6 strategies essential to launch your reinvention

“The transformational changes we need in healthcare start with the exchange of information and ideas and thought-provoking discussions featured in this series…with respectful tension that truly challenges the status quo.”

—Scott Wolf, DO, MPH, FACP, physician director, associate director at Berkeley Research Group

I opened this series by highlighting the many challenges and threats healthcare organizations face, but also saying that it’s not the threats themselves that make healthcare leaders vulnerable: it’s their inability to respond in real time when these threats arise.

This is the final article in a 14-part weekly series, in which I share insights from the Healthcare in the Age of Personalization Summit 2024. We heard from a wide range of healthcare experts: leaders from all facets of healthcare organizations, from the boardroom and the C-suite to the patient’s bedside. We covered topics like why better care requires respecting individuality, how industry incentives work against personalization, how we can shape our organizational cultures so people know they matter, and more.

In this article I share highlights from my conversation with Scott WolfDO, MPH, FACP, Executive Physician, Assistant Director at Berkeley Research Group. Dr. A practicing physician, Wolf has also led healthcare organizations as president and in various administrative roles.

To conclude the summit, we answered the question: What are the most critical reinvention strategies for healthcare leadership in today’s age of personalization?

We framed that conversation around six strategies that I have identified over the years as the foundation for innovation.

1. See opportunities in everything

Dr. Wolf reiterated some of the major challenges facing the U.S. healthcare industry, many of which have been discussed in this series of articles.

“We are approaching or exceeding nearly 20% of our GDP in healthcare in the United States, but our quality outcomes lag far behind those in other developed countries,” said Dr. Wolf. “We have supply chain issues, we have unprecedented workforce challenges, we have regulatory and compliance issues. The future of healthcare depends on today’s leaders and the impact they can have on learn, unlearn, relearn, repeat – the mantra you started us with.”

We must see these challenges and threats as opportunities. But that can be a challenge when we’re in the middle of it.

“One of the reasons we don’t see opportunities is because we are constantly dealing with the fires of the day,” said Dr. Wolf. “We are going from a financial fire, a quality fire, a personnel fire. We need to address the urgency of some of these issues so that we can create some opening in our minds and our thinking and really give our teams time to come together to think about what those opportunities are.

But we must be intentional.

“We have to be specific in answering certain questions because there are so many options,” he said. “And for all these opportunities there is a ‘shining light’. And often we chase those shiny lights because we feel like they’re going to come solve a problem for us without actually asking: Is that shiny light an answer to a very specific question?

2. Anticipate the unexpected

Answering a specific question is one thing. But we must also look for questions that we are not even asking ourselves yet.

“To anticipate the unexpected, we must consider the perspectives of all stakeholders sitting around our table,” said Dr. Wolf. “Our patients, our colleagues, all the providers and providers in the organization, from the top of the organization, everyone brings a different perspective. What may be very clear to one person may be a complete blind spot to someone else.”

It is also not enough to simply invite people to participate. We need to show them that it is not only safe but also useful to share their ideas and perspectives.

“We need to develop a culture of total engagement,” he said. “You have to create that innovation funnel. The top of the funnel is very large, where everyone is invited to contribute ideas, and then it goes through a discernment process. So at the bottom you have a well thought out solution. But those ideas come from everyone in the organization and even the community, to help drive the ideas and strategies that can then take you to that next level.”

3. Give free rein to your passionate pursuits

People will surprise you with what they are capable of when they feel unleashed – when they feel free to perform at their highest level.

“There is nothing more empowering and invigorating than giving people the opportunity to contribute,” said Dr. Wolf. “The key is engaging and welcoming those thoughts and input. And it allows people to make a decision.”

Dr. Wolf gave a practical example of this. At one of his previous organizations, there was a surgical technician on duty every morning at 5:30 am, and his job was to make sure all the ORs were stocked with the right supplies for the day. If anything ran out during the day, he had to go down the hall and around the corner to get more stuff and bring it back. One day he brought an idea to Dr. Wolf.

“If I could put floor-to-ceiling racks outside every operating room, I would store the racks so that I could just open the door during the day and have my materials there.”

They did it.

“It was a small investment, but we made it,” said Dr. Wolf. “It saved turnover time because he didn’t have to waste a few minutes. If you multiply a few minutes several times a day, it adds up.”

But saving time was not the only advantage.

“The passion this young boy had as his idea was welcomed and implemented was immeasurable,” said Dr. Wolf. “And then it led to some other ideas and thoughts from his colleagues in the group. So just by getting involved, by inviting and recognizing his input, it unleashed a tremendous amount of passion.”

4. Live with an entrepreneurial spirit

You don’t have to be an entrepreneur to be enterprising. You just need to have an enterprising attitude.

“Our current situation is not working, so you have to welcome that entrepreneurial spirit and be willing to take a risk,” said Dr. Wolf. “Failure will happen, but you just have to fail fast and learn from those experiences. But you have to be willing to at least seize that opportunity, think differently and get the support and input from your colleagues so that you do it together.”

If you don’t see much innovation within your organization, take a closer look at the systems you’ve built and the culture you’ve built. You may be in the way.

“That spirit of innovation must be cultivated in an organization to think differently, see differently and act differently,” said Dr. Wolf. “As the saying goes, you get the results your system was designed for. We cannot expect any changes in our results if we do not change our systems.”

Sometimes the hardest part of reinvention and transformation is first removing everything that gets in the way.

5. Work with a generous purpose

I believe healthcare was born from the spirit of giving, sharing and serving others. How can we stay in that mindset as we work to meet the challenges every day?

“It’s the concept of servant leadership – serving others before yourself,” said Dr. Wolf. “I’ve tried to pursue that my entire career. I’ve always hit bumps and bumps – after a while you get caught up in the status quo. And so it’s about reigniting that passion so that you can lead with servant leadership. You can lead with that generous purpose and that sense of giving.”

The stakes are so high in this sector.

“The outcome of [leading with a generous purpose] will be the patient’s perception,” said Dr. Wolf. “They know when they are really being served. And the same applies to our healthcare providers and our employees: they know when they are being served by the organization, but even more so they know when they are being served not be served.”

6. Lead to Leave a Legacy

Leaders have so much influence on the direction of the organization: how do you use your influence?

“This one is one of the most important and rises to the top,” said Dr. Wolf. “Leaders today must act as coaches and mentors because there may be three or even four generations of people working in your organization who serve a common good. If our leaders do not lead with the desire to leave a legacy, with the desire to be a mentor, to be generous with their leadership, there will be a gap in our future leaders.”

That’s so true, and it goes both ways: Leaders must also realize that they can learn a lot from younger people who come to this industry without the baggage of the status quo.

“As leaders we have to be vulnerable,” said Dr. Wolf. “We have to be vulnerable to invite innovation and ideas. That is the job of a leader. The leader is not supposed to have every idea. The leader is supposed to pave the way, so when those brilliant ideas emerge and trickle down to the top, it can actually have an impact. They pave the way to implement these ideas.”

Watch this short video to learn more from the panel.

Click here to learn more about healthcare in the age of personalization