Challenge: A healthcare system experienced a recent merger requiring it to re-establish one culture across its multi-site system. With a focus on the leadership population as the strategy, we partnered with talent leaders and the Executive team to implement a three-phase approach to: 1) build consistent leader capabilities, 2) break down silos and reinforce a community, and 3) increase engagement of leaders and their staff.

Our role: Lead the customization and facilitation of leadership fundamental workshops for new leaders, Talent Talks on hot topics for top level leaders, and modular and experiential learning with assessments and ongoing evaluation to track impact.

Impact: After phase one, 227 participants of the 300+-leadership population engaged with an average score of 3.8/4.0. Qualitative comments by participants were positive “want more keep offering.” Training transfer metrics showed marked improvements in leader effectiveness and confidence by participants and supervisors of new leaders up to six months after attendance.

Challenge: Student Affairs in the medical school environment is integral to the health and overall success of medical students in specialty and residency program placement, and graduation. Student Affairs functions across medical institutions in the USA vary in their ability to provide consistent, high service levels to students. It was identified as a critical path to define, elevate, and grow this function as a priority across medical institutions.

Our role: Partner with a team of cross-institution leaders to: develop one definition of Student Affairs for all medical institutions; develop and validate a competency framework that aligns with relevant accreditation requirements; customize a performance management process and supporting tools; and co-facilitate the rollout of performance management at conferences across the US. To build capability, we co-designed/developed and facilitated webinars and blended learning solutions in response to survey findings (also co-developed with in-house evaluation expert).

Impact: The performance framework and performance management process and tools are integrated in institutions across the nation, supporting quality hiring, promotion, development, and staff development decisions. The framework is used as a key resource to improve position and perceived value of Student Affairs across the institution.

Challenge: The organization had a diverse work force, with varying expectations of leaders and growth potential in its flat structure. The priority was set to define a leadership brand, build targeted leader capability, and equip the organization with mechanisms to build the leadership pipeline and engagement.

Our role: Partner with Talent Leaders and the Executive Team to: develop and validate the Leadership Profile, customize a 360-degree assessment, and design, develop, and implement a comprehensive high-potential leadership program –  consisting of executive coaching, targeted learning, action learning project teams, and Capstone presentations. STS HRC continues to serve as a program facilitator and coach.

Impact: Over a five-year period, the program evolved and has proven to be a significant lever to talent and business success. Since its establishment, 63 participants have engaged in the program, of which 35% have been recognized/promoted into higher level leadership roles, and with 83% project recommendations implemented; translating into significant process improvements, cost savings, and strategic business growth.

Challenge: A centralized organizational unit was formed as a mandate from executive leadership. At the time, unit team members were decentralized and forced to shift to a new role without choice or transition mid-stream while supporting a large annual initiative. The team was experiencing significant challenges due to poor change management, lack of role clarity and shared purpose, and low morale and trust.

Our Role: Partner with Chief Learning Officer and Unit VP to design and implement process to give team members a voice, develop a shared mission and strategy to support service delivery and change management.  Develop, facilitate, and analyze one-on-one interview protocol to identify trends across team members. Facilitate two customized team retreats building in learning, change management, and strategy and team definition activities; and provide ongoing coaching and support to Unit VP. 

Impact: Morale and trust improved as team collaborated to define team purpose, value proposition, and strategic priorities. Unit structure was revisited, shifting staff to better align with strengths and client relationships and building case for increased headcount.

Challenge: Hospital system had medical records system and process in place for over 15 years. Despite system challenges, staff was reluctant to shift to new system because of the change required (e.g., roles, daily operations, inter-department processes). The business required the new system to improve patient safety, data accuracy and integration, and industry compliance.

Our role: Serve as overall change integration expert and advisor to department leads: led stakeholder analysis and advised on customized rollout needs by departments, facilitated process identification and tool development to support champions in enabling change to targeted audiences, helped troubleshoot/resolve specific change issues/audiences, and developed change resources to support overall system rollout (e.g., weekly newsletters, brown bags, change topics and huddle checklists).

Impact: Successful phased rollout and integration of system: leadership execution of change tools/tips; increased role clarity and buy-in across stakeholders; data collection and targeted actions for resolution/buy-in; simplified and targeted communication to anticipate/meet stakeholder needs.

Challenge: Project management was decentralized throughout the organization, with significant costs to the business due to lack of standards and overall strategic integration, and varied staff capability levels. The trend of larger scale, cross-functional projects further prompted the imperative to centralize the function.

Our role: Prepare the organization for full execution of the Enterprise Project Management office (EPMO) through partnership with CHRO and EPMO VP and cross-functional leaders to: articulate EPMO strategy, design EPMO structure and position descriptions, develop and execute selection process (e.g., behavioral based interviews, assessments) for internal placement and external hires, and provide project and change management support.

Impact: EPMO is fully staffed and functioning, helping the organization realize significant cost savings in personnel and project efficiency, and gains in strategy execution.