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EmailMessage from the President and CEO, February 15, 2008
February 11 marked the first day of our new Program Management model with positions, titles and accountabilities formally changing—but it also goes without saying that we have much left to do to get us through full implementation.
In mid-January our Leadership team came together for an afternoon to assess our readiness for today. The consensus of the attendees is that while there are many things to work on, we were ready to move ahead.
We have a very detailed implementation plan that is guiding our journey. The oversight of that plan is now in the hands of a “Program Management Change Leadership Team”, chaired by Joni Kent, VP of HR/OE and with membership from the Directorship of the Clinical and Residential Portfolio as well as representatives from other areas. Their role between now and the late spring is to lead the transition to the new model, making decisions related to the implementation and operationalization of program management; providing oversight for operational and change-related initiatives to support the change; and identifying information or emerging issues that require the executive team’s input.
The group meets weekly and discusses subjects such as:
- Details around the organizational structure for the portfolio of Clinics, Community and Residential—this is a very large Program and one that is extremely important given it is where essentially all of our non-inpatient services reside and where there will definitely be a great deal of development in the future given the emphasis on “Aging at Home”. The group is advising on how to structure that program for success.
- A thorough process to “map” all of our administrative support staff within the program management model—something that will be done over the next month or so and will take many factors into consideration to ensure everyone is in the most suitable position. In the meantime these team members will be in interim reporting relationships.
The Executive Team is now focused on developing the processes to assess and address the outcomes of our external review processes and internal self assessments (accreditation and listening tour).
We are looking at outcomes under theme headings of:
- Organizational Structure
- Clinical, Residential Care Delivery
- Operating Processes and Systems
- Physical Layout/Facilities
- Leadership and Staff Development
Under each of these areas we will develop detailed action plans to address a number of opportunities to improve our effectiveness. Our move to Program Management, for example, is a major task we have initiated under “Organizational Structure”. Also under this same theme, a small workgroup of staff are now reviewing our committee structure (ad hoc and standing) and will be recommending how we can make our committees even more effective and perhaps, less time consuming for so many of our staff.
Essentially, we are now in what can be called Phase II of our Performance Evaluation and Strategic Enhancement process. You have seen this schematic before, but it worth showing you again, as it is an important representation of how the pieces come together and the timing of next steps. It is critically important that all of us—staff, families, clients and community members-- share the same understanding, not just of where we are going but how we are going to get there—and that is what this diagram attempts to describe.
As I have previously mentioned we have now formed a search committee for the new VP, Residential and Community Programs. One of our Board members, Bonnie Freedman, has agreed to chair the committee. Other members include a few of our senior level executives, another Board member, a representative of our clients and families, and one of our volunteers. Janet Wright and Associates, a major Canadian executive search firm has been engaged to assist us. We anticipate searching across North America to find the very best candidate that we can.
Clearly we have much on the go—all of which is layered on top of the most important thing we do and that is providing excellence of care to 2500 people a day. Of late, I have had the opportunity to meet with a number of our political and community leaders, and the one thing they consistently say to me is how outstanding Baycrest is in its field with a well earned reputation as the innovator in aging. Our recent move forward in implementing our new organization model took us a big step forward in continuing to improve the work of our wonderful organization.
Bill Reichman
Baycrest President and CEO