reprinted from International Journal of Innovation Science › wp-content › uploads › ...private...

Innovation Strategies for Addressing Today’sHealthcare Challenges:Leveraging Public-Private Partnerships to Achieve Resultsby

Researched and written by Kathie Thomas and Mary Beth Luna WolfEdited by Stephanie Susman

reprinted from

International Journal of Innovation Science

Volume 1 • Number 4 Multi-Science Publishing 1757-2223

Volume 1 · Number 4 · 2009

179

Innovation Strategies for Addressing Today’sHealthcare Challenges:

Leveraging Public-Private Partnerships to Achieve Results

Researched and written by Kathie Thomas and Mary Beth Luna WolfEdited by Stephanie Susman

AbstractPartnerships between public health organizations and private corporations may be bestpositioned to address many of the major healthcare challenges currently facing nationsacross the globe. Strategically chosen partners can collaborate and share resources todevelop and successfully implement valuable solutions to achieve common goals. Thekey is using innovation methods to effectively leverage the best resources provided byeach partner. The authors explain the value of public-private partnerships while alsoproviding insight into how specific tactics from projects undertaken by their internationalcommunications firm, Fleishman-Hillard, assisted partnerships in their efforts to developinnovative solutions to address healthcare challenges.

INTRODUCTIONProviding quality and affordable healthcare is one of the toughest challenges facing the United Statesand many nations around the globe. Whether it is the increasing costs of care affecting both governmentand business, or the rapid spread of disease to vulnerable populations, today’s healthcare issues requirenew levels of strategic thinking to find innovative solutions. Public-private partnerships can offer theright combination of insights and resources to address these challenges.

Public and private collaborations allow multiple organizations to share resources and bring togetherthe diverse perspectives needed to develop solutions. In today’s challenging economy, both types oforganizations can benefit by combining resources and being enthusiastically innovative: public entitiesmust develop new approaches to meeting public health needs, and private companies must find tacticsfor growth and expansion that address the issues affecting their bottom line, which is itself greatlyimpacted by the rising cost of healthcare.

Still, partnerships alone will not solve these problems. Innovation and strategy are crucial to tacklinghealthcare issues. Innovation is defined as people working together to develop and implement newideas that create value. Strategy is a plan of action designed to achieve a particular goal. Innovationwithout strategy is not relevant, and strategy without innovation is not sustainable.

Innovation is most successful when four critical elements – collaboration, ideation, implementation,and the assessment of value – are achieved through a rigorous process (See figure 1). The goal is notcreativity for its own sake, but the systemic fostering of new ideas that deliver value and a measureablereturn on investment. Partnership strategy bridges the gap between policy and tactics, and involvescreating a fit among the partner organizations while configuring resources within a challengingenvironment to meet the needs of markets and to fulfill stakeholder expectations.

With the right partners and an environment that allows them to apply their diverse insights todevelop new solutions, public-private partnerships have the opportunity to execute successfulinitiatives. This paper explores how public-private partnerships developed or enhanced by the authors’firm have effectively addressed healthcare needs in both developed and developing nations, andexplains the essential role that innovation plays in those partnerships.

OVERVIEW OF PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPSThe concept is not new; forming public-private partnerships has long been a way for organizations tomanage resources to achieve common goals. These partnerships have taken many different forms, andat times have united the most unlikely of partners. They have often been the center of policy debatesconcerning issues such as the appropriateness of private entities providing public services, and theeffectiveness of privatization of government functions. Depending on the country in which they

function, these efforts may be highly regulated, sometimes allowing only a certain type of arrangementbetween public and private entities.

For the purpose of this paper, a public-private partnership is defined as:

A venture that involves three stakeholders: public (local, state, or national government),private (for-profit industry or not-for-profit philanthropy), and consumers. It is based on acooperative agreement that articulates the needs of the consumer/public, utilizes diverseexpertise, creates mutually irresistible benefits, and distributes the risks and rewards.

The structure of a public-private partnership can take many forms. At one extreme is completeprivatization of a government function, such as private agencies that operate toll roads. In the middleare private entities that contract with public entities to provide services, such as case managementservices provided by private firms in a publicly-run foster care system. On the other end of thespectrum, are public and private entities that voluntarily partner, without monetary compensation, forthe purpose of working together to address a societal issue. For instance, the United States Departmentof Agriculture MyPyramid program partners with private corporations including General Mills, DairyQueen, and Nestle to distribute and promote the government’s nutrition guidelines. The structure ofeach type of partnership is different, but the intended outcomes are the same: value creation for bothparties and the public and to successfully meet a public need.

