I have to say that the stamina is impressive of our group! 4 nights in a row of heading to bed after midnight, getting up by 6:30am for breakfast, and spending all day in class and studies! This is hump day for our week - 3 days down, 3 days left before a break.
Today we had 4 case studies and a mid-week evaluation session. It was a packed day, including studies of Benihana, Toyota Motor Company, Sealed Air Corporation, and Aqualisa Quartz showers. One of the good things they do here is to vary the professors, so we had three different people leading the sessions today.
Benihana is the quintessential assembly line restaurant. Ever thought that way when you've been there? Here is the secret: cycle time. From the time you walk in, they are creating a way to have you matched with enough complete strangers to create a table of 8 people, ready to watch a show that has been highly orchestrated to enable you to enjoy yourself for exactly 60 minutes, and then get out. The design of their locations takes you from station to station, a total of 8 of them, on their schedule, with little cues that move you to the next station. Everything is purposeful, without being too obvious (I think). By the way, when the chef finishes the tower of flame after cleaning the grill, and turns the lights off, that's the cue to leave. So leave, and don't forget the big tip!
Impact on My View of Management:
I need to spend more time improving my knowledge of our "cycle times" and on finding and working the bottlenecks. And, we have to remember at all times what the step or actor in our process is the most valuable, and maximize its value and minimize its waste.
Actions I Can Take:
We need to work to improve our reception areas to be focused on the needs of our members and patients that they find will add value, not what we want them to do. They don't want to sign up for kp.org, or take surveys, or receive education and training. So, we need to discover that value-add and make it the key part of our member's visit time.
One could spend a whole two weeks studying Toyota. We did a fly through in 90 minutes of their plant in Georgetown. The key: empower the front line to do the work, manage the workflows, determine the optimum way to build a car, and have managers serve as teachers and helpers, not as bosses over the team's capability to do the work. The lessons learned from our study and discussion included that process is the foundation for execution, that we must understand root cause when problems occur (asking Why five times), that the front line has the best knowledge of the work we do, that managers should set the tone and support the team, and that growth quickly amplifies the complexity of a situation.
Actions I Can Take at Work:
- should we think about using Vocera as our "andon" cord? That's the cord that the Toyota worker can pull to bring attention to their part of the assembly line to analyze and improve the workflows.
- we need to analyze our work flows and follow the four rules from Toyota:
1. all work is highly specified in its content, sequence, timing, and outcomes
2. each worker knows who provides what to them, and when, at every station along the process
3. every product and service flows along a simple, specific path, with minimal waste and effort to improve or perform the intended action at each station
4. any improvement must be made through the scientific method (hypothesis, test, etc.), under the guidance of a leader, done at the lowest possible level of the organization
Sealed Air corporation owns more than 90% of the market for packaging materials that are put in boxes by companies when they are shipping their products. They make bubble wrap, foam sheets, packing peanuts, paper, the new air pockets, a foam based solution that fills the space that it is squirted into, and any number of customized containers (like the trays for fruit in grocery stores, etc.). But, the business case showed that they faced a moment a few years ago that defined their survival - they weren't sure what they were, either a coated bubble wrap company (which was the bulk of what they did), or a packing materials company. They chose correctly! And the lesson - we need to put every choice through the filter of "What business am I in?" and "How do I define the quality of the work that I do?". Invariably, when people and companies lose their way, they've forgotten those 2 simple questions.
Our last case of the day was a story about Aqualisa, a shower equipment supplier in England. Notoriously known for having the market leading shower head, they created a new product with an electronicly controlled pump that increased the water pressure by 6 to 7 times what was available coming through the pipes. They bet the company on the new product, and then it didn't sell. They were able to figure out their issues, and found the following keys that we can incorporate into our setting:
- Innovation requires not just a product, but it has to have a marketing plan
- Companies expect experimentation and false starts with Research and Development, but they should expect the same thing with Marketing - it isn't right the first time most times
- One has to constantly evaluate consumer, channel (selling), and corporate behaviors and recognize that products (or services) have to change with those behaviors change; miss the clues, and pay the price
- Discover who in an organization is blocking progress, and engage them in creating alternatives that meet their needs and expectations
Our last session of the day was a debrief about our impressions so far. We all commented on the need to further connect our lessons here with our day to day lives at Kaiser. Amy did a great job of reframing our expectations, and that we shouldn't be disappointed if those connections aren't clear now - they will be by the time we are done!
