Session Information:

Supporting “DID” in Leadership: Diversity, Innovation, and Disruption

Diversity in the workplace is paramount to the success of any organization.  Being able to entertain various skill sets and mentor to consensus at times is difficult if not identified early and handled correctly.  Patience and skill will be paramount as we build out organizations of excellence spotlighting varying degrees of skills and innovations while balancing civility in the work environment.  Discussions will support these efforts in this segment.

• Being able to better appreciate and support the importance of a diverse  landscape for long term leadership success
• Combating inner demons to force change
• Recognizing differences in the workforce skill set is invaluable
• Rewarding the "DID"

Session Transcript:

You get a few practical and you have been successful what they have tried to do is really get practical information to everyone practical tips that you can really use in the great ones base camp whatever your actual profession is in health care touching it in any event what I want to talk about today the diversity issue that we are seeing in life the world is becoming boundless so we have people who work remote Malda parts the world we touch it in every day of our lives and to appreciate diversity as we become in various roles regardless of title we touch a life in the workplace and we have to be very sensitive to it and I wanted to really just help everyone understand a little bit the difference between diversity and what is termed innovation and disruption.

We're seeing diversity in the workplace now more than ever because particularly in health care were clapping best practices from other successful industries like in the banking industry has anyone ever gone to the bank machining that in the next a bill never right we need that same set of precision in health care to reduce medication errors and dispensing and things like that so as we see more and more people coming into healthcare.

We've got to appreciate differences I'm not saying well we're standards because we all will be at the same standards but it's the appreciation of being different and that's a hard concept for healthcare in particular because healthcare has been founded upon everyone assimilating the outliers the naysayers the squeaky wheels generally were were reprimanded versus rewarded hence our health care situation today because everybody had to create consensus and we had one outlier saying not that work.

We thought they were the squeaky wheel and we either will remove them who did them did something negative to them versus having them better reflect what they're trying to say and bring it forward to a group of people who really would perhaps benefit from it so diversity is is likeness and it's a positive it can be a negative but it's a positive and it's an assortment of various various entities skills every knows now innovation is a modernization and alteration thinking.

We always say thinking outside the box but in fact it's thinking what else innovative thoughts are not necessarily bad they're always good because see someone else think sort of like Jack Welsh 101 you don't want people around you agreeing with you you want someone around you who's going to challenge you to ensure that you exhausted the pack that you're about to take and I think health care is really seeing that now because we're seeing a lot of these startup companies these you know companies that have a great idea and now they're trying to infuse it into healthcare.

The bad part of that is it's not even flushed out and it's not being really positioned correctly and perhaps a little redundant and disruption disruption is a radical change in the industry of something it could be a strategy a disruption really makes you want to think and I think in healthcare we're going to see that more and more because I said it in a previous comment that we have so much technology so much.

Innovation so much approaches and at the same time we have to flush them out we have to ensure without jeopardizing progress ensure that what we infused into healthcare is really going to make a difference our budget and healthcare has a lot of reflections of why it is what it is particularly we're taking care of chronic diseases that you know once the horses out of the park best thing you can do is just keep it as a pastor versus it progressing so we've got a main team a person's a wellness as long as possible.

Here is employment by the number I really want everyone to sort of focus on it because as we see more and more people coming into healthcare there's a action that people have skill that we need and it could be a variety of skills but more importantly as we see the age shift there is between you know the baby boomer generation and people who no longer really need to retire.

We're gonna see a very diverse population we're becoming a nation of gender neutrality and hopefully age neutrality because as we all age together we have profession we have skills we have expertise --is that you know how many times have we heard someone say gee I don't want to retire in a minute I'll be bored I'm tired play golf every weekend but Monday through Sunday really so we're seeing a shift.

Number one our economy people have to increase their retirement because of Social Security and all those other issues financially they want to keep working but socially we find there's an awful lot to give back so as we become more sensitive in health care I'm not saying to to show preferential treatment to any age group so long as the skills are there we have to pay attention to what who is in front of us and I think that's going to be more sensitive you know all on the family used to be a popular show.

When I was a kid and it was really out there saying derogatory things but at that point it wasn't now some of those phrases and things are sensitive to our culture's because remember as we talked about the employment environment what's sensitive to me may not be perceived as sensitive to you so as you approached health care and we start seeing more different faces that are supplying it supporting it delivering it the appreciation of regardless of all of those factors.

