Operating Model & Strategy Alignment
When strategy, organizational design, and talent are aligned, organizations are better equipped to translate strategy into measurable results.
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Alignment is Complex
In health care, alignment isn’t a lack-of-intent problem—it’s a complexity problem. Care delivery, cost pressures, workforce realities, and organizational performance are tightly interwoven and continually evolving. These systemic pressures can manifest as challenges like communication gaps, breakdowns in planning, and more.
When leaders, clinicians, and operational teams interpret goals differently, even well-intended strategies lose traction – slowing execution and diluting impact.
Fragmented strategic, financial, and workforce plans undermine alignment. Without an integrated model, priorities collide and execution stalls.
Rapid shifts in goals—whether clinical, operational, or financial—create confusion and inhibit cohesion. Teams struggle to maintain focus when strategic direction isn’t clearly translated into operating models.
Incomplete or fragmented data obscures insight and slows decision-making. Health care organizations often struggle to connect workforce metrics, performance data, and strategic goals in ways that guide execution with confidence.
Partnering with SullivanCotter
Helping Health Care Leaders Align Strategy & Execution
Organizations that partner with SullivanCotter benefit from deep health care consulting experience, robust industry data, and proven insights that support operating model and strategy alignment. We help clients clarify how work gets done, how decisions are made, and how accountability is established across the organization—while maintaining alignment with broader strategic priorities.
The result? Leaders sustain strategic alignment by connecting workforce, data, and performance insights—so strategy translates into clearer decisions and more effective execution.
Our integrated solutions span physician, advanced practice provider (APP), executive, and employee populations and are grounded in industry-leading data, survey research, and health care performance analytics—enabling organizations to execute strategy with greater clarity and confidence.
Bridging the Gap Between Strategy & Execution
By embedding consistent workforce processes, health care organizations can focus on the work that matters most while staying agile.
Set & Align
Identify goals, encourage collaboration.
Transparency
How We Help
SullivanCotter combines industry-leading workforce data and analytics with deep expertise in organization design, performance diagnostics, and change strategy—with solutions to address a range of management challenges.
We help leaders translate strategy into clear operating realities—defining priorities, design principles, and the capabilities required to execute. Strategy maps and operating plans provide a shared framework that aligns leadership, guides decision-making, and maintains focus through annual planning cycles and ongoing change.
We assess reporting relationships, management layers, and spans of control to ensure organizational structure supports strategic and operational needs. Using market-informed benchmarks and real-world health care context, we help leaders reduce complexity, clarify roles, and enable more efficient coordination across teams and functions.
Effective operating models depend on strong alignment between clinical leadership and management practices. We help organizations clarify leadership roles, decision rights, and performance expectations across clinical and operational teams—integrating workforce data with behavioral insights to support consistent execution and clinician engagement.
We help establish clear decision authority, governance structures, and performance expectations—reinforcing accountability at every level of the organization. By aligning governance with strategy and operating models, leaders gain greater confidence in execution and reduce friction that slows progress.
Insight Spotlight
Mergers & Acquisitions
Mergers and acquisitions place significant pressure on operating models, testing how governance, leadership, and workforce practices function at scale. Success in health care M&A depends on early alignment of strategy, structure, and talent—so the combined organization can move forward with clarity and confidence.
Learn MoreOur experience shows that effective integration hinges on:
Retaining critical clinical and leadership talent throughout the transition
Engaging leadership teams early to clarify priorities and identify strategic synergies
Aligning and strengthening integrated workforce performance across the enterprise
Defining post-transaction roles, decision rights, and expectations to maintain continuity and accountability
Establishing clear performance goals and implementation timelines for the combined organization
Using the transaction as an opportunity to thoughtfully evolve culture, structure, processes, and workforce strategies
“An effective operating model connects strategy to execution—clarifying how work gets done, who is accountable, and how decisions are made across the organization.”
— Garrett Sheridan, President, Lotis Blue Consulting
Technology & Data Spotlight
Workforce Insights360™
Data That Strengthens Operating Model Alignment
Workforce Insights360™ brings deep workforce analytics and proprietary health care workforce data to operating model and strategy alignment efforts, giving leaders a clear, objective view of how workforce structure, management layers, and resource allocation support priorities.
By mapping roles into standardized job families, functional hierarchies, and objectively defined job levels, the platform helps organizations evaluate how work is organized across functions, service lines, and teams. These insights help to improve role clarity, align workforce investments, optimize spans of control, and ensure operating models support strategic, operational, and financial goals.
Explore Workforce Insights360™
Surveys to Spur Alignment
Explore SullivanCotter’s comprehensive survey data—including compensation, workforce, and performance benchmarks – to inform strategic decision-making and operating model design.
Workforce Metrics Benchmark Survey
As health care organizations seek to optimize care delivery and improve performance, effectively managing workforce size, shape, and complexity remains key. This survey helps organizations understand how their workforce size, distribution, and cost compare to market practices.
Advanced Practice Provider Leadership and Organizational Survey
As health care organizations seek to transform care delivery by improving access, quality, services, and affordability, supporting the advanced practice provider (APP) workforce and optimizing leadership practices are essential. This survey highlights leadership roles, integration strategies, and workplace infrastructure for better APP workforce management.
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More Services to Explore
Partner with SullivanCotter to strengthen internal capabilities in compensation planning, benchmarking, and workforce data management.
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Ready to align your operating model with strategy and performance? Contact SullivanCotter to get started.
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