:: Scale is not safe and contained. It’s worth it, but it’s also scary. My vision is the product. My reputation is in the hands of others. 30 years of scaling innovations in health, I know a few things about how to do this. But now its personal. Plus, I am making bigger claims while no longer having built in quality control.

Still the process is the same. Alignment of Goals, Why’s and How’s is paramount.

In the case of Act One Healthcare

Mission: Make healthcare easier for people by helping organizations get ideas over the execution hump.

Value proposition: Talent, Expertise and Methodologies to drive scale beyond the sale.

Problem we solve: Too many good ideas die because change in healthcare is so hard and complex.

For me building a structured team approach to delivering on these promises is the center point for all the scale decisions.

Step 1 – Focus:

Focus the value prop on something repeatable. As Lisa Ann Pinkerton pointed out “scaling is about replicating yourself.” Staffing, training and expanding the reputation for excellence is easier if you are doing similar things repeatedly. For years I learned and sold based on breadth. Now it’s time to focus and go deep.

Step 2 – Talent:

We have a big, audacious goal. Our clients and their customers are senior people dealing with daunting change while daily assuring patient care and safety. We can’t go cheap or take risks on the talent. At the same time revenue is still lumpy and unpredictable.

Step 3 – Work myself out of the execution role:

My role needs to be sales and leadership.

The more time I spend on execution, the less the team learns, the slower we grow, the less financially efficient we are, the fewer people we serve…I have to bring the same objectivity to my business that I have traditionally brought to clients and employers. It’s a big shift after 15 years and 2 practices that were mainly single shingle.

The Team

• Our solution is project based contracting on both sides.

• Identifying people, we have worked with in the past or come through trusted referrals, who have the right skills and experience to create stronger teams.

• Working with the same people repeatedly so that we develop consistent methodologies and strong teams.

• Focusing on growth and learning for everyone so that we are selling their expertise not mine.

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One Comment

  1. Deb Siegle October 19, 2017 at 11:41 am - Reply

    I appreciate you sharing your thought process Kathryn, and how to orient our thinking on how to scale. Finding those repeatable or replicable components and capabilities is worth the effort on so many levels.

    I look forward to also hearing more about and how to apply the lessons learned from helping your clients scale their healthcare innovations to scaling consulting businesses.

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