Change is hard for everyone and how and when to change has been debated and discussed in companies since the first company was formed. What is never debated are some of the excuses used for not changing. People are generally resistant to change and despite the need to move forward people generally prefer to live with what they have. Taking a strategic approach to the issues around change itself shuold help to alleviate some of the resistence. In this post we look at changing the way we change.
My SPOT
Part 3 on Leadership: Challenges and Assistance in Leading Change
In Leadership: The Change Process In Claims Requires A Different Approach, I put forth the position that changing a claims organization needs a new brand of leadership skill that does not usually exist in the traditional claims organization. In Part 2 on Leadership: Developing a Strategic Transformation Team, I addressed how to break from existing management process to achieve effective strategic results. In the final installment, I discuss how challenges around leading change make it beneficial to bring in strategic support to help achieve the desired success.
Part 2 on Leadership: Developing a Strategic Transformation Team
Breaking from the linear approach to management is the key to leading Strategic Transformation. A standard organization will have a head of claims and then a variety of department heads to manage each line of business. Depending on the company there may be additional senior managers to handle various operational aspects of the group, which may include support staff, call center, technology and data analytics. Under this method, projects get initiated and managed within the same linear organizational framework. The result of this approach is a development process built in a silo that limits input and understanding of possible interdependencies that may exist outside the framework. In this post we will explore further how a strategic transformation team is formed and can be effective.
Leadership: The Change Process In Claims Requires A Different Approach
Successful organizations are always changing and adopting to improve their operations, lower costs and increase efficiencies. Claims departments are no different and have been under pressure to transform their operations and live by the mantra of doing more with less. Good claims organizations continuously evolve and adapt to ensure they add value to the overall business. Regardless, changing to meet the challenges of the marketplace is often fraught with problems and difficulties. Many initiatives fail to get off the ground or fail in the implementation process. Change can be very successful and if managed and led correctly. To change effectively there must be a strategic approach and a change in how these initiatives are led.
Claims Challenge: It’s Time for a Change – Are You In?
Here’s a challenge! Let’s redesign the claims industry. Yes innovation has improved the world of claims over the past few decades to make claims more efficient. As recent catastrophe’s have shown, the industry is much better at responding to losses than in years past. Regardless, claims functions in an assembly line approach. This has of course been a huge improvement and like manufacturing has helped to produce a better more consistent product. Today’s world allows us to collaborate more so my challenge is to tap into your collective experience and come up with even better ideas. What do you think?
4 Areas Of Concern From The Latest Insurance Executive Conference
Recently insurance leaders came together at the 23rd Executive Conference looking at “Driving Growth in the Life and Property-Casualty Insurance Markets.” Throughout the conference 4 themes seemed to permeate: Data and technology, regulatory environment, climate change and social media. It would seem these issues will with the market for a while. Take a look at our brief overview of the conference.
Everybody Wants to Make Improvements In Claims But No One Actually Makes It Happen
There is so much that needs to be done in the world of claims. Operations need fixing, technology needs improving and a futures need to be defined. For some reason however, we are all really good at talking about it and not so good about doing anything about it. The industry needs to take action. Claims departments need to think creatively and “out-of-the-box” if we are going to attract new talent to the industry. This also means acting and not just talking about acting.
2 Preventative Steps To Help Avoid Claims Crisis Before They Become Emergencies
Seth Godin in his wonderful blog recently wrote about Emergency room doctors in organizations. These are the people that are really good at and are rewarded for stopping bleeding. Seth is questioning where all the strategic thinking to prevent those emergencies in the first place? In claims we tend to hire and support that emergency room doctor mindset. Despite this, we can avoid becoming emergency rooms and be more proactive strategic organizations. In our latest post we explore possible solutions to be less reactive.
Insanity: Claim’s Departments Can’t Expect Different Results Without Changing Their Organizations
Maybe I care too much about our industry or am just frustrated by the lack of attention to quality claims handling, but this is annoying. Why should claims make up half of the most frequent market conduct issues for the Property & Casualty industry as listed by Wolters Kluwer for the 5th straight year? As part of their review they track and analyze the results from state market conduct examinations. As with their prior studies, claims issues continue to dominate the list of state concerns. In my latest post I analyze the last 5 years of the Wolters study and find an upsetting trend – nothing is changing. This is a challenge to claims organizations to improve! Check it out.
Getting More in Your Negotiations
Take a look at Contributor, Nancy Hudgins review of the Stuart Diamond book on negotiation. We can always use ideas on how to improve negotiations and these look like some good ones.