This year I am thrilled to return to National Council For Behavioral Health Conference national conference. I love this conference because of it’s size and breadth of topics covered in mental health. This year it is being held in Nashville, Tennessee and I had the privilege of kicking off my social media ambassador duties with a preconference day of learning.
The focus of the day long pre-conference was “Getting Out of Your Own Way To Lead Transformational Change”. This was hosted by MTM Services, a consultancy with expertise in change management for behavioral health organizations. The focus was not just changing one goal in your organization but the transformation of complete a mental health service or services. It resonated as it perfectly illustrated my theme of being “unstuck”.
There were several undercurrents of this engaging day of learning with focus of using tools and resources to challenge the status quo. To think carefully about “has always been done this way”.
Data, Measurement, and Insight Oh My!
This conference picked up where my previous post on the #VBPforward conference left off. Not only collecting data is key to organizational success but it taking time to gain valuable insights. It is not enough to collect data but organizations need a strategy to act on it. Dynamic presenter and founder David Lloyd talked about how many times we just collect data because “the state told us to”, “for the auditor”, etc. The whole MTM team challenged participants to think about what they are doing with data. Did you try to making something meaningful with required data? As organizations we have to challenge ourselves to go well beyond measurement for measurements sake…
Once we have the data we have to make meaning of it. Not just meaning for management, regulators, and auditors; but huddling up with frontline staff to find meaning. MTM talked about their use of developing actionable data dashboards to discuss outcomes. They walked through their work on “Same Day Access” as a model of how organizations can use data to better make decisions. They gave a tour of several other change projects such as revamping how you utilize your medical staff. To collect data and ask tough questions about change and effectiveness.
The largest take away was that through data, organizations are often forced to ask challenging questions and make tough decisions. Scott Lloyd often repeated the mantra that “Data Is”. It is not necessarily “good” or “bad” but frequently shines a light that change is needed. The other theme that once you decide to make a change, you are just beginning…
Change Is Hard … Really… It is…
In clinical work I often tell my clients that “change is hard” and “therapy is work”. As I begin to think about tackling larger problems, I find mental health organizations don’t apply this to ourselves. We often settle for the status quo. David Lloyd again set the table exploring our own barriers to change as organizations. From something as small as changing a form to something as large as a new payment model, we often resist change.
Also the ability for organizations to look at problems holistically. In the fee for service world, No Show/Productivity is often a key measure. When productivity is low, it takes work it to dig deep and talk about the potential cause of the the problem and look to ourselves as solutions…
That it is the transformational leaders job to understand barriers and pull staff through these challenge. To come along side your staff to understand barriers but also know when not to take steps backward…
Michael Flora made some excellent points about being adaptable leader. One that listens and assesses to needs but also is willing to take risks…
Behavioral healthcare is going through a time of significant change. It was challenging to spend a day taking a deep dive into how organizations make change and not settle for the status quo. In the current healthcare environment we place our organizations at great risk if we don’t think about changing.
If you are an organization trying to make sense of change, I highly recommend MTM services to help get you unstuck. It was refreshing to hear an organization talk about welcoming change in these times. It was also recommended that teams huddle around founder David Lloyd’s book (link below). Organizations shouldn’t continue to settle for “because it has always been done this way” ; behavioral health orginzations should be prepared to change and adapt in challenging times.
