Minnesota HomeCare Association, Strategic Planning
Overview of MHCA
COVID-19 has changed the healthcare landscape, especially when it comes to home care. One organization that has felt this change at its core is Minnesota HomeCare Association (MHCA). MHCA advances high-quality home care services by representing and supporting nearly 150 homecare agencies throughout the state. These homecare services allow for recovering, disabled, chronically ill, or terminally ill persons to remain in their homes rather than being moved to a facility. Kathy Messerli, the Executive Director of MHCA, had instilled a team commitment to flexibility and adaptability in their 2019 planning efforts, giving each of her staff a Gumby for their desks. MHCA needed that flexibility to respond to the rapid changes in the homecare field when COVID-19 hit. Wanting to clarify priorities amidst the sea change, Kathy reached out to Collectivity to help with a strategy retreat that involved board and staff.
The Strategic Planning Process
The strategic planning process does not just occur overnight. Collectivity first met with the Board Chair and the Executive Director four months before the retreat was scheduled to discuss what they wanted to get out of the time for both the staff and the board. After discussing the overall goals, Collectivity developed a project plan to achieve the Board Chair and Executive Directors definition of success for the strategic plan.
As a part of this process, MHCA needed to articulate their core values. To maximize the staff and boards time, Collectivity administered a survey and drafted the core values that stakeholders associated with MHCA. The draft values were discussed in a board and staff retreat that Collectivity facilitated.
““We are ALL excited about the new MHCA values [that we developed with Collectivity’s help]. We are thrilled with the outcome and look forward to living them out. The equity journey may be long...but onward we march!”
Additional pre-work Collectivity did before the retreat was to facilitate a conversation about MHCA’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (or SWOT). From the SWOT analysis, we pushed further regarding why individuals saw certain pieces as strengths, while others may have seen it as a weakness. We paid special attention to the opportunities across the horizon by discussing the future of MHCA, specifically the key priorities for the upcoming three years of their organization. By understanding their position in the landscape, MHCA’s staff and board are able to fill the gaps and advocate for a better state for homecare providers and clients.
Tying it all Together
By combining all these pieces together, as well as regular preparation conversations with Kathy, the team at Collectivity was able to help MHCA create their own strategic plan. By working with Collectivity, the staff and board members were able to pay attention to what mattered most to them, such as being an advocate for those in their association. We focused on the details which allowed for them to focus on the big picture of their organization.
See the new MHCA values here
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