1. New England Medical Group Manager Association
2016 Conference: Healthcare Paths and Perils
21st Century Leadership in the Healthcare Environment
Lizza Robb, MSW

2. POP Model for Purposeful Action
Purpose: Why is this important? Why is it a valuable use of my time and energy?
Outcomes: What do I hope to accomplish?
Process: How am I going to do it?
The POP Model for purposeful action comes from Robert Gass’s work through the Social Transformation Project

3. Purpose: Why is Leadership Development important?
Constant pressure within a rapidly changing healthcare environment and culture
Demands continuously outpace our capacity to deliver
Highly engaged leadership is directly tied to the happiest, healthiest, most effective organizations
Happy, healthy organizations are resilient in response to pressure and change
I don’t need to tell you that contemporary medical groups face constant pressure within a rapidly changing healthcare environment. Demands constantly outpace the capacity to deliver, and rarely do leaders in healthcare have an opportunity to reflect on their personal development and impact as leaders. Meanwhile, research suggests that positive, engaged leadership is key to the happiest, healthiest and most effective organizations—the organizations that will be best positioned to be resilient in the face of change.
It is so easy… become passive as leaders. To be reactive.

4. What I most want for myself at work in the next year is…
What I most want for my medical group in the next year is…
What I most want for myself and my family in the next year is…
[Click to remove first and third statements.]
At your tables, take a couple minutes each to share this second statement. What I most want for myself and my team at work in the next year is…
[Give enough time for each person to share at their tables.]

5. Outcomes: What we hope to accomplish
Make a case for the importance of prioritizing leadership development in healthcare
Participants will have an opportunity to reflect on their own leadership
Discuss simple tips for self-directed leadership development
Discuss three powerful concepts for leaders: resilience, change and resistance, and the “intentional narrative” (the concepts will be further explored in breakout sessions)

6. Process: How we’ll get there
Topics:
Leadership in healthcare
Simple leadership development tips
Three concepts: Resilience, Change & Resistance, Intentional Narrative
Format:
Teaching
Discussion
Reflection

7. STATE OF OUR ORGANIZATIONS
A Harris poll of 23,000 workers showed that:
Only 20% had any enthusiasm about their organization’s goals
Only 20% understood the relationship of their tasks to the organization's goals
Only 17% felt there was open communication
A Towers Perrin study of 90,000 employees across all industries in 33 countries showed that:
Only 21% of employees feel engaged at work
Harris; Towers Perrin

8. STATE OF OUR ORGANIZATIONS
Imagine a soccer team with 11 players:
Only 4 of the 11 know which goal is theirs
Only 2 know what their position is and what they’re supposed to do
Only 2 care about the game
Stephen Covey

9. STATE OF OUR ORGANIZATIONS
In the United States alone, lack of engagement is tied to a $300B annual loss.
Engagement is borne from non-financial incentives: #1 is attention from boss.
Poorly managed work groups are 50% less productive and 44% less profitable than well-managed groups.
Talk through slide.
What does this have to do with leadership development?
THIS IS leadership development.
Many leaders choose to be passive.
With constant demands and an unmanageable pace, it’s so easy, right?
To let life and work live us instead of us living it.
I work with a lot of leaders. And at some point it comes down to the question of agency. What is within my span of control as a leader.
It’s not what happens to me. Or around me. Or certainly not on the federal healthcare policy front.
But the best leaders recognize that they have a choice about how they respond to all of that.
About how they stand up and lead.
Towers Perrin; Gallup Organization

10. Attention from boss Know your people As employees
What are their aspirations?
What conditions support their best, most energized work?
How do they like to receive feedback?
As human beings
Where do they come from?
What obstacles have they overcome to get where they are?
Who do they care about?
What are their hobbies?
Attention from boss
This is not feedback. It’s not mentoring. It’s about basic connection and empathy. Being seen. Like how’s it going? Anything you need? I know you’re wife’s been sick, how’s she doing? How are your kids?
Talk through slide
We often know these things about our “favorites”
Nick example
It can be hard to make that personal connection.
Law enforcement
Kevin example
Healthcare setting and emotion (carry the weight)

11. WHO HELPED ME?
I want you to think about someone in your life who helped you. Someone without whom you would not be who you are today.
What did they do? How did they help you? How did it feel to be around them? How does it feel to think of them right now?
Now turn to your neighbor and tell each other about your person. Here’s who they are. Here’s what they did for me. Here’s the difference it made to my life. Take a couple minutes each.
[Give 4-5 minutes.]
Let’s hear from several people. Who helped you?
[Hear from several.]
Not everyone has someone really powerful in their past, but many of us do. More than one if we’re lucky.
Often what you hear is, They saw potential in me. They gave me a sense that I could do more than I thought I could. They gave me confidence to trust myself. They accepted me unconditionally.
So my question to you right now is: If I come back here in five years, who might name you?
That’s an invitation for everyone in this room. An opportunity.
And it doesn’t take that much time or energy to convey to someone, Hey, there’s more to you than you even know, and I believe in you.
They people you named didn’t actually do it for you. They gave you a more expansive sense of yourself and of your possibilities.
That’s part of leading.

