The challenges faced by the healthcare industry require healthcare organizations to reduce costs. Yet many organizations are determined to grow, and doing both simultaneously may seem counterintuitive. Yet the two imperatives are not necessarily at odds. Growth is typically seen as the product of investment. And reducing costs can itself require the investment of organizational […]

We recently received the following question from an attendee during our ACHE Cluster session, Strategic Planning from Formulation to Action, in Marco Island: What makes for a successful strategic plan update? Once a strategic plan has been completed, it needs to be updated on a consistent (at least annual) basis. This allows for the plan […]

Future uncertainty of the health care environment is creating unprecedented challenges for health care organizations. To manage  risk in uncertain times, scenario planning, which helps organizations adapt more successfully to unexpected future conditions, is an effective tool to incorporate into the strategic planning process. There are two potential approaches to incorporate scenario planning into the […]

A complete strategic plan will always include an external assessment.  The external assessment should examine the organization’s historical performance as it relates to its respective marketplace, including analysis of the market’s historical performance as well as anticipated future trends and forecasts.  The external assessment has five main components: 1.  Review of demographic, economic, and health […]

For organizations to insert creativity, intuition, a future orientation, and new perspectives into its strategic planning process, strategic thinking is required. It is the type of thinking that attempts to determine what an organization should look like in the future. Strategic thinkers ask questions such as: “What are we doing now that we should stop […]

Participation and collaboration are not only ideal in any strategic planning process, they are essential.  In previous posts, we’ve discussed the importance of having a variety of stakeholders throughout your organization participate in the strategic planning process to gain buy-in for the final plan.  Just as important in knowing who to have participate, is knowing […]

Consider this common position of a strategic planning leader: During the course of the interview process for a strategic plan, a key physician leader notes his discontent with current OR operations, specifically turnaround time; He wants to know how this issue will be improved as a result of the planning process. What is the best […]

One effective way to involve a large stakeholder group in the strategic planning process is through a leadership retreat. A retreat can be an opportunity to kick off the process, gather feedback, or transition to implementation. Additionally, annual retreats are an effective way to update your strategic plan throughout the current planning horizon.   To […]