Are You Ready to Create Partnerships with the Healthcare Sector?

When we think about change, it’s easy to feel like one big, complicated, overwhelming thing. However, when we consider change in the context of transformation – specifically, reshaping the health of our communities and fostering cross-sector partnerships to achieve this – change requires so much more than just one thing.

Is there a way to un-complicate the idea of partnering to create change?

Among community-based organizations that flourish in pursuing partnerships with healthcare payers and providers, we find a set of key characteristics on display. We see seven dimensions of readiness that community-based organizations must examine to see how ready – or not – they are to pursue healthcare partnerships with the intent to take health from what it is now to what it could be:

1. Change readiness: It’s critical to prepare internally for the required changes, encompassing new mindsets and ways of doing business.
2. Strategic direction readiness: This process demands that you assess your organization’s strategic direction and determine whether developing cross-sector partnerships aligns with this direction.
3. Leadership readiness: Strong and adaptive leadership that is committed (with words and behaviors) to the partnership strategy is one of the most important areas of readiness.
4. Operational readiness: You’ll need to analyze whether to develop or repackage a service model and consider its costs, infrastructure, resource needs, and pricing options.
5. Management readiness: Evaluating your staff structure for accountability and sustainability is essential for long-term success.
6. External market readiness: It is critical to understand the healthcare landscape, the drivers of change, and potential partners within your local market.
7. Partnership development readiness: You’ll have to articulate organizational value, which begins with a strong message that resonates with multiple healthcare entities and a strategy for approaching potential partners.

To get to the root of how to prepare for and approach partnerships with the healthcare sector, we collaborated with the Aging and Disability Business Institute to develop an easy-to-use Readiness Assessment tool.

You can use this tool to answer questions across each of the seven readiness dimensions to understand better your organization’s readiness for successful cross-sector partnerships designed to drive change. When you’ve completed the assessment, you’ll receive a detailed report with feedback on your current state of readiness and your areas for capacity building moving forward.

Turning Ideas into Action:

• Take the Readiness Assessment to see where you land on the seven dimensions of partnership readiness. Are there certain dimensions where you feel more prepared than others? How will you put the results into action at your organization?
• Sitting inside a health provider or payer organization? Don’t feel left out – we have an Assessment tool and process designed to help you evaluate and select community-based organization partners in your area. Get in touch to learn more.