How to Use Executive Visioning to Start the Year as a Unified, Focused, and Well-Aligned Team

The New Year can be a powerful time to reflect on where we've been and what we've accomplished, and, then, cast a new vision for where we'd like to go.

Just as individuals will go through a process of dreaming, visioning, and planning for what's ahead, so, too, should organizations looking to reset their expectations, realign around important goals, and reconnect with their senior team.

Without taking the time to regroup as an executive team on a quarterly or at least an annual basis, our work as healthcare leaders can get increasingly more fractured, disconnected from the CEO and organization's greater vision, and in conflict with the work happening in other departments and divisions.

Even the best functioning teams need dedicated time to reconnect with each other, share what's most important, and partner together to keep the organization on track.

The start of the calendar year or beginning of a new fiscal year is a great time to gather and do this important visioning work, as it may greatly impact the initiatives you'll pursue, may require a few budgetary shifts and adjustments, and can provide the space you need to respond to market conditions and adapt your strategic plan if necessary.

To get your team reconnected, refocused, realigned, and ready to succeed, we recommend a process called Executive Visioning that can be done on a 1:1 basis if a group meeting is not a feasibility, but, ideally, as a full senior team to gain the most traction and allow your organization to be most effective in the year ahead.

What is Executive Visioning?

At its core, Executive Visioning is a process that will allow all leaders within your C-Suite and senior Team to get on the same page and get back to operating from the right level of leadership.

Too often, executives in healthcare organizations are caught up fighting fires, responding to the urgent needs of each day, charging forward on the initiatives at hand, and never stepping back to do the work of visioning that only senior leaders can do.

A regular cadence of Executive Visioning will ensure your organization remains guided by a deeper vision, calling, and purpose, and is continually aligned around what will be best for your organization, employees, patients, and community.

If we fail to step back together and vision as a leadership team, we can continue to be very busy and consumed with tactical implementation of strategies and goals that may have been relevant when they were set, but are no longer the best approach to meet the needs of those we serve.

We also may see a tug of war happening between departments who are all charging forward in competing directions, fighting for limited resources, and not leading the organization in the same direction. A lack of regular visioning and realignment can increase tension and conflict in our organization, cause confusion for our employees and consumers, and waste valuable time, energy, and resources.

Executive Visioning will reveal any issues and challenges the organization is facing and allow leaders to work together to address them within a safe and collaborative space. The process opens communication channels, allows the senior team to gain a deeper appreciation and understanding for each other's talents and perspectives, and helps build trust and confidence in each leader's motivations, approach, and abilities.

What is the goal of Executive Visioning?

Executive Visioning provides an informal and relaxed environment for leaders to get what's most important on the table, make a plan for how to move forward, and feel more certain that they have the support they need from their team.

When you make time for regular Executive Visioning, you'll experience:

More Traction, Less Tangents: Rather than all pulling in different directions, you'll find your team working as one, unified, well-functioning team, striving to accomplish the same goals and maximizing your efforts, time and resources. Rather than every leader or department charging forward on their own whims and priorities, you'll be collectively pursuing the same vision, allowing you to gain far more traction on your initiatives and have a much bigger impact.
More Communication, Less Confusion: Instead of assuming you're all on the same page and being surprised when conflict and issues arise, you'll have created the space to get all of your plans and priorities on the table, discussed what's most important to your department and division, and gotten all team members in the loop and up to speed on your next steps. Every leader will walk away with a clear sense of what their colleagues are committed to, what outcomes each has promised to deliver, and will be better connected and able to openly discuss any challenges that arise along the way.
More Alignment and Teamwork, Less Every Man for Himself: After you've made the time for Executive Visioning, you'll see previously held misconceptions, suspicions, mistrust, and doubt begin to fade away as expectations become more clear, the team begins to reunite around a shared goal, and everyone gets updated on their colleagues' progress and accomplishments from the previous year. When everyone has a better line of sight to what they're teammates are tackling, it becomes far easier to extend grace when they are overloaded with current projects and you can find out where a cross-departmental collaboration could lighten the load for both teams.

Who should participate in Executive Visioning?

The work of Executive Visioning is ideal for members of your C-Suite. Depending on the set up of your organization, you may wish to include:

President / Chief Executive Officer
Chief Operating Officer and/or Chief Administrative Officer
Chief Strategy Officer
Chief Financial Officer
Chief Marketing + Communications Officer
Chief Human Resources Officer
Chief Nursing Officer
Chief Medical Officer
Chief Quality Officer

Or their respective counterparts, as established within your organizational hierarchy. Smaller health systems may include top level directors that are particularly influential and will have a major role in implementing the work after the session is complete.

You may also wish to include the head of your foundation, the head of facilities (if a major expansion is upcoming), your Chief Information Officer (if a major digital project or overhaul is underway), etc.

Your goal in drafting your Executive Visioning participant list is to have the full senior team represented and get all top level decision-makers in the room. You'll want those individuals the CEO is most dependent on to enact and implement the vision and direction for the organization.

How to Do Executive Visioning

Again, the primary purpose of Executive Visioning is to achieve a shared vision, focus, and alignment within the senior team of the organization.

We find it's most effective when the entire group can gather and work together to discuss and plan the year ahead, but Executive Visioning can be done on a 1:1 basis, if needed.

