VALUE IMPROVEMENT LEADERS

TOPIC #1 | February 2

627 Words + 1 Activity | 8 minutes of your day.

OVERVIEW

The Vision Summary The collective wisdom of University of Utah Health leaders has demonstrated four predictors of success (or failure) during changes. The Vision Summary is a tool designed to explore your thinking around these four predictors.

PRINCIPLE Importance of planning (building a vision) prior to starting any value improvement effort. TOOL The Vision Summary is list of 15 questions that guide value improvement leaders through 4 common predictors of improvement success. APPLICATION Outline your plan for success by working through the 15 vision summary questions with your team.

STEVENOTE

Before you criticize a man, you should walk a mile in his shoes. This way, when he flies into a rage upon hearing your harsh truths, you’ll be a mile away. And you’ll have his shoes.  But I digress. Or is that a progression?

LET'S BEGIN

1. What is your vision for this value improvement effort? Common responses to this question are solutions to a problem (“more staff”) or vague concepts (“to be more efficient”). Sometimes they are laudably specific about outcomes (“reduced wait times”). But often the vision lacks necessary specifics.  For instance, you know this work you’re proposing is important. In fact, it’s urgent. It’s obvious to anyone who’s walked in your shoes. Problem is, you need the support of others who haven’t been wearing your shoes. Oddly, they’re not a mile away. They’ve been working next to you for years. How could they not see it? Certainly they’ll buy in after a brief, authoritative explanation.  Nope. That’s not going to work. Not now, not here.

2. Successful collaboration requires hearts, minds, expertise, time, etc. Value work is rarely executed alone. You’ll be asking a team to contribute time and hard effort. Long term, the solution may demand even more; more daily work and maybe some of their independence. They know this ahead of time. So, how can you get them to join you?  You could use your authority to threaten people to do your bidding. This is a lazy and short-sighted strategy. People around you know how to stand and salute, but they have options and they could abandon you. Setting the stage for genuine collaboration is a different matter.     Our system’s best change agents tell us there are four key areas someone in your shoes needs to address: Benefit, Team, Patient, Measurement. Within these big four, we’ve distilled their wisdom into 15 success factors (phrased as questions) and collected them in the vision. Develop honest, thoughtful answers to these 15 questions and your chance of value improvement success is high. Ignore them and you’re project is in peril before you start.

3. “I demand you explain your success factors,” said no one on your team. You need the vision summary because no one is going to ask you for the information it contains. (Side note: Wouldn’t that be nice?  The idea that people would demand a bulleted list of success factors? It’s up to you to make your answers explicit without anyone asking.) If we’re being real, you can use the terms “team” and “project” early on, but your project isn’t really a project yet, nor is your team really a team. These terms represent your wishes at this point. The vision summary assists you to crystalize your vision with necessary specifics. Then, of equal importance, it allows you to communicate your vision to your would-be team.  It’s a token of your willingness to collaborate with them (not dictate to them). We suggest you work through the vision summary by yourself and present it to your would-be team as a draft. Be open to correction. Authentically open. Be ready and eager to hear about any blind spots you may have.

ACTIVITY

Give the Vision Summary a whirl: Download the Vision Summary and and familiarize yourself with the questions.

Once you’ve nailed the vision summary, when team and project no longer need “quote marks,” it’s time to get down to brass tacks. Time to let the value improvement methodology work for you. Time to start a Value Summary.

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Accelerate | University of Utah | healthsciences.utah.edu/accelerate Questions? Email: kim.mahoney@hsc.utah.edu

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