In Part One of this series, I covered a few practical strategies for making a compliance ask in a way that doesn’t create unnecessary resistance. I think how you approach a compliance ask matters, and so I covered topics like asking questions before making recommendations, understanding context, and giving leaders options rather than simply telling them what they need to do. If you missed Part One, you can find it here.
Piggybacking off that discussion, I’m going to cover four more strategies, some of which are logistical in nature. When combined with the approaches from Part One, they will make your compliance ask much more effective, and improve your chances for success.
Check the Timing Before Making the Ask
I’m sure you’ve heard the expression, "Timing is everything". When I think about the anatomy of a compliance ask, I think it very much applies because the timing of it can make or break your chances for success. For example, let’s assume your COO came to you with a potential issue that you need to look into. After talking through it, you spend several hours researching it, and finally feel like you’ve figured out what needs to happen. Understandably, you're excited to have an answer and move onto the next project. Let’s further assume you stop by your COO's office and say, "Hey, I finally figured the solution to _____?"
Unfortunately, she responds by telling you she is about to walk into a strategic planning meeting with the CEO, and other members of the leadership team. Whoopsie. Not exactly ideal timing.
The problem with this approach is that you're unexpectedly asking audience to process a recommendation when they aren't in a position (mentally) to do. Healthcare leaders are constantly juggling competing priorities and while a compliance issue feels urgent to you, the reality is you may be competing with a staffing crisis, a financial problem, a physician issue, a regulatory survey, or ten other things that landed on their desk that morning.
That doesn't mean you shouldn't speak up, rather, be self-aware to when and how you do so. A very practical approach would be to schedule time on their calendar. Alternatively, if you catch a leader in passing, then you could say something like: "Hey, I have a potential solution to the issue we discussed. I’ll find us some time on your calendar.” That at least gives them a head’s up for the need to mentally prepare for the discussion.
On the flip side, timing also means knowing when not to wait. For example, if you’re dealing with a patient safety issue, or regulatory issue with a significant financial risk, then "I'll bring it up when it’s convenient" isn't an effective strategy either.
Overall, the takeaway here is that when it comes to a compliance ask, exercising good judgment means knowing the difference between something that is urgent and something that can wait until the timing is appropriate.
Know When to Be Direct
Collaboration is important, so much so, that I covered it in Part One of this series.
While that is true, keep in mind that equally important, is handling the ask diplomatically. If there is a backbone to professional communication, it is communicating in a manner that is polite but honest. And it is a balancing act. If you’re more honest than polite, you may be perceived as rude or insensitive. If you’re more polite than honest, you may be viewed as untrustworthy or deceitful.
So how do you strike that balance?
For me, I think about the balance as being guided by being respectful. Respectful communications include both elements of honesty (i.e., the content of your communication) and politeness (i.e., your approach in delivering the communication).
There will be times when you need to clearly say, “We can’t do that”, but the way you approach that type of conversation can mean all the difference when it comes to your chances of success. For example, when you have a recommendation, be clear about it by saying something like: "Based on what we've been discussing, my recommendation is that we pause using (insert applicable process) until we can resolve this issue." From there, you can explain your reasoning, answer questions, and discuss alternatives.
If this helps, a little trick that I use for navigating this balance is to be firm about the requirement while remaining flexible about the solution.
When you know when to be direct, it increases the chances that your compliance ask will actually result in action.
Make the Recommendation Easy to Understand
Let’s face it, healthcare compliance issues can get super complicated, very quickly. For example, an operational process issue can involve the entanglement of regulations, billing guidance, prior enforcement actions, policies, and contracts, all of which may need to be sifted through to ensure various issues, and sub-issues are resolved.
While that may be the reality of what you’re working on behind the scenes, you don’t want to put your leaders in a position to have to become a compliance expert in order to understand your recommendation. For example, where I tend to see new compliance officers get tripped up is spending too much time focused on giving information to their leaders without specifically identifying the decision that needs to be made.
One of your jobs as a compliance officer is to translate complexity into something a healthcare leader can use, and that means a recommendation that provides them with the right amount of information to complete the task. To that end, when it comes to constructing a compliance ask, answer three basic questions for them:
1-What's problem is the organization facing?
2-Why does it matter to them related to their role?
3-What do you recommend the organization do to correct the issue and prevent a future occurrence?
Addressing those three questions will give you starting point for developing your ask and determining what information the leader actually needs to act. From there, you can edit out any unnecessary information by keeping in mind that your goal isn't to demonstrate how much you know, but rather to help the leader make the best business decision for the organization.
Make the Ask Easy for Them To Say Yes
In my experience, the most effective compliance officers are the ones who are good at making their compliance recommendations easy for their leaders to say “yes”. Now, given that’s a pretty vague statement, let’s break it down a little further.
If your recommendation requires a leader to figure out what you want, who needs to be involved, what it will cost, and what happens next, then you've created friction. On the other hand, if you've identified the problem, proposed a solution, and identified the people who need to be involved, you're giving the leader a smoother path to saying yes (i.e., "Am I comfortable with this approach?").
So, how do you get better at making your compliance ask easier to say yes? By knowing your audience which means understanding how operational processes work, the culture of the organization, and how your leaders actually make decisions.
The key takeaway here is that a good compliance ask combines outlining what needs to happen with a path forward that is easy for the leader(s) to follow.
Pulling it All Together
One of the biggest lessons I've had to learn in my career is that compliance officers are in the business of influencing people as much as we are in identifying requirements, or spotting issues.
And that requires understanding people, relationships, organizational dynamics, timing, communication, and professional judgment. Aside from things like promotions, our overall career goal is to become better at helping people understand, accept, and act on what needs to be done in order to reduce the organization’s risk, and that’s where the art of the compliance ask comes in to play.
I hope this information has been helpful. If you try any of the above, please reach out to me. I would love to hear how it went. You can shoot me an email at janstine@bluebirdhealthlaw.com.
Bye for now.
