In the first part of this blog series, Judith and Tom described why strategy in healthcare only works if you give direction and allow space. Framed freedom ensures that professionals know where the organisation wants to go, while leaving them room to contribute from their own expertise. But clear direction alone is not enough. The real question is: how do you ensure that this strategy also comes to life in the organisation?
This does not happen with a presentation or a document. It happens when teams talk to each other about what the direction means for their daily work. When leaders give room for initiative. And when professionals experience that their knowledge and experience matter.
In this second part, Judith and Tom show how to organise that movement in concrete terms. How do you translate strategy into team practice? And what role does leadership play in creating space, trust and dialogue?
One way we make this concrete in organisations is by working with strategy and change boxes. No thick documents or long presentations, but a physical box with working methods, questions and materials that help teams translate the strategy into their own practice. Teams engage with each other, share experiences and determine together what the course means for their daily work. The key messages are fixed, but the interpretation arises on the work floor.
This requires a different type of leadership than we are used to from the past. We are moving away from directive leadership to a facilitating role. In a complex healthcare environment, a leader simply cannot know everything anymore; the professionals on the shop floor have the in-depth knowledge.
In doing so, Tom uses the metaphor of a submarine. He refers to an American captain who deliberately stopped giving orders. “He cannot possibly know everything that happens on board. He has his people for that.” Instead of directing everything himself, he made sure his team was given the space ánd responsibility to make decisions. That is exactly the role of leadership here: not to determine everything, but to set the right preconditions and ensure that the dialogue between departments and disciplines continues. This only works, according to Judith, if you are also consistent: “If you say you put the responsibility somewhere and then you interfere anyway, you lose trust”.
In the hospital world, you see a specific challenge in management: the paradox between the medical staff and the board of directors. On the one hand, it is about organising good and accessible care for the region. On the other hand, it requires close cooperation with other healthcare partners to bring care closer to people.
“Then such a board stands between two worlds.” On the one hand, the choices within the hospital; on the other, the task of serving society as a whole of healthcare organisations as well as possible.
A successful strategy brings those worlds together. Ownership occurs only when medical professionals understand how the course contributes to better cooperation in the region and ultimately to better care for patients.
Especially in healthcare, the human side is invaluable for the success of a change of direction. Judith emphasises that technology and regulatory pressure risk taking the heart out of healthcare. While that is precisely what it is all about: you do it for the human being.
When employees feel that change ‘happens to them’ without guidance, resistance arises. “If you take people out of the process, what are you still doing it for?”. A powerful strategy therefore requires leaders who stay connected to the passion of their people.
An oft-heard argument in healthcare is: “We don't have time”. There is no time either. More and more needs to be done in less and less time. But this is precisely why it is essential to make time create for dialogue.
You have to make the most of the time by really getting people to talk to each other about the dilemmas. Only by facilitating that dialogue will you get the strategy to load and make people feel heard.
Achieving a healthcare strategy is not a one-off exercise, but an ongoing process of alignment. As we say at GroupMapping, you cannot separate strategy from leadership, culture and the change pipeline. Everything is interconnected.
By providing the right frameworks, speaking the language of the shop floor and encouraging leaders to facilitate rather than direct, we turn an abstract plan into a shared reality. It is about ensuring that the ‘heartbeat’ of the organisation, the people who are at the bedside or supporting patients every day, is in sync with the organisation's direction. Because only together can we meet the challenges of the future!
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