Is there a way to organize these efforts within a large institution? Does the institution even have what it takes to implement solutions once they are identified? What are the deficiencies in a given health care organization that leave great solutions to problems sitting on a shelf?
It turns out that a speaker from Harvard Business School—who was brought in to describe how commercial outfits manage innovation—already had a relatively simple technique to share with health care. Clay Christensen is a professor at Harvard Business School and author of “The Innovator’s Dilemma,” “The Innovator’s solution,” and of “Seeing What’s Next.”
“You would never put a person who’s manifestly incompetent to be in charge of an important innovation, but you sure wouldn’t want an organization that was incompetent to be responsible for succeeding either. And it kinda raises the question of, ‘So I’m working at this organization; how do I know what it’s capable of doing, and how do I know what its incompetencies are?’”
Christensen encouraged hospital leaders and project managers to conduct a self-assessment of their organization. He said that the factors that affect what a company can and cannot do fall into three categories represented by the letters R-P-V. The “R” stands for resources; the “P” stands for processes; and the “V” stands for values. All companies have all three.
The question is whether or not a company’s values, resources, and processes are adequate to accommodate a given change. By reviewing a problem or a solution as it relates to the resources, processes, and values of an organization, a champion for change can begin to identify within their own institution the key impediments to implementing the best solutions to problems.
