JWI 551: It’s All About The Patient
Lecture Notes
Towards Operational Efficiency
Operational Efficiency will not just happen by itself. It requires leaders to set clear goals and objectives,
define targets, and then communicate those goals to everyone, so that the knowledge is widely shared.
It also requires leaders to hold people accountable for the results. All the people in the organization
need to understand the end game and how they can and should contribute to it.
The purpose of Operations Management is to support the organization in pursuing and meeting its
strategic objectives. Operations Management is the translation of strategic objectives into actions that
will make it possible to reach the goals. It is the How. In healthcare, as in other industries, objectives can
be wide-ranging. They might include making a profit, serving a particular segment of the population,
promoting the health and wellbeing of a community, growth, and increased productivity. Regardless of
the particular objective, Operations Management helps the organization to get there.
How can leaders know that they are making progress towards their goals? The answer lies in
Operational Analysis. Operational Analysis is the process of examining how the business is actually
running. Is there progress towards strategic objectives? Can performance be better? How? What steps
need to be taken to improve results and get closer to the strategic objective? If the business is off track,
what corrective actions need to be taken to get it back on track?
Metrics, Benchmarks, and Scorecards are all valuable tools for guiding decision-making and for helping
an organization to meet its strategic objectives. The first step, however, is to figure out what metrics are
best suited to the organization’s specific goals. Selecting the right metrics matters.
From Strategy to Action: How to Get There
One of the most critical responsibilities of leadership, once objectives have been defined and agreed
upon, is to communicate the strategy to all departments within the organization. The conversation
needs to be very specific: What are the large scale goals? Which individuals are responsible for what and
by when? Good organization leaders explain to the department leaders below them exactly how they fit
into the picture and what this means for day-to-day activities. The objectives for the department, based
on the broader strategic goals, must be clearly defined: What are the expected results? What are the
costs associated with these objectives? What, if any, additional resources will be needed to ensure that
the goals can be reached? Department leaders must then explain to their teams how they fit into the
picture and how they are expected to contribute to the goals.
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JWMI551
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JWI 551: It’s All About The Patient
Lecture Notes
Establishing start and end dates for specific actions are critical to success. It causes members of the
team to think about how things will need to be organized for the overall goal to be met. This approach
forces people to consider process and the order in which things will need to be done. It also assists
teams in defining timelines. Timelines create commitment and set up an accountability structure.
Start with Why?
Simon Sinek, author of Start with Why: How Great Leaders
Inspire Everyone to Take Action (2009), a book referenced
earlier in the class, reminds us that every organization can
tell you What they do, some organizations can tell you How
they do it, but very few can tell you Why they do what they
do. He notes that the Why has nothing to do with revenue
or profit. Revenue and profit are results. Why has
everything to do with what the organization stands for—its
values. Thus, it is the Why of an organization that will
inspire others, who believe in what the organization is
doing, to join the cause, either as colleagues, supporters, customers, or clients. Why provides context
and gives meaning to what we do. It is the engine of innovation. This is an important message for all
leaders, especially when it comes to explaining strategic goals and asking others to take action to
implement those goals.
The Balanced Scorecard
The concept of a Balanced Scorecard, like other tools we have discussed in this course, originally came
from large industrial companies in the manufacturing sector, which made a product. In a service
industry such as healthcare, the Scorecard had limited applicability. Companies today do not necessarily
produce a tangible or physical product. They create “value by deploying intangible assets, such as
customer relations, innovative service, high quality operations, information technology, databases, and
employee competencies”1. This change in the nature of the product has led to a shift in how the