By Lisa Yackel, CVPM, PHR, SHRP-CP
“When you stop growing you start dying.”
William S. Burroughs
I have recently been doing some research as an Elder in my church and came across this quote. It got me thinking about some of the hospitals that I have been consulting with over the last few months. All of them have had significant declines in new client growth and many were also declining in patient visits as well. Very similar parallels in what I see happening in my church.
What I found interesting is that most church leadership principles previously taught were focused on how to prepare your church for numerical growth. More up to date teaching finds that church leaders need to be focusing not on numerical growth, but what it takes to facilitate the church becoming healthy, strong and missional. Again and again, the prevailing concept is to cultivate engaged Christians who advance the mission.
Engaged people are passionate people. They know what the mission is. They serve in it. They live it out. They’re passionate enough about it to invite their friends. (Did you notice how we are all of the sudden talking about culture?)
Grow or Die
The “Grow or die” principle can be analyzed in different ways in a veterinary hospital. When not planned for carefully, growth can destroy value, as it outstrips a hospital’s managerial capacity, processes, quality, and financial controls, or substantially dilutes customer satisfaction. In big corporate businesses, there is what is called the “gas pedal” approach to managing growth. It works by letting up on the growth gas pedal as needed to give your people, processes, and controls time to catch up. Too often I hear as a consultant “We are just too busy to put that in place” or “Why make any changes? There is enough money coming in.”
Improve or Die
Instead of grow or die, be motivated by this motto: “Improve or die.” Every business must continually improve its customer value proposition better than its competition in order to stay viable. That’s where real success lies. Too often I see practices focusing on growth by just looking at their gross revenue. We need to be looking at other indicators, since new client growth isn’t likely to increase for most hospitals anytime soon. We have seen declines across the board nationally for several years. If we aren’t bringing in new clients, how are we going to “grow”? Certainly, there is a limit on how often we can raise our fees.
So, if everything you know about growth is wrong, what’s right?
Growth is change (and change isn’t easy).
There are limits to an individual’s and an organization’s ability to process change. Growth requires continuous learning and constant improvement. The leadership team must be constantly open to learning and adapting and improving in an incremental, frequent, and experimental manner. No matter how big you get or want to get, continuous improvement is required.
Growth requires disciplined focus and prioritization.
This is where it gets tricky in a veterinary hospital. The day to day work can be overwhelming and there is difficulty finding the time to strategize and “reroute” when we get off course of the goals. Everyone has limited resources and time. To be successful, hospitals must prioritize their focus. This is critical because any growing business has resource constraints: limited people, time, and capital. It is critical that management spend his or her time on the most important areas that can drive success.
As an Elder in my church, I am hopefully leading us to be more “people” focused. We are planning activities and studies that build relationships and focus on our mission. We are reaching into the community to share our enthusiasm for our mission and to increase awareness. As a consultant, I can see that the process is the same. By building a stronger team who focuses on the mission and the priorities the leadership has established, the hospital will “grow”. It is the leadership’s responsibility to take the time to step back and truly analyze areas that have stagnated. Maybe it is a building that hasn’t been “refreshed” in over 15 years. Maybe our protocols and their enforcement have become so rigid that clients feel like there is a lack of caring about them as individuals. Maybe we have so many different flea controls that our team isn’t sure what to recommend so they don’t recommend anything, and compliance goes down.
The traditional definition of business growth is seen as something achieved either by boosting the top line or revenue of the business with greater product sales or service income, or by increasing the bottom line or profitability of the operation by minimizing costs. I go back to my church illustration. I truly believe veterinary practices are better off prioritizing growth to be cultivating stronger relationships, with our team and with our clients. I also think that stronger relationships will also equate to increased revenue. We used to call this getting back to the basics.
In summary, what I am advocating is the need for leadership to encourage change and not stagnate, but to do so in a mindful way that is purposeful, and mission driven. When your team is onboard with your priorities and is enthusiastic, improvement will happen. In our church, it took a drop of attendance by 30% for us to have a wake-up call. What wake-up call will it be at your hospital before you determine you might be “dying”?