We've previously discussed determining whether your practice is ready for additional revenue streams and various offerings to consider. As exciting as the opportunity to provide a new offering is, excitement is often dampened by the reality of the work it takes to roll out something new.
The good news is that there is a way for you to move forward with your selected offering without needing to do all the work. How? Through intrapreneurship.
As a practice owner, you have created a job for your team where they can make a good living while doing meaningful and life-changing work, and for many people, that will feel like enough. Yet there is another subset of individuals who are interested in advancing their careers, and for these people, harnessing their motivation and propensity for being action-oriented through intrapreneurship will help to drive your practice forward.
What is intrapreneurship? It fosters the entrepreneurial mindset (creative, innovative, and adaptive) within your practice. It allows motivated and action-oriented team members to add value to your practice through new ideas and creative solutions, with the benefit of not needing to assume the same amount of risk as you, the practice owner.
Let’s explore how you can engage your team in this four-step rollout process, allowing them to experience the values of being an intrapreneur (independence, innovation, and incentives) while adding value to your practice and minimizing additional work for you.
If you already have an offering you want to add to your practice, you can skip to Step Two: Proposal. If you’re still exploring which offerings may be best for your practice, stay here and begin with Step One, Research.
Step One: Research
When looking to add a new offering (service, product, etc.) to your practice, it’s important to make sure you’re creating a solution to a problem that exists. A good place to start is identifying challenges your patients, community, team, and/or referral sources face.
The problems (challenges) are often shared through statements that begin like this…
I wish I had more time to…
I wish we could…
I wish you offered….
It would be nice if you had…
If you haven’t heard any of these statements or would like to have a more formal meeting of the minds, you can have an “idea fair.” During the idea fair, you create an environment where you and your team can openly share what they hear and see around the clinic. Within this collaborative space, your team can work together to list problems (challenges) and brainstorm creative solutions, moving you closer to determining your next great offering (innovation).
Note for the Practice Owner: It’s recommended that you’re present for the idea fair, as you help to set the tone for the meeting, and it shows your support, but this does not mean that you need to plan or facilitate the meeting. This is a great opportunity for you to delegate to your team. You may already know who is interested in the opportunity to have additional responsibility and independence; if not, this will be an insightful meeting.
Step Two: Proposal
Once you’ve identified the team member who demonstrates this desire to have additional ownership and assume additional responsibility, the next step is to ask them to bring forth a proposal for the new offering. The proposal should include approximately 70% of the information needed to determine whether the new offering is viable. Bringing a “partially baked” proposal forward allows you to have input about the offering but alleviates you of the mental and administrative burden of outlining the core of the offering. Unsure what the proposal should include and/or how to split the task 70/30? Click here.
Note for the Practice Owner: The amount of work and effort it takes to create a proposal for a new offering may seem overwhelming, but remember:
This is your opportunity to ensure the feasibility of the offering and determine whether the risk is worth the reward - making a strategic rather than opportunistic business decision
Over half of this information will be put together by your team
By creating an environment where intrapreneurship is welcome it:
Frees up your time
Develops team skills
Builds trust
Increases efficiency & outcomes
Promotes collaboration
Empowers the team member(s)
Prepares for succession
Step Three: Implementation
Once the proposal has been approved, it’s time to move on to the implementation phase of the process. This is where the team member will move forward with the agreed-upon plan.
Note for the Practice Owner: You may find this the hardest part because it’s where you step away and let the team member take over—you’ve helped create the plan, and now it’s their turn to take the lead (independence).
Step Four: Monitoring
Once the new offering has been implemented, it’s time to ensure the goals and objectives are met. The KPIs agreed upon during the proposal are ways to assess this. It’s also important during this phase that the team member:
Documents
Maintains thorough documentation of the project plans, schedules, reports, meeting minutes, and lessons learned
Generate regular progress reports and updates for you as the practice owner
Evaluates
Follows the plan for ongoing evaluation and feedback loops to assess the implementation's effectiveness, impact, and outcomes.
Gathers feedback from stakeholders, customers, and team members to identify areas for improvement and optimization.
Assesses
After 90 days, is the implementation of the offering going as planned?
If yes, develop quality assurance measures and monitoring mechanisms to track progress, performance, and adherence to project standards and objectives.
If no, determine whether adaptations can be made to retain the offering or if it was unsuccessful and needs to be stopped.
If this is the case, it’s beneficial to conduct post-implementation reviews, document lessons learned, and celebrate achievements.
Note for the Practice Owner: Not all new offerings work and that’s okay; it’s part of the process. As important as it is for the success of your practice to be ever-evolving, it’s also important to know when it’s time to cut bait and move on. Regardless of the outcome, there will be learnings that will allow for continued growth and additional opportunities for success in the future.
Congratulations if you’ve made it this far; it means you’re serious about empowering your team and evolving your practice. I may hedge a bet that some fear may loom in the background. One of the common fears with creating a culture of intrapreneurship is that team members who have the autonomy to begin a new offering will take what they have created and leave. Having heard from practice owners who have successfully deployed the spirit of intrapreneurship within their practices, they report to the contrary. They’ve shared that the opportunity to have increased autonomy, shared responsibility, and a sense of ownership often makes it so team members never want to leave. As mentioned above, with intrapreneurship, there is a lot of upside (innovation, independence, and incentive) without much risk. Of course, people may leave, but it won’t be the end of the world if you maintain a growth and abundance mindset. You’ll now have your eyes and ears open towards the next opportunity if this one doesn’t work out as planned.