Financial instability, staffing shortages, and the relentless grind of constant reforms, are squeezing aged care providers like never before. Whilst you can’t always control change, as a leader, you can build a resilient organisation that is able to adapt to whatever comes its way.
Many in the sector see innovation and continuous improvement as the path forward. Yet, a lot of aged care leaders are making the same costly mistakes: reacting to spot fires instead of fixing root problems, and waiting for more favourable conditions before modernising their organisation and taking appropriate action.
In an environment like aged care, the key is not adding more work to already overloaded teams, but replacing inefficient methods with better processes, systems, capabilities and tools that create the outcomes you require.
But changing the way your organisation works whilst continuing to run your business as usual activity is easier said than done...
In this article I talk about how you can embed innovation into the DNA of your organisation, replacing inefficiencies with smarter processes, and transforming your approach to meet the demands of the future.
Don’t Wait Until Things Are Under Control, It's About Doing What You Can Now
Let’s get on the same page about what innovation is. Innovation is about either fixing a problem, or acting on an opportunity. The outcome can be either something new, or an improvement to something that already exists. What is important here is that it adds value to your clients, residents, your people and the organisation.
Research shows an innovative culture in an aged care organisation can offer several tangible benefits:
Stop Putting Out Spot Fires and Start Addressing Why Fires Are Happening
Think of your organisation as a production line that creates client and resident experiences. Fixing the issues at their source transforms the entire system, while merely addressing defects after they occur only patches up individual outcomes.
Service recovery may provide short-term fixes, but if the root causes remain, you end up playing an endless game of 'whack-a-mole,' which drains resources and is incredibly inefficient.
Creating a culture of innovation and continuous improvement turns your organisation into an 'innovation machine,' consistently generating improvements. This approach allows you to eliminate outdated practices, getting more out of your current resources, without needing more.
The Key Ingredients Required
There are 4 areas that the best performing and most impactful organisations possess that get results. You need to embed all 4 of these to unlock innovation in your culture.
A New Destination Needs a Clear Path Forward
An innovation roadmap is essential for guiding your organisation through the chaos of today’s aged care sector, but building this roadmap is just the first step. Real change requires getting your entire team on board. Shifting the direction of a large organisation is difficult and demands buy-in at every level. You need to create a shared goal, help them to understand what makes an organisation innovative, and you need to get them involved in designing the roadmap to move forward.
Waiting for the perfect time is not a viable strategy. Instead, start today with what’s possible and show your people how they fit into this journey. The challenges facing aged care are not going away, but by uniting around a common goal and implementing a clear plan, you can build a resilient and adaptable organisation.
The time to act is now. Inspire your team, take that first step, and lead the way to a stronger, more innovative future in aged care.
🎯 Are you looking to unlock innovation in your aged care organisation? Our workshop aligns your staff on what it takes to build an innovative organisation and creates a roadmap to get you there.
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