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Reflective Journal - Week 11

This week we focused on strategic planning.  For our team activity this week we had to compete against another team, which, for me, added a new element to the activity.  I feel like in a way it motivated me more because I wanted my designs to be better than the other teams'. 

This was the assignment we were given:

Welcome to the Mega Block Region.  At the heart of this region are two communities (Bionicle Town and Legoville) which share a common border.  The population of each of these two (2) communities is approximately 110,000.  A 50,000 student university (which is not included in the population numbers) is in Bionicle Town.  The regional airport is in Legoville.  Both communities are rapidly growing.

Each community has its own healthcare system and a hospital.  The Regional Trauma Center has 250 beds and is in Bionicle Town.  A 100 bed Community Hospital is located in Legoville.


Both healthcare systems (Bionicle and Lego) have recently hired new Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) to replace the long term CEOs who recently retired.  The recently retired CEOs had been in their positions for approximately 30 years.  They were of the "Old School" of thought.  They had a gentleman's agreement (handshake) that neither would cross the agreed upon line dividing their areas (dotted line from Southeast corner to Northeast corner of the map).  No advertising (billboards, newspaper, radio, movies, internet, or TV) or programs would occur in the other healthcare system's area.

The new CEOs are both young and aggressive.  They have been tasked to increase (grow) the market share and profits of their system.  They have terminated all the prior administration and hired new ones (ones they have worked with before).  Both healthcare systems have earmarked two (2) billion dollars for this strategic expansion (so money is not a major concern).

Determine (within reason) for your healthcare system (Bionicle or Lego) what your strategic plan will be to increase (grow) the market share and profits of your system for the next 12, 24, and 60 months.  If you are constructing new buildings, explain why, what type of facility (surgical center, physician office, InstaCare, radiology site, specialty practice, etc.), and location.  If you are implementing new programs, explain why, what, target demographic, and location.  If you are advertising, explain why, how, and what.  If you are adding new specialties, explain why, what, and location.

For new locations, place them on your map using the corresponding icons.  Then, list all other ideas on the list in the second page.

It was actually kind of a fun assignment.  I was surprised to find that I actually enjoyed trying to plan out how I would distribute the resources that were available to me.  The biggest problem I had with the assignment was the information I wanted, but that was unavailable to me.  Obviously, if I were working on this in the real world I would have some of the information I didn't have.  For example, on the map, it wasn't clearly marked where the university or where the airport was.  I also wanted to know more about the actual area of the towns.  Since the map didn't provide a key, I couldn't really tell how far apart I was placing anything.  


XXXXX

Another one of our assignments this week was to determine what new master's program our university should offer.  Why did we chose this program?  Why will it strategically position the university in the most positive position?

I think that both of these assignments were interesting because they pushed us to make plans and decisions for the future, but also to come up with a rationale for why we thought these specific programs would be beneficial in the long run.  

I think I've mentioned this before, but I'm not always the best at making plans.  I'm more of a "wing it" kind of person.  Sure, I definitely make plans, but there are a lot of things that I jump into without a lot of consideration.

One thing that I want to get better at is actually considering long term benefits/consequences of the plans and the actions that I make.  One of the biggest things that I can do to improve is to take. a. breath.  Stop to think.  I think that too often I just don't bother to think things all the way through.


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