In a recent Strategic Planning work session with a client, a Board member asked if the organization was running the risk of “Mission Creep”, which they felt should be avoided.  Also called “Mission Drift”, this is when organizations begin to diversify into services or products that are increasingly different from their original purpose and offerings.  In the US and some other economies, when taken to the extreme in pursuit of more earnings, this sometimes resulted in a conglomerate, a holding corporation with many subsidiaries that are unrelated, or at least seem to be.

Stick to Your Knitting  Critics of Mission Creep warn organizations not to stray too far from their core purpose, and to stick to what they know and do best.  Moving into areas where the organization had no experience or fundamental capabilities, either of it own or though partnership, is certainly a high risk and could have severe consequences.  And there is much to be said about knowing what you do best…and continuing to improve it.

We’re in the Railroad Business  But taken to the extreme, a complete lack of any evolution in purpose and portfolio is also dangerous.  This Mission Obsolescence ignores the reality of a constantly changing world, society, and customer.  It’s true that with customers, some of what they need and want from your organization rarely (or never) changes (e.g. safety, respect).  However some of your customers’ key quality characteristics - the attributes they use to evaluate how good your services or products are – do change over time.  This is inevitable in a world of constant innovation.  History has many examples of organizations and even entire industries that failed, or almost failed, due to mission obsolescence.  Remember learning about how railroads almost completely disappeared because they thought they were in the railroad business, all the while choosing to ignore the rapidly expanding world of transportation (cars, trucks, planes)?

Timing…and Information   So how does your organization find the prosperous “middle ground” between Mission Creep and Mission Obsolescence?  By keeping an ear on what your customers need and want and what’s happening with organizations like yours.  I refer to these as Market and Industry Assessments, respectively, and they are a critical early-stage component of Strategic Planning.  If like many organizations, you develop a new Strategic Plan every three years (or maybe less), make sure the process starts with thorough Market and Industry Assessments.

But don’t stop there.  The beginning of a new calendar year is one of several perfect times to refresh your understanding of what’s going on in your industry.  Why?  Because it is often when associations publish updated “Environmental Assessments” or other annual publications where they report on the latest trends, issues, and emerging best practices of interest to members. It’s also a good time, after the holiday rush starts to subside, to reach out to customers for their latest feedback and perceptions.  Staying tuned to your customers and your industry on an ongoing basis is the best way to avoid Mission Obsolescence and build the rationale for well-timed and well-planned Mission Evolution.

Let me know if I can help with an Assessment refresh, or anything else.

All the best in 2024,

Jeff

Back in the summer of 2015, I suggested that people should start building their “Collaboration Skill Set.”  The inspiration for this came from data I was seeing on the rise of collaboration, in particular formal collaborations such as mergers and acquisitions. They had been increasing steadily since 2009 with a noticeably sharper upturn in 2014, the year before I wrote my column.  Mergers and Collaborations have always interested the “Strategic Planner” in me as they are often the means to one or more strategic ends.

Different Time, Same Recommendation  Its now 8 years later, and Covid19 definitely had an impact on Mergers and Acquisitions, like most other things.  But like some of those other things, the impact seems to have been mixed.  After a dip in 2020, followed by a record high year in 2021, things look to have eased off again in 2022 and perhaps 2023 as well according to the most recent data.  Still, I think it may be time once again to sharpen your collaboration skills, even if formal Mergers and Acquisitions are slowing down.  That’s because I believe we are on verge of a period of unprecedented collaboration in general, and in this case, Covid19 was definitely a significant factor.  As I wrote in 2015, “Mergers may garner the headlines, but I think they are just one form of collaboration.  For every full, formal merger, how many work group consolidations, shared-service arrangements, or joint ventures do you think occur?”

Crisis > Collaboration > Innovation  Covid19 was a significant Crisis in just about every way and presented major challenges to customer interaction, supply chain management, cash-flow, capital investment, and workforce recruitment and retention, just to name a few things.  The urgency and human impact of the pandemic forced organizations to work together on a new scale and to a much greater degree.  In efforts to respond, they needed to collaborate and often develop new and innovative ways to deliver essential services and meet even basic needs.  This was nowhere more evident than in the health and human services sector.

Realizing the many upsides of these collaborative efforts, I think the organizations involved will be looking to continue them in some way, having seen like never before how collaboration can be a tremendous catalyst for innovation.  Indeed, I have been struck by how many stakeholders I’ve interviewed recently as part of Strategic Planning engagements expressing a desire to keep the impactful collaboration started during Covid19 going.  But that’s only one of two major drivers of collaboration I see emerging.

