How Healthcare Works, LLC

As I sat at home this week itching and scratching from poison something...ivy, oak, sumac, I asked myself this question. If I worked in an office, would I go to work today? The first day or so I decided that I wouldn't. Even though poison ivy isn't contagious, I definitely would not be productive as I itched and scratched and made odd faces as I tried not to itch and scratch. Moreover, I felt groggy from the Benadryl. As a work-from-home-r, I also decided to give myself the day off. Sometimes, you just need to give your body a chance to rest and heal. Staying home from work, no matter what level you are in the organization, is always a good idea. I wish I could say I have always been a good steward in this area, but I really haven't. In the past, I used to "power through" work days and convince myself that I wasn't that sick or tired. Countless coworkers would come in complaining of the latest viral illness, stomach upset or just feeling "icky" tha...

When I was an adjunct faculty member, I taught several different courses in healthcare administration. Many of the courses included textbooks that contained cases for students to evaluate. However, the cases were more at an executive level and many of my undergraduate students were in font line entry level positions, early careerist positions, or entry level management positions. As a result, the students often had a difficult time wrapping their minds around the cases and the scenarios presented in the textbooks. In order to facilitate learning, I decided to draw upon my prior training in secondary education. Although the students were considerably more advanced, I could still use many of the tools I learned to use in the secondary education classroom in the college classroom. Two such tools that we were encouraged to use were simulations and case studies. Although similar, case studies and simulations are not the same. A simulation puts the student in the place to make the decis...

A few years ago, leadership at the health system where I worked was tasked with reading, The One Minute Manager  by Kenneth H. Blanchard. As part of "leadership," I also read the book. The basic premise behind The One Minute Manager  is that effective managers give their employees instruction, and then they leave employees to their own devices to do  their jobs. That is, effective managers, go in, get out, and get out of the way. I recall in discussions, how this was a nice idea.  I recall further making the comment how it was a refreshing take to some other philosophies of management, which I called, "Managing Every Minute." There are some managers who think that having control over what their employees are doing every minute of every day is important. Now, I have served as a project manager in the past, and there are times when as a leader, and manager (note they are not necessarily the same thing), that you do have to manage tasks, time spent, and activiti...

Let's face it. Life happens, and it doesn't always go the way we want things to. There is always that situation that we thought we had under control...or maybe someone else thought they had it under control, and it fell apart. Maybe we planned for it to fall apart, so we could see it for all of the nasty bits and pieces that it contained. When things fall apart or get messy or don't go our way, we have two options to communicate what happened. We can tell what actually happened, or we can retell the story. Now, I am in the "Tell it like it is" camp.  Tell the dirty details, send the long email, several text messages, whatever it takes to arrive at the truth. Get the real story out there or find out what the real story is. It's about being real and transparent. Everyone knows where everyone else stands, and there are no questions of loyalty or what happened, it's just raw and exposed and true. At least someone's version of the truth. Photo cour...

Back to college means back to class, back to friends, back to fun, back to parties. It is an exciting and anxious time for many college students. There are so many different things for them to do and explore, and many different friends to make and old friends to meet back up with again. However, back to college isn't fun for everyone. During the first few months of school, college women experience the highest rate of rape than in any months. In fact, most rapes on college campuses occur in August, September, October or November. The statistics regarding rapes on college campuses are daunting. One in four women on college campuses has experienced some form of sexual assault or rape. The number of women who experience sexual assault in the 18-24 age range is actually at least three times that of the national average, especially for college women. In eight out of ten cases, the perpetrator knew the victim. The victim was not attacked by a random stranger under a blue light, but ...

When leading a new team or teaching a new group of students, I would ask team members or students to tell me something unique about themselves. My reason for doing so was often two-fold. First, it really helped me learn about the employees' and students' names. Second, I was able to gain insight into who they were as people and what they felt was important. As time went on, I would ask the same team members and the same students to tell me something they had accomplished, tell me about their special skills, and tell me about what made them believe they could succeed. In my unofficial polling and assessment, I found that these employees and students had something in common. They found it hard to talk about what made them successful as individuals. They were more than eager and able to talk and "brag" about the accomplishments of their families, their friends, their neighbors, their classmates, and their coworkers.  However, they were not able to tell me what speci...

Every year, there is that story about the sports team that just couldn't get along. The team was fighting at practices, fighting in the media, and arguing over petty issues or who did who wrong. The team then started to lose games, and the coach came forward and said he just couldn't figure out what went wrong. He said it just wasn't their best game. Players left the team and went elsewhere. Sadly, the viewers knew the truth as they watched the dramatic irony unfold. Infighting was the underlying cause of the problem. It was at the core of all of the surrounding issues.  Unfortunately, the above scenario plays out not only on the field or on the court, but also in classrooms, communities, families and healthcare organizations. Once a culture of infighting is fostered and allowed to develop, the organization is doomed for failure in one area or another. Infighting tears away at the very fibers of an organization until the nerves and goals of all of those involved are...