Partnerships are sometimes controversial because some critics claim it is bad policy for privateentities to provide services that have previously been provided by government. This stems from aconcern that private companies would be focused on profits instead of meeting public needs. There arealso many challenges to bringing together two entities with different work cultures, beliefs, andcommunications styles. Sometimes, the resources both organizations bring to the table are actuallybarriers to success (See figure 2). However, as demonstrated in figure 1, innovation can be used toensure those resources become assets and that barriers are removed.

BENEFITS TO GOVERNMENTIn the face of increasing financial difficulties, the complexities that healthcare service providers mustdeal with are increasing. Highly mobile global populations accelerate the spread of disease, rapidlyescalating global health concerns and costs. For example, the H1N1 virus spread to more than 40

180 Innovation Strategies for Addressing Today’s Healthcare Challenges


VALUABLE RESULTS

Figure 1.

countries with approximately 8,000 confirmed cases in only a six-month period.1 The rapid spreadrequired immediate government response and the additional use of dwindling resources, while alsonegatively impacting private companies due to reduced commerce, tourism and production.

The resulting increase in mandatory state and local budget expenses, combined with a decreasein revenue collection, has led to large budget shortfalls. Forty-eight U.S. states are currentlyaddressing budget shortfalls that will occur in the 2010 fiscal year, and 36 states already anticipatedeficits for 2011.2 The rising unemployment rate adds to government strain, because decreasedincomes require greater need for government services, but the decline in tax revenue that followsjob losses forces governments to suspend or reduce services.

Declining revenue is not the only issue. In the United States, the post-war Baby Boomer generationis starting to retire, and over the next three years alone there will be a need for more than 270,000 newgovernment employees in specialty fields such as medicine, public health and security.3 Increasingdeficits both at the state and federal level may prevent these jobs from being filled, adding additionalstress on the delivery of healthcare services.

Governments are constantly searching for new ways to provide high quality healthcare, but manystruggle because they find it increasingly difficult to operate publicly funded healthcare facilities. Costsof maintaining equipment and retaining physicians continue to rise, while budgets decrease, requiringsome governments to seek private assistance. An example is St. Goran’s Hospital in Sweden, which wasonce operated solely by the Stockholm City Council. In 2000, the Council contracted with a privatecompany to operate the hospital, while still providing public funding. The objective was to improvequality by enhancing competition. Today, St. Goran’s continues to be ranked among the best hospitals,while operations have been streamlined and costs have been reduced.4

St. Goran’s demonstrates the opportunity public-private partnerships present to pursue efficiencymeasures and cost-effective operations, reduce costs while continuing or enhancing services, andmaintaining control.

BENEFITS TO PRIVATE ORGANIZATIONSPrivate companies also benefit through partnerships with public entities. Success in today’s economyrequires innovative approaches to reach new markets, approaches that may require large capital outlaysand carry the risk of losing market share or resulting in low return on investment. Partnering withgovernments can motivate private organizations to develop new approaches, provide new sources ofrevenue, and help them gain access to new markets. For example, the Danish government partneredwith a consortium of private partners, including IBM, to develop an information technology portal toimprove communication within its healthcare industry, and the resulting Danish National e-Health

Kathie Thomas and Mary Beth Luna Wolf 181


1http://www.who.int/csr/resources/publications/swineflu/High_Level_Consultation_18_May_2009.pdf2http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=7113http://data.wherethejobsare.org/wtja/home4http://www.iedm.org/uploaded/pdf/sweden.pdf

Figure 2.

Portal has increased quality and reduced costs for the Danish government, while providing a newmarket opportunity for the consortium of private partners.5 Public partners also provide businesses withadvanced knowledge of government regulations, helping them operate effectively, legally, andprofitably in emerging markets.

In addition, many companies recognize that productivity is higher when employees and theirchildren are healthy, and partnering with public entities to raise awareness on healthy lifestyle habitsand preventative care to reduce hospitalization can reduce costs and prevent absenteeism. Asthma isa leading cause of school absenteeism and hospitalization in New York City, and this epidemic isparticularly prevalent among inner-city children, many of whom rely on hospital emergency rooms foracute care. To address this issue, Fleishman-Hillard partnered with the public sector and with otherprivate companies to launch Project E.R.A.S.E., Eradicating Respiratory Asthma in Schools to helpChildren Excel, providing services and creating awareness among families concerning asthma andprevention of attacks. The result was a definite reduction in emergency room visits and improvedschool attendance. The campaign had a positive and noticeable impact on the two target schools thatwere involved, as school absences of children enrolled in the program dropped from 128 in the2004–2005 school year to just 57 in 2005–2006, while hospitalizations and emergency room visitsdeclined from 26 to 6, and 40 to 30, respectively.

