Leadership - Change Management

This risk relates to change readiness or change fatigue, which may result in not achieving desired results. Engaged leadership fosters a culture that can be prepared for change and have the tools and resources to prevent change fatigue. Change fatigue may include lack of trust, resistance to change and reduction in engagement levels. This document contains information entered by HIROC subscriber healthcare organizations (acute and non-acute) in the Risk Register application to help you in your assessment of this risk.

Key Controls / Mitigation Strategies

• Strategic Projects
  • Project team members trained in change management methodologies and tools 
  • Appointment of change management lead for projects
  • Experienced project management transition team and utilization of external subject matter expert advisors 
  • All major projects require a project charter that identifies all the critical requirements for effective execution with regular updates (i.e. Quarterly strategic initiative report and monthly project reports)
  • Governance framework developed that enables quarterly reporting to subcommittee of the Board
  • A strong strategic planning and prioritization process at the senior leadership level that supports the organization to prioritize the most important changes 
  • Organizational focus on prioritized projects for resource management allowing teams to plan an active role in change and to effectively lead change 
  • A culture of continuous organizational improvement is promoted and sustained
  • Lean methodology supports the organization in finding efficiencies which allow leadership to spend more time connecting directly with front-line staff to coach them, listen to their ideas, and identify their concerns
  • Information Technology and Information Management strategy developed
• Change Management
  • Engagement with partners for healthcare system changes 
  • Pace change, when possible
  • Encourage the organization’s ownership of change
  • Change impact assessments conducted
  • Leadership development training programs and tools in place to support successful change 
  • Ongoing communication with staff and responsiveness to their questions 
  • Utilize different communication mediums based on audience (e.g., team meetings, huddles, town halls, newsletters, surveys, collaboration tables, social media)
  • Engage in conversation with unions in advance
  • Employee Assistance Program (EAP) as additional resource for staff support 

Monitoring / Indicators

• Define, measure, and track project metrics, process measure, outcome measures and any quality indicators
•  Risk and readiness assessments
• Monitoring of staff and physician engagement
• Healthy workplace measures
• Monitoring of human resource metrics (e.g., staff turnover, grievances, and complaints)
• Identification and discussion of key risks or barriers to projects
• Engagement survey data collected for:
  • Overall engagement 
  • Leadership engagement
• Communication strategy indicators (e.g., intranet hits, website hits, number of communications)