In 2005, Laurie Brubaker, an upper-manager for the insurance conglomerate Aetna, had the foresight and leadership qualities necessary to take on an initiative that would end up serving over 250,000 new members in thirty sates within two years of beginning her program. Recognizing an un-tapped market of up to 20 million people with inadequate insurance and another 45 million not insured at all, Brubaker took it upon herself to start what would become a very successful business venture with the added outcome of significant social impact (Govindarajan & Trimble, 2010 p. ).
We will explore how Brubaker successfully navigated both politically and structurally within Aetna to bring about a successful innovation initiative. By employing skills such as exemplary communication, a well prepared business plan, and superior leadership, Brubaker had the tools necessary to face the challenges of competing for resources, borrowing employees from Aetna’s other divisions and their leaders, and merging teams comprised of initiative-only team members and shared employees.
Once we have established Brubakers’ successes and how she accomplished them, we’ll compare them to innovative initiatives from my current job field to see if there are any correlations between success and failure. Brubaker’s superior leadership capability was noticed by the executives of Aetna from the start. It was her underlying belief of social responsibility that drove her to convince the Aetna leadership that if an innovation initiative were approved, Aetna could positively impact nearly 65 million individuals that either have inadequate insurance or no coverage at all (Govindarajan & Trimble, 2010 p. ).
Realizing the impact Aetna could have by tapping this un-reached market, Brubaker received the approval to start putting together a business plan. The first major challenge was fighting for resources. Brubaker already had the political and structural clout of Aetna, but now she had to battle the other division leaders for much needed resources. This innovation would require a significant portion of human capital and assets, which is to say, Brubaker would have to utilize her critical leadership skills to motivate and inspire other employees to support the initiative.
Only by the coalescing of other divisions and their resources could her vision come to pass. Cross-departmental cooperation was a necessary step in achieving success and employee support. To assist in getting the other division managers to buy-in, Brubaker covered their employees’ salaries in her budget. This challenge was solved before it became a real dilemma between the groups. Other divisions assimilated into the initiative fluidly, but sales and marketing divisions would be another part of the resource battle.
Sales are hard enough to make, even if you know the product and can give historical data on its reliability, but now Aetna had to sell something new. The company was not quite sure what that would mean for them or their customer. In conjunction with sales, marketing had to come up with a new campaign to sell the product, thus, using more personnel and man hours which were paid by Brubaker’s budget. These two departments were crucial because they were communicating and selling her vision. Having her core team complete, with reinforcements from other divisions, Brubaker had the foundation in place to move forward and make considerable head way.
Getting close-knit cooperation from other department leaders was a white feather in Brubakers cap, but the next challenge would affirm her people skills even more. Even for an experienced leader, sharing employees between departments is a challenge. Division leaders were reluctant to divide their employees’ time and energy between their primary roles and Brubaker’s innovative initiative. To them, the initiative seemed less important than their core mission and the extensive resources that were being allocated to the initiative were excessive.
By sharing her vision and supporting the other department heads, Brubaker established a cohesive work group, producing a commitment and trust from the other division leaders in support for her initiative by pointing out the fact that its success was good for them and for Aetna as a whole. Eventually, this “forced” partnership led to collaboration between leaders and generated another avenue for the company to generate revenue while expanding work groups. Alongside with growing teams and work groups, integrating the shared employees into the team presents opportunities for interpersonal catastrophes.
When you enter into an established group that has been put together for a specific purpose, you might not share their values, beliefs, concerns, buy-in or loyalty. These hesitations make it extremely difficult to integrate or even break the ice. Brubaker was masterful in crafting the innovative initiative group and how others were going to perform. Again, by using clear communication to share her vision and passion for social responsibility, and to disseminate a measurable and achievable business plan, Brubaker allowed others to realize value in the initiative and add authenticity to their own purpose within the new teams.
This encouraged every member or stakeholder to self reflect and measure their level of commitment and loyalty to the group. Brubaker made very distinct divisions between the innovative initiative’s group work and all the other divisions. When they are in the group, they work for the group; every other project is secondary. Establishing this guideline from the outset of the project permitted no question as to the purpose of the group or the goal in which they were working towards.
To avoid ambiguity or the possibility of split loyalties, Brubaker ensured that upper and middle managers were educated and included in recognizing the project’s focus and boundaries. A united front was to be maintained throughout the entire initiative, no matter how the individuals might feel about it. To assemble the right team, Brubaker would have to address some other interpersonal issues such as competition and dissension within the innovative initiative’s core group. High performers are great individually, but when introduced into a group, they could fit together like a puzzle or explode like sticks of dynamite.
