What's Your One Thing for 2024?

Ten years ago, Gary Keller and Jay Papasan wrote The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth About Extraordinary Results. It quickly became a bestseller in the productivity and self-improvement genres, giving readers ways to become more productive and successful by “focusing their energy on one thing at a time.”

The book includes what the authors call “the Focusing Question,” which reads, “What’s the one thing I can do such that by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary?”

In the complex, endlessly noisy work you will begin (again) as another year fast approaches, what is your “one thing?”

Every December, we gather a group of healthcare insiders to talk about what they observed in the year just gone and what they expect in the months ahead. This time, our panel consisted of Jarrard Inc’s own five practice leads, each focused on a different type of healthcare provider organization.

No surprise, there were some common themes that emerged. Those are below, and most deal with an element of healthcare itself, like nurse and physician engagement, or scrutiny of hospitals.

But throughout these conversations it was striking to hear several answer the question with a question of their own. We asked “If you’re in a room with a client or executive team, what’s the question you ask?to help them get unstuck?”

Their common question? “What’s the One Thing we need our people to know, to say or to do?” and most deal with an element of healthcare itself, like nurse and physician engagement, or scrutiny of hospitals.

But throughout these conversations it was striking to hear several answer the question with a question of their own. We asked “If you’re in a room with a client or executive team, what’s the question you ask?to help them get unstuck?”

Their common question? “What’s the One Thing we need our people to know, to say or to do?”

As Emily Shirden, Jarrard VP and National Practice lead put it, “If we can take whatever issue it is and boil it down to a sentence or two, that helps focus on what’s most important and then figure out next steps,”

And so, with the swirl of work to be done to advance each healthcare organization in the new year, highlight The One Thing made sense as the, well one thing to highlight. Whatever else comes, pause, boil it down, and focus that moment’s energy on the single next step.

Other angles to that that question our team suggested healthcare leaders ask:

• What is the one problem we need to solve for?
• What’s the singular tone we want to set for the new year?
• What is the major obstacle that prevent us from achieving our goal in 2024?
• How do we as a leadership team stay accountable to achieving that tone and what is the key action we are taking throughout the organization?

There are, no doubt, many questions to ponder as you prepare for 2024. The challenges are great, the answers are hard, and the issues many and relentless. Review themes that our team is watching, and read excerpts from conversations with each practice leader below.

Then, take a breath, if you can, and reflect on the single focusing question that helps draw the many matters before you into contrasting relief. Take the iconic advice cowboy Curly gave to a greenhorn in “City Slickers" and figure out your one thing for the new year.

Themes to Watch in 2024

Knowing, even rethinking, how providers fit in their community

How does a given organization best serve its patient population through partnerships, technology and care models? Once that question is answered, when change is coming, it’s vital to think through and talk about the implications. It’s not simply telling people what you want them to hear. It’s being a good community partner – and employer – by giving stakeholders all the information so they can make their own decisions and then listening to their thoughts through surveys, listening sessions and one-on-one conversations.

Additionally, there’s an opportunity to grow through an emphasis on aligning the external brand with the internal culture. This helps create a unified, trusted experience that patients feel comfortable interacting with.

More layers to partnerships

Stronger relationships are being forged between systems, hospitals and community health providers, underpinned by a shared, community-centric mission. Tim Stewart, Partner and Academic System lead , noted the importance of using partnerships to “find the best path forward that utilizes academic innovation and everything associated with ‘the ivory tower’ in a way that genuinely improves community health.”

SVP and Public & Community lead Letitia Fecher noted that public and community hospital boards are taking a close look at whether and how to partner up with other community hospitals or by joining a larger system.

In other cases, as highlighted by James Cervantes, SVP and Regional Practice lead , systems are creating internal structures such as joint ventures and subsidiaries that allow for innovation and flexibility in how they collaborate.

Workforce growth and engagement

“Employees are any organization’s biggest ambassadors, and they’re seeing more and more how providers are making cultural investments,” said Partner and Health Services lead Hollie Adams .

Providers are redoubling an already concerted effort to prioritize their people. We’re seeing progress towards more diverse and inclusive environments. There’s greater creativity in how to develop and retain talent. Giving physicians and employees a say in designing solutions to an organization’s unique challenges is one way to both increase innovation and engage the workforce.

All of this bodes well for navigating the ongoing shortage, especially now that we’re seeing what appears to be a new baseline for the role of organized labor in healthcare.

Need for more advocacy

Across the board, our practices are seeing the need to continue addressing the anti-hospital rhetoric and antitrust activity that has taken hold among corners of the media, politics, regulators and healthcare industry itself. In this environment, providers need to be quick to answer the question, “What’s our value proposition?” Cervantes asked, in the voice of an executive leader, “How are we different from the competitor down the road, even if we’re a regional system and they’re an academic center?” Healthcare marketing and communications teams must be involved in developing and then proactively presenting the answers to those questions.

There’s a governance element to this, as well. Provider organizations looking to make patient-focused changes must ensure they have a genuine financial and political commitment to amplify changes and advance things like price transparency. The board and executive team should be aligned on this work.

More sophisticated internal communications

Regardless of their environment, people still crave interaction. Healthcare leaders and marcomm teams need to use all the tools and technology available to communicate clearly and rapidly, ensuring people know what’s going on – even when what’s going on might be uncomfortable. “We’re in the people business,” said Fecher. “We should be moving faster and communicating that we’re evolving faster.”

Cybersecurity will be front and center

Multiple practices saw an uptick in cybersecurity incidences, and it has been a particular focus for our Health Services team. Careful preparation for a potential incident is vital, noted Adams. While a cybersecurity situation is never a good thing, one win our team observed in 2023 was better preparation for and response to incidents. Our team expects the need for this work to continue – the bad actors aren’t going anywhere. Organizations can get through, though, it with close alignment of communications, legal, operations, IT and others.