Balancing act: supporting finance leaders to deliver on short- and long-term priorities 5
Finance leading across multiple horizons Finance leaders have a key role – working with their executive
Leaders articulated the requirement for thinking proactively across both the short-term and the longer-term, and the need to equip finance teams with the skills to think and plan across these different challenges. They also reflected on the need for finance leaders, working closely with executive colleagues, to be equipped to drive planning decisions. Discussions repeatedly centred around three themes: • Thinking across multiple change horizons: understanding local opportunities and being able to think and plan simultaneously across the short-, medium- and long-term. • System and patient value: acting with true value in mind – delivering better care and outcomes for individuals and thinking with a system mindset financially. • Leading with hope and optimism: knowing how to form a compelling change narrative. The output of this engagement has been structured to encourage practical use to support the role of a finance leader. Each of the three key themes is explained in detail and complemented with relevant tools and frameworks to help leaders to enact that theme. Finally, case studies bring to life how other finance leaders have carried out their role to deliver across these objectives.
director colleagues – to develop plans for long-term financial sustainability and improved outcomes, at the same time as operationalising current plans. Finance leaders are well placed to both drive and support change, with the ability to: harness multi-disciplinary knowledge to provide evidence-based options for decision-making; think and lead across a system; role model collaborative behaviours; and identify financial barriers and levers to change. Through this programme it was evident that there is a clear excitement and determination to deliver longer-term financial sustainability and value for the patient, the commissioning organisation and the taxpayer. It was recognised that the actions needed will vary across systems that are likely to have different levels of opportunity in the short-, medium- and long-term. For some there will be immediate productivity opportunities to tackle, while others might need to focus on significant pathway redesign. These are not mutually exclusive; indeed many require short-term productivity and efficiency gains to pay for the longer-term transformation and ultimately deliver sustainability. A clear local understanding to inform where best to intentionally spend the limited management capacity guided by the local context is key. Interestingly, the engagement and roundtable discussions identified a range of common challenges and opportunities that many finance leaders are experiencing no matter their local context.
Figure 1: a summary of the research outcomes
Finance leading across multiple horizons
Thinking across multiple change horizons
Leading with hope and optimism
System and patient value
Business planning tools and frameworks, technical tools and leadership frameworks/planning tools
Case studies
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