A recent Harvard Business Review article by Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Leading Your Team Past the Peak of a Crisis, discusses “Kanter’s Law” – how projects can look like failure when you’re in the middle of the effort – in the context of organizational and global crises.
Those involved in quality and practice transformation efforts have likely experienced times when they’ve needed to put an improvement project “on pause” as higher-priority issues surface. It can be challenging to both put a project on hold and restart a project after a hiatus – even if the project is only in “hibernation” for a couple of months. Many of you are currently experiencing this as you pause some QI and practice transformation efforts to address the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
For those who are considering putting a planned or active improvement project on pause, there are a few resources you may find useful.
In these current times, I’m reminded about the importance of bridging silos and engaging in collaborative problem-solving. It’s going to take us working across aisles, departments, organizations, and industries to tackle the challenges that lie ahead. The recently concluded “Making the Value Connection” (MVC) Pilot Program is a promising example of how beneficial multidisciplinary collaboration can be.