Becuase we also have 4 cases tomorrow, there was no going out tonight. More studying and more discussions about how we can improve our own areas of the organization. My apologies to everyone for the dryness of this post. It's 1:30am and time to go to bed!
Showing posts with label Bob. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bob. Show all posts
Saturday, March 5, 2011
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Day 2 - Executive Leadership Program, Harvard, Boston MA
Day 1 was a good start. Day 2 is promising to be an insightful day!
After a few hours of sleep, we were back up at 7:00am for breakfast. Because today is more of a lecture day, we didn't have what will become a regular study group meeting at 8:00am. Instead, we had free time until class started at 9:30. That's good because the schedule is BRUTAL here!
At 9:30, we started a discussion with Mahzarin Banaji, a psychology professor who is focusing her studies on the fact that every one of us has implicit biases, and they shape every decision we make whether we believe it or not. We had some prework - a test of our inherint biases that you can take too at http://www.implicit.harvard.edu/ and you should! You'll be surprised by the results. Go to the site, choose Research, and then follow the instructions.
I have 3 pages of notes. I never realized how much my biases shape my decision making. From the initial assessment of someone's competency measured by looking at someone's face in the first 100 milliseconds, 500 milliseconds, and 1 second. We make 3 decisions that quickly about someone: how trustworthy they are, how competent they are, and whether we will dominant them or be dominated. We measure biases in terms of if a person is skinny or fat, that they are dumb or smart respectively. That particular distinction was measured that we will assume a fat person is 9 IQ points smarter than they actually are. We reviewed that our brain uses a completely different part of itself when one is asked to think about themselves (good things, bad things, etc.) versus thinking about what we think about someone else. I knew my head hurt sometimes, now I know why!
We also had a lengthy discussion about interviewing candidates for jobs. We discussed the fact that the use of a resume alone, instead of a resume and an interview, is the more objective way to review candidates. Here is an interesting outcome: almost all hiring decisions can be made in the first 2 1/2 minutes of an interview. The rest of the time in the interview is spent creating supporting information for ourselves to justify our initial assessment! Think about that the next time you are interviewing someone for some task or job you have - sure would cut down the wasted time if we just said "Tell me a little about yourself", let the candidate (or contractor, or maid, or potential spouse) talk for 2 1/2 minutes, said "you're the one" or "you're not the one" and moved on! We did discuss that people lie on their resumes, so reference checking is a must. But the interview is a poor method - some schools, including Harvard, have eliminated interviews.
We also reviewed the case study that females in symphony orchestras in the US made up less than 25% of the orchestra membership just a few years ago, and that orchestras adopted "interviews" for new members by having the candidate play for the selection committee behind a screen without a word spoken by the candidate (or a name given) that led to the current situation where nearly 50% of orchestra membership is female. For all of her interviews when she applies for first chair fiddle, Sophia will be known as SLeek.
All that said, the Impact on My Leadership Point of View:
I will change how I look at things that need to be evaluated by:
- identifying the key criteria that need to be measured (price, cost, features, value, etc.)
- next, list all of my immediate biases (i.e. too expensive, I don't buy Ford or avoid Chinese-manufactured if I can or buy from people with nose rings) and put that aside
- then, collect the data to support the criteria we choose
- then, create a full set of the predictors that will frame the Criteria for Success (what would success look like, and how would I know)
- and then lead a discussion with others to distinguish the choices based on the criteria for success as opposed to the biases we held
Actions to Implement at Work:
- create a template for all candidates to fill out instead of using their resume because how they organize their resume or the paper they use lead to an immediate bias
- create a 15 minute questionnaire about communication skills for candidates (a key criteria for most of the people I hire) that someone else will give the candidate, and then score and return to me, so that I'm not influenced by their tone, accent (hear that Ingrid????), or ability to use the English language; we talked a little at lunch (see below) about how hard I've worked to rid myself of my southern accent (but not my charm)
- create a list of qualities that are important to the team that is adding a new hire before we interview the candidates; we'll rank the qualities from most to least important, and then apply that criteria to the candidates resumes and questionnaire responses to get a ranked-order of candidates
We had a short day today, as we ended at 3:45pm. However, we were so engrossed with Dr. Banaji that we ran over by 20 minutes. Earlier, I was just sitting down to lunch with Molly Porter (the Director for the Kaiser Permanente International program group, a team that developes programs about Kaiser for international health care leaders, including presentations to Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands (go ORANGE!), the United Kingdom and Spain) when we spotted Dr. Banaji sitting down, with an empty chair on each side of her. I looked at Molly and remarked that it would be criminal if we didn't take advantage of an opportunity to have lunch with her. We got up and moved, and had a great half hour of complete access to discuss our views of bias, how much we enjoyed what we learned, and to offer to help her with the afternoon session, which she took us up on and called on both of us during the class. Teacher's pet, brown-noser, or strategic use of time and access? Are you biased, or just jealous?
