As I discussed in my last post, The Regis Company’s partners in the healthcare space are faced with a changing landscape that presents unique, unexpected challenges, primarily driven by the ripple effects of the Affordable Health Care Act. We have enjoyed developing effective leadership training programs that turn these challenges into opportunities for our clients to evolve and improve in the face of a changing market.
Last week, I shared an example of a successful professional development training program that The Regis Company implemented with a client partner to reestablish their position as a market leader in quality. Here is another example of how we’re working with leaders in the healthcare space, building professional development training programs to more effectively navigate the shifting marketplace.
Our client, a globally diversified healthcare company, is over 100 years old with over 70,000 employees. The company has a broad and balanced portfolio with leadership positions in each of its businesses in both developed and emerging markets.
To sustain its leadership position after a major structural change, leadership would need to develop and prioritize a deep and well-developed understanding of the systemic nature of the business. They need to work efficiently and effectively in high velocity, competitive, complex markets by being more adaptable, flexible and proactively responsive to their environment.
To position General Managers for this future, the company engaged The Regis Company to create an effective leadership training program that fostered a mindset shift in support of the following needs:
- Deliver business results in the short term while growing the business in the long-term
- Build a more nimble and proactive organization that is better prepared to succeed in a variety of potential futures.
- Strike the right balance between various and seemingly conflicting priorities
This was an opportunity for Regis and the client to reinvent the leadership development process to make it dynamic, full of real-time examples and to challenge thinking and self-awareness. The goal was to set a new standard for effective leadership training.
The Program was designed as two workshop sessions for a cohort of forty. In between the sessions, there would be ongoing assignments that advanced the work and prepared participants for the second meeting. The workshops used a discovery-based and action planning approach that included the following integrated components:
- Executive involvement throughout the week as an integral part of the discussions to demonstrate and build leadership.
- A Customized computer-based Business Simulation with interactive exercises woven into the simulation rounds to build GM capabilities
- Behavioral observation and coaching to provide one-on-one leadership development feedback for integration into personal development plans
- Organizational analysis in the form of the 7-S Analysis technique developed by McKinsey & Company to assess current organizational strengths to leverage and gaps to close.
- A scenario planning process and workshop with related activities to better explore and plan for the future of their markets and divisions
- War gaming activities to create deep competitor analysis and expand on the scenario planning work
The Regis Company designed and facilitated all aspects of the each of the week-long sessions. The business simulation was competitive and based on systems dynamic modeling. Participants worked in cross-functional simulation teams, divisional teams, and developed/emerging market teams.
So, what resulted from all of this? In post-program evaluations, the program was rated in the top quintile for “Job Impact and Return on Investment,” outperforming the previous evaluation benchmarks. Over one-third of respondents estimated a 30% improvement in their leadership performance in the next twelve months. But perhaps most importantly, the effective leadership program implemented in partnership with our client better prepared them to lead through change - transforming an unpredictable market landscape into an opportunity to grow and evolve.