Team Development

November 23, 2008 by jscott 

High performing teams are essential in managing the complexity and challenges of healthcare today. According to Lenconi, there are five behavioural patterns that undermine leadership teams and cause them to fail. They include absence of trust, fear of conflict, lack of commitment, avoidance of accountability and inattention to results. Read more

Insights on Benchmarking

November 23, 2008 by jscott 

Many organizations are undergoing benchmarking as a means to identify opportunities for efficiencies and cost savings. The fact is there is tremendous interest and stakes in knowing how our organization compares to others. Consultants respond by delivering products that the market desires – remember that. Benchmarking is a tool – that is all that it is. Sometimes it turns into a weapon unfortunately and as a consultant who – I admit – participates in benchmarking projects from time to time – I have some words of advice. First of all, make sure you understand the approach the consultant firm is taking, in particular who you are being compared to and how they allocate costs. Also, don’t be afraid to ask tough questions. A strong consulting firm can and should be able to back up their methodology.

Centralization vs Decentralization

November 21, 2008 by jscott 

As a fan of complex adaptive system theory, I was intrigued by the discussion of centralization versus decentralization in recent book “The Wisdom of Crowds”, by Jim Surowiecki. Jim points out that in the past 15 years, increasing attention has been given to self-organizing and decentralized systems – systems without central control that connect, adapt and learn. Read more

Talent Management

November 21, 2008 by admin 

Forward thinking organizations are elevating the human resource perspective to one of vital strategic importance, focusing on identifying needed talent and developing systems and structures to attract and maintain it. Recruitment strategies are evolving from short-term fixes to longer-term talent management ones including Read more