Build the bandwagon
Thomas saw three areas of concern on which Molina needed to focus its resources: improving profitability, improving membership numbers and improving the overall quality of the services Molina offered to its Michigan plan members.
But in order to move forward, he needed to make sure his leadership team was on the same page with him.
“I needed to see if our associates and leadership team were drawing the same conclusions that I was,” Thomas says. “So, at the outset, it required me spending a significant amount of time with the team, getting the team in agreement that these are the priorities.”
Thomas does meet periodically with all of Molina’s associates in Michigan, but on a more frequent basis, he and his management team rely on cascading communication. During the early stages of the turnaround plan, it was cascading communication that helped get everyone focused on the tasks at hand. Thomas’ communication strategy started with high accountability at the top levels of the company.
From the outset, Thomas wanted to ensure that his leadership team was meeting and reviewing the strategy and that the strategy was communicated throughout the company at frequent intervals.
“As the president and CEO of the Michigan plan, I have leadership that includes a C-level chief medical officer, my chief operating officer and chief financial officer, and other directors and officers who report to me,” Thomas says. “We can’t just get together willy-nilly. We needed to have a standing agreement to return and report to each other regularly, to get together, measure and gauge the progress we’re making on the important priorities of the company.
“Each of my direct reports, in turn, meets with and counsels with their direct reports. So it starts with the leadership team, cascades down to the next level and down through the levels of the company so that every associate in the company is aware of our priorities. We also post them in the building and put them on our computer desktops so that everyone can see the progress we’re making with regard to those priorities.”
Thomas says good communication starts at the top. If you want to focus your employees on a set of goals, you must communicate actively, not passively. Just because the message is out there doesn’t mean people are absorbing it.
“The effectiveness of communication is in the outcome you get,” he says. “Simply put, the burden for effective communication is on the communicator, rather than the person hearing the message. If you can’t tell it, you can’t sell it.
“I follow a principle I call GABE, which is an acronym. G is ‘Get in front of the issue.’ A is ‘It’s always about the money.’ B is ‘Be proactive.’ E is ‘Early and often.’ I believe that I have to keep in mind that the greater burden is on me to communicate and that I need to make sure I’ve communicated effectively to get the outcome I want. I can’t assume someone is going to hear what I want them to hear. So I have to test and retest what I said, asking people what they heard me say, what is the outcome, what are they taking away from my communication.”
In refocusing Molina, Thomas found that what employees take away from your messages can have a lot to do with the words and descriptions you use. Thomas divides people into three general categories: those who learn by sight, those who learn by hearing and those who learn by feel. The stage you set in your communication plays a large role in how you reach each of those groups.
“You develop, over time, techniques for identifying in your associates what their primary system is for absorbing information,” Thomas says. “I use the predicates and metaphors appropriate for that learning style. For someone who is a visual learner, concepts need to be graphically illustrated more often. I’ll ask them if they can imagine or picture an idea or concept. Someone who is an auditory learner, I’ll ask them to drive a point home or nail it down. If someone learns by feel, I want to make sure I’m using predicates and metaphors related to feeling. ‘How do you feel about this; do you get a sense that it would be better if we approached it this way?’
“You have to learn the primary system for how each of your associates processes information.”
When you are in a large group setting, cover all your communication bases.
“You can’t just assume that you have one-third, one-third and one-third of each type of learner within that group,” Thomas says. “You have to mix up the predicates and metaphors in a way that you are making sure that there is a greater chance of hitting all three types of learners within the audience. I’m approaching things in two or three different ways in every forum, meeting or conference in which I am communicating.”
