The Pharmacy Owner's Guide to an Exceptionally Effective Implementation

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The Pharmacy Owner’s

Guide to an Exceptionally Effective Implementation

One of the most exciting parts about being a pharmacy owner is

taking your ideas from a concept all the way through to

implementation. Whether you’re providing new service offerings to

your community, drastically improving your internal procedures, or

are looking toward the future and keeping your pharmacy at the

forefront of the industry evolution, making your ideas a reality is

demanding.

!Significant change takes time, energy, financial investments, and

complete compliance from your entire pharmacy team. Creating

this change is challenging when you must also continue to function

within the day-to-day operations of your business. You can’t close

your doors for two weeks while your team learns a new procedure,

service, or program, but how do you manage to simultaneously

implement a new project successfully AND keep your operations

running smoothly?

!Using this eBook, you’ll learn the four principles you’ll need to create

an Exceptionally Effective Implementation (EEI). Regardless if your

plans are straight from you, or came from a tip from PDS, you’ll be

able to immediately apply these principles and ensure that you’re

doing everything you can as the leader of your pharmacy to

implement effectively.

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The demands of running any independent business are

staggering and pharmacies are no exception. As the

owner, you’re responsible for every action taken (or not

taken) by your staff. You can’t afford to disconnect

from your business to focus solely on your exciting new

project (though one day you hope to be able to do

so). The first step toward an EEI is deciding on and

committing to the plans that you want to focus on first.

!You may have dozens of amazing ideas that could

better your pharmacy in a myriad of ways, but none of

them will be successful if you do not first commit

yourself to defining your Wildly Important Goals (WIGs).

Think of your WIGs as your final destination for the year.

Where do you want to see your pharmacy grow? An

example of a WIG could be to implement a new

program hospital discharge service to your community.

Defining Your Wildly Important Goals

The Pharmacy Owner’s Guide to an Exceptionally Effective Implementation

No More than Two WIGs Each Year: We know, you have a million GREAT ideas and are finding

more every day, but we’ve found that even high-performance teams with an amazing culture

can only successfully focus on one, maybe two new WIGs a year. Remember, just as you’re

busy in your business, so are your team members. Asking them to focus on too many new

projects leads to chaos.

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Every Battle Must Help Win the War:

To outsiders, comparing a pharmacy

business to war may seem a bit extreme, but

to a pharmacy entrepreneur - you get it.

Defining your war is as simple as revisiting

your mission and vision statements. Go back

to the basics and refresh yourself on the

overall purpose of your pharmacy. Do the

WIGs you’re setting help move your

pharmacy and team one step closer to that

vision? If not, that’s not the WIG for you.

Here are a few tips on defining your Wildly Important Goals:

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They Must Be Measurable and Have a Finish Line: Children hate long driving trips. Not because

dad’s singing is awful, though it might be, but because they have little to no point of reference

on how long they’ve been in the car, or how much longer they’ll have to endure the trip, and

they don’t have any indicators on the progress that’s being made. Don’t make your pharmacy

team suffer through any bad renditions of “Don’t Stop Believing” OR expect them to take this

journey with you without milestones of progress and a clearly defined finish line.

!Looking at the year ahead, with your WIGs as the finish line, outline the major steps that need to

happen (and by when) in order for your team to reach their goals.

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Team Leaders Can Veto, but Not Dictate: If you haven’t found this out yet, we’re going to share

a little secret with you - being a business owner does not mean you don’t have a boss.

You may not look at your pharmacy team as “bosses” in the traditional sense, but the truth is

that you are responsible for their success and that means answering to what’s in their best

interest.

!When deciding on your WIGs, it’s vitally important that you seek and value the feedback from

your team. They are the ones that will be doing much of the heavy lifting in this new project and

ensuring that they support the goal is important. They can also provide more in-depth insight

into the daily operations of your pharmacy that you may not get to see every day. Leverage

their knowledge and dedication and they’ll stick with you, even when things become

overwhelming.

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We’ve already shown how having a measurable goal is vital for an EEI, but how do you outline

those measures? We are huge fans of using a combination of both lag and lead measures to

communicate to your team how they’re progressing toward their goals.

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LEVERAGE LAG & LEAD MEASURES

Lag Measures

!A lag measure measures the end result that you’re trying to accomplish. An example of a lag

measure would be an increase in SyncRx users or an increase in profits - these are always

indicators of what actions have already happened (we’ve increased profits by 25%).

Lead Measures

!A lead measure is both influenceable and

predictive - meaning they are the behaviors

that combine to achieve the

accomplishment of the lag measures you

defined. In the case of the SyncRx users, a

lead measure could be the number of

patients who were introduced to the

concept by your team each week.

If you want your new project to soar, you should make sure everyone on your team knows:

!• that change is coming,

• how it will affect them,

• what they can do to help its success,

• how success is being measured,

• the outlined milestones

• clearly defined finish line.

!Using a compelling scoreboard is a fantastic visual approach to measuring the progress of your

team towards their EEI. This scoreboard should be displayed where all of your team members

can easily access it and must:

!• be simple,

• be easy to decipher,

• encourage peer accountability,

• show immediately whether or not the team is “winning” or “losing,”

• should be updated regularly (we suggest at least once a week),

• and should be compelling, fun, and engaging.

!By keeping the stats in a common, easy to access location, every member of your team can

take ownership of the project and will be motivated to take action.

!


GET EVERYONEENGAGED

Even the best made plans won't create

success without 100% compliance. Appoint

a team of your most dedicated and driven

team members as the WIGs Committee.

Charge them with the ownership of success

for each of your WIGs. These committees

should meet regularly, we find weekly (if not

more) has been most successful. These

meetings should take around 15-30 minutes

and serve as a check-in on the team’s

overall progress toward achieving your

WIGs. Together, review the goals and

measures outlined before beginning and

ensure that everything that needs to

happen to meet the goal is happening.

Setting the meeting at the same day, time,

and place is an easy way to make it a

priority. Work hard to keep the whirlwind of

the day-to-day operations from interfering

with your EEI.


GET EVERYONEENGAGED

Create a Cadence of Accountability

Armed with the endless possibilities for

growth in your pharmacy business, you can

and will change your community. In order to

do that, you must demand a strategic plan

for growth that begins with creating your

Wildly Important Goals and ends with the

highest form of accountability from every

member of your team. Remember, hope is

not a strategy.

!Implementing a new program, service, or

internal procedure requires a lot from you

and your pharmacy team, but no one ever

said the best things in life come easy.

…but unsure how you or your pharmacy team will make the time to

define your WIGs, outline your lag and lead measures, keep track of

a scoreboard, and hold each other accountable all while

continuing to offer remarkable day-to-day services to your

community? PDS members have access to world-class experts in all

areas of pharmacy business ownership, including leadership,

innovation, and we’re the world’s best at connecting like-minded

individuals for extraordinary success. Our Business Coaches and

Implementation Specialists are experts at helping pharmacy owners

find fulfillment in their pharmacy business.

!Want to learn more about how Pharmacy Development Services

can help you lead your pharmacy team, innovate your business,

and connect with like-minded people?

Love the idea of an Exceptionally Effective Implementation…