Be a Lifelong Learner

The world changes at a continually faster pace. Staying up to date on trends is vital to the success of your business. Lagging behind in the latest products, systems, and requirements can increase your costs and possibly damage your business brand. Continuing education offers you the ability to stay up to date on techniques, new business models, or new ways of thinking. This broadens your skill set and could help you branch out into new areas. Check out these sources for the continuing education that fits your needs.

Product Training

Vendors often provide training free of charge. Learn product specifications and benefits. Many vendors unveil new items in their training programs. This will assure you are using or selling the right product to meet defined needs.

Online Sources

In today’s digital age, there are a variety of online based classes. Research topics that are specific to your industry or customer needs. If using a new education source, read class reviews, instructors’ bios, and verify the schools' accreditation status. Many classes are low cost and provide continuing education credits that are a requirement in many professions.

Community College or Local Classes

If the in-person classroom setting is more your style, look into local schools.  Most offer evening and weekend classes due to the demand for flexible education. This is an excellent option for busy professionals or working parents. Confirm the class content and if CEU credits are offered. 

Industry Events

Many industry trade shows offer seminars and classes during the event.  If you are investing in attending, look into any education available. Typically the educators are leaders in the industry offering first-hand knowledge. Take advantage of learning from the experts.

Life is the process of forever learning. Continuing education allows you to stay engaged in your profession, expands your resume, and can help you be more effective.  Become a lifelong learner today!

Review your Technology

The technology age is upon us.  New gadgets, devices, and systems are being born every second. New technology can improve efficiency, lower costs, and enhance productivity. It can be hard to keep up and determine the right systems for your business.  A technology audit is a tool that can help.  This audit reviews your current tools, systems, and processes which provides the information to evaluate new investment decisions.

Audit Team

A team effort is needed to get well-rounded opinions.  Typical participants include staff from operations, information technology, or system consultants. There are also companies you can hire if you desire more structured guidance.  

Inventory

Take stock of what you have. Look at all software, hardware, system contracts such as annual registration fees.  Items reviewed generally include computers, servers, CRM, ERP, phones, email and any software used to help make your business run.  Having a complete list of what you are using provides the foundation for the audit.

Evaluation

Properly evaluating your current systems is the critical step of the audit.  A clear agreement on what are the business needs and goals is a must.  This sets the bar for how your team will evaluate your technology, not simply by is it working but is it the right tool to get you where you want to be. Aspects of the evaluation include pros, cons, cost to maintain or upgrade. 

Explore

Now the team explores the other technology tools. You might require outside assistance in this area since we don't know what we don't know. Evaluate these new tools by applying the same criteria, if they will help you reach your goals, pros, cons and costs. A tip when looking at new tools is to ask for customer referrals. You will obtain first hand feedback of how the tool was implemented, what oversights could have occurred and see if the tool is performing based on expectations. 

Recommendation

The data is collected. It is time to crunched the numbers, review pros and cons, and for the team to come to conclusion. The final product is generally a change plan. This plan maps out targeted investments or shifts in current technology. This plan can be presented for budget approval and then implemented.

Technology audits are useful in evaluating your current tools and if they will get you where you want to be. Have you been through a technology audit? Please share any tips below. 

Healthcare Industry Trends 2015

The new year is in full swing.  Keeping up to speed on industry trends will help your business succeed in our times of dynamic change.  Various sources and highlighted the following trends that will shape healthcare arena this year.

Healthcare supply chain

Bigger can be better.  Supply chains will try to scale growing in sizes.  They will build partnerships with manufacturers; distributors will de-verticalize the supply chain driving a faster and more direct sourcing of products. 

Outsourcing with Home Care
We will continue to see the trend of care moving into the home especially post-acute care.  Better patient outcomes are found when patients recovery in the comfort of their homes.  Most hospital cost structures aren’t set up to profitably offer home care.  Formal partnerships will be formed with outsourced providers in the home care and hospice space. Providers working are smart to seek out this partnerships early lock in relationships now.

Wellness Programs

Insurance reform and high deductible health plans are driving increase in employer driven wellness programs.  These programs offer discounts with insurance costs by tying them to an employee's healthy lifestyle choices.  The rise of digital tracking methods are being adopted by consumers and help increase program participation and tracking.

Standardize data

Beyond "Big Data", the real trend is improving the quality of data to be more accurate and normalized.  Standardize data allows information to be easily shared and understood across systems and partners within in the supply chain.  Better data will equate to better care, better patient outcomes, and improved cost savings.

How does your business fit into these trends? Now is the time to take steps to be part of these solutions and maximize your growth.

Tips for Setting Goals

As the year comes to a close, many of us are planning new goals.  Here are some tips to help set appropriate goals, keep on track, and drive success.

Prioritize 

There are likely a million different goals you want to accomplish from growing sales, reducing costs or losing 10 pounds. You can’t do it all. Too many goals are overwhelming. Prioritizing will allow you to focus to be more successful.

Action Plan
Crafting an action plan of how you are going to accomplish the goal will force you to think of the behaviors, tactics, and resources needed. If the goal is to lose weight, going to the gym three days of week and cutting out dessert would be part of your action plan. If your goal is growing sales, your action plan might include increasing your marketing budget or hiring a new sales rep.  List detailed steps and create a timeline for your action steps.

Involve Others
Goals are rarely accomplished in a vacuum. Others are directly or indirectly influencing your success.  Business goals need group activities and team buy-in to be accomplished.  Personal goals can be encouraged by moral support such as a work out buddy or family plans to eat better. Support systems are vital to keeping focus.

