A CEO of a major healthcare organization planned a major push to earn internal provider and staff support and community/customer/patient brand identity for a new patient service where additional emphasis would be on customer satisfaction. The leader's vision was communicated frequently to the organization's stakeholders. Everyone rallied around the new vision and began to get involved with the planning of the programs. Everything seemed liked it was working; the plan to communicate a new vision started to get people working, but very soon thereafter, problems arose. Providers began to battle with administration, customers began to demand access to the new services, and different staff sections began to argue over trivial issues concerning the programs. What proved to be a catalyst to conflict, the new programs, was eventually put on the "backburner." What happened? The CEO reflected on this, and the conclusions were
1. The new programs made staff insecure about their jobs. The staff felt they needed to be a "part" of the new vision/new programs but were not given a forum to be "officially" included.
2. A vision may not be enough. A clear objective plan with clear lines of authority of who does what for the new programs should have been communicated "up front." The staff was not guided/focused on the tasks at hand.
3. The staff may not have been sufficiently trained to meet the new expectations the CEO set with the vision.
4. Stakeholders (internal and external) were jockeying for "position" to gain the CEO's favor rather than concentrating on the new programs.
5. There was no constructive way to handle the conflict situations that occurred. Training was clearly needed.