By David Wolfe
Where is your organization going in the next ten years?
Candidates will rally behind an compelling vision for your group. You may want to grow from serving x number of patients in your community to three times that in ten years, or if you want to grow revenue from y amount to x amount, be specific. Make it a metric, and emphasize how that positively affects the community, the team, the group, the company culture, and all the other areas that people can get behind and support.
The truth is that most organizations do not have a clear vision. If people can’t see the vision, if they can’t see where they’re going, it reduces morale, it reduces motivation, and people don’t really want to join groups like that.
Examples of typical vision statements for a healthcare organization include, “Be recognized as the preferred health system in the county.” Or, “Change the face of healthcare.” Or, “Enhance the delivery of healthcare.” Thee visions are too vague. How does someone know if they are really accomplishing the vision? If it’s not defined—how will you change the face of healthcare?—then how does the group know they are winning?
NPs and other providers are used to seeing these types of visions all the time. My recommendation is to come up with a vision that is measurable and big, and set it for ten years out. That’s something people will get behind and become passionate about. Something like, “We want to serve and treat ten thousand patients in our community in 2028.” Or, “In ten years, we want to go from five locations to fifteen locations and provide healthcare in three counties instead of one, improving the lives of sixty- five thousand people.” Or, “We want our patient satisfaction scores to go from 5.6 to 9.0 by 2028 and to make the people in our community 60 percent healthier.” The goal needs to be a bit of a stretch but big enough to inspire your team to hustle and excite them to come to work every day.