2015 Conference: Association of Administrative Professionals New Zealand Inc Conference theme: Building Business Acumen Learning is a journey, not a destination … Kay Strang Administration Manager, Canterbury District Health Board 31 July 2015

What do I do …  our patients get the right care and treatment, at the right time, in the right place  take the noise away from clinicians - so they can focus on caring for the patient  and I work with administrators (and their managers) to ensure they have the skills to do their job. Improve and standardise admin processes so:

What we want to be … Be acknowledged as a world-class administrative service… within the next 3 to 5 years

CDHB priorities – 5 + 1

Building business acumen It’s not enough to be working in the business, we need to have a better sense of what the business is about as well 1.Recap of business acumen 2.Where professional development fits in

Business acumen It’s what you know about the business … and how you act upon (implement) what you know

What is business acumen? Learning the business of the business –understanding how a business operates –how a business makes its money (or if non-profit – how it gets its funding) –your role in that process.

Quiz What do you know this week, that you didn’t last week about: 1. your organisation? 2. your customers? 3. one of the top leaders in your field or profession? 4. trends that may affect your organisation’s business? e.g. economic, social, cultural 5. learned a new skill to help you be more effective in your role?

Why do we need business acumen?

How do you get it?

Five-ways to develop your business acumen 1. Read

Useful resources ular_talks_of_allhttps:// ular_talks_of_all

Five-ways to develop your business acumen 2. Join professional associations

Five-ways to develop your business acumen 3. Get involved in a project or committee

Five-ways to develop your business acumen 4. Develop your personal advisory board a-personal-advisory-board/

Five-ways to develop your business acumen 5. Enrol in continuing education courses

CDHB: Learning and development calendar

Learning is a journey, not a destination …

A planned approach to learning 1. Identify your learning needs Learning needs are usually identified with your manager or professional lead: when setting your performance objectives when you need to perform new tasks that require new skills and knowledge, and when you need to perform more effectively in your role.

A planned approach to learning 2. Prepare a Development Plan ​ ​ Once you have identified what learning you're going to do complete a Development Plan with your manager or professional lead. See handouts: Development Plan and tips on Writing Smart Objectives

A planned approach to learning 3. Select a learning option There are many ways to develop your skills and knowledge e.g. on the job learning coaching e/resources/readings/grow-coaching-questions.pdf e/resources/readings/grow-coaching-questions.pdf formal learning etc. You may have your own ideas on how to learn what you need to know. ​

How we learn …

A planned approach to learning 4.Complete a learning agreement

A planned approach to learning 5. Enrol in a course

A planned approach to learning 6.Evaluate your learning experience

A planned approach to learning 7.Review your development plan and learning agreement

Key takeaways 1.Business acumen … is a learned skill 2.Take a planned approach 3.Enjoy the journey!!!