Right Tool Set for The Job  Not long before Covid19, many health and human services were beginning to understand the critical importance of Social Determinants.  Poverty fighting organizations like Community Action Agencies were learning about and trying to address Social Determinants of Poverty (SDoP) earlier in the past decade.  Not far behind them were health care organizations, realizing that Social Determinants of Health (SDoH) were at the heart of the “Complex Patient” – the 5% of the US Population that utilizes 50% of all health care resources (1).  Other types of human services organizations are realizing the same thing, and all these organizations are finding a lot of overlap among their social determinant lists.  But ask any of them how they plan to address social determinants and you will find that they are still looking for solutions.  I think the magnitude and complexity of addressing social determinants is another perfect storm for increased collaboration.  It will require the innovation that comes from collaboration among different organizations with different resources, perspectives, context, and ways of thinking to begin solving the challenge of social determinants.  So, this path might be Complex Problem > Collaboration > Innovation.

Growing the List  Back in 2015, I listed four great reasons for why organizations might consider collaboration at some level.  In 2023, I think we need to add a fifth and sixth to that list:

1. Greater economy of scale
2. Improved competitive ability and/or position
3. Increased access to needed resources and/or capacity
4. Expansion into new markets (geographic or product/service mix)
5. Responding to a Crisis
6. Solving Newly Realized Complex Problems   

If I’ve convinced you that the time is ripe for more collaboration, what about that skill set I mentioned back in 2015? I’ve listed some of the key ones here (see sidebar).  In some cases, you may find it helpful to engage an outside facilitator who can bring objectivity and additional expertise.  I also have a short simple guide to thinking about the different levels of collaboration, from the most informal, small scale of efforts to major, formal ones such as mergers and acquisitions.  It also describes the critical success factors to all levels of collaboration. If interested, just e-mail me and I’ll send it along.

In closing, I think the last words I wrote in that 2015 column still fit:

“Signs point to more and more collaboration in most industries.  Bigger isn’t always better, but working together toward common goals usually has the potential for better results.  Are you ready to thrive in an era of collaboration?  If you would like help with a specific collaboration effort or with building your collaboration skill set, contact me.”

Jeff

(1) Mitchell, E.M. Concentration of Healthcare Expenditures and Selected Characteristics of High Spenders, U.S. Civilian Noninstitutionalized Population, 2017. Statistical Brief #528. February 2020. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD. https://meps.ahrq.gov/data_files/publications/st528/stat528.shtml

What are some of the most lasting and useful things you have learned…things you find you can apply over and over through the years and they just keep working?  It might be a concept, a technique, or a key piece of information.  Look in the top drawer of your own professional tool kit and I’ll bet you’ll notice something in common.  Many of the best tools work well in a variety of different applications.  This versatility is part of what makes them so useful.  I have found this to be true with some of the tools and concepts I’ve learned in the field of Quality Improvement, including one of my own favorites, Nolan’s Three Questions.

Dr. Thomas W. Nolan, a statistician, author, and consultant, gave us a framework for process improvement in the form of three simple questions:

1) What are we trying to accomplish?

2) How will we know that a change is an improvement?

3) What changes can we make that will lead to improvement?

Nolan recommended that those working in quality improvement should know, or determine, the answers to these three questions in order to ensure the efficiency and effectiveness of their work, which in turn should follow the Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) Cycle (see diagram).  Indeed, I’ve found the exercise of answering these three questions to be an excellent tool in beginning any improvement effort, and they are very effective in diagnosing why an existing effort has stalled.  However, I’ve also found them to be a useful construct for other work, including:

• - Targeting research efforts
• - Organizing feasibility studies and business plans
• - Refining dashboards and balanced score cards
• - Adding clarity to strategic initiatives

If you’ve not had a chance to apply Nolan’s Three Questions, give it a try.  Let me know if I can help.  It is just one of many tools from the quality field that you might find helpful in both quality improvement as well as in other work.  Just as every leader needs to master the basics of finance or marketing, knowledge of quality improvement fundamentals has become another requirement in today’s organizations.  You can learn more about quality improvement tools, principles, and application from the American Society for Quality.

Jeff

In recent months, more is being written about a few positive impacts of Covid19, one of which is how it served as a catalyst for innovation.  Out of necessity, organizations had to find new and different ways to meet customer needs.  These changes could be thought of as mini innovations, and now that things are beginning to return to pre-Covid19 conditions, at least in some ways, these mini innovations are being reconsidered.  Should they continue and be hardwired into the post Covid19 reality?  Or not?