BENEFITS TO THE CONSUMERConsumers are potentially the biggest winners in public-private collaborations when partnershipsimprove efficiency and provide needed information and services that had previously been unavailable.

The fight against HIV/AIDS in developing countries demonstrates how the use of public-privatepartnerships can work on the consumers’ behalf. HIV/AIDS has wreaked havoc on communities in sub-Saharan Africa, and in many cases has dramatically decreased the population. But an effectivepartnership between the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (Gates), The Merck CompanyFoundation/Merck & Co., Inc. (Merck), and the Government of the Republic of Botswana, whichamong other things provided essential Merck antiretroviral (ARV) medicines to the population at nocost, has proven successful in reducing the impact of the disease by increasing quality of life andexpectancy, as discussed below.

CASE STUDIESThe public-private partnerships in the three stories presented here each applied a variety of tactics todevelop valuable approaches for developing and distributing messages and transforming behaviorsdesigned to combat critical healthcare challenges. Each is an example of appropriate organizationsbrought together to fill strategic needs. Each also had strong leadership support, leveraged the bestinsights of each participating organization for maximum collaborative success, developed new ideas toaddress difficult healthcare problems, assessed the meaning of value, determined which ideas shouldbe implemented, and only implemented ideas that created value for all three stakeholder groups.

AFRICAN COMPREHENSIVE HIV/AIDS PARTNERSHIPS (ACHAP)There is no healthcare epidemic more devastating than the spread of HIV/AIDS in developing Africancountries, a crisis so severe that it has captured the attention of governments around the world. In 2000,the global response to this tragedy began to intensify, and public-private partnerships have played acritical role in addressing the issue. The partnership between the Gates and Merck foundations was oneof the first collaborations to develop a comprehensive approach to combat this crisis. Their partnershipwith the government of Botswana brought together the expertise and experiences of both the public andprivate entities, while utilizing several techniques that facilitated the achievement of their objectives.

Botswana has seen considerable economic success since achieving independence more than 40 yearsago, but the HIV/AIDS epidemic has threatened its growth, devastating communities and significantlydecreasing the adult working population.

In 2000, a sentinel survey (a collection and analysis of data by designated institutions selected for theirgeographic location, medical specialty, and ability to accurately diagnose and report high quality data6)based on antenatal surveillance projected that the HIV/AIDS epidemic would have a massive



5http://www.epractice.eu/en/cases/sdk6http://www.usaid.gov/our_work/global_health/id/surveillance/sentinel.html

devastating impact.7 Also in 2000, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS reported a 38.5 percent prevalence among adults.8 In many cities, including Francistown and Gaborone,Botswana’s capital, prevalence doubled between 1992 and 2001, resulting in an infection level thattouched more than 50 percent of their population. The prevalence in Selebi-Phikwe, a mining town innortheast Botswana, was 55.6 percent in 2001.9

Botswana was dealing with not only a decreasing adult population, but also with the children leftin its wake. The number of orphans quadrupled in five years, and projections of how quickly thesenumbers would increase by 2010 compelled the government of Botswana to act.10 In its desire tocreate a solution, the government called for international and local partners that could provideessential skills that it lacked to help solve this devastating problem, and created an environment thatempowered its partners to have a significant role in a truly integrated team. Dr. Ernest Darkoh, theformer operations manager for Botswana’s Treatment Program for HIV/AIDS, captured the sense ofthe integrated partnership collaboration: “The country was willing to engage its partners in ameaningful way, not just standing in the same space and calling that a partnership, but meshingoperationally.”

The increasing infection level and rising number of orphans provoked the Gates and Merck and theBotswana government to develop a comprehensive approach to assist developing countries dealingwith the epidemic, and led them to create the African Comprehensive HIV/AIDS Partnership(ACHAP). Gates and Merck used innovation tools to strategically develop an initial plan and newapproach to address the spread of HIV/AIDS to include prevention, testing, treatment, education, andbuilding support. Their plan was one of the first programs to use treatment as a mechanism for reducingthe infection level in developing countries, which traditionally focused only on prevention. Includingtreatment as part of their comprehensive effort was groundbreaking and called for nothing less than aradical approach to break through a wall of centuries-old traditions and distrust of outsiders that hadallowed the epidemic to intensify.

