Effective Change Management

Last week I was asked to attend a multi-departmental meeting to solve some process issues one of our hospitals was facing. Members representing each department sat around the table, each with their desires and objections. After about an hour, we had designed a plan, and everyone was on board. How did that happen? Someone walked into the meeting prepared. Here are a few ideas you might want to implement.

Start with Mission and Purpose

Your mission and purpose is the what and why you do what you do. What you do are the actual services or goods you produce. Why is the reason behind your what. If you want to be successful in business, your why should be centered in the world of the customer.

In the case of this meeting, our what is providing safe, efficient patient care. The why is to improve their lives. Every decision and action we take should be to benefit the patient. We spent a brief bit of time reviewing this premise before we began to discuss the issues facing the departments. Reviewing and stating the mission and purpose helps to focus the attendees on why they are in business. It pulls their attention and focus off of their departmental or personal needs and places it on what is best for the patient experience.

Be Prepared for the Encounter

Whether you are working on a process improvement protocol meeting, a negotiation, or an employee annual review meeting, always plan for the meeting. Preparation will ensure the meeting will go more smoothly. Don’t shoot from the hip or go with something off the top of your head. It’s important to be creative, but by planning out the meeting, you can improve the creativity by knowing the boundaries.

Know What You Want

Before you start the session, know what you what as a result of the meeting. Be precise in this. Think of the time you spend in the meeting as an investment. Time, like money and energy, is a resource. Unlike those other two resources, time is nonrenewable and limited. In fact, we don’t even know how much time we do have. Spend your time wisely and work to make it profitable for you. If you begin to think of time as something you invest, you will start to work to maximize your return on the time you spend in meetings. Knowing what you want is one of the best ways to maximize your return on time invested.

Have a Plan of Action

Knowing what you want to happen next is a great way to ensure your time is well spent. You may discover throughout the meeting that what you want to happen will not occur the way you planned, but because you had a plan, you can quickly adapt so that you can achieve your goals and objectives.

Prepare Questions and Statements

The key to successful meetings that accomplish something is to prepare excellent questions before you walk into the meeting. Avoid using questions that shut down creativity. Questions that demand a yes/no answer do just that. Refrain from using verb-led questions such as “Is this…,” “Does this…” “Will we….” Instead, craft questions that are open-ended and begin with who, what, when, where, and why. You’ll get more information and allow for greater creativity in the meeting if you do this.

Prepare a few open-ended questions before the meeting. Use them to prime the pump of creativity. Have a few follow-up questions ready too. Use questions to get everyone on the same page and see the problem from the same viewpoint. Once that is done, you can then build a consensus and a plan that meets your mission and purpose.

Take Notes

Take notes throughout the meeting. Write what is said and who said it. This record will serve as a record of what happened. It will also help ensure that if the process improvement is successful, you will know to give credit to. This alone will go far to establish a culture that embraces constant change and development. A good leader doesn’t hog the credit but instead looks for ways to divert it to those who deserve and need it most.