Stroudwater Associates offers its best practices for mitigating conflict between hospitals and district/ county boards.
#1: Board and stakeholder education
- National, regional and market forces
- Organizational constraints and opportunities
- Strategic risks facing hospital
- Hallmarks of good governance and sound management
#2: Develop a common fact base
- Quantify performance gaps
- Understand risk factors
- Develop strategic objectives
#3: Convene a task force involving key leaders from both boards and/or key stakeholder groups
- Provide a format for communication and sharing of perspectives
- Engage around key issues and concerns
- Remove emotion and make objective data the basis for decisions
- Develop working relationships and trust
- Seek consensus vs. unanimity
#4: Develop a shared vision for the future
- What key attributes do board members and key stakeholders want the organization to have in 5-10 years?
- Engage boards and stakeholders around the shared vision
#5: Develop and implement a communications strategy
- Develop key messages and talking points
- Identify spokespeople
- Emphasize the shared vision
- Anticipate internal and external communication requirements
- Repeat
#6: Don’t lose sight of the fundamentals
- Sound governance and management
- Strategy
- Operational performance
To learn more, contact Stroudwater Associates today.