the biggest drivers of cost aren’t rising need, poor choices, or ‘the public’ — but the way the system is set up. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/antlerboy_withyou-systemschange-leadership-ugcPost-7343392933317885952-KY80?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAADUV_eUBZSxZvFpx70OV050F6K5HM2MhTMo How does this challenge the ways you’ve been encouraged to think about cost, pressure, and service ‘efficiency’?
Too often, demand management becomes a euphemism for delay, deflection, or denial.
But the biggest drivers of cost aren’t rising need, poor choices, or ‘the public’ — but the way the system is set up.
That’s what our ‘seven approaches to manage demand’ address. You don’t need a toolkit for tactical tweaking, if you have a strategic lens: stop chasing the demand, like a snake under the carpet. Start shaping the system.
It starts by recognising that presenting demand is a lagging indicator — need arises in specific lives, in specific places, which drives what we see as demand.
When we don’t understand that — or fail to respond appropriately — we just compound the problem. Delayed needs become crises. Service contact becomes rework. People disengage.
Instead, we need seven systemic shifts:
1 whole-system predictive modelling
2 preventing demand before it arises
3 early identification and intervention
4 more effective handling and response
5 aligning incentives for system impact
6 systems leadership and integration
7 continuous learning and measurement
And we need to shift from seeing demand management as something like a 1970s industrial policy, to being about shifting people — and the whole system — from crisis to capability. By helping people to get what they need earlier, easier, and #withyou
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The real work is about redesign, not rationing — through behavioural insight, relational working, and purposeful partnerships across boundaries. It’s a call to reject the false economy of siloed budgets which make you focus only where spend currently sits.
Rather than a demand management strategy, develop a learning system — one that integrates data, purpose, design, and relationships.
#systemschange #leadership #publicservices #innovation #transformation #healthcare
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How does this challenge the ways you’ve been encouraged to think about cost, pressure, and service ‘efficiency’?
chosen path 