Along with the leadership of Gates and Merck, Mr. Festus G. Mogae, then president of Botswana,understood the importance of this initiative and provided his full support, giving all partners thefreedom to collaborate and create new ideas to meet their objectives.

Chief among the barriers to be addressed were scattered facilities, a shortage of clinicians withexperience treating HIV/AIDS, a lack of supplies of ARV medicines, and a poor understanding ofsocial/cultural perceptions and methods of communicating. Over 36 months, the ACHAP staff, whichincluded staff from the Botswana government, Gates, and Merck, spent time learning, planning, andtesting. They then developed approaches for overcoming the identified barriers, and created a programwith the flexibility to adjust and fine-tune strategies during implementation.



7http://www.who.int/hiv/mediacentre/Epi_backgrounder_on_methodology2006_en.pdf 8http://data.unaids.org/Publications/Fact-Sheets01/botswana_EN.pdf 9http://www.fpnotebook.com/Prevent/Epi/DsPrvlncRt.htm10www.merck.com/corporate-responsibility/access/

CollaborationGates and Merck worked with other partner agencies to execute significant shifts in practices andnational policies, such as changing from a practice of requiring patient consent for “opt in” HIV/AIDStesting to the new approach of “opt out” testing. The “opt in” approach was an unsuccessful policy thatfailed to test most of the population, and inadvertently created an extremely costly treatment process.Changing to “opt out”– where patients were tested routinely as part of their visits to the clinic unlessthey opted out – instantly changed the rate of testing success from 10 percent to greater than 95 percentfor every group approached.

IdeationCommunicating with the public also required a keen understanding of the African culture and lifestyle,and tailoring education efforts to the Botswana community. The national ARV therapy program, calledMasa (the Setswana word for “New Dawn”), had to overcome cultural and health-seeking behavioralroadblocks in order to explain complicated healthcare issues and increase demand for the therapy.Working with Fleishman-Hillard, ACHAP developed a community mobilization program to help thepublic better understand HIV/AIDS, its treatment, and prevention. The team used metaphoricalthinking to deliberately create new links between common cultural activities and medical education thatdon’t normally go together. Metaphorical thinking is a technique that provides new understanding,insight and perspectives into complex topics by setting up direct comparisons between apparentlyunrelated or indirectly linked concepts.

The key to metaphorical thinking is finding meaningful similarity. The human mind tends to lookfor similarities, so using metaphors as a way of thinking differently can help explain a difficult conceptby associating it with a more familiar one.

ACHAP recognized that the health materials traditionally developed to communicate with the publiccreated cultural and educational barriers, limiting the understanding and acceptance of the message. Itwas important to the success of this project that the outreach provide clear links to aspects of daily lifeto help communicate the importance of HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment, so Fleishman-Hillardworked with ACHAP to develop non-traditional communications materials that used a well-knownlocal metaphor to explain extremely complex healthcare information and ARV treatments to patientswho had limited experience with traditional medical or pharmaceutical treatments or therapies.

The program used pictorial storytelling in posters, videos, and brochures to overcome languagebarriers, which was an effective approach for both literate and non-literate individuals. The metaphorused to explain the immune system reflected African culture, perceptions, and lifestyle by comparingthe significance of HIV/AIDS to a common problem faced by rural cattle farmers in Botswana:Termites destroy the wooden cattle enclosures that the cattle live in, putting them at risk of lion attacks.In the education campaign, the termites were used to represent HIV/AIDS, the enclosures representedthe immune system, the cattle represented health, and the lion represented threatening infections.

ImplementationSimple tactics like the “Monday Morning Plan” concept pushed tasks forward and created a processthat drove execution: Every Monday, the staff was held accountable for developing a detailed task listthat was to be accomplished that week. Teams would report back on task completion every Friday.

Additionally, at the time, official government communications were required to be in writing, butthe processes in place to implement this policy meant delivering messages through couriers, a highlyinefficient and time-consuming practice. Scheduling a meeting could take months to arrange. Throughtheir research, the partnership learned that each clinic and district office owned a little-used faxmachine, primarily intended for occasional senior official and international communications. The teamredirected the government communication efforts using faxes, instantaneously improving the speed ofcommunications, collaboration, and allowing for mass communications and greatly increasedefficiency.

Value AssessmentIn order to successfully shift healthcare and communications paradigms and transform institutional oroperational habits, the ACHAP utilized assumption busting. The human brain uses patterns, structures,and routines that cognitive scientists call “mental models.” We “know” these to be true because theyhave served us well in the past, but relying on our favorite patterns limits our thinking, and assumptions



can become so familiar we don’t think to question them, and don’t understand that they keep us fromentertaining new possibilities.

