Focus on the future.
Though there has been some attrition as the organizations consolidated functions and some people have been moved around, therewere no direct layoffs associated with the merger.
“We didn’t merge to shrink,” he says. “We merged to grow the organization. I think that’s been a big part of our success. We have been ableto provide that growth for the organization, so people may not bedoing exactly the same things they used to do, but they certainly havemore opportunities in this organization today then they would haveprior to the merger.”
To set sights on the future, Gallatin and the organization formed theExecutive Strategy Council, which is a present-day incarnation of theStrategic Integration Group.
The council exists to make sure the organization is staying on track
with its strategic plan. The council comprises senior leaders and vicepresidents — essentially, those with system responsibilities.
The council meets weekly to avoid overanalyzing information.Additionally, the weekly meetings keep everyone’s attention focusedon the long-term strategy and away from the day-to-day operatingproblems.
“It really keeps strategy at a higher level,” Gallatin says. “Many strategic plans can become a plan that is put on the shelf somewhere andreferred to when needed. Ours is actually a work in progress everyweek, as we see things that are changing in the external and internalenv
ir
onment. We can really monitor our performance relative to theplan and have the folks who are necessarily involved day in and dayout on their operating responsibilities to think more strategically.”
There is also an agenda set for the meeting to make sure the discussion sticks to the long-term strategy of the organization. Keeping thetopic focused is a main key in establishing a group like the ExecutiveStrategy Council.
“You clearly want to have objectives for the group,” he says. “Youwant to have a focus for the group. It can’t just be a ‘come as youplease and talk about what you want.’ Things that are discussed in thisgroup, for example, need to have strategic implications. So, I thinkyou need a focus for the group and a purpose — kind of a missionstatement and also a defined agenda every week, and the person leading the group really was responsible for putting the agenda together.”
While the meeting is not an open forum for anyone to attend — theorganization has town-hall and group meetings for that — employeescan come to their direct reports and discuss an item they feel may beappropriate for the council. The executive it is brought up to is free tothen bring the issue to Gallatin to appear on the agenda, but only if theitem fits with the council’s objectives.
“Certainly, anyone can request items be put on the agenda, but itneeds to be a specific, thoughtful, planned process in terms of whatare the big issues the organization is facing that impact all of us on astrategic level that need to be discussed,” he says. “So, it really is aboutstructuring your free-flowing conversation.”
Gallatin looks at each issue and the extent to which it impacts theother participants in the meeting.
“If an executive has a problem with his own direct report for example, that obviously wouldn’t be appropriate for discussion,” he says.“But, if there is an issue with culture, for example, where we’ve got agroup of employees who may be across campus who are feeling oneway or another, that would probably be an appropriate topic of discussion.
“The metric would be, how many people in that room have responsibility over the issue or how many people in the room does that issuetouch?”
Once an issue is brought up for discussion during the meeting,everyone is expected to listen and respect everyone in the room. Therules are defined, specific and in writing as far as what the objectivesof the group are and the expectations of each member.
“The rules of the game in the council are that we all listen to eachother’s concerns, and that we engage each other in good conversationand that we all are encouraged to participate and give opinions,” hesays. “The group actually, many times, reaches its own kind of consensus. But, the understanding is, whether or not you support thatconsensus in the room, you certainly need to support that consensuswhen you leave the room. So, it’s really been establishing the habit ofhaving all our executives even though they have many people reporting to them day in and day out, many of our executives have theopportunity to talk with their peers about what’s on their mind on aweekly basis.”
While Gallatin says he sees the need for unofficial hallway conversations, he wants his executives to be able to communicate in an official manner
“Instead of getting a consensus by having to talk to seven of your peers individually, you can bring it into the room and talk as a group,”he says. “I think that encourages much more openness and responsibility, when you do it that way.”
As Gallatin begins to focus more on the future of the company, KimHollon was hired in March as CEO of Excela Health Hospitals andexecutive vice president of the Excela Health system to handle moreof the day-to-day operations.
Gallatin says he realized he was much too involved in the day-to-dayoperations, and as they developed the strategic plan, it became clearthat to achieve the strategic vision, it would take much more than justgetting better at operations.
“It was clear to me once we had that strategic plan that we had tomove in that direction,” he says. “I think that’s a natural progression ofthe organization as we moved from really worrying about surviving asa new entity, getting our operations in place. Now that we’ve done thatnow, we need to look at long-term survival. So, it was totally a logicalprogression of the organization from survival mode to really a fulfillment of what we could become in terms of the vision.”
HOW TO REACH: Excela Health, (877) 771-1234 or www.excelahealth.org