12. Simple Tips for self-directed Leadership Development
Primal Leadership by Daniel Goleman
Becoming a Resonant Leader by Annie McKee, Richard Boyatzis and Fran Johnston
The Advantage by Patrick Lencioni
Switch by Chip Heath and Dan Heath
Good to Great by Jim Collins
Hbr.com (Harvard Business Review)
Forbes.com
Subscribe to free e-newsletters like:
Health Leaders Media
FierceHealthCare
READ
Use Google, YouTube, TED
Journal
Connect with other leaders
Peer coaching
Practice
There are many formal leadership development opportunities out there.
Trainings, webinars, continuing education, conferences, executive coaching
And those are great. It’s how I make my living.

13. intentionS FOR YOURSELF
What is one thing you will commit to doing to give time and attention to your development as a leader?
FOR YOUR STAFF
Think of one direct report who needs your attention. What is one thing you will commit to doing next week to support that person’s engagement?

14. Three Powerful concepts for leaders
Resilience
Change & Resistance
Intentional Narrative

15. Positivity by Barbara Fredrickson
What are we talking about when we talk about resilience?
[Hear from several. They will likely say things like “our ability to bounce back.”]
Right. Resilience is connected with our ability to recover. To bounce back after difficulties.
There has been a massive amount of research over the last several decades on happiness and positivity and hundreds of books written on the subject. I highly recommend Positivity by Barbara Fredrickson at University of North Carolina. She and Martin Seligman at the University of Pennsylvania have done incredible work to further the field of Positive Psychology and bring it into our everyday conversation.
What we now know is that we tend to overestimate the long-term positive effect of good things that happen to us. If I just get married, if I just get this job, if I just get this promotion, if I just get this new house, if I just whatever… I’ll be happy.
We also overestimate the long-term negative effect of bad things that happen to us (divorce, losing your job, loss, accidents).
Now, there are certain things that many people never recover from; we know that to be true. But most things we do.
How do we know this? What usually happens a year later to someone who wins the lottery? [Hear from a few.] Right, they have a big spike in happiness and after about six to twelve months they’re back where they started.
Research has also shown the same to be true for people who experience the loss of physical ability in an accident. Within 12 to 18 months, they often return to their level of happiness before the accident or even experience what’s called post traumatic growth and their long-term happiness level actually increases.
So if we know that winning the lottery isn’t likely to make us happier. And we know that even experiencing an accident that robs us of our physical abilities isn’t necessarily going to devastate us. What accounts for our happiness if it isn’t these big good or hard things? If it isn’t the things that happen to us?
Like our weight most of us have a lifetime happiness range. We tend to fluctuate within this range but rarely get too far above or below it.
Positivity and optimism are NOT products of good fortune or results of success, they are predictors of success.
Now, the question is what can we do to stay at the higher end of our range? Or to return to equilibrium after a difficult experience? That’s where resilience comes in.
Positivity by Barbara Fredrickson

16. Relationships with family and friends
Top ten factors related to resilience
- American Psychological Association
From: Top Five Regrets of the Dying
by Bonnie Ware
Relationships with family and friends 
Avoid seeing crises as insurmountable problems
Accept that change is part of living
Move toward your goals
Take decisive actions
Look for opportunities for self- discovery
Nurture a positive view of yourself
Keep things in perspective
Maintain a hopeful outlook 
Take care of yourself
I wish I'd had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.
I wish I hadn't worked so hard.
I wish I'd had the courage to express my feelings.
I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.
I wish that I had let myself be happier.
Remember these lists from this morning?
[Pause.]
What are you aware of?
[Hear from several.]

17. Cycle of Change
EXPLORE
EXCITE
EXAMINE
EXECUTE
EVALUATE
EXIT

18. Resistance

19. Intentional Narrative
We don’t live in a real world
Blind Men and Elephant ("Wall!" "Snake!" "Spear!" "Cow!" "Carpet!" "Rope!“)
Individual
Collective
Ex. Value-based payment (negative frame v positive frame)

20. Leadership Development Breakouts
Breakout Session 101: Enhancing Resilience
Breakout Session 201: Change & Resistance
Breakout Session 301: The Intentional Narrative