When actively pushed to be considered differently, familiar patterns may yield new solutions tounfamiliar problems, and given the right environment, public and private entities working together maybe able to offer each other new possibilities to help overcome a barrier.

For the Masa program, the ACHAP demonstrated how incremental and groundbreaking shifts inassumptions can lead to transformational innovations. For example, prior to the ACHAP program,global standards for addressing the HIV/AIDS epidemic focused on prevention, but ACHAP challengedthe assumption that it could not use treatment in its strategy. By making treatment the core of itsstrategy, ACHAP shifted paradigms in the way organizations communicate HIV/AIDS information tothe public. The ability of this partnership to implement treatment programs throughout Botswana usingexisting structures helped other partnerships to see this possibility for their own efforts in otherdeveloping countries.

Valuable ResultsThe initiative has been very successful. By the end of the campaign, 92 percent of mobilizationprogram participants were aware of the Masa therapy program, and 94 percent said the materials helpedthem better understand their condition.

During the 10-year period prior to the initiative Botswana’s infection rates were doubling, triggeringprojections that the country’s hard-won economic progress would come to a halt. Five years afterinitiation, the ARV treatment program had reached more than 90 percent of those requiring treatment,and the combination of treatment and prevention programs also seemed to be yielding dividends interms of prevention.

This initiative, helped to significantly slow the infection rate, and also added value to each entity inthe partnership. The Gates Foundation staff learned how to successfully engage governments indeveloping countries, developed methods to effectively address HIV/AIDS in those countries, andfound new techniques for forming successful public-private partnerships.

Additionally, as one of the first pharmaceutical companies to partner with a developing country toaddress the HIV/AIDS crisis through treatment, the experience provided Merck with a unique expertiseon this issue, an opportunity to share its ARV medicines with a population in need, and the credibilityto enter additional markets and work with other governments.11

The success of this initiative is nicely summed up in another comment from Darkoh. “In resource-poor countries, the private sector often represents the nearest, most readily available form of muchneeded skills and capabilities, yet few countries have figured out how to tap into this sector in asystematic and mutually beneficial manner. Private sector involvement often starts and stops at requestsfor private sector to contribute money to government, completely missing out on the fact that 90 percentof the value of the private sector is the knowledge, know-how, and capabilities it contains. It’s akin tovaluing a gift box more than the diamonds contained within.”

PROJECT E.R.A.S.E.: ERADICATING RESPIRATORY ASTHMA IN SCHOOLS TO HELP CHILDREN EXCELChildhood asthma is a leading cause of school absenteeism and hospitalization in New York City andnationwide, especially among elementary school children. Children in New York City suffer from



11http://www.merck.com/corporate-responsibility/access/access-hiv-aids/access-hiv-aids-ACHAP-botswana/home.html

asthma at a rate four times higher than the national average, but only half of these children even knowthey have the disease, and even fewer receive treatment. Access to specialists is limited for low-incomefamilies, so symptoms can result in costly trips to the emergency room, and usually lead to increasedhospitalizations. Asthma hospitalization rates in New York City are twice the national average, andamong low-income children, they are four times the national average. Studies show that these numbersare reduced when children with asthma have access to a specialist – hospitalizations decrease by 77 percent, emergency room costs fall by 77 percent, and days lost from work and school were reducedby 76 percent.12

The need to fix the asthma problem in New York City schools was indeed great. “It is overwhelmingto think of the large number of children in New York City who are undiagnosed with and unnecessarilysuffering from asthma,” said Dr. Paul Ehrlich, former Medical Director of Project E.R.A.S.E., in 2005.“Student examinations show that asthma conditions are more severe than anticipated. The opportunityto advise courses of treatment to children during the school day is invaluable; it can help reduceabsenteeism for students as well as their working parents who struggle to take time off from work fordoctor’s appointments.”

In that year, Fleishman-Hillard senior staff began to take steps to address this situation, andidentified government and private companies with similar missions and resources to bring to acollaborative effort aimed at educating students and their parents about the seriousness of asthma.

CollaborationTo fund the initiative, Fleishman-Hillard assembled in-kind partners from both the public and privatesectors, including the schools’ chancellor and health commissioner, a U.S. Senator, a New Jersey Netsplayer, and many other partners. After securing private partnerships, Fleishman-Hillard partnered withtwo New York City public elementary schools to create a program for their students.

