Some is not a number; soon is not a time
A fellow participant at the MLabs conference recently shared a case on the campaign to save 100,000 Lives by Institute for Healthcare Improvements. Intrigued by the target number (being a business leader that attracts the most) I set out to read how this ambitious & bold target of saving them in 18 month's time was achieved.
Many things stood out as I continued to read that I could relate to. The first point was their mission "to transform the quality of health care and health outcomes globally". Clearly evident is the fact that some one or in this case the healthcare community working on this campaign was not OK with the status quo. They found it unacceptable and were willing to bring about a change or alter the status. It was easy to draw a parallel to our business or organization setup and the transformation journey we began in 2005, when some of us raised concern over "what is so" right now and how it is not good enough. And "catalysts" to initiate and execute a change were born.
Another thing of notice in this campaign was their approach. Rather than assigning blame for problems, or exhorting people to "try harder" they tried to identify problems and help find ways to change the systems used in order to reduce defects. For every area not working, they constantly asked "Why are we crashing so many planes?" And not bothered about the number of defects, each defect was to be considered a "treasure" and a resource for improvement.
Besides focusing on staying positive, learning from problems, challenging the system, they (very importantly) did not loose sight of providing the "tools" needed for change. Often in our organizations also, we forget that just empowering our people will not make the change happen, they would need to be enabled to do what they have set out to do. It could take different forms from spreading awareness to training them or giving them platforms to collaborate.
Their strategic plan had a powerful combination of four core roles - motivate ("will"), innovate ("ideas"), get results ("execution"), and raise joy in work. This seemingly simple thought usually gets lost in the day to day struggle to keep all the elements of business together. Motivating employees with passion to excel to become extra-ordinary from ordinary, empowering people to innovate and collaborate to produce results has acted as the major tipping point in our transformation journey.
The campaign launch statement had a very interesting phrase that caught my eye "Some is not a number; soon is not a time" shows a truly long-lasting and self-generative spirit. Combined with the belief that it "isn't an event; it's a movement" gives it a life of its own. The collective power of people who join the movement will create the magical numbers that they target today and also confidently set new ongoing targets that challenge them and push them forward. The emerging "self-propelled" engine within organizations will be a must-have if organizations aim to lead in a future that is marked with competition.