Savings Beyond Price™

^{Innovative Supply Savings and Quality Solutions That Work}

^{by Strategic Value Analysis® in Healthcare}

Did You Know...?

That Value Analysis Was Developed Back In the 1940's After World War II as a Way to Find Lower Cost but Higher Quality Alternative products and methods. This was Due to the Lack of Material Resources At The End of The War.

Savings Beyond Price -Weekly eNewsletter - October 6, 2010

Robert T. Yokl

President & Chief Value Strategist

 

Teamwork that Works!

Greetings, 

Teamwork is an essential building block for successful supply chain management, yet many supply chain teams (value analysis, workgroups, or committees) aren’t very effective, productive, or results oriented: They meet, greet, kibitz and then adjourn without really accomplishing anything of substance.  

We know this to be a fact since we have trained, coached and facilitated hundreds of teams over the last 24 years.  The secret to having “teamwork that works” is to improve collaboration, and to build balance and efficiency into your teamwork.  Here are five ways to do so:

 

1.           Team Structure 

Most teams are really organized as committees (a forum where people are chosen to passively share their opinions and expertise). On the other hand, a team is an active workgroup where each team member shares, labors and participates in their team’s work.  The operative word here is “work” inside and outside of your team meetings to investigate, evaluate and implement alternatives and/or better solutions than what you are doing now.  If you still have a “passive” committee structure where there is a lot of talk but very little action, it might be a good time to roll out a new way of doing business that will bring you optimal results. 

2.           Team Membership 

As one of my clients stated recently, “It is important to add a number of “critical thinkers” to your workgroups to radically change your team dynamics. We found that we didn’t need workgroup members to be subject matter experts to greatly contribute to our investigations. As a result, we were able to have more objectivity from these unbiased participants than typical process owners who too often are just trying to protect their turf.”   I couldn’t have said this better myself!  

3.           Team Goals & Objectives 

We have observed that too often teams aren’t given concrete goals and objectives (e.g., dollars to be saved, percentage reduction in infection rate, or number of procedures to be increased) which are absolutely necessary to focus your team members on their teams’ expected end results. If team leaders and team members don’t know what’s expected of them, then how can they ever be held accountable for their actions?  

4.           Team Measurement 

We have all heard the old saying, “What is measured happens”, but do we actually live by it with our teamwork? Do we measure our attendance against goals, savings against goals, quality improvements against goals, etc?  If not, we are sorely missing a key ingredient that would quickly improve our team’s productivity and outcomes.   

5.           Team Leadership 

If you don’t have the right team leader (e.g., bright, energetic, organized, committed, proactive, action oriented, and an analytical thinker) to lead your team(s) you will find that your team members will quickly lose interest in their team work and will move on to other pressing problems. This is why the selection of team leader(s) should be considered as important as hiring someone in a leadership position at your healthcare organization.  Therefore, it should be done with as much care, thoughtfulness and thoroughness as time will permit.

 

These are just a few ideas to make your teamwork more efficient, effective and productive. These five tactics will also enable you to build more successful work teams that will live up to their full potential with fresh ideas, more interaction and that can solve any challenge that is throw at them.

Your Partner In Savings Beyond Price™,

Robert T Yokl
Chief Value Strategist
Strategic Value Analysis® In Healthcare
Bobpres@strategicva.com
1-800-220-4274

 

P.S. If you want to read more about “Teamwork That Works” you might want to order our FREE Healthcare Supply Utilization Revolution book and then see chapters XVII and XVIII where we talk about a few more ideas that work to improve teamwork.     

 

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