Even though we will have access to a full breakfast, lunch, and dinner, plus snacks, drinks, and other food all day, every day, every where we turn, Alex and I decided to go to Boston for the afternoon / evening. We got a cab and got dropped off in the North End. Go there!!!!
We walked around, looking in all of the shops and stores and restaurants. We decided we'd eat dinner in the area, and walked into 3 meat shops (real butchers), 2 wine shops (I'm sure they are fronts for something else), and Modern Pastry (more on that later). In one of the butcher shops, we asked where we should eat. The butcher paused, looked us over, and said "look (everyone here says "look"), every chef in this part of town comes in here to buy meat from me; if I tell you where to go, and you tell him, and he tells one of them, I might have some trouble, so I'm not telling you where to eat, or where not to eat; just go eat somewhere, eh?". That could have been the most honest customer service I've ever received!
So, we ended up at Giacomos. How would you pronounce that? Gee a co moes? Nope. Jack o moes is the right way, as we found out. 8 tables, 6 family member serving as waiter / waitress / bus boy, 4 cooks, and one old dude that we weren't sure what his role was. Menu was on the chalk board. We had the special - a half lobster, 8 mussels, 6 clams, and about 4 1/2 pounds of pasta with 1 pound or so of grated cheese. $20. Bam! Washed it down with a Boston-based IPA.
Then, we decided to get a canolli. Had one? Not like these!!! We went to Modern Pastry, and decided to buy 2 dozen mini ones to bring back as a bribe (gift) for our peers in the program. You see, at 7:30pm we had an optional accounting tutorial, and what better to bring to an optional discussion about debits, credits, ratios, balance sheets, income statements, and cash flow than a 650 calorie pastry??? We were thanked profusely for our generosity, and all was good.
Before we came back, we took a quick 2 mile walk through downtown. Boston Common, 11 Dunkin Donuts in a 5 block area (which I understand are called Drunkin Donuts, per Julie), and only 1 Starbucks that I saw, and then Beacon Hill. We were walking along and suddenly, there it was: the Cheers bar. Quick picture, and decision to come back later this week or next. Cab back to the campus, class, and then studying. I have been awake for 45 of the 60 hours we've been here, and it has been totally worth it!
After a few hours of sleep, we were back up at 7:00am for breakfast. Because today is more of a lecture day, we didn't have what will become a regular study group meeting at 8:00am. Instead, we had free time until class started at 9:30. That's good because the schedule is BRUTAL here!
At 9:30, we started a discussion with Mahzarin Banaji, a psychology professor who is focusing her studies on the fact that every one of us has implicit biases, and they shape every decision we make whether we believe it or not. We had some prework - a test of our inherint biases that you can take too at http://www.implicit.harvard.edu/ and you should! You'll be surprised by the results. Go to the site, choose Research, and then follow the instructions.
I have 3 pages of notes. I never realized how much my biases shape my decision making. From the initial assessment of someone's competency measured by looking at someone's face in the first 100 milliseconds, 500 milliseconds, and 1 second. We make 3 decisions that quickly about someone: how trustworthy they are, how competent they are, and whether we will dominant them or be dominated. We measure biases in terms of if a person is skinny or fat, that they are dumb or smart respectively. That particular distinction was measured that we will assume a fat person is 9 IQ points smarter than they actually are. We reviewed that our brain uses a completely different part of itself when one is asked to think about themselves (good things, bad things, etc.) versus thinking about what we think about someone else. I knew my head hurt sometimes, now I know why!
