iceberg at the equator in July," says Kantor about his experience with larger strategic planning groups. "Stay at a size where if anybody is not there, you notice.  Rule of thumb, keep the participation to 12 -15 at most."

6.  Lay a foundation of objective information

Add the "so what" to all charts and graphs. People should understand about the information.  Use symbols to make the data approachable and to tell a story.

7.  Identify assumptions and address uncertainties

"I love asking people right upfront – what information do you want to know in order to feel comfortable talking about this?" Krentz says. "People are remarkably reasonable, when you ask at the start of the process.

Krentz also makes the point to ask leaders to differentiate between what they need to know and what they are curious about.

"You don't want to spend three weeks trying to find out something a manager was only slightly interested in," Krentz says. "Knowing the statistic to the second decimal isn't that important."

8.  Define strategic intent and strategic choices

The strategic intent of an organization should be limited to 3-5 goals instead of a longer laundry list, SHSMD speakers say. Ask the questions: How much change are people looking to do? Incremental change or revolutionary change? For example, a mission statement does not need to change over three years, but strategic goals to achieve that mission might.

9.  Understand your organization's culture

How does your CEO like to look at information? Are they comfortable looking at Excel spreadsheets? How involved does he or she like to be?

10. Lead from the top

Ultimately, one person needs to be held accountable for the implementation plan, Caslow says. Most of the time, this is the CEO.

Caslow makes the point that strategic planning should not be seen as an additional chore or an additional task on one's job description. Strategic planning is a way for an organization be optimistic about the future.

"This is a way to have some fun and take people out of their day-to-day to think about the future," Caslow says. "Engage people and help them be excited."