I have worked as a trainer, coach, and facilitator for healthcare value analysis teams for over 26 years. The one constant I have observed is that the #1 key factor in a value analysis team’s success is their team leadership. I define value analysis team leadership as the team leader, champion, and facilitator. If any of these three individuals lack the vision, commitment, and administrative skills that are necessary to propel their value analysis team to savings success, then their team will experience suboptimal performance. This isn’t a theory, but a fact in any business environment!
In my seminars and workshops I often compare a value analysis team to a business unit of a corporation that will be subpar or will ultimately fail if their leaders aren’t enthusiastic, engaged, and proficient in their area of responsibility. I have seen value analysis team leaders who have missed most of their team meetings, made promises they never intended to keep, and never challenged their team members to be better than just good. Eventually, these VA teams self-destruct!
On the flip side of the coin, I have been impressed with value analysis team leaders who do their homework, rarely miss a meeting, and then coach their team members (inside and outside their meetings) to reach new and higher levels of savings, quality, and safety performance. It’s just like any other business endeavor; if your leaders put in the time and effort, and engage their team members on a one-on-one basis, you will immediately see improvement in your value analysis team’s performance.
To improve your team leadership you must ask yourself what kind of team leaders you have now: weak, preoccupied, and self-serving, or caring and goal oriented. Once you have honestly answered this question, you have taken the first step on the road to improvement or will have validated that your team leadership is on the right track. If your assessment is that you need to change your team leadership, then by all means, you must do so…NOW! Otherwise, your value analysis team will continue its suboptimal performance which is a waste of your team’s intellectual assets.