Here's how Executive Visioning would look if done individually or as a group:

1:1, Leader to Leader Discussions

If meeting as a group is not a possibility, you're in the wrong season of the year to host a workshop of this scope, or, you're a leader who may not have an automatic seat at the strategy table, 1:1 Executive Visioning discussions can still help you get incredible clarity and alignment and dramatically improve your results.

Depending on access and availability, try scheduling an informal 1:1 with 3-5 leaders who will most impact your department's work and who you would most like to support.

You may grab a 60-90 minute lunch, meet offsite in a relaxed environment like a book store or coffee shop, or set aside extra time in a regularly scheduled 1:1.

Your goal will be to listen deeply and understand the perspective and needs of the leader you're speaking with, so come prepared with an open mind and the ability to take notes and document what you hear.

You can get a lot of great information and insight for the year ahead with three, simple questions:

What are your strategic initiatives for the year?
What are the biggest opportunities and challenges you face?
How can my team and I help you succeed?

You'll be surprised at how much intel you can gather with these simple questions and you'll definitely leave the session feeling more connected, aligned, and mutually supported.

PRO TIP: Don't forget to follow up your meeting by sharing a succinct summary of what you heard, ways you can work together, and any action steps you'll want to take from the information shared.

Once you've met with all leaders, you can synthesize the information from everyone, reassess your strategic plan for the year, and have a clear roadmap for what will be the most impactful for you to pursue.

Interactive Group Workshops with the Entire Senior Team

If you're able to meet as a group, you should be able to mine quite a bit of info in one, 2-3 hour session.

To prepare for the meeting, it can also be very beneficial for the facilitator to schedule a few 1:1s with top leaders to get additional insight into how things are going and where the biggest needs and challenges are bound to arise.

An outside facilitator is recommended as they can provide an unbiased perspective, listen for assumptions and limiting beliefs, ask probing questions, and make connections that may not be as obvious to someone who is deeply steeped in your system.

However, a trusted staff or board member who is willing to prompt and encourage the group can also lead the session.

Questions, topics, and activities may include:

Current State + Desired Future State
SWOT + Gap Analysis
Service Line Prioritization
Strategic Anchors
Cultural Assessment
Consumer Strategies
Growth Opportunities
Brand Discovery + Exploration
Working Styles + Communication Styles
Team Building

Rather than being a highly cerebral, tactical meeting, this session should be designed to get your leaders thinking more creatively and should have a few non-traditional exercises and activities such as drawing, word associations, free writing, and mind mapping that can unlock different answers and perspectives.

How is Executive Visioning Different than Strategic Planning?

Unlike Strategic Planning that will take your high-level visions and ideas and create strategies and tactics to bring each big idea to completion, Executive Visioning will yield mainly high-level results.

You can think of Executive Visioning as a pre-cursor to the Strategic Planning process if you don't yet have a strategic plan in place, or, if you do have a plan in place, this process will allow you to validate your goals and strategies on a yearly basis and continue to extend the timeline of your Strategic Plan's focus each year.

Rather than being deeply tactical and execution focused, Executive Visioning will keep us at Visioning, Focus, and Alignment, three stages we must always complete before implementation to ensure we're pursuing the right targets and we're working collaboratively as a team.

What are the next steps after Executive Visioning?

Executive Visioning will provide core focus areas, common themes, brand insights, and marketing strategies that you'll want to vet and explore further after your session.

Core Focus Areas + Macro-Strategies

For example, you may have discovered five core focus areas, such as leadership, employees, consumers, community, and growth that were reoccurring in many of the exercises.

You'll want to take those core focus areas and refine them into a few macro-strategies that support the focus areas:

Leadership: Master Plan + Dashboard and CEO Communication Strategy
Employee: Employee Engagement + Recruitment and Physician Engagement + Recruitment
Consumer: Patient Experience and Patient Access
Community: Community Outreach and Web + Online Reputation
Growth: Service Line Growth and Primary + Specialty Care Growth

With those strategies defined, you can begin planning next steps, assign committees and teams, and develop action plans if you're ready and able to pursue those initiatives at this time.

Service Line Recap + Prioritization

If you've identified through your discussions that some service lines are at capacity and need to be maintained rather than actively promoted, you can adjust your approach as necessary.

Some service lines may be ramping up with additional locations and provider capabilities and need to be marketed more heavily. If that is the case, you can schedule follow up Strategy Sprints to go deep into each service line and create a strategy for getting more visibility and referrals to that area.

Marketing Strategies

The discovery and discussion within an Executive Visioning Session should provide insights into how you can build brand awareness, enhance customer engagement, improve your reputation in the community, and grow as an organization.

Your marketing leader will be able to take those insights and refine the organization's marketing plan to add in any immediate opportunities and plan ahead for longer term goals and strategies.

Ready to Take on Executive Visioning at Your Organization? We Can Help!

The important thing to remember is that Executive Visioning isn't set up to give you more to do, but to help you ensure you're working more strategically and collaboratively as a team.

Executive Visioning will allow you to save time and money by ensuring your entire team is working in alignment up and down the organization and you're not duplicating efforts, working in competing directions, and/or not maximizing the skills of your entire team.

If you're ready to get your team back on the same page and start the new year off as a unified, focused, and well-aligned team, contact us to schedule your first Executive Visioning session today.