IdeationThe program was developed through a number of strategically focused brainstorming sessionsemploying the insights and viewpoints of asthma specialists, school personnel, and private industryrepresentatives. The result was a school-based outreach effort through which members of thepartnership participated in school gatherings and sent information home to families in a format theycould readily use. Doctors and asthma specialists also visited schools to assist with diagnoses andadvise on treatment and management.

ImplementationAll materials were translated into appropriate languages for the schools involved. Postcards forparents and teachers describing the program and asthma triggers and tips were also produced, andall-school events, also attended by parents, detailed the program and how parents could enroll theirchildren.

Value AssessmentProject E.R.A.S.E. became a 365-day-a-year program, with doctors accessible onsite at the pilotschools. As private doctors not employed by the New York City Department of Education orDepartment of Health and Mental Hygiene, they were legally precluded from prescribing medicine,giving injections, or doing invasive testing in schools, which initially seemed like a barrier to success.However, this led to more collaboration, this time between the asthma specialists involved in theprogram and the children’s primary care doctors (PCPs) – mostly at clinics and emergency rooms – onappropriate courses of treatment. This not only helped manage the children’s asthma, but it also gavePCPs insight into specialized asthma care.

Valuable ResultsThe program turned out to be very effective. During the school year this program was implemented,children missed 50 percent fewer school days, there were 75 percent fewer hospitalizations, and 25 percent fewer visits to the emergency room, helping reduce hospitalization costs by an estimated$141,000.13



12http://www.projecterase.org/about.htm13http://media.prsa.org/article_display.cfm?article_id=1079

WHITE HOUSE OFFICE OF NATIONAL DRUG CONTROL POLICY NATIONAL YOUTH ANTI-DRUGMEDIA CAMPAIGN (ONDCP)In 1998, the U.S. Congress created the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign as a centerpiece ofthe nation’s effort to educate young people about illicit drugs and encourage them to reject drugs. Thiscampaign was to be managed by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP),and would be unprecedented in size and scope.



ONDCP wanted to establish an integrated communications campaign that would combine nationaladvertising with public education and community support to reach kids and parents at everyintersection of their lives – wherever they live, learn, work, play, and practice their faith.

Fleishman-Hillard worked with ONDCP to create a corporate partnership program that would helpthe ONCDP spread its message to its target audience. Fleishman-Hillard developed the STAR IndexSM,a process for strategically choosing the partners to help distribute materials and campaign messagesthrough joint activities, with a particular focus on organizations that had high ability to effectivelycommunicate with the target audiences, children, teens, and parents.

After it was determined that corporations could not legally provide funding for an ad campaign, eachcompany worked with ONDCP to develop its own approach for providing outreach to employees,customers, and the community. The corporate partners provided in-kind donations, access to customercommunication channels, and cause-related marketing partnerships.

CollaborationONDCP designed its partnerships to use cross silo organizational design, enabling self-directed teamsof individuals from different business units to work together for a period of time and have a specificcharter, assembled to help identify or pursue opportunities for which no single group has formalaccountability.

In contrast, the conventional approach to organizational and governmental managementemphasizes a collection of vertical specialties or focus areas/units. This approach to managementincreases depth of specialty expertise, but discourages individuals in different groups from thinkingand interacting with each other, inhibiting collaboration and the development of innovative solutions,and creating invisible boundaries. Additionally, team goals are often designed in a way that createsconflicts.

Creating intentional cross silo engagement and interaction enhances the flow of ideas and insightsso that organizations can increase the likelihood of discovering new inter-disciplinary opportunities,solutions to unmet needs, and to share and replicate these innovations more rapidly.

The ONDCP corporate partners campaign intentionally built a structure to interweave verticalfunctions focused on communication outreach (advertising, entertainment, interactive, publicinformation, partnerships, private sector participation) with horizontal themes focused across lifestyle(live, learn, work, faith, play). This optimized the generation of both outreach and lifestyle messagingopportunities and touch points, and allowed the team to develop new ideas for finding partners andcommunicating the messages. Ultimately, this management style led to the involvement of more than50 corporations from across 16 different industries, including firms such as DKNY and manufacturerssuch as Goya Foods.

These partnerships were so successful that former ONDCP director John P. Walters later noted that,“Our partnership with DKNY jeans is a great example of how the public and private sectors can worktogether to find innovative ways to reach young people and empower them to reject illicit drugs.”

IdeationONDCP engaged all its partners in the co-creation of its materials. Co-creation is defined as the practiceof developing systems, products, or services through the collaborative efforts of partners. Co-creationworks because people inherently value what they help create, so as partners with varying insights cometogether to work through and enhance ideas, everyone becomes more engaged as they think throughoptions and develop solutions together.