We also had a lengthy discussion about interviewing candidates for jobs. We discussed the fact that the use of a resume alone, instead of a resume and an interview, is the more objective way to review candidates. Here is an interesting outcome: almost all hiring decisions can be made in the first 2 1/2 minutes of an interview. The rest of the time in the interview is spent creating supporting information for ourselves to justify our initial assessment! Think about that the next time you are interviewing someone for some task or job you have - sure would cut down the wasted time if we just said "Tell me a little about yourself", let the candidate (or contractor, or maid, or potential spouse) talk for 2 1/2 minutes, said "you're the one" or "you're not the one" and moved on! We did discuss that people lie on their resumes, so reference checking is a must. But the interview is a poor method - some schools, including Harvard, have eliminated interviews.
We also reviewed the case study that females in symphony orchestras in the US made up less than 25% of the orchestra membership just a few years ago, and that orchestras adopted "interviews" for new members by having the candidate play for the selection committee behind a screen without a word spoken by the candidate (or a name given) that led to the current situation where nearly 50% of orchestra membership is female. For all of her interviews when she applies for first chair fiddle, Sophia will be known as SLeek.
All that said, the Impact on My Leadership Point of View:
I will change how I look at things that need to be evaluated by:
- identifying the key criteria that need to be measured (price, cost, features, value, etc.)
- next, list all of my immediate biases (i.e. too expensive, I don't buy Ford or avoid Chinese-manufactured if I can or buy from people with nose rings) and put that aside
- then, collect the data to support the criteria we choose
- then, create a full set of the predictors that will frame the Criteria for Success (what would success look like, and how would I know)
- and then lead a discussion with others to distinguish the choices based on the criteria for success as opposed to the biases we held
Actions to Implement at Work:
- create a template for all candidates to fill out instead of using their resume because how they organize their resume or the paper they use lead to an immediate bias
- create a 15 minute questionnaire about communication skills for candidates (a key criteria for most of the people I hire) that someone else will give the candidate, and then score and return to me, so that I'm not influenced by their tone, accent (hear that Ingrid????), or ability to use the English language; we talked a little at lunch (see below) about how hard I've worked to rid myself of my southern accent (but not my charm)
- create a list of qualities that are important to the team that is adding a new hire before we interview the candidates; we'll rank the qualities from most to least important, and then apply that criteria to the candidates resumes and questionnaire responses to get a ranked-order of candidates
We had a short day today, as we ended at 3:45pm. However, we were so engrossed with Dr. Banaji that we ran over by 20 minutes. Earlier, I was just sitting down to lunch with Molly Porter (the Director for the Kaiser Permanente International program group, a team that developes programs about Kaiser for international health care leaders, including presentations to Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands (go ORANGE!), the United Kingdom and Spain) when we spotted Dr. Banaji sitting down, with an empty chair on each side of her. I looked at Molly and remarked that it would be criminal if we didn't take advantage of an opportunity to have lunch with her. We got up and moved, and had a great half hour of complete access to discuss our views of bias, how much we enjoyed what we learned, and to offer to help her with the afternoon session, which she took us up on and called on both of us during the class. Teacher's pet, brown-noser, or strategic use of time and access? Are you biased, or just jealous?
Even though we will have access to a full breakfast, lunch, and dinner, plus snacks, drinks, and other food all day, every day, every where we turn, Alex and I decided to go to Boston for the afternoon / evening. We got a cab and got dropped off in the North End. Go there!!!!
We walked around, looking in all of the shops and stores and restaurants. We decided we'd eat dinner in the area, and walked into 3 meat shops (real butchers), 2 wine shops (I'm sure they are fronts for something else), and Modern Pastry (more on that later). In one of the butcher shops, we asked where we should eat. The butcher paused, looked us over, and said "look (everyone here says "look"), every chef in this part of town comes in here to buy meat from me; if I tell you where to go, and you tell him, and he tells one of them, I might have some trouble, so I'm not telling you where to eat, or where not to eat; just go eat somewhere, eh?". That could have been the most honest customer service I've ever received!
So, we ended up at Giacomos. How would you pronounce that? Gee a co moes? Nope. Jack o moes is the right way, as we found out. 8 tables, 6 family member serving as waiter / waitress / bus boy, 4 cooks, and one old dude that we weren't sure what his role was. Menu was on the chalk board. We had the special - a half lobster, 8 mussels, 6 clams, and about 4 1/2 pounds of pasta with 1 pound or so of grated cheese. $20. Bam! Washed it down with a Boston-based IPA.