Brubaker had to be ready for either. By hand-picking the dedicated team and being very selective, she had the opportunity to share her vision with every member before they accepted, thereby stemming any potential issue well before it could manifest itself. It is this core group of high performers that sets the tone for other members or shared staff that helps out. This varsity team has to be rock solid and able to communicate effectively amongst each other, up and down the chain of command, within the division, and to their peers.
Brubaker set the example by being transparent to the company and showing her dedication to the group and all the members, full or part time, revealing the foundation of her leadership and how that ties into her personal VABE’s. (2012, Clawson) The book, “Level Three Leadership,” defines VABE’s as ones: values, assumptions, beliefs, and expectations. (Clawson, 2012, p. 26) These core ideas are what guide our decisions and leadership styles. Leading by example, putting the group before yourself, making sure the troops eat first, all stem from the rationale that one’s VABE’s shapes their leadership.
From the beginning, Brubaker allowed her VABE’s to direct her actions. Brubaker recognized that she could have a significant impact on society by using her position within Aetna to propose that insurance coverage should be better for all; and action followed. Assumptions are usually ill advised, but Brubaker had to assume that the company would want to do the right thing and help the community whenever possible. With that in mind and living out her beliefs, Brubaker led the charge, and was able to enlist Aetna to take on a risky social cause, all the while expending considerable resources to do so.
The overall success of the initiative was a testament to the leadership talent of Brubaker and the trust Aetna had in her ability, holding to the traits of an effective leader. She demanded dedication, constant communication between departments and executives, fluid transitions with employees split between projects, and that all members were to follow established guidelines; culminating in the inspiration and motivation of others to achieve the common goal.
Brubaker’s leadership skills in creating a vision, communication, and inspiring others were utilized during a recent initiative in my own work place. Our Foreman III was the mastermind behind this initiative. Several years back, he identified that there would be an influx of parts that needed to be stored due to overlapping projects scheduled for fiscal year 2017. Proposing a massive renovation that would expand the warehousing capabilities, the Foreman III organized a small group that would be working exclusively on the upgrade until its completion.
Sharing his vision of what the result would look like and having a clear plan of action was essential. The communication process needed to be clear due to the complexity of moving scores of physical inventory to interim holding locations while maintaining accessibility to products as construction commenced. Augmentee’s would be taken as needed from other sections and contract labor would also be hired to support the effort. This level of buy-in from management and the enthusiasm of the Foreman III, inspired the employees to take on the project with fervor and excitement.
The vision was to increase storage space by 45 percent and eliminate unnecessarily moving products multiple times, thus saving crucial and expensive man hours. The project was a success, also having an unexpected result. Because of the open communication, lower level employees were able to suggest minor changes to the original plans. These employees had intimate knowledge of what the stocked products should look like when shelved and how the physical logistics of the warehouse worked.
The result was 30 percent more available space and improved work flow. While Brubaker’s innovation took budgeted funds away from the performance engine, our innovation was planned and drawn from the capital budget, preventing any adverse impact to the current operating budget. This is to say that the warehouse initiative didn’t impact normal operations as it did for Aetna. A less successful innovation that was implemented within my group was monthly town hall meetings.
These meetings were designed by our executives to enhance the effectiveness of middle management as they relate to their employees; giving the employees voice and an avenue to share ideas and strategies for improvement back up the chain to upper management. Unfortunately, this only worked for about a month. Our leaders began to treat the monthly town hall meetings as gripe sessions and openly displayed their disdain for the burden of hosting the event. As to follow our leaders, most employees started to view them as a waste of time, an interruption in productive work, and ultimately worthless.
The leadership did not value suggestions, constructive criticism, or care to hear potentially great ideas on how to improve our teams. What started out as a great innovative idea, died and never was able to flourish into what was envisioned by our executives. If the executives had exercised even a little follow-through, they would have figured out that our managers were not taking the town hall meetings seriously. The manager’s report was always the same, “Everything is good here.
When in fact, good ideas were brought forward, but were never brought up to management. Had Brubaker passed on her vision to the group, and then left it for them to figure out, it would have not been a success. She displayed buy-in, a belief that the initiative could be successful, but that was not so with the warehouse leadership. The warehouse executives implement a plan, then pass it off to someone else to handle without any inspiration, motivation, or buy-in that allows the manager to see value in the design.
It doesn’t matter how much money or how many people it takes to start an innovation, if there is not a leader at the helm that inspires and guides the group, success will never be a port their ship finds. Brubaker led with enthusiasm and had a great plan to help guide her subordinates. That was a combination realized by our success in the warehouse only on a smaller scale. This is just one more example of how with the right person and the right leadership traits applied, the mission will be a success.