Fourteen Habits of a Systems Thinker In Relation To the CMHS Scenario - Assignment Example

14 Habits of a Systems Thinker In Relation To the CMHS Scenario Seeking to understand the bigger the picture From my point of view, the first habit of understanding the big picture was ignored. The problem at hand which is a decline in patient census and a change in market leading to exhaustion of financial reserves was addressed with a single strategy which was termed as physician- focused strategy. The confidence shown in this particular strategy did not necessarily mean that it was the best approach the CMH could take. As a matter of fact, it limited the capacity expansion of the CMHs executive leadership from finding insights that were beyond their perspectives because they neglected to find solutions to consequences such as how they would guarantee the efficiency of the OR after implementing the strategy. Exploring other strategies would have turned out even more successful in the long run and helped solve a wide range of problems. Observing how elements within systems change over time, generating patterns and trends When CMH began to crumble financially and operationally, all the CEO and the executive leaders could think of was a way to quickly restore their systems before the situation got out of hand. However, they never paused to consider how they arrived at that condition and what they were doing wrong. Jason T. Snow, the CEO of CMH, was incapable of visualizing the trends that took place in the healthcare system. For example, a strategy such as patient-centric approach which would highly increase their competitive advantage through cost and quality of care remained unknown to them. This simply shows that the hospital could not determine the cause of the drastic decrease in patient census and financial instability and how to handle it appropriately in order to maintain their competitive advantage. Recognizing that a system’s structure generates its behavior The way a system is designed simply translates to the type of results it produces. For example, a good system shall automatically produce good results and vice versa. The similar case applied to CMHs structure design. From my perspective, CMHs structure design was poor hence the source of the challenges they faced. Penny Hearst, the COO of CMH would always reject new responsibilities because she managed a lot of departments which was attributed to the fact that the hospital lacked a chief nursing officer. When Penny decided to concentrate on her nursing, it is correct to assume that some departments were left unattended leading to the crumbling of the hospital's operations. The structure of a system demands a lot of attention from a leader because it involves how the various parts of an organization relate to and affect each other in performing their operations. Identifying the circular nature and of complex cause and effect relationships This is an important aspect that portrays the interdependence of systems. It shows how one action in the system can affect the other. Great levels of uncertainty and disagreements arise among stakeholders as they deliberate on what to do. The strategic planner, Benjamin Santiago, realized an emerging trend, patient-centric strategy, but was certain that the executive leadership would disagree and prefer their usual physician- based strategy. If they embraced this habit, they would have employed monitoring in identifying changes from their physician- based strategy and captured the patient-centric trend that would have improved their current situation. Their feedback would be reinforced and results increased. Making meaningful connections within and between systems A wise systems thinker will always make connections that are meaningful and weave them together in a conscious manner in order to come up with new ideas and a clearer way of thinking. In the case of CMH, the CEO should have integrated the patient-centric system with the physician- based system and evaluated the connection. The more the connections that are present, the more the outcome will be. As a systems thinker, the CEO would understand that independently, the two systems had their own set of advantages but when connected, massive results were likely to emerge. Changing perspectives to increase understanding When tackling a certain problem, each actor that is involved in the process will always have their own point of view regarding the ways to follow to rectify the situation. Benjamin Santiago, the strategic planner at CMH believed that the hospital was in need of more than a strategy to solve their financial and operations problem, however, he chose to remain quiet insisting that the executive were right. Creating room for diversity helps in having a clearer understanding of the situation which leads to coming up with the best solutions. The executive concentrated on recruiting more surgeons whereas they could have also focused on the patients who would be captured by the provision of quality care and affordable services. Surfaces and test assumptions Assumptions help individuals guide their work and distinguish the value they bring to an organization. Nevertheless, assumptions can also turn out to be an individual's worst nightmare by making them miss their target or become obsolete. These assumptions could hinder someone from exploring new opportunities and even worse, they could retain them in a path they ought to have abandoned. This was the case in CMH strategic planning when the