Then, we decided to get a canolli. Had one? Not like these!!! We went to Modern Pastry, and decided to buy 2 dozen mini ones to bring back as a bribe (gift) for our peers in the program. You see, at 7:30pm we had an optional accounting tutorial, and what better to bring to an optional discussion about debits, credits, ratios, balance sheets, income statements, and cash flow than a 650 calorie pastry??? We were thanked profusely for our generosity, and all was good.
Before we came back, we took a quick 2 mile walk through downtown. Boston Common, 11 Dunkin Donuts in a 5 block area (which I understand are called Drunkin Donuts, per Julie), and only 1 Starbucks that I saw, and then Beacon Hill. We were walking along and suddenly, there it was: the Cheers bar. Quick picture, and decision to come back later this week or next. Cab back to the campus, class, and then studying. I have been awake for 45 of the 60 hours we've been here, and it has been totally worth it!
Day 1 - Executive Leadership Program, Harvard, Boston MA
So, this isn't Heather. It's me, the husband. I have the extreme fortune to be one of the 66 successful candidates from Kaiser to attend the Harvard University Executive Leadership Program (ELP) for a total of 4 weeks, on site in Boston (two weeks now, two weeks in May), plus some additional study work in Portland. I'm here to continue my ongoing education (on the job and formal and informal) in my health care career. I'm here with my good friend Alex Lowenthal, plus about a dozen people I already knew from my work at Kaiser in the last 7 years. I'm posting to create a record for myself, to share with Heather what goes on here, and to avoid having to talk to my father or my mother-in-law too frequently. Dad and Nicki - this is for you to read, and then develop some questions to ask me beyond "how's it going, and what do you think"! Get going on your homework!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sunday, February 27th
Alex and I flew on the plane together from Portland to Boston. After arriving and greeting some folks, we decided to walk to Harvard Square, across the river. There's a foot of snow on the ground, and it was 27 (feels like minus 27). We walked around for an hour or so, got Alex a knit cap to cover his head, and then came back. We had a reception from 6 to 7, and then we and several of our new friends decided to explore the tunnels under the campus that allow people to move from building to building without being outside. We went to the gym / workout facilities and signed up so we can use the facilities, and then found our way to a dorm with a pool table and big screens to watch the Oscars on one screen and the Miami / New York NBA game on another. When we got back, I hooked up Skype and called Heather and kids and checked in on their day. We went back out to our dorm's common area and stayed for a couple of hours, watched the rest of the Oscars, and studied a little. I finally called it a night at 12:00am.
Monday, February 28th
And then we begin!
Great first day! Opening remarks from Dr. Jack Cochran, the leader of the Kaiser Permanente Federation (the physicians group), focused on the situation that Kaiser is facing in the United States health care debate. He characterized the leadership challenge as requiring the best from everyone, every day. As a physician-led, professionally managed organization, everyone in a leadership position has an accountability to perform to the very best of our abilities.
My notes:
- our competitive advantages at Kaiser that will make us successful: integration, advanced technology systems, and the ability to receive prospective payments (think HMO model)
- why are we better than everyone else: we keep score on everything, we are transparent with what we score and measure, and we are a learning organization
- the "new questions" we should be asking: how many of our patient's problems can we solve today, how can we create complete systems that support the patient, and what is the best way to optimally monitor a condition our patient may have or need or support with
Amy Edmondson, Chair of the ELP and one of the featured lecturers, provided an overview of the entire program and helped to frame the expectations we should be building for ourselves and our participation. The support from the faculty, facilities, and support team is tremendous! Very excited to be here!
Our first task after the opening orientation was to pull our study group together. I was randomly selected to be a study leader for week 1. Our group has 8 members, diverse backgrounds, including physician, health plan, and medical operations leaders. We discussed the case studies supporting the leadership displayed by John F. Kennedy and his teams for the Bay of Pigs situation and the Cuban Missile Crisis. Everyone agreed that we have a good group, and we had a good discussion.
We went back to the lecture hall and had a dynamic discussion, led by Amy, about the case studies and the impressions and outcomes we formed. All of the notes and materials are organized in 3 sections: Key Issues and Ideas, Impact on My Leadership Point of View, and Actions to Implement at Work.
