Workforce shortage, anyone?
I cannot think of a time when there was a greater gap in the Human Resources needed to meet customer/patient demands than we are experiencing today.
The pipeline of trained workers in healthcare is too small, and we have known this for decades.
Baby boomers are beginning to leave the workforce. This is such a large generation that it has revolutionized every industry it has touched (a topic for another blog).
Baby boomers are bringing huge demands for healthcare services as they age compounded by a rapidly increasing presence of chronic health issues.
Many are familiar with the 7 wastes targeted by the Lean management system.
Overproduction
Wait time
Transportation
Processing
Stock on hand
Movement
Defective products
An eighth waste has emerged. In the words of W. Edwards Deming “The greatest waste in America is the failure to use the abilities of people.” AMEN!
According to the book I am currently reading (Road to Relevance) there are three ways in which this occurs.
Under optimization – not utilizing a person their fullest potential. Practicing below my license.
Improper utilization - Time spent on work that does not add value or should be done by others.
No utilization – idle time.
So, given these challenges, why are we wasting our people resources, especially during a period of increasing scarcity.
My pet peeve is the time wasted in committees. Organizations spend roughly 15% of their time on meetings, with surveys showing that 71% of those meeting are considered unproductive. An estimated $37 billion is lost per year to unproductive meetings. That is about 250,000 middle managers or 500,000 staff. Workers spend an average of 31 hours per month in unproductive meetings (Zippia.com) almost 20% of our time on the job.
Here is a great test to the value of your time spent in the next meeting attended:
Did the committee approve or make a finalized recommendation?
Did you contribute in a meaningful way?
If you answered no to either of them, I suspect your time has been wasted. This is only one example of the many that contribute to the daily waste of our most valuable asset – our people.
I have worked with people who seemed to believe the purpose of leadership is to sit in meetings. They corollary was also that “I have to be in every meeting if my support is required or expected.” This leads to bloated committees and very slow decision making. Given the rate of disruption and increasing competition, mostly from new, non-traditional entrants into the delivery of care, these two characteristics are existential threats.
I believe the real issue at play is a significant lack of trust in those around us. It is often partnered with personal insecurity (perhaps because there is not trust in a direct supervisor). IF we have not built trust into our leadership teams, how can we begin to tackle the structural artifacts of our organizations that are wasting our most precious (and diminishing) asset?
Summing it up, the direct cause of this waste is the overpopulated committee meeting. Root cause issues include:
The absence of trust that leads to large attendance and an unwillingness to express any concern over the waste
Poorly chartered committee without a clear purpose and connection to the mission/vision, authority, core competencies required, and measures of success
Let’s lead the way to better stewardship of those we work with. Productivity and engagement will go up and turnover will go down.
What successes (or failures) have you witnessed in making meetings more efficient and productive?
Please share your experience with wasted human capital along with improvement strategies.
Thank you.
