Well being care leaders don’t have a imaginative and prescient drawback. We have now an execution drawback.
Over the past twenty years, I’ve seen numerous strategic plans crafted with care, perception, and daring ambition. Mission statements get refreshed. Core values are realigned. Retreats are held. Imaginative and prescient decks are created and shared from the C-suite to the frontlines. And but — inside weeks — most of these plans fade into the background.
The issue isn’t poor management intent. The issue is that we cease at intent. And within the high-pressure, quickly evolving world of well being care, intention alone gained’t carry the burden.
The chasm between what leaders envision and what groups really expertise is broad. And in well being care, that hole isn’t simply irritating — it’s harmful.
Why execution fails in well being care
The stakes in well being care are too excessive for misalignment, ambiguity, or passive management. However we see execution fail repeatedly on account of:
Prime-down bulletins with out ground-level buy-in. Most strategic rollouts are top-down broadcasts, not two-way conversations. Clinicians, schedulers, techs, and therapists aren’t simply passive receivers of imaginative and prescient — they’re the executors of it. If the technique doesn’t make sense to them, it doesn’t go anyplace.
Lack of clear possession. Who owns the follow-through? Many occasions, imaginative and prescient dies within the handoff between management and operations. Nobody is clearly accountable, or worse, a number of folks assume another person is.
Misaligned incentives and metrics. In case your group continues to be measured and rewarded based mostly on outdated KPIs, they’ll deal with these — not your new priorities.
Failure to cascade communication. A brand new strategic objective is likely to be mentioned in a boardroom, summarized in a workers publication, and forgotten by the point a bodily therapist opens their subsequent affected person be aware. With out constant, cascading communication by a number of ranges and codecs, imaginative and prescient dissipates.
Frontline fatigue. The very folks tasked with executing the brand new technique are sometimes overwhelmed by staffing shortages, tech points, or coverage adjustments. If we don’t lighten their load, even the most effective concepts stall.
Closing the execution hole
Imaginative and prescient turns into actuality when it’s:
- Translated into motion
- Owned at each degree
- Sustained by programs
Listed here are three core methods I coach well being care leaders to undertake:
1. Begin with readability, not complexity. Boil down your imaginative and prescient to its easiest type. As a substitute of launching a 24-page initiative, ask: “Can each chief and worker articulate what we’re making an attempt to attain in a single sentence?” If not, refine it.
Then clearly map the “what this implies for you” layer by layer. A brand new scheduling mannequin doesn’t simply imply sooner entry for sufferers; it means particular habits shifts for consumption, clinicians, and help workers.
2. Assign champions, not simply checklists. Execution lives or dies with possession. Assign an actual individual at every degree who’s answerable for making the imaginative and prescient actual — not simply monitoring metrics however fixing friction.
Champions ask, “What’s getting in the best way for our group?” after which take away it. They provide voice to the frontline and shut the loop between government assumptions and real-world utility.
3. Construct rhythms of reinforcement. One-and-done city halls gained’t embed change. You want weekly rhythms of reinforcement: huddles, dashboards, suggestions loops, and storytelling. That is the place AI and tech can assist — surfacing progress, flagging gaps, and permitting leaders to re-engage shortly.
It’s not about micromanaging. It’s about sustaining a pulse.
The price of non-execution
When visions fail, morale suffers. Groups develop cynical. Sufferers discover. Sources get wasted. And worst of all, innovation will get shelved.
Well being care doesn’t lack imaginative and prescient. We lack execution habits.
If we’re severe about reworking affected person care, bettering clinician engagement, and constructing resilient programs, we should transfer past technique slides. We should embed imaginative and prescient into the day by day heartbeat of our organizations.
Execution isn’t glamorous. But it surely’s the place management is confirmed.
Let’s shut the hole.
Dave Cummings is a well being care government.
