Avoid these blunders when shortening change cycles
The following fatal errors could derail or destroy your rapid change projects. Avoid them at all costs! To compile this list, QI/TQM queried Rose-mary Keeley, director of Improvement Services for VHA Central Atlanta in Charlotte, NC; Eugene Nelson, DSc, MPH, director of Quality Education, Measurement and Research, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, NH; and Barbara Niedz, RN, PhD, Director of Quality Management at St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center in Paterson, NJ. Their recommendations include:
Don't settle for stingy time and resource doles from top management. Substantial long-lasting returns from accelerated change initiatives require hefty upfront resource investments.
Don't launch processes under the thumb of managers who delegate change directives but then won't implement your team's designs. Hand pick managers who champion change and will take the heat with the rest of you if temporary setbacks occur.
Don't get too tied up in data analysis. A few practical measures of key results might be exactly what you need.
Make sure you understand what the key players hold dear. Cost-savings might thrill an administrator but horrify a clinician. So include outcome measures that sing tunes all of your chief stakeholders find appealing.
Avoid letting people off the hook for responsibilities they assume.
Don't cry wolf unless you mean it! Focus the resource commitments required for systemwide change on issues involving your organization's financial health or patient safety. For changes of a smaller scale, work at the grass-roots level. Once people learn management supports change, their willingness to enact the small ones is apt to increase.
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