Introduction
Josie Walsh, the CEO of Providence Healthcare, has changed the organization in a dramatic way, improving patient flow and leading the company through the financial turmoil of the global economic crisis. Her work required careful risk management, certain leadership characteristics, as well as a thoroughly detailed plan, named “Transformation by Design”. This case analysis will show that it was these traits that allowed Walsh to achieve the success of Providence Healthcare and create an example of how companies should be led.
Risks
As mentioned above, Walsh has seen and has successfully worked around a great number of risks for her “Transformation by Design” plan. Each of the major goals in the plan was threatened to some extent. This section will focus on listing the major risks that Walsh has encountered while turning her plan into reality.
The first major threat to Josie Walsh’s plan was the tendency of old organizations to resist change. Moreover, it is noted in the cases, that around 70% of all change initiatives in these companies are doomed to fail (Reddin, 2017). Walsh still managed to offset this risk by “piloting” her initiative to test and refine it before widespread implementation (Reddin, 2017). Thus, while Providence Healthcare is an organization that is more than 150 years old, the board of directors was more inclined to accept the new initiative, as there were fewer risks involved with just a “pilot”.
The second risk that Josie Walsh encountered was the possible perception of her plan as just a way to decrease costs. Drastic changes in organizations are often sabotaged by employees, as they are seen as cost-cutting measures that may lead to job cuts (Reddin, 2017). However, that threat was avoided as well, with the leadership of Providence issuing an announcement at the beginning of the campaign that no staff members would be laid off because of the changes made by the initiative.
Another risk that Walsh has successfully avoided is the lack of collaboration with stakeholders. Without that, the patient flow in Providence would still be unoptimized, with one patient being looked after by 35 health professionals, instead of 14 (Reddin, 2017). Still, through extensive communication and collaboration with acute care hospitals, as well as the employees and management in Providence, Walsh managed to streamline the patient flow at the hospital.
The low trust and accountability between stakeholders was another possible risk that Walsh could have encountered. Was noted in the paper, the lack of trust, accountability, and collaboration makes deep and quick changes in an organization extremely difficult (Reddin, 2017). By creating channels for stakeholders to ask her questions on the “Transformation by Design” program directly, Josie Walsh was able to convince even the most skeptical people to support her.
The final possible threat to the “Transformation by Design” initiative was the low employee involvement and morale due to bad communication from management. Research led by Providence Healthcare has revealed that the employees had a low understanding of the program and thus showed low morale and involvement with the initiative (Reddin, 2017). This was mitigated by the introduction of feedback channels for employees, as well as the increased visibility and involvement of management and Walsh herself in explaining the initiative’s goals.
Top 3 Risks
The first of the most important risks in the case study, in my opinion, is low employee involvement. Campaigns are fulfilled by people, and if they do not believe in them, then the plans can be jeopardized. Thus, management should take steps to improve communication with staff, create new channels for anonymous feedback and questions, as well as celebrate the achievement of small milestones by staff.
The second most important risk of the ones listed in this analysis is the low collaboration between stakeholders. A campaign cannot be done by its organizer alone, so contacts and agreements must be established. This can be done by promoting promising employees, as well as deepening the coordination with existing stakeholders to increase efficiency.
The final important risk in the case study is the tendency of old organizations to resist changes. A board of directors that is used to one way of managing a company may feel that a new campaign or program will lead to unnecessary risks. To mitigate this, the board of directors can propose a “test period” for a new campaign, so that if it fails, the company will not suffer huge losses.
Top 2 Management Plans
The increased level of collaboration between stakeholders is one of the most important plans in Walsh’s initiative. It increases the efficiency of the working process: Walsh has supported the most promising leaders in Providence Healthcare and allowed them to further improve the processes in the hospital. Furthermore, she has sent patient coordinators to the five acute care hospitals that Providence has been working with to improve patient flow (Reddin, 2017). This has improved and expanded the relations that Providence had with its stakeholders.
Another plan that was instrumental in Walsh’s campaign was improving communications with staff. This was done by celebrating the achievements of small milestones, increasing the involvement of senior management in conveying the information, and creating more channels for informing the staff and receiving feedback from it (Reddin, 2017). This has inspired increased engagement and morale of staff
Conclusion
The two management plans that I have listed above are likely to be accepted by management and the board of directors due to low-risk levels. The two plans do not create new structures or practices but rather improve and expand the existing ones, which decreases the costs and time required to put them into practice. Thus, I believe that these plans will receive approval from the leadership.
Reference
Reddin, C. P. (2017). Boldly Go: Character Drives Leadership At Providence Healthcare [PDF document]. Web.