I'll spare all the Key Issues and Ideas (they are lost without the case study to read), and share the other two notes I collect. For this initial discussion, my conclusions:
Impact on My Leadership
- we need to set up team to provide input, rather than rely on the leader for being the "decider"
- we need to insist on more options to review before making a choice based on one or two options; as leaders, we have to pull that out of our groups
- we need to get better at taking more time to analyze alternatives that have been provided by people other than ourselves
- we need to watch for and eliminate situations where advocay is being used instead of inquiry / problem solving
Actions to Implement at Work
- take an opportunity to read "The First 90 Days", a book recommended by Chris Otham, to help leaders make an appropriate impact in their first 90 days, or the first 90 days for an existing leader if they want to make an impact even if they are already on board (the leader of our insurance company operations for all of the areas outside of California). Update - we received a copy, courtesy of Chris, on Wednesday.
- must clearly set expectations of my direct reports and the vision of success for their teams
- complete the following steps in a cycle: Assess, Discuss, Plan, Act
After lunch, we went back to the lecture hall and spent the afternoon discussion on Perspectives on Leadership with Scott Snook, an instructor and graduate of West Point. We used a case study about Scandanavian Airlines (SAS), and then discussed the differences in leadership success between Jan Carlson, the 36 year-old head of SAS hired in the early 80's to turn the company around in the midst of the numerous pressures on the airline industry in the early 80's and Frank Borman, the CEO of Eastern Airlines. We watched some videos and discussed the numerous learnings and differences between the two men and the companies they ran.
We then discussed Leadership Styles and what that is made up of as far as components of leadership are concerned. The intersection of Self Awareness (who we are), Situational Awareness (what happens around us), and Self Regulation (our ability to apply the right skills to the right situation) define our leadership style. A good excercise in discussing these attributes led to the following:
Impact on My Leadership
- with a huge capital investment, we must maximize its use, leading to me wonder why we aren't using all of the Sunnyside Medical Center (our hospital in Portland) space we built but haven't opened
- to question if we have any messages concerning cost cutting that mirror the very poor way Frank Borman spoke to employees at Eastern about their challenges when they were facing bankruptcy. He blamed the employees.
Actions to Implement at Work
- we need to get better at creating the conditions to increase the likelihood for success, reduce the opportunities to fail, and do it in an authentic way to get the outcomes that we seek
- we should discuss how to build our "Little Red Book" - simple messages that outline our service and operational excellence program, and focus on fighting the competition, not fighting each other
- we should ask ourselves if we have a single minded focus like they did at SAS (to focus on the business traveler) so that most decisions can be made in the context of whether the outcome supports our focus, and if not, should be avoided or existing things eliminated to free up resources for our focus area
We had dinner and reception from 6pm to 8pm and then have time to study for the 3 case studies tomorrow. However, Alex and I also squeezed in a walk to Harvard Square, had a pint and an appetizer at one of the college bars, and met up with a couple of other folks - Mike Brady, the Kaiser Chief Technology Officer based in Oakland and someone becoming a good friend to both of us, and Thomas Risse, the Chief Financial Officer for the Hawaii Region.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sunday, February 27th
Alex and I flew on the plane together from Portland to Boston. After arriving and greeting some folks, we decided to walk to Harvard Square, across the river. There's a foot of snow on the ground, and it was 27 (feels like minus 27). We walked around for an hour or so, got Alex a knit cap to cover his head, and then came back. We had a reception from 6 to 7, and then we and several of our new friends decided to explore the tunnels under the campus that allow people to move from building to building without being outside. We went to the gym / workout facilities and signed up so we can use the facilities, and then found our way to a dorm with a pool table and big screens to watch the Oscars on one screen and the Miami / New York NBA game on another. When we got back, I hooked up Skype and called Heather and kids and checked in on their day. We went back out to our dorm's common area and stayed for a couple of hours, watched the rest of the Oscars, and studied a little. I finally called it a night at 12:00am.
Monday, February 28th
And then we begin!
Great first day! Opening remarks from Dr. Jack Cochran, the leader of the Kaiser Permanente Federation (the physicians group), focused on the situation that Kaiser is facing in the United States health care debate. He characterized the leadership challenge as requiring the best from everyone, every day. As a physician-led, professionally managed organization, everyone in a leadership position has an accountability to perform to the very best of our abilities.
