Affordable Care Act: lessons on innovation rollouts, expectations and naysayers

You are managing a new innovation, with billions at stake and a deadline looming. But people with their noses in the details are telling you that you can forget about getting it done on time.

Your gut tells you to push past the naysayers, rally the troops and do the impossible. But what if the naysayers are right?

The recent troubles with the rollout of the Affordable Care Act, which has put Kathleen Sebelius, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, and others on the hot seat, have brought this classic management dilemma into focus.

Leadership and management experts seem to agree that success in this situation – the ability to know when problems are real and deadlines and quality are in jeopardy – depends on a culture that expects results but demands the truth.

“You need to have a management team that’s comfortable with exposing problems as soon as they become aware of them,” said Patrick Magoon, CEO and president of the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago.

Magoon knows big projects. He oversaw the construction of the hospital’s $855 million new home, completed on time and under budget last year.

“Everybody knows there are going to be problems,” he said. “There are going to be issues. It all comes out in the wash sooner or later. How you handle that first problem is important, because it sets the tone.”

Leonard Gingerella, clinical professor of entrepreneurship at Loyola University Chicago’s Quinlan School of Business, said it’s important to establish expectations and benchmarks ahead of time.

"If you start with a lie, you're going to end with a lie," he said. "You have to insist on really strong performance criteria."

Via: Chicago Tribune

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