Lessons from the Field – Lessons in Provider & Vendor Team Management from Professional Sports

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay. 

Change can be good in the leadership of healthcare providers and vendors. Conversely, change, if not managed correctly organizationally, can be debilitating. And the professional sports world is full of examples of good and bad change, from leadership to players.

The point is that major professional sports teams in leagues worldwide live in a continuous cycle of evaluation and change regardless of the sport. In the professional sports world, the common saying from GMs and coaches to owners, players, staff, and fans when explaining change is “if you’re not changing, you’re falling behind.”

Thinking image by Pexels from Pixabay.

When you think about that statement, there is a pearl of intuitive wisdom for healthcare providers and vendors, working in a sea of change coming from all directions. This was never truer as we continue to experience upheaval driven by seismic shifts in technology, diagnosis, treatment, care delivery, and innovative new entrants because of the ongoing SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.

While it’s difficult, the question leadership needs to ask as they evaluate themselves, their teams, and strategies are, do we have the right “players,” meaning leaders and staff, who can rapidly understand, innovate, and execute? Are they able to manage change processes, not getting caught in the delaying politics of analysis by paralysis to maintain the status quo? Can they make the hard calls and decisions regardless of what may be perceived as organizational sacred cows?

There is a right and wrong answer. As much as you may like the leader or team member who has been in the position for ten years or came up “through the ranks,” that doesn’t mean they are suitable for today’s management needs.

What follows are ten lessons gleaned from professional sports teams, GMs, and coaches when faced with the success or failure of management, staff, players, and plans. 

Conference lesson image by Calude_Star from Pixabay

1.       Keep calm. Healthcare is changing in ways that have turned the market upside down.  That doesn’t mean the game is over. It just means your strategy needs to change because the market is rushing ahead of you.

2.       Change it up! If you keep doing what one has always done, this market will pound the daylights out of the organization. Stop doing the same things, the same way as one has always done. 

3.       Fail Fast. Mistakes happen because of errors, and that is just a fact of life. Plans don’t always work as intended when things go awry, stop and change to get a better result. 

4.       Hit your locations.Delivering the same message, the same way every time, is a prescription for disaster. People stop paying attention, so one must move the messages around and use all the communication and perceptual channels available. 

5.       Build the team’s capability and chemistry.  That may mean new players. Change is good, and everyone needs to learn new skills and play nice in the sandbox.  One cannot be successful if there is no team chemistry, and the team members can’t fill in for another. New skills breed new ideas and capabilities. 

6.       Fast track team member development. Think of this in terms of a farm system or practice squad. Team members should be prepared to be “called up” at a moment’s notice to contribute to the team’s success. It means being open and transparent with the business strategy, operational plans, and financial challenges. Coaching and preparation are everything to be able to succeed. 

7.       Do the unexpected. Sometimes that means playing the “intuitive hunch.” That keeps your competition off balance. One can build the organizational capacity and story while meeting the patients and community need before anyone else has the chance. When someone is expecting a fastball throw a change-up or a curve. 

8.       Know the strengths and weaknesses of the team and competitors. Put team members in positions and situations to win. Go after competitors at their weakest point. If they can’t cover a bunt, keep doing it until they learn how then hit away. 

9.       You win some; you lose some.No organization is perfect, so put the loss behind you and learn from it.  Enjoy the wins for a moment but move on to the next game. The best team effort will have you winning more than losing. 

10.   Have fun and play with passion.I think that is the biggest lesson from all of this. Life is about passion, friendships, success, and learning from failure. No one remembers who pitched the no-hitter or who hit the grand slam in any game. Work is the same. Have fun and play with passion.

Ten guiding rules that sports teams employ to be successful, adapted for today’s provider and vendor environment.

Now it’s time to ball out.

Michael is a healthcare business, marketing, communications strategist, and thought leader. As an internationally followed healthcare strategy blogger, his blog, Healthcare Business & Marketing Matters is read in 52 countries and ranked No. 3 on 100 Top Healthcare Marketing Blogs & Websites to follow by Feedspot.com. Michael is a Life Fellow American College of Healthcare Executives.  For inquiries regarding strategic consulting engagements, you can email me at michael@themichaeljgroup.com. 

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The opinions expressed are my own.