Track
What is measured gets done.  If you measure results weekly, you will know where you are at to your goal.  These results will motivate you to keep on track or redirect your activities for better results.

Evaluate
If you aren't where you want to be, you might need to change tactics.  Increase the days at the gym or cut more calories for weight lost goals.  If your sales aren't meeting expectations, research a different marketing campaign or new sales person.  By examining what is working and what isn’t, you can adjust to guide towards success.

Celebrate

When you reach milestones, celebrate your success.  These can be small things such as a company pizza party or a personal gift you had your eye on.  These celebrations help you stay motivated to push through towards your goal.

Being focus, realistic, and tracking your results will lead to goal accomplishment.  How do you set goals and keep on track?  Share your tips below.  

Tips for Planning a Successful New Year

In the hustle bustle of the holiday season, many of us are also closing year and planning the future.  There are many ways to forecast to create the strategy and tactics to reach your goals.  Here are the high level steps to help you craft a plan towards success.

Data Diving

One of the first place to look before going forward is by looking back. Take a historical look at what worked and what didn't this past year.  Review end of the year reports based on your collective goals. Evaluate what efforts helped reach your goals. Decide what can be changed, tweaked, or remove to drive better results in the new year.

Competitive Analysis

Another helpful piece of information looking at what your competition is doing. Are they going after new markets, offering a new product, at a different price point or brand message?  Determine if you want to be a me-to or go a different direction.  You need to have a unique selling proposition for your business model that differentiates you verses your competitors.  Keep this in mind as you plan.

Marketing and Sales Plan

This is where the rubber meets the road. You can do a lot data analysis and market research, but your sales plan is where your brand message and product/service offering is broadcast to the world. This should be a heaviest hitting part of your plan for the year. Here you decided what sales efforts, advertising, and promotions you are running. Determine if you are launching new product, attending new events, hiring new staff and beyond. 

Put it all Together

Crunch the numbers and create the forecast for success. This isn't a true crystal ball into the future but should you a rough idea of direction. Review all these pieces with your team. Get collective buy-in on the path. Is the plan realistic, achievable, are you taking into account potential roadblocks or contingency plans for uncontrollable items such as government regulation.  

Now that you have the plan, go forth and prosper. Remember the old adage what gets measured gets done. Monitoring the success of your plan and adjusting as appropriate will keep you on track. 

How does your team plan for the new year? Do you have tips that might help us all? Please share below. Happy Planning!

Increase Accountability

Being accountable is doing what you said you would do when you said you would do it.  Not completing tasks or missing deadlines causes loss of credibility and the respect of others.  Driving accountability within an organization or department will increase efficiency, create a more trusting team, and help accomplish collective goals.  Here are the tools to increase accountability.

Time and Dates

Assign time and dates to projects.  Sounds simple but many forget this critical piece.  Collectively agree on what day and what time the project is due. An example is Friday, Oct 31st at 3:00 pm. Review and confirm that all parties agree on this time. Now you must hold the person or team accountable to meeting that agreed upon timeline.

Tracking Progress
Many projects have various pieces that must be managed through – the art of project management.  Create appropriate check-ins on progress. The frequency and amount of meetings depends on the project and the personnel. These touch base meetings keep you plugged in and aware if anything is getting off track. If something is falling behind, you can adjusted as appropriate.  This check-in process should remove any surprises of things falling through the cracks or a missed deadline.

Prioritization

Not every task assigned needs this level of management.  Prioritize the key projects that are strategic initiatives for your department or team.  Having ten projects due on the same day and time won’t drive great results.  Properly prioritizing what needs to be done and by when will create mutual trust by all parties. It also means the team is working on is the most important projects.

Missed Deadlines and Excuses

Even with these steps, deadlines can be missed. Generally the "why" excuses are the focus on the conversation following an accountability issue. Challenge yourself not to ask about the why. Refocus the conversation on what are the next steps to get the project done, when it will be done, and can you count on them to complete it. Both agree this is the new deadline.  If you have this conversation multiple times, this is a sign that something is wrong with the process or the employee. 

Creating a culture of accountability will produce a more successful business.  Be diligent and reinforce time and dates, track results, and measure alignment with your team. This will ensure you have the right work force who respects the business needs and are credible to get the job done.  

Change Management

Change is a fact of life. Many of our professional roles involve managing change through out our teams or organizations. Change can be difficult and everyone handles it differently. Creating a solid change management strategy will ease the transition and drive acceptance.

The Plan

Once a change need is defined, create a structured plan.  Map out all the areas that will be impacted. Think of the who and the what. Pull in appropriate employees for their insights and suggestions.  This helps secure buy-in because they were part of the process to mold the changes. Create a time-line of what is happening when and share the details with all impacted. 

Find the Wins

There is a reason behind the change.  Possibly this change will improve efficiency, drive more sales, or reduce costs. Continually highlighting the positive impacts of this change provides the “why” and helps impacted parties work through the change process to obtain those wins.

Launch

Add pre-testing, mock trials, and run-throughs to your time-line. You and the team have tried to think of all contingencies but likely there will be bumps along the way.  Ask for feedback and suggestions. Open dialogue and a positive attitude can help move things forward. A good sense of humor and knowing this too shall pass can go a long way.

Review Results

Evaluate as the process moves forward.  Frequent check-ins at the beginning of the change will make your team feel supported. Then move to weekly or monthly evaluations. This may capture unforeseen snags or new issues that might have bubbled up from the change. 

Change can be challenging but moves us forward. Continual and relevant communication before, during, and after the process is vital to implementing successful change. 

Have other change management tips?  Please share your comments below!