It's A Small World
June 30, 2009 by David Jarrard
I hate that song.
I hate the boat ride at The Magic Kingdom. I offer it as an effective alternative to water-boarding.
But I cannot deny the unintended truth of its signature, headache-inducing line: When it comes to getting something important accomplished -- like achieving a key strategic business goal -- quite often the number of people who will actually influence your success (or assure your failure) is very very small.
Need more capital? Want to buy (or sell) a hospital? Want your nurses to fend off union advances? Want to kill that nasty piece of legislation or stop that CON? Want those splitters to start sending more patients your way?
To win these goals you don’t need to reach eight million viewers on "So You Think You Can Dance." Or even the crowd who reads the Sunday paper. In fact, you may need only the nods of, let’s say, eight decision makers and the 40-person chorus of friends who influence them.
So you might think that the tools deployed to persuade this small world should reflect its size and its particular politics. And you’d be right.
But it doesn’t always happen that way.
Instead, we repeatedly find sophisticated healthcare organizations busily spending massive dollars to sway the masses in hopes of winning the “votes” of very small groups. Another Disney moment: Recall the cartoon where Donald Duck blows up his house with a shotgun trying to kill an irritating fly: Small target, wrong weapon. The fly wins.
Why does this happen? Well, the shotgun is handy and easy to use, for starters. It’s easy and comfortable to turn to familiar tools when the stakes are high. It’s the full-page newspaper or trade magazine ad, the newsletter, the tri-fold brochure, the website. All handy tools, of course. They are visible. They are tangible. They feel like action. Effective? Ask Donald.
It happens when there is little advanced (i.e. calm, reasoned) planning to identify the true business goal to be accomplished. (Hint: “awareness” is not a business goal.) This comes from the fire-aim-ready school of leadership favored by the anxious-prone. In short, it happens when the business “win” is not defined, not to mention the individuals who will make the win possible.
It happens, too, because for some leaders the persuasive work that needs to be done with small but powerful target audiences – the one-on-one meetings, the relationship-building cups of coffee, the political dance – can be taxing. It puts hospital board members and leadership teams on the uncomfortable (and risky) frontline. It can be time consuming and, frankly, uncomfortable work if you are not prepared. It’s so much easier to order up another full-page from the marketing department.
Of course, if your aim is to move big market share, it’s time to bring out the big four-color, double-truck guns. But, even then, it’s very rare in healthcare that we want to reach every single person with eyeballs with the same message. Chances are more likely you are trying to snag the attention of that 50-year-old well-insured male or the 37-year-old working mother of two.
But to achieve many business-critical goals, the list of make-or-break decision makers is small. Take full advantage of that knowledge. Study them. Target them. Put down the shotgun. Pick up the laser. Take the time to build and use relationships – and other tools -- that will uniquely penetrate and persuade that important group. And remember, it’s a small world after all.
