Facilitating enduring-significant-quick (ESQ) change

The uncertain, turbulent competitive environment will continue to confront and confound leaders in the health care industry. Challenges are occurring on many fronts. Health care delivery processes are being overhauled and the industry is restructuring at an ever-increasing rate. Health care leaders must foster an environment that encourages innovation and change. Many innovations will result in incremental changes that require only minor adjustments in processes and health care delivery. Consider just one facet of the ever-changing health care environment -- electronic medical records (EMR). The adoption of EMRs is no longer an option. New EMR innovations are being introduced at an increasing rate. Information technology costs, writing lines of code and the declining price of data storage will drive the reality of sophisticated, comprehensive EMR systems. The seven actions that will facilitate enduring-significant-quick change within your organization are: 1. Focus internally. 2. Identify and describe the big picture. 3. Do not have all the answers, or even questions. 4. Give the team freedom to implement. 5. Allow for dynamic teams. 6. Develop relevant, yet obscure metrics. 7. Create employee-driven perpetual motion.