Making Dreams Come True? Implementing a Strategic Plan in an Healthcare Environment (Moving from Manager to Teacher) Dr Peter Hunter Director Integrated.

Making Dreams Come True?

Implementing a Strategic Plan in an Healthcare Environment

(Moving from Manager to Teacher)Dr Peter Hunter

Director Integrated and Sub-Acute Care, St Vincent’s Health

Strategy Implementation – my starting point

There is a disconnection between strategy formation and strategy implementationThe capacity to implement strategy is dependent on the quality of it’s formationImplementation and formation are brought together by considering strategy as a process of learning and ongoing conversationStrategic skills can be learnt

Strategic Implementation – key themes in the literature

Little focus on implementation in literatureBarriers to implementation Wrong strategies No buy in Poor communication Inadequate resources Poor leadership

SI is about managing change and all its complexity

Structural dimensionsInterpersonal dimensions Meta-abilities; cognitive skills, self

knowledge, emotional resilience, personal drive

Strategic consensus Learning focus and skills

Strategic conversation

Strategic Implementation – key themes in the literature

Research Methodology

Strategic processes are social activitiesParticipatory Action ResearchInsider manager researcher Pros and Cons

Coghlan and Brannick model Personal, team, inter-team and

organisational levels Content, process and assumptions

Grounded theory data analysis

Organisational Context

Integrated and Sub-Acute Care (ISC) Clinical directorate of SVH 700 staff over more than 10 sites across 4

legal entities 10 different funding streams 2 program directors 45 middle managers Acute, subacute, community and residential

care

Research starting point

A cross section of 10 managers in ISC interviewed….2 dimensions What are the issues for middle managers in

ISC around strategy Can “discussion” facilitate a more strategic

focus and intent

The rest of the study dependent on the outcomes of the interviews

How the research actually unfolded

Interviews established key themes and drove subsequent cycles Data collection Interventions as

Getting to know the manager Awareness raising Knowledge giving Teaching and role modeling

Presentations given as a response to feedback and discussion with the managers E.g. Managing up

Managing Up

Gabarro-Kotter Perspective; understand the boss, understand yourself and work on the relationshipThe boss as a customerPolitical and social dynamicsLearn how to persuade wellFollowershipUnderstand your own mental models and the ladder of inference

Research findings

Interviews analysed using grounded theory Results of this analysis feedback to ISC management forum

Feedback at ISC Management Forum

Recurrent themesWhat is strategic thinking?What models help us conceptualise strategic thinking?What do we do with this?

Recurrent themes in interviews Strategy is political

Issues are only strategic if the right people think they areThere is different levels of awareness of the political dimensions to strategy in ISC ISC mangers have variable confidence and skills in Influencing skills for getting issues moving up, down

and across the organisation Understanding and using their “power bases”

optimally position resources knowledge and expertise personal influence networks energy and stamina.

We need to create an environment conducive for strategy being part of our daily management practiceStrategic conversation Feeling involved and not disconnected Formal and informal dimensions MBWA Strategic skills and the ability to act

Context settingAllowing risk taking in progressing ideasFluid networks - making connectionsTime resources; moving from the urgent and important to the non-urgent and important.

Recurrent themes in interviews

Strategy formation and implementation are a learning opportunitiesLeaders are managers of learningBut what can be taught? Strategic thinking skills Managing up skills Improving our understanding of perceptions Reflective practice Communication skills- persuading and listening

skills

Recurrent themes in interviews

Strategic Thinking SkillsDouble loop learning Scanning and thinking through data – asking why and

seeing patterns Problem solving at higher conceptual levels

Systems thinkingCreative thinking Strategic intent –leveraging energy and attentionThinking in time –connecting the past, the present and the futureIntelligent opportunism (making connections)Hypothesis driven thinking What if….. (divergent) If….., then… (convergent)

Organizational Competencies

What can we do?

Threats and Opportunities

What might we do?

Values

What do we want to do?

Societal Responsibilities

What ought we do?

Strategy

What can we learn to do?

How do we shape values?

• Strategic questions

Where to from here?

From ISC executive? A greater and more explicit attempt

to get you all to think strategically Working towards a conducive

environment Facilitating manager’s skills

development

From you?

The Action bit of Action Research….

Establishing a more dynamic culture of learning and teaching and embedding it Realized in retrospect Realized and planned

Formal – professional development program Informal

Role modeling MBWA and local facilitating

ISC at a point of transition

Issues arising from the research

Fuzzy to Less Fuzzy; Lets improve strategic

implementation The path to better strategic focus is

developing a teaching organisation

The importance of leaders as the managers of learning the key finding

Leaders as teachers - the literature

What do leaders need to do? Accept and embrace their role as teachers Have belief in their credibility and

communication skills Have a teachable point of view Develop an understanding of adult learning

principles Create a conducive environment

Multiple modalities Encourage questioning, experimenting and

reviewing success and mistakes Share experiences

Leaders as teachers - the literature

Learning organisations? “organisations that create an environment where

behaviours and practices in continuous are actively encouraged”

Teaching organisations? Adds a proactive dimension to learning

organisations Learning starts with individuals Role modelling and facilitating critical Leadership’s most critical responsibility is to

teach Learning as a multiplier of power

Strategic Change

Leadership

(Organizational Learning and

Teaching)

Strategy

Implementation

Conclusions

Teaching organisations as a concept should sit alongside learning organisationsLeadership, learning, teaching and strategy are interlinkedStrategic capacity is linked to management competence developmentWhat’s a conducive environment ? ..more research is neededA conceptual model?

A model

Management Competencies

Adult Learning Principles

Leadership Skills

The leadership of organisational learning

= learning & teaching