What do you do if your healthcare organization's strategic decisions don't align with its mission and values?

This is one of those things that ideally should not happen. Must 1-Stick to core values or 2-Re-evaluate and change to new. But firstly pinpoint where misalignment exists. Assess whether it's at the leadership level, operational practices, or cultural norms. Then, initiate dialogue with key stakeholders to identify the root cause. Implement transparent communication channels to address concerns and foster alignment. If necessary, recalibrate strategic decisions to realign with the organization's mission and values. Remember, it's crucial to embody integrity and accountability throughout the process for sustained organizational health.

In my experience, I've found the key indicators to be customer satisfaction and employee retention (not subjective satisfaction). Taking your own trends into consideration is important but being able to benchmark against others is critical. Remember, this is not a blame game. How you approach this will determine if you get authentic solutions or blame shifting. We also had to consider how old the mission and values were... and were they developed and agreed upon by all or just imposed and plastered on posters. Make sure your mission and values really reflect the group you're leading.

Take a close look at the strategic decisions and compare to the org's mission, vision, and values. What are the reasons that have been driving the strategic decisions? Why do you think they don't align with stated mission, vision, and values? Also, take a close look at your own purpose and how it may or may not align with what you're seeing around you. I think it's important to know you place relative to the strategic decisions and the org's mission, vision and values. It will help orient you and determine next steps.

First, identify key stakeholders with whom you have a productive relationship. If you don't have a key stakeholder in your network, then you need to step up your networking game. Once you're in front of a stakeholder, begin a dialogue and test your ideas. Are strategic decisions being made for reasons of which you weren't aware? What is driving those decisions. Then, you can determine if leadership and board members are making decisions with the org's mission, vision, and values in mind.

Eric nails it about people shaping culture. Financial constraints also shape true or expressed culture and mission. Some organizations are constrained financially. CHCs with 50% Medicaid patients are an example. Survival focus and held hostage by Congress for funding can make it difficult to accomplish the outstanding mission of CHCs in basic health access and other areas. CHCs have to compete for delivery team members despite the CMS 1.4 trillion in annual spending shaped against basic health access and shaped in favor of team members selecting procedural, technical, subspecialized, and hospital positions. This can make it difficult to recruit and retain, limiting numbers, experience levels, and important continuities for best learning.