In addition, many organizations are finding out that customer needs and preferences have also changed, making some products or services in the Pre-Covid19 portfolio less relevant, while creating interest in some new ones (see Parts 1 – 3 in this Blog Series).

Now What?  Whether you have identified the need to now fully implement a new process, product, or service (an innovation) developed during Covid19, or launch an entirely new idea emerging from your efforts to level set as described in the earlier blogs in this 4-part series, you are now at the point of implementation.  How can you make sure implementation will go as smoothly as possible and help this innovation live up to expectations?

The Path to Better Implementation  Fortunately, there are some great tools to help you plan and execute the implementation.  One of them is called a Process Decision Program Chart (PDPC).  The PDPC provides a systematic framework to error-proof an implementation.  First, each problem that may occur or be encountered is identified.  Then each potential problem is linked to one or more undesirable effects.  Countermeasures are then designed to nullify or preempt the effect, or in some cases, prevent the problem from occurring.  Once complete, the PDPC can indicate where implementation plan revisions are needed, or enable the best response when a problem occurs.

Making it Work  When you decide to introduce an innovation in process, product, or service, whether related to Covid19 or not, be sure to make the most of the opportunity by optimizing the implementation.  I can help you leverage PDPC and other implementation tools to ensure your innovation gets off to the best possible start.

To recap the key points of this blog series:

1. Take time for a Customer Knowledge Reset and see how (not if) your customer needs have changed.

2. Conduct a Portfolio Audit to see if your services still match customer needs.

3. Identify the innovation(s) needed to meet new or changed customer needs.

4. Optimize your implementation to better ensure the success of the innovation(s).

It all reminds me of that old insight often shared about the Chinese word for Crisis being composed of the both “danger” and “opportunity” (or change point).   Covid19 was certainly a major crisis for most organizations and work groups, maybe your own.  However, as we begin to emerge from some of the most dangerous periods, let’s seize the opportunities that may have come with it.

Jeff

Do you have the right services?

Coming out of a significant change event is a great time to reassess the various services you provide, especially if you find that your customer’s needs and interests have changed, as discussed in my previous blog.  Even if you are part of a team that provides services to internal customers within your own organization (sometimes referred to as back-office functions), the needs of those client-facing groups may have also changed as they try to adjust and adapt to the changing needs of those they serve, the external or “ultimate” customer.

Gain Perspective with The Portfolio View  A great tool used by for-profits for years is the portfolio analysis. However, non-profits and even departments within an organization serving internal customers can gain insights with slightly modified versions of a Portfolio Analysis.  Originating as the Portfolio Matrix in the 1970s and widely attributed to the Boston Consulting Group, the tool provides a structured method for organizations to comparatively assess the products or services in their portfolio.  It resembles a scatter plot where the x and y axis are used to help plot how each product or services is currently performing based on two variables.  Among for-profits, these two variables are usually projected market growth and market share, however not-for-profits might use increasing / decreasing need (perhaps drawing on a recent Community Needs Assessment), and availability / unavailability of other sources of the service.

The area of the Scatter plot is then divided into quadrants, with each product or service falling in one of these quadrants based on the scores.  Each quadrant has different strategic implications.  For example, if a service has increasing need in the community (plotting “high” on the vertical axis), and there are no alternatives (plotting far to the right on the horizontal axis), it is positioned in the upper right quadrant, where continued high investment will contribute significantly toward fulfilling the organization’s mission.   You can view a more detailed description and illustration on my web site.

The Importance of Balance  Major changes or events, such as the pandemic, often result in a temporary, and sometimes permanent, shift in customer needs and interests, which may provide a solid rationale for repositioning one or more services in a different quadrant.  You may even discover new customer needs that could be added in one of the quadrants representing emerging and / or growing service opportunities.  As you work with a Portfolio Analysis, you might be tempted into thinking that the end game is to be heavily concentrated in that high demand / sole provider quadrant.  Strategically, though, long-term sustainability of your organizations or groups is best achieved when there are services in all four quadrants.  It may help to think of product and services as having an innate life cycle, beginning with discovery, then growth, then maturity, and finally decline.  Having all of your services in the same life cycle stage (or Portfolio quadrant) at once, no matter what stage that is, can have very undesirable effects now or in the near future.

Do you need help is assessing your portfolio against changing customer needs?  Do you need ideas on how to “re-balance” your portfolio?  Contact me at your convenience.

Jeff