Unleash the Power of Focus with the Value Map Technique

With 19 years of experience in the healthcare industry, I've had the privilege of contributing to substantial revenue increases for hospitals—amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars.

Additionally, my leadership in performance improvement initiatives has saved millions for my clients. The key to my success? A powerful focusing technique that I’ve used both personally and professionally propel my career.

Now, let me share this secret with you—The Value Map Technique. Here's how it works:

Set a Clear Target: Begin by setting a realistic yet ambitious monetary goal for your organization to achieve within a month.  You may not know what is a reasonable target.  My advice to you is to start with tracking the previous month.  You can do this with both the revenue or the cost side of the income statement (you can also do this with cash).  For simplicity, I’m going to focus on revenue.

Document Known Transactions: Record the exact dates and amounts of money you know will come in during the month.  If you run a hospital department for example, when you provide a service what date and how much revenue exactly comes into the organization. If this gets too complicated (your department provides many services), start with tracking one.  The point here is to know what you already have coming in.

Identify the Gap: Oftentimes, you will identify a gap.  There are known services that are brining in value, you know when you’re providing them and you know when the revenue is going to occur related to them.  How many more services do you need to perform to close the gap?Again, this is where you need to get specific.  How many more services do you need to perform in the remaining days?  How many per hour?  How much does each service need to be worth?Determine the remaining gap to reach your goal.

Actionable Brainstorming: What are you going to do to close the gap?  If you need 10 visits per day in order to close your gap, but you are expecting 8 visits today, what needs to be done to increase those visits by 2 days?  This becomes your daily roadmap of activities.  It’s your relentless focus until you’ve solved that problem.

Recast your Gap Daily: Every day, your focus becomes recalculating your gap and identifying actions to take to close it.  I’ve found that this daily focus keep me from drifting into activities that don’t add value.

This straightforward process creates laser-like focus on a measurable outcome—something every individual and employer seeks. It trims away the unnecessary fluff from your day, revealing activities that truly add tangible value.

I personally apply this technique to every project I undertake, ensuring a streamlined and value- driven approach.

Quick note: Resist the urge to tweak the process for a few months. Patience is key, and avoiding unnecessary changes allows the technique to unfold its full potential.

Incorporate the Value Map Technique into your routine, and witness the transformative power of focused goal-setting.

Here's to achieving more together!