strategic planner decided to ignore his feeling of employing more strategies other than the physician- based strategy. His assumptions that the executive leadership is always correct hindered him from introducing the new opportunity of implementing the patient-centric system. The CMH need to be open to cultivating openness as a way of promoting and influencing development. Considering an issue fully and resisting the urge to come to a quick conclusion As the CEO of CMH, Jason Snow neglected this habit. He quickly resulted in the strategic development process without calculatedly examining the source of the problem. He rushed to accept the decision made by the executive leadership without considering other options. It is not indicated whether he consulted the patients who are key stakeholders to determine their reason for leaving. Room for distinguishing and learning important information from multiple stakeholders was not created. Uncovering and understanding diverse perspectives were hindered by solely depending on the views of few stakeholders. Considering how mental models affect current reality and the future Leaders are incapable of predicting the future but they could utilize the thinking approach of a system when settling for their next move. They should take time to consider the current and future implications. According to the situation at CMH, it is evident that a rushed decision needed to be made to restore sanity in their financial and operations sectors. However, I disagree that common sense, instinct and the importance of safety were prioritized in decision making. The CEO was focused on improving the current situation and failed to consider the consequences of whether their strategic plan would work. The earlier assumptions that were made affected his decision in blindly accepting the first decision that was reached at by the executive leaders during the strategic planning leaving out the long-term aftermath. Understanding of systems structure to identify possible leverage actions Positive results will always emerge when a group of right people gathers and channel all their focus to a shared course. Addressing the source of the problem is necessarily rather than alleviating the outcomes. Instead of coming to a quick conclusion of hiring more surgeons to attain a market lead, CMH needed to examine the cause of their problems first. A leverage action in this instance would be summoning all the department heads and coming up with solutions on how they would work together to ensure their operations were back to normal. The COO declaring to have enough work to herself goes against understanding the structure of the system. The CEO needed to acquire a chief nursing officer to ease the workload on the COO or delegate equal duties to the hospital executive leaders. The collaborations of these leaders with the appropriate support improve the systems operations. Considering short-term, long-term and unintended consequences of actions When the strategic plan was formulated and presented to him, Jason T. Snow, the CEO at CMH needed to first examine the consequences it would bring to the future. He should have employed the habit on surfaces and tests assumptions to derive possible outcomes. The balancing of time required when making a decision is key so that you can lay out the short- term, long- term and unintended consequences of actions. The CEO should have prioritized the problem at hand by carefully looking into the executive leaders’ final decision and fight the need to quickly accept it just because it was the only available course of action. Paying attention to accumulations and their rates of change Accumulations are amounts that can keep changing from one time to another. As the CEO, Mr. Snow needed to identify the accumulations in his system and understand the symbiotic relationships between them. From my point of view, the accumulations, in this case, would be the patients and the surgeons. The patients had decreased and the hospital needed to increase the surgeons to increase the OR volumes. When the CEO is aware of the accumulations and the rate as to which they change, then it is easy to determine a leverage action that could assist in influencing the rates of the accumulations at various times. Recognizing the impact of time delays when exploring cause and effect relationships It is important for a leader to always be aware of the cause of a problem and the effect it brings on the organization before indulging into efforts to get rid of it so as to eradicate any chance of it reoccurring, causing time delays. The CEO was presented with a problem and chose to directly find a solution to it. He did not take time to know the causal agent and the factors affected such as the patients. It is impossible to come up with an appropriate solution for a problem you cannot clearly understand. The CEO needed to understand that hiring more surgeons addressed one side of the problem and failed to address the patient side. This problem was likely to come back and cause time delays in their future operations. Checking results and changes actions if needed: “successive approximation” Learning is a vital part of the CEO's field of work. While in CMH, the CEO needed to frequently check results and any actions that were changing so that he could be equipped when the crisis hit the hospital. This would greatly go a long way in ensuring that any complex issues that arose would be managed and simplified to avoid serious repercussions. Read More