How a $1B City of Hope project came to 'light'

Annette Walker, president of City of Hope Orange County (Calif.), is overseeing the development of Orange County's only cancer specialty hospital, slated to open in 2025.

Ms. Walker has applied the "green light, yellow light, red light" management method, which is used to track staff performance, to the $1.5 billion cancer campus project in Irvine, Calif. 

City of Hope Orange County's first clinical location, City of Hope Newport Beach, opened in 2020, followed by the City of Hope Orange County Lennar Foundation Cancer Center in 2022. Construction is underway on the 73-bed cancer specialty hospital.

Tracking progress with precision

For Ms. Walker, timeline and budget were the most critical metrics in managing the project. She introduced the "light"-based methodology to the construction team, a strategy she has used throughout her healthcare career. This methodology changed the construction team's outlook, as it had never managed a project this way.

"What they started to bring me at the beginning was this long list of everything they finished that week," Ms. Walker told Becker's. "That was all good work, but I was more worried about what didn't get done and what could delay us."

By adopting the light system, Ms. Walker was better able to track progress. Green items represented completed tasks, while yellow and red highlighted potential or actual risks.

"If those are things that are going to delay us or cost us more money at the end, we need to have contingency plans," she said. A construction leader noted that this approach was new to their team but played a significant role in the project's success, she added.

This methodology paid off during the first phase of the project — the completion of the cancer center — which was delivered on time and on budget. Now, six months away from completing hospital construction, the team is on track to achieve the same result despite historic rainfall in California that caused delays.

Addressing team performance

The light-based methodology has also been key to managing her direct reports. Each team member maintains a personal tracker with their annual goals, which is reviewed during one-on-one meetings.

"It always keeps clarity between the two of us on how their success is going to be measured, and it keeps both of us well-informed on the status," Ms. Walker said. "If something is red, it's my opportunity to say, 'What can I do to help? Who else do we need to bring to the table?'"

She emphasized that a lack of clarity is one of the biggest disconnects in performance management.

"Once it's clear, it drives behavior," she said. "It drives how you spend your day and how you allocate your resources."

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