My notes:
- our competitive advantages at Kaiser that will make us successful: integration, advanced technology systems, and the ability to receive prospective payments (think HMO model)
- why are we better than everyone else: we keep score on everything, we are transparent with what we score and measure, and we are a learning organization
- the "new questions" we should be asking: how many of our patient's problems can we solve today, how can we create complete systems that support the patient, and what is the best way to optimally monitor a condition our patient may have or need or support with
Amy Edmondson, Chair of the ELP and one of the featured lecturers, provided an overview of the entire program and helped to frame the expectations we should be building for ourselves and our participation. The support from the faculty, facilities, and support team is tremendous! Very excited to be here!
Our first task after the opening orientation was to pull our study group together. I was randomly selected to be a study leader for week 1. Our group has 8 members, diverse backgrounds, including physician, health plan, and medical operations leaders. We discussed the case studies supporting the leadership displayed by John F. Kennedy and his teams for the Bay of Pigs situation and the Cuban Missile Crisis. Everyone agreed that we have a good group, and we had a good discussion.
We went back to the lecture hall and had a dynamic discussion, led by Amy, about the case studies and the impressions and outcomes we formed. All of the notes and materials are organized in 3 sections: Key Issues and Ideas, Impact on My Leadership Point of View, and Actions to Implement at Work.
I'll spare all the Key Issues and Ideas (they are lost without the case study to read), and share the other two notes I collect. For this initial discussion, my conclusions:
Impact on My Leadership
- we need to set up team to provide input, rather than rely on the leader for being the "decider"
- we need to insist on more options to review before making a choice based on one or two options; as leaders, we have to pull that out of our groups
- we need to get better at taking more time to analyze alternatives that have been provided by people other than ourselves
- we need to watch for and eliminate situations where advocay is being used instead of inquiry / problem solving
Actions to Implement at Work
- take an opportunity to read "The First 90 Days", a book recommended by Chris Otham, to help leaders make an appropriate impact in their first 90 days, or the first 90 days for an existing leader if they want to make an impact even if they are already on board (the leader of our insurance company operations for all of the areas outside of California). Update - we received a copy, courtesy of Chris, on Wednesday.
- must clearly set expectations of my direct reports and the vision of success for their teams
- complete the following steps in a cycle: Assess, Discuss, Plan, Act
After lunch, we went back to the lecture hall and spent the afternoon discussion on Perspectives on Leadership with Scott Snook, an instructor and graduate of West Point. We used a case study about Scandanavian Airlines (SAS), and then discussed the differences in leadership success between Jan Carlson, the 36 year-old head of SAS hired in the early 80's to turn the company around in the midst of the numerous pressures on the airline industry in the early 80's and Frank Borman, the CEO of Eastern Airlines. We watched some videos and discussed the numerous learnings and differences between the two men and the companies they ran.
We then discussed Leadership Styles and what that is made up of as far as components of leadership are concerned. The intersection of Self Awareness (who we are), Situational Awareness (what happens around us), and Self Regulation (our ability to apply the right skills to the right situation) define our leadership style. A good excercise in discussing these attributes led to the following:
Impact on My Leadership
- with a huge capital investment, we must maximize its use, leading to me wonder why we aren't using all of the Sunnyside Medical Center (our hospital in Portland) space we built but haven't opened
- to question if we have any messages concerning cost cutting that mirror the very poor way Frank Borman spoke to employees at Eastern about their challenges when they were facing bankruptcy. He blamed the employees.
Actions to Implement at Work
- we need to get better at creating the conditions to increase the likelihood for success, reduce the opportunities to fail, and do it in an authentic way to get the outcomes that we seek
- we should discuss how to build our "Little Red Book" - simple messages that outline our service and operational excellence program, and focus on fighting the competition, not fighting each other
- we should ask ourselves if we have a single minded focus like they did at SAS (to focus on the business traveler) so that most decisions can be made in the context of whether the outcome supports our focus, and if not, should be avoided or existing things eliminated to free up resources for our focus area
We had dinner and reception from 6pm to 8pm and then have time to study for the 3 case studies tomorrow. However, Alex and I also squeezed in a walk to Harvard Square, had a pint and an appetizer at one of the college bars, and met up with a couple of other folks - Mike Brady, the Kaiser Chief Technology Officer based in Oakland and someone becoming a good friend to both of us, and Thomas Risse, the Chief Financial Officer for the Hawaii Region.
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