David Jarrard, CEO of public affairs firm Jarrard, Phillips, Cate & Hancock, has worked with numerous healthcare organizations undergoing transactions during his career as a communications advisor. One thing he knows for certain about transactions: they are political events, and communication is the best tool to manage such a significant organizational change.
His new book "Healthcare Mergers, Acquisitions, And Partnerships: An Insider's Guide to Communication" (2013), shares some of the best practices he's learned over his 20-year career for communicating with key stakeholders during a transaction.
Question: This book focuses solely on the communicator's role during a healthcare merger or partnership. Why is this role so critical?
David Jarrard: I've been doing this kind of work for more than 20 years and here's what I know to be true: A hospital transaction of almost any kind is a political event. It's an emotional event. And it's one of the most significant change management events to occur in the life of any organization. Communications is the platform through which change is allowed to happen, support is created, opposition is neutralized and success is granted.
Too often, we see partnerships that are solely focused on the tactics of the deal — the money, the regulatory matters. If you forget about the people — and about defining the benefit for them — you risk the deal. We've seen just in the past year major transactions fall apart because people felt like they weren't being heard.
Q: In the book, you liken communicating to stakeholders about a partnership to running a political campaign. Why is this a helpful analogy?
DJ: Communications in political campaigns are strategic and comprehensive in their approach. Most importantly, they're focused on a very specific victory. The importance of being comprehensive is that it encompasses all the elements of the transaction — the legal aspect, the clinical aspect, the human dynamic, regulatory approval processes — as well as the fear of change and concern about personal security.
All those things are woven together to create a single plan driven to a single victory. We like the analogy because you can take the tactics of a successful political campaign — the teamwork, the urgency — and apply it to a deal. We find it very effective.
Q: One of the most important aspects of communication planning around a hospital transaction or partnership is planning how to respond to opposition. How do you recommend hospital communicators best do this?
DJ: The best way is to pretend you're the opposition and create a plan as if you were on the attack. We counsel our clients to actually spend some time doing this. If you were the competition, if you were a group of community leaders or physicians or others who wanted to oppose the deal, what would you do? What would you say? To whom would you say it? It's a very effective way of getting to your weaknesses — finding the chink in your armor.
Every deal has opposition or resistance. It's human nature to be resistant to change, even if it's the right thing to do. By spending time thinking about the opposition, you prepare for it so you're not taken off course when it happens.
Q: Your book also devotes a chapter to handling digital and social media during these deals. What are some best practices hospital leaders should know?
DJ: It's a mistake, of course, to not include digital communications in any communication plan today, particularly one as fast moving and emotional as a hospital transaction. There are many best practices in this regard, but one we have found highly effective is the creation of a unique Web platform for talking about the deal. It's a microsite. On it is all the latest information about the transaction, including videos and a place where people can ask questions. It's a way of positioning your organization as the authoritative voice during a transaction and protecting your message throughout a campaign.
Q: If you could only give one piece of advice to a hospital board about to enter a partnership about how to communicate to its stakeholders, what would that be?
DJ: Don't miss the opportunity to "own" this story. Everyone in a community cares about — and has a vested interest in — what happens to the hospital. A transaction is of great consequence — too great to stay secret or to stay in anyone's control for long.
Seriously consider issues of transparency and being proactive and inclusive in your conversations. For us, it's always the leaked story or the shocked employees or physician group or the uninformed legislator that can blow the deal.
On the other hand, we've witnessed health systems win — and maintain — public favor throughout a transaction and grow stronger from it.