Precious time on the front line – from a not quite undercover boss
Recently I had the opportunity to visit one of our largest CenterWell Home Health branches in Maricopa County, Arizona. Though I’ve previously spent time with home health clinicians in the field, I wanted to see what goes on behind the scenes making those visits happen. I spent a few hours with the branch, clinical and intake managers at our office in Scottsdale to understand their day-to-day work, what’s going well, and where they’re challenged.?
What I saw was inspiring – people working incredibly hard to ensure that patients receive the care they need, in a timely manner. Collaboration in real time between teams in the office and those in field, closing gaps in the intake process for patients and flexibly accommodating care. Genuine excitement as the process worked, coordinating multiple moving pieces to deliver a start of care. Engagement with patients and caregivers as individuals, working with them through the episode to ensure that needs are being met and progress is being made.
But what I also saw was sobering: our teams are at the front lines of a fragmented and disorganized system, trying to create order from what could easily devolve into chaos, with manual steps, redundancy, and wasted effort that was inevitable because how things are allowed to work. Multiple health systems working in different platforms, managing care in different ways, adding complexity that was being addressed manually through the expertise and patience of our team.
We can, and must, do better.?
This is important to me, because CenterWell is investing resources in technology and processes to improve the work efficiency and experiences for our teammates. What wasn’t clear, though, was how those well-intentioned efforts were translating into the lived experiences of our teammates. Were we creating an environment where our associates could spend time on the highest impact activities? Have we accepted certain dysfunctions of the system at large and built our processes to accommodate, or are we willing to think bigger?
If we get too far away, sitting in a conference room and discussing numbers in the abstract, we forget what it’s like to be doing these jobs. Going back to those core principles of investing in your people and making time for them on a regular basis can be incredibly powerful in terms of:
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I was able to understand some of the home health team’s friction points and potential small fixes and enhancements that could have an outsized impact. While not everything will be immediately fixable, the investment of time helped me understand at a granular level how to challenge my assumptions about how the business is run.?
The same is true across our primary care and pharmacy teams. Ultimately it comes down to leaders communicating with people on the front lines and listening to suggestions to implement improvements that truly make their work more efficient, effective and gratifying.
Here’s where I land on some leadership principles for myself:
Boots on the ground leadership – spending time with customers and associates – is a powerful way to learn your organization and your people, and to learn what your people have to teach you. We all should make more time for this.
What tips do you have to improve leadership?
Helping businesses innovate with strategic business modeling and product innovation | Growth Strategy Lead Product Manager | Score Certified Business Mentor | Licensed Real Estate Salesperson
1 周Experiments are incredibly important for all types of innovation. Running those experiments effectively should always involve the customer and those closest to the customer. Providing valuable insights on the direction of innovation and type of innovation needed. Thanks for the article and example of leadership.
Leading with heart ????
1 周What a genuine and wonderful way to lead. We are lucky to have you at our organization, Sanjay! Thank you for listening and being so diligent in ensuring the voice of our front lines truly drives change.
President, Primary Care Organization
2 周Great article, Sanjay! I always enjoy hearing from our teams and how we can help them provide their best possible care.
RN Dedicated to Optimal Patient Outcomes | 10 Years Clinical Experience
2 周Yes, absolutely!! And frontline workers have great suggestions for improving workflows that can only be seen from a frontline perspective.
Chief Operating Officer | CenterWell Home Health
3 周This is a great perspective, Sanjay. I’ve learned so much from the hours spent in our home health branches, provider offices, clinician vehicles, and patient homes. While the planning, prioritization, and execution work we do at corporate offices is critical, none of it matters unless it translates to tangible improvements in the everyday lived experience of our teams and patients.