Boards and Strategy
Preparing Healthcare Boards for the Future
In our proprietary data, more than 64% of executives from regional healthcare organizations expect dramatic changes in the industry over the next 5-10 years. Navigating this level of change will require healthcare leaders to have more agility and a closer level of trust with the board than ever before.
A board's unique function lies in its ability to provide high-level strategic oversight and governance while remaining detached from day-to-day operations. This higher-level view helps the organization to focus on long-term perspectives, vision, mission, and core values. Thriving in the years ahead will require executives and board members to work together to update the governance for greater agility, strategic focus, and innovation.
Is your board structured to support this level of change? Are they positioned to focus beyond the financial and operational performance and focused on where healthcare is headed?
Amping the Board’s Understanding of Strategy and Market Dynamics
The ‘rules of the road’ in healthcare are shifting, with evolving assumptions about how and where care is delivered, by whom, and how this care is financed and reimbursed. Large industry players are seeking to expand their footprints and remake the industry with themselves at the center. Big technology and retail companies are inserting themselves into the healthcare ecosystem with their capabilities, reach, and consumer relationships. All this is taking place in an era of artificial intelligence (AI) along with changing dynamics in demographics, social forces, political winds, and consumer expectations.
As these organizations recognize that their sustainability is going to require more strategic differentiation than in the past, strategic planning will need to expand beyond operational to embrace innovation. As become more connected with strategic issues they will need to align on what it means to have a strategy, how a strategy relates to strategic planning, and what criteria will be used to define success.
Boards have a good understanding of market dynamics and see the emerging trends, opportunities, and challenges that leadership is facing. This will enable them to anticipate the risks, support innovation, and provide strategic guidance that leadership needs. We have found that using data to inform scenario planning enables boards to get a deeper understanding of trends more quickly as they explore the implications for the organization and industry as a whole.
Board Assessment
If you’re unsure if your Board is prepared for the future, it’s important to identify where to focus first. Conducting a board future-readiness assessment evaluates how well the board is prepared to support navigating the future landscape and it pinpoints opportunities for modernizing structure, roles, composition, and approach. An external assessment offers an objective perspective on the board’s strengths and areas for improvement, typically including an appraisal of the board's effectiveness in governance, strategic oversight, and decision-making processes. It can also help to identify gaps in knowledge, expertise, and strategic focus, particularly in areas critical for success, such as technology, innovation, and long-term planning.
Outcomes from this assessment can be used to improve board performance and alignment with the organization’s mission and goals, as well as its readiness for the expected shifts in the years ahead. These recommendations should address the schedule, agendas, governance, board composition, education schedule, and succession plan.
Many boards have mechanisms in place for monitoring the performance of the organization they govern. Fewer have structures to support the continuous improvement of the board itself. Like any group or organization, boards will need to evolve, and an agile mindset at the board level can serve as a model for the organization overall.
Looking forward
In a period of increasing change and uncertainty, none of us knows precisely what will happen next. But we do have a lot of insight into the issues that are emerging and what trends are at play. Refreshing the board dynamics is a way to signal a new day and to model the spark and innovation that boards will need to embrace to be effective.
We work with many boards – let’s talk!
Warmly,
NW