Seeds of Innovation Pt 2
As a young lad growing up on the farm in the 1970s (yes, that is me in the picture with Grandma & Grandpa Schindler), I really had no idea how much the daily practices on the farm would feed a mindset of innovation.
Even though I knew nothing of insurance claims, there must have been something in the water. Aside from the fact that we could burn our water – not kidding, 3 of the 4 children in my family ended up working in claims.
I didn’t appreciate it at the time but the more I reflect on it, the more I realize that those practices really drove my mindset for innovating in the insurance industry.
Recently, I’ve started encouraging Claim Leaders to focus on the process (i.e. adjuster tasks) rather than the output (e.g. claims closed without indemnity).
On the farm, there is a lot of output but the reality is that the day-to-day process of feeding animals, cleaning barns, and tending to crops is the driver of output.
There is always more to do and it really doesn’t matter what work is completed because there are more tasks to do. Each and every task is a part of the process that leads to output.
Does this sound familiar to Claim Leaders?
A claims department has a continual influx of claims. The claims keep happening and the tasks keep coming.
Task completion drives process.
Process drives output.
On the farm, there was certainly nothing easy about the process but at the same time I wouldn't have traded it for anything in terms of the way it prepared me. I simply couldn't replicate the experience of having daily chores and having animals that required me to feed them every day and clean their pens at least once a week.
Likewise, claim adjusters are forged into successful insurance executives through a mastery of completing tasks relentlessly, finishing a process, and driving output.
Finally, in both farming and claims, the tasks have changed a lot since the 1970’s. Yet, the process still needs to be completed to generate output.
Because we're highly regulated in insurance, we have a lot of narrative documentation of the tasks completed and the reason certain decisions are made. The ability to measure those tasks is the opportunity for productivity that has never before existed for a claim leader.
Consistent, accurate measurement of tasks, month after month, creates objective information about both performance excellence and performance lag.
Being able to establish a clear expectations for task and then measure against it to identify improvement – or lack thereof – gives Claim Leaders unprecedented ability to lead.
Stop focusing on output. Start measuring process.