Advancing change agility in healthcare
Abstract
Agility has been adopted in the software development industry for decades and has been used in the business world for the past 10 years. In healthcare, however, agility has not been widely adopted or studied but is emerging as imperative for competitive advantage in a rapidly changing environment. Human-centred agility and change in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic has become especially important. Change agility is composed of two aspects. While the first aspect is a mindset that embraces change, resiliency, flexibility and responsiveness to consumer needs, the second is an approach using collaborative efforts through self-organising teams. Healthcare organisations must adopt both aspects to leverage the collective value of change agility. To help staff embrace and develop a change agility mindset, healthcare organisations need to offer relevant educational courses and coaching; teach change agility principles and values by using case studies and real-life applications; and promote the right culture by building flexible systems, providing a safe learning environment and encouraging risk-taking. To grow and sustain change agility, healthcare organisations can benefit by using a continuous seven-step quest: examining the current state, defining the future state, assessing the gaps, developing strategies, executing the strategies, measuring progress and maintaining success. This paper addresses the strategy and iterative interventions developed by the Department of Management Engineering and Consulting (renamed the Strategy Department) at Mayo Clinic to prepare its professional staff to drive a business-focused, change agility mindset through benchmarking, education and experiential learning. The early experiences and lessons learned at Mayo Clinic in change agility are likely broadly transferable to other healthcare organisations.
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Author's Biography
Wei (Sophia) Chen , MS, is a senior health systems engineer in the Strategy Department (formerly Department of Management Engineering and Consulting) at Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota. Sophia has a Master of Science degree in Risk Management and Insurance from St. John’s University in New York City. She has worked in insurance and healthcare industries and has 20 years of experience in strategy, quality, process improvement, cost of care and lean improvement with a strong interest in healthcare agility. Sophia was the change management lead in implementing Mayo’s electronic health record and revenue cycle management, one of the largest implementation projects in Mayo Clinic’s history, which converged 53,000 end users into a single health record system across multiple sites. She is a certified Prosci Change Practitioner (Prosci Inc.). She has presented at national and international conferences, published in peer-reviewed journals and co-authored several books. Sophia supports ‘the needs of the patient come first’ value and believes every role in healthcare makes a meaningful impact on the life of patients and their families.
Christa Y. Leung is a Senior Principal Health Systems Engineer in the Department of Management Engineering & Consulting (ME&C) at Mayo Clinic. She has a master degree in business administration from Augsburg University, Minnesota, USA, and bachelor degrees in commerce and science (honours in psychology) from the University of Melbourne, Australia. She has 13 years of business consulting experience in healthcare and has worked on various process improvement, implementation and change management projects. Most recently, Ms Leung was the change management metrics lead in one of the biggest implementation projects undertaken in Mayo Clinic’s history of more than 150 years: to converge more than 53,000 end users into a single electronic health record (EHR) and revenue cycle management (RCM) system across multiple sites. She is a certified Prosci Change Management Practitioner (Prosci Inc).
Janine R. (Coelho) Kamath is executive director, Mayo Clinic International. Over the past 7 years, Janine has served as chair of the Department of Management Engineering and Consulting and is Assistant Professor of Healthcare Systems Engineering in the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science. Before joining Mayo Clinic, Janine was a manager at two large pharmaceutical companies. At Mayo Clinic, she has advanced and led multiple strategic initiatives related to the digital and platform environment, operations optimisation, international business expansion, care model transformation, core process engineering, and quality, affordability and service. Janine is engaged with various national and international leaders and governance committees at Mayo Clinic. She has a passion for entrepreneurship, diverse talent growth and driving results in a dynamic environment through empowered high-performing teams. Janine is the board chair and president emeritus of the Association for Internal Management Consultants and a member of the INFORMS Roundtable. Janine has presented at national and international conferences and educational programmes. She has published in peer-reviewed journals and authored book chapters and a book on the legacy of management engineering and consulting at Mayo Clinic.
Citation
Chen, Wei (Sophia), Leung, Christa Y. and Kamath, Janine R. (Coelho) (2023, December 1). Advancing change agility in healthcare. In the Management in Healthcare: A Peer-Reviewed Journal, Volume 7, Issue 2. https://doi.org/10.69554/LSXN2169.
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