IT Strategic Planning Governance Keith Whalen Albuquerque Health Partners

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IT Strategic Planning GovernanceKeith
WhalenAlbuquerque Health Partners
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First Things First

• Get a Sponsor
• Higher Up the Better
• Clout Never Hurts
• Assess the Business Climate
• What is Currently Active
• What is Success Rate
• Where Are The Pain Points
• Determine the Need
• How Many Projects Are Active?
• What Is In The Queue?
• What Is Experience Level Of Staff?

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First Things First (2)

• Look at History
• What Has Been Tried?
• Why Did It Not Work?
• What Is Growth History?
• What Is Turnover?
• Listen, Listen, Listen
• Ask Questions
• Listen Between The Lines
• Offer No Solutions, Just Listen

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Does One Size Fit All?

• Organization Types
• Small Community Hospital
• Medium Size Integrated Health Network
• University Teaching Hospital
• Large HMO
• Large Hospital System
• For Profit Health System
• Organization Maturity
• New Start Up
• Financial Turnaround
• Mature and Expanding
• Mature and Shrinking
• Cultural Turnaround

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Does One Size Fit All? (2)

• Organization Size
• Single Hospital
• Multi Hospital
• Multi State Health Plan
• Multi State Health System

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Governance The Basics

• Create the Committee
• Nothing Lasting Happens By Individuals
• Must Be Peer Based
• Must Be Willing Participants
• Include All Areas
• Lends Credence To Process
• Removes Reporting Line Stigma
• Eliminate Surprises
• Creates Synergy
• Board of Directors Members
• Strategic Planning Role
• Feduciary Responsibility Role
• Breadth Of Experience

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Governance The Basics (2)

• Must Be Decision Makers
• No Higher Veto Authority
• Credibility Down The Organization
• Credibility To the BOD

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Creating The Discipline

• Create the Charter
• Spell It Out
• Make It Broad
• Make It Specific
• Define Roles and Responsibilities
• Committee Understands
• Customer Community Understands
• IT Understands
• Create The Priority Process
• Develop Priority Criteria
• Evaluate Known Against Criteria
• Develop New Request Process Against Criteria
• Communicate Process To Organization

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Creating The Discipline (2)

• Make Your Voice Heard
• Set Committee Agenda
• Create Presentation/Discussion Topics
• Get Update Slot on Sr. Team Agenda
• Communicate Through out Organization
• Build Supporting Processes
• System Selection Process
• Project Planning Processes
• Application Development

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Bringing It All home

• Educate The Committee
• Teach the Basics
• Standing Agenda Items
• Host Vendor Fairs
• Continual Link to Business Goals
• Communicate To The Organization
• The Five Ws
• The Single H
• Visit In Person
• Communicate Progress Religiously
• Get Team All On Same Message
• Push Governance as Key

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Bringing It All home (2)

• Find Initial Small Wins, Little Victories
• Build Credibility
• Demonstrate Value
• Push Governance As Key
• Best Argument For Additional Staff

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Dangers and Pitfalls

• People Unaware of Their Pain
• Don't Know What They Don't Know
• Current Process May Be All They Know
• Dysfunction Does Not Mean It Does Not Work
• Willing to Substitute Results For Process
• Sponsor Abandons Ship When Challenged
• There Will Be Push Back
• Competing Priorities
• It Is Harder Than Thought
• Requires Sacrifice of Others
• Most Will See Themselves As The Exception
• No One Gets Everything
• Hard To Acknowledge Another's Priority

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Dangers and Pitfalls (2)

• Seen as IT Problem not Organization's
• IT Needs it not us
• Why Does IT Get Special Treatment?
• IT Is The One With The Checkered History
• You Get Burned Out
• This is Hard Work
• No Immediate Strokes
• It Is Always Uphill!
• Take Another Job, You Wore Out Your Welcome