Co-creation allowed ONDCP’s partners to develop outreach strategies that were unique to eachpartner. This opened up opportunities for communication that neither the campaign nor the companywould have been able to develop independently.

ImplementationSome corporations created public service announcements with the campaign messages. For example,Safeway distributed the messages throughout their 1,782 stores on milk cartons, shopping bags, andradio and video feeds. Capital One included campaign messages and resource promotion in 40 millioncustomer statements, distributed materials through after-school programs and to community partners.

Value AssessmentAll team members met to ensure that every facet of a teen or parent’s life would eventually intersect witheach medium. A manager would be focused on reaching teens where they live, and would coordinatewith others who were focused on communicating through advertising, entertainment, interactive media,public information, partnerships, or private sector participation. This matrix management process helpedcreate a comprehensive approach to ensure that information was provided through all areas of influencein a teen’s life.

Valuable ResultsAn independent evaluation of this marketing program demonstrated that more than one billionexposures to the messages were created, resulting in more than $20 million in market value createdthrough the partnerships.14

ADDITIONAL TOOLS FOR BUILDING INNOVATIVE SOLUTIONSChoosing the right partners is critical to a successful initiative, but bringing together the best partnerswill not lead to valuable results by itself. Developing innovative strategies requires an environment thatallows for collaboration and creativity, and also requires engaged leaders who are committed and opento any possibility.

The following section describes two additional tools that enhance the innovation process and canassist partnerships in their efforts to develop innovative healthcare solutions.

METHODOLOGICAL BRAINSTORMINGSkilled and impartial innovation facilitators are helpful throughout the process, but in particular in theearly stages of a partnership. Because each partnership has unique challenges and opportunities,facilitators customize the strategic brainstorming process to identify specific objectives, ask the rightquestions, and adopt the most effective exercises. They can greatly improve the quality, productivity,and speed of a group’s thinking, and can help build consensus among partners and guide decision-making, while continuing to move a group forward throughout the planning stages and then engagingteam members in implementation.

Innovation models can be used to enhance innovative thinking and foster the best possible solutions forcollaboration, ideation, implementation, and assessment of value. P.O.I.N.T.S.15 is an innovation modeldeveloped by Fleishman-Hillard. This approach applies six different modalities of thinking in a flexiblemethodology designed to help teams break through the clutter of divergent thoughts, and focus on the coreissues.

The six modalities are:

1. Present Position: Explore and articulate the current situation.2. Optimum Opportunity: Determine ideal solutions and results.



14http://www.mediacampaign.com/faqs.html 15Fleishman-Hillard’s proprietary problem-solving model

3. Identify Impossibilities: Recognize obstacles and determine ways to overcome them.4. New Notions: Generate new ideas.5. Test Theories: Prototype and beta test the best possible solutions.6. Sustainable Success: Develop ways to make the initiative, and the enthusiasm around it, last.

The P.O.I.N.T.S. toolkit includes many exercises that allow a facilitator to encourage the flow ofideas, and to ensure that the resulting strategy is tailored to specifically meet the objectives of thepartnership.

Project E.R.A.S.E. conducted a methodological brainstorming session using P.O.I.N.T.S. to developits long-term vision and the strategy for implementation. Participants in the half-day session includedphysicians, government officials, and communication experts, and during the session they identifiedbarriers and ways to overcome them, while also identifying new approaches for communicating withfamilies.

EXPERIENTIAL LEARNINGExperiential learning is learning through doing, which comes from direct exposure to an activity or aprocess – completing the activity; sharing reactions, observing, and analyzing the experience; andreflecting and applying the lessons from the whole process to new strategies. It allows problem-solversto improve the innovation process while developing solutions. Participants learn innovation techniqueswhile gaining real life experience and skills for tackling practical, social, personal, or research problems.

Experiential learning requires self-evaluation while also assessing progress or success. Participantshave the opportunity to acquire and apply knowledge, skills, and feelings in an immediate and relevantsetting, a kind of learning can balance the intellectual and emotional components of learning.

While working in a paradigm-shifting circumstance, there are typically no models for success toborrow from and apply, forcing participants to learn experientially. This approach has risks, includingdeveloping initially wrong solutions and having to start over, but when pioneering new areas ofexpertise or approaches, there are usually few alternatives.

