“Clinicians Will Change Their Opinions,
Beliefs and Convictions If You Can Change Their Points Of Reference.”
(PART 1 OF 3)
As I see it, one
of the biggest CHALLENGES for supply chain professionals today is moving
their clinicians from a NO to a YES on big ticket product, service or
technology evaluations, without straining your relationships with these
groups of customers. As an example, one of our clients is purchasing
close to one million dollars in orthopedic implants from three different
manufactures and is losing an opportunity to save $100,000, because it
is their clinician’s opinions, beliefs or convictions that NO CHANGE is
possible in this commodity group, because they KNOW – with certainty –
that their decision to purchase these implants is IRREVOCABLE and
NON-NEGOTIABLE.
These clinicians
have taken this position because of prior reference points (opinions of
their peers, their own empirical experience or information provided by
manufacturers or trade journals), which may or may not be reality or
even evidence-based, but only the opinions, beliefs and convictions that
have evolved over the years without being CHALLENGED! It is our job
then, as supply chain professionals to CHALLENGE AND TEST all opinions,
beliefs and convictions that our clinicians hold to ensure that they are
reality and evidenced-based before moving on to new product, service and
technology evaluations elsewhere.
Moving From A NO To A YES With Your Evaluations
The first step in
moving from a NO to a YES with your product, service and technology
evaluations is to change your clinician’s reference points; by doing so
you can change their opinions, beliefs or convictions. This can only be
accomplished by UNDERSTANDING how they acquired these reference points
in the first place. You must ask them, therefore, through interviews,
focus groups or surveys what the history or genesis was (or how, when
and why did they came to buy them) of the thinking behind the purchase
of these products, services or technologies.
I first used this
tactic in the 80s, when investigating suture purchases by surgeons. I
was investigating changing from one brand of suture to another, which
would have generated substantial savings for my client at that time.
What I found was that all surgeons that I interviewed (including the
chairman of the department of surgery) had started to use one brand of
suture as interns and residents and then without giving it a second
thought, continued to use this same brand of suture, until I asked them
how, when and why they selected their current brand of suture as their
preference. I’m sure that you won’t be surprised by their answer, which
was, “this was the suture I was given to use as an intern and
resident and really hadn’t thought about why I continued to use this
brand of suture all of my professional life to this point in time.”
I now had changed
these surgeons reference point from “this is the way I have
always done it” to “I’m now sure why I selected this brand of
suture.” The surgeons gave their Ok for a pilot study on the new
suture brand I was proposing which I considered a functional alternative
to the brand they had been purchasing for a lifetime without any
CONFRONTATION, REVOLUTION or even a NEGATIVE comment.
Changing Reference Points Takes Time And Patience
Changing our
customer’s reference points takes TIME and PATIENCE and in some
categories of purchase can take YEARS to change them. We must remember,
however, that supply chain management isn’t a SPRINT, but a MARATHON
that can only be won by changing the opinions, beliefs and convictions
of our clinicians one day at a time. To try to force change on these
decision makers will only inhibit the CHANGE PROCESS, in their favor,
not yours.
Robert T. Yokl, President, The HCP Group, Ltd., has over 35
years of experience as a consultant and manager in the field of
Supply Value Chain Management and is one of the country's leading
healthcare experts in value analysis, value engineering, Non Salary
Expense Reduction and materials
management. He is the developer and program leader of the award winning
Certified Value Analysis Practitioner Training Program™. Mr. Yokl is also
the developer of the healthcare industry's leading ValueNetCentral™ Value
Analysis Software. Over the past two decades he has trained thousands of
healthcare managers in his patented Strategic Value Analysis™ and
Team-Based Project Management™ processes and has assisted scores of
organizations in developing their own value management programs. He has
published six books, videos and audios on supply/value chain management.
His latest book being, “ Strategic Value Analysis™: The #1 Smart Strategy
for Taking Cost Out of a Healthcare Organizations’ Healthcare Supply Value Chain”.
by
Robert T. Yokl, President