The Weekly Minute - December 1, 2023
Wow, it’s December 1. Already.
Much love as we begin the final month of the calendar year and. Below is a recap of my learnings and readings of this week.
On: Customer Experience
“If it’s working fine, why mess with it?” (via Shep Hyken)
Every company should tinker with what’s working by experimenting and looking for better ways to do “what they’ve always done,” even if it’s working. Small changes can add up to make a bigger difference when combined.
Healthcare Corner
Cigna, Humana exploring insurance mega-merger (via WSJ)
A health insurance mega-merger is reportedly brewing. The Wall Street Journal reported that payer giants Cigna and Humana are exploring a combination that could shake up the power dynamics of the industry.
It would also give Cigna, and its massive pharmacy benefit manager Express Scripts, a much larger foothold in the hot Medicare Advantage market
On: Executing Strategy
Turning strategy into action is one of the most difficult things to do in business. When you get to the execution aspect, here are a few questions to ask yourself:
Are you motivating employees every single day to understand how what they’re doing connects to the important strategic levers that you have focused on?
Are you enabling employees to work together across organizational silos to tackle the cross-functional challenges that allow the company to win?
Are you keeping track not just of your performance, but of how you’re building and scaling up those few key capabilities that enable you to create value for customers in ways that others cannot?
Is your executive team engaged in how you are executing the strategy—not just by measuring results, but by constantly challenging the organization and supporting it in improving its key capabilities? Are you setting your team’s sights high enough for what they need to accomplish, and by when?
One Important, Simple Thought
From James Clear:
“Forget about peak performance. Would your results improve if you simply focused on being reliable in the normal moments? Show up when it’s easy to skip. Do the fundamentals and do them well. And so on.
Before you make it complicated, remember there are always simple improvements waiting to be made.”
See you again next week!