ACHAP needed to apply experiential learning because planning alone could not prepare a paradigm-shifting approach: moving the global policy from prevention to treatment in a developing country couldonly be accomplished through trial and error. According to Lucien Vallun, a former senior counselormember of the Masa team, in the early stages of the program the team faced failure often, but insteadof being discouraged, the team embraced the spirit of learning that allowed them to gain the insight thatwould lead to eventual success. “As communicators we always want to get the messages and the waythey are shared right, but there’s often some wiggle room,” he said. “In Botswana, it was crucial to thestakeholders’ lives and the economy to get the story absolutely right. There was no margin of error.”

By learning through experience, ACHAP discovered, for example, that the cattle on their postersneeded to be colored brown. When they were shown in black and white, villagers did not recognize thecattle as their own, and didn’t recognize that the story was about them, because they didn’t connect tothe metaphor. “For Masa, everything was a risk,” Vallun said. “We simply didn’t know what we didn’tknow. We would go down one path only to discover it dead-ended, and we’d feel as if we had wastedtime. Communications tools and techniques that had been proven to work repeatedly in the past withother populations just didn’t work in this case. Completely new solutions were required. We’d have togo back to the drawing board. But suddenly, we’d have ‘eureka’ moments where we’d say ‘so that’swhat works!’ It was tremendously gratifying to get it right.”

Experiential learning involves a direct encounter with the circumstances being studied, rather thanmerely thinking about them or relying on past models and approaches. When risk is high andintegration and communication are critical, partners who share insights, failures, and successes quicklyenhance the likelihood that the entire system can replicate positive results and avoid failures.

CONCLUSIONPublic and private organizations offer unique insights that may be individually valuable, but wheneffectively combined they can be a strong force in creating solutions to global healthcarechallenges. The partnerships presented in this paper applied innovation methods to enhance thevaluable insights of both the public and private entities, helping them to creatively develop newideas and approaches.

Public-private partnerships may be best positioned to provide innovative solutions. Both sides facetremendous challenges in today’s economy, and the issues surrounding the availability of quality,



affordable healthcare significantly impact both as well. Fleishman-Hillard’s experience makes the casethat the most successful partnerships apply innovation techniques to ensure that their initiatives arestrategic, efficient, and successful, and that they therefore ultimately create the greatest possible valuefor all stakeholders.

KATHIE THOMASFleishman-HillardDirector of Innovation and Senior [email protected]://innovation.fleishmanhillard.com

As Director of Innovation at Fleishman-Hillard, Kathie Thomas has beencharged with instilling a passion for creativity in her colleagues and withhelping the firm’s clients unlock their creativity at a time when CEOs and other

business leaders increasingly view innovation as a critical success factor. The Innovation practice group Ms. Thomas leads offers proven tools and approaches for helping

organizations and teams inject a new level of innovation and productivity into their strategic planningand program development. Since 2005, Ms. Thomas has led more than 275 sessions with more than4,580 participants in 13 countries for a number of Fortune 500 companies.

Ms. Thomas has been trained in creativity, innovation and thinking skills. Her resume includes studywith Innovation Networks’ Joyce Wycoff; certification in Dr. Edward de Bono’s Lateral Thinking andSix Thinking Hats; Dr. Kathryn Cramer’s Asset-Based Thinking; the Creative Problem SolvingInstitute’s Programming in Springboard and Leading Artfully; and Dr. Barry Johnson’s PolarityManagement.

MARY BETH LUNA WOLFFleishman-Hillard314-982-8760MaryBeth.LunaWolf@fleishman.comhttp://publicaffairs.fleishmanhillard.com

Mary Beth Luna Wolf is a member of the Public Affairs team at Fleishman-Hillard and works with clients advising on state and federal policy in multipleareas including healthcare, energy, and education.

Ms. Luna Wolf also assists corporations, nonprofits and government entitieswith identifying partners that will provide valuable resources to assist the organizations’ objectives aswell as developing communication strategies and campaigns.

Ms. Luna Wolf was a policy advisor on labor, pension, education and child welfare issues in theUnited States Senate and General Counsel of the Subcommittee on Substance Abuse and MentalHealth. She also worked at the U.S. Department of Education and on President George W. Bush’s WhiteHouse Task Force for Disadvantaged Youth where she assisted in drafting recommendations onimprovements to federal programs and policies that would assist children in need.

Most recently, Ms. Luna Wolf worked as a senior policy advisor to Missouri Governor Matt Blunt.She developed and managed a number of policy initiatives including identifying policy areas topromote public-private partnerships and identifying the right partners to advance initiatives.



reprinted from International Journal of Innovation Science › wp-content › uploads › ...private...

Documents

Transcript of reprinted from International Journal of Innovation Science › wp-content › uploads › ...private...