If we want our clients and our industry to embrace change, we have to embrace change first.

For many business owners, health care exists in a state of permanent contradiction. Business owners will share their outrage around the rising costs of the benefits plans as they see more and more of their bottom line eroding each year. At the same time, however, they resist making the radical changes necessary to address this radical problem. They want change, but will not make change.

As advisors viewing businesses from the outside, the dilemma and the obstacles seem clear to us. We see that there is a better path, we know that the path will deliver better results, but the business owner herself is resistant to change. "If only she could step back from the business and see the big picture," we think to ourselves.

We may consider ourselves masters of change and sherpas of innovation, but we, too, fall into the same traps. For as much as we challenge and push our clients to create and facilitate change, we are often just as guilty as missing the bigger picture of our own work. We need to do more in our businesses and in our careers to pursue and adopt change.

Before we promote change, we have to change.

What change really means

When I say change, I am intentionally speaking in broad terms, because not only do I recognize that everyone's context is different, but I also recognize that the potential innovation that you could bring to the industry or to your business is likely much different from my own. You have different experiences and different perspectives and perhaps unique specialties that influence the way you think about your work.

I think that's an incredible opportunity for all of us, and I'm excited about what that could mean for us this year and next year and five years from now.

To keep this discussion familiar, let's think about change in the way we frame a change in benefits plans for our clients. A new benefits plan is not a light switch, and neither is any meaningful change that could be made in our own businesses. It is a journey. Yes, we are trying to reach a new destination–a fully implemented, engines-roaring solution–but much of the success from a new idea happens in the in-between.

If you sit back and think about what change means for your clients, you can better understand what change means for you. Here are the concerns and turmoil clients have to face to get to the other side of a new benefits plan:

They have to try something new. Yes, the new plan promises a host of advantages over the old plan, but it's different, and that makes it an unknown risk.
They have to explain to their teammates they are doing something new. Your internal champion can't just say yes to a new plan. He or she often has to risk their own credibility by recommending a new solution to the rest of the leadership team.
They have to take time away from other aspects of their work. Managing the benefits plan is often not the only responsibility a leader within a company has. Making a change means deprioritizing other tasks to focus on the adoption of the new plan.
They have to explain the new plan to their employees. Business leaders recognize that benefits plans are often a source of contention among their people, and even if a new plan promises to be better, the typical employee experience is that plans only get worse.

Those are big obstacles standing in the way of a pristine new solution. If you're like me, you might have read those obstacles and realized they feel disturbingly familiar. When I recognized that I wasn't taking the advice that I was giving to clients with regards to making change, I knew that I was missing opportunities to grow.

If you aren't creating change in your own work, you are missing chances to grow as well.

Yes, trying something new is scary. Yes, change means risking your reputation with your team. Yes, change means reprioritizing your tasks. Yes, change means rallying the rest of the company to focus on the new mission.

Change is hard, but that doesn't mean we should hide behind excuses.

Treat yourself like a client

Every business owner wants the rewards of a fully grown tree. They want the fruit and the shade and the steadfastness. We have this discussion with prospects and clients almost every day, and we need to start taking our own advice. We need to hold ourselves accountable and ask, "If I was the client, what would I tell myself?"

You know the answer, but it's worth emphasizing to yourself: Pursue the long-term rewards, embrace the initial discomfort, stay on course for the plan.

If you take this approach, you can help them plant that tree today by pointing back at the forest you helped plant with other business owners who were once in the same positions who got to watch their tree sprout and thrive.

Jim Blachek flipped his traditional brokerage model in 2017 to focus solely on consulting and building value based health plans. In 2019 he co-founded a consulting only firm Dynamic Benefit Solutions and founded Local Script a transparent pharmacy and marketing organization focused on reducing employer and employee costs while supporting the local community.

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Engage with change: a new way for brokers to think about our businesses

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