If they have the skills that we need we need to culture nurture and really empower them to do what they're best at but here's just you know some example by the numbers of really the projected labor force in health care there is a dire need for experienced workers not just like the nurses who are invaluable to us at the bedside regardless of what any technology person says if Ivan or those with terminal cancer.

I don't want a robot or I don't want anyone else telling me I have six months to live I want to see the eyes of the person telling me that so I can feel that there's no replacement for the human being and the human touch and I think that's a very invaluable statement and with that we are seeing that people want life and the life expectancy because of health care and how we can keep individuals alive longer with intervention is increasing.

So we're seeing as I gave an example and you can see Jennifer Lopez 50 years old Tom Green he wants to play football till he's 45 Christie Brinkley looks hot in a bikini at 67 you've seen people who are  change agents these are empowerment that people could say if you can get to where you want to be it's stay healthy you have a reason to get back to society and that's where we're gonna start seeing health care because we have people who have skills that we still need because we cannot fill those voids and technology alone cannot do that if anyone says an electronic health record is going to replace someone to give them. 

You know their lab result we see people who have patient portal access. they don't want to go onto the computer they want the doctor and the nurse practitioner tying them their lab value we can't get constant but employment by the numbers we are going to see changes in many of the faces and a lot of the activity that we see and that's good because that's going to rev up people to start thinking
of what we should be doing in healthcare I really think that as we get over in this abundancy of all technology again it's the people factor and if you walk out of this room and think of the simple two little facets of appreciating someone who's sitting next to you and really understanding we can all learn from each other regardless of title any one can be a mentor to anyone. 

I said that you could be a mentor of what to do and a mentor of what not to do and you know there are times when we see that we always want to go to the highest level for someone to be our mentor my best mentors were people who were in the secretarial rules cleaning people who at night we're doing the cleaning and I would say gee I can't get in front of someone so and they would tell me their hours well he comes in a t 8:00 o'clock it's the appreciation of others and the people all of those skills the people skills need to come back into health care it's easy to justify penalizing clinicians and position.

It's so easy to judge people in rules but it's the openness and starting to visualize how different things can be and we are seeing in labor people are interested numbers by the Year 2024 the labor force will grow to about a hundred and sixty-four million people and that number includes 41 million people who will be at the age of 55 and older of whom about 13 million are expected to be age of 65 and older now that's very important because healthcare area has a shortage shortage of nurses people don't want to be doctors anymore because there's no reward in it and that's tragic.

What we're seeing is shortages everywhere so we have got to nurture and figure out people who are already good at something and infuse them in to the profession and that could be any edit form and any job description if you will of the profession but if you notice we have the Millennials now I would give you a perfect example we had a millennial who was a phenomenal coder he was 28 who's from MIT he was brilliant I mean brilliant and he coded he was made by 185,000 he lived in his car and he had a dog and absolutely we rely on him intently he walks in out of there I broke up with my girlfriend.

I'm quitting my job of putting in that second I meant back and you'll see me maybe in a year and he was gone we had a void so we had to figure out like okay how could we nurture our mistake was he should have mentored all the people around him to say this is how I'm thinking this is how I'm doing unfortunately most people were over 50 and they had like a cultural they couldn't understand each other and I think we got to get to the point where we rummel sets and we start opening our minds and we're going to see that more and more as we try to figure out healthcare and specifically but also other other environments where people may not be an exact fit but there's somebody that we can train and nurture.

The key to any successful minimal attrition rate is to want someone to stay in their role and be around the people that work with people leave their job because they can't stand the people they work with more than anything else if you they get a job because they want to know the environment they leave a job because I can't stand going to work today.

My stomach is crawling because of ABCD so we've got to as leaders as people start appreciating and opening her minds of what's in front of us culturally and all of those other facets and what I wanted to do is it is some 10 simple examples that you could bring back to base camp to say okay I could do this I could do this and to be a changing is very hard in particularly health care is extremely dogmatic people go in as a pharmacist.

We're the most dogmatic people profession of all of the healthcare I really believe it because very branded when I went into the boardroom I never met a chief pharmacy officer I met a chief nursing officer chief medical information officer I not to deste ever met a chief privacy officer so that's our problem as a profession because we I believe opening our minds now that we rely on technology oh I but here's some 10 simple examples that you can use and think about regardless of your title and regardless of your position I always said to people I always did the right thing regardless of the personal or social consequences because at the end of the day you have to sleep with yourself at the end of the day if you know when I worked at Hospice people always remember cheap don't know why his group Georgia shouldn't have fired him I should have you know kissed Ralph when I did all these personal emotional based things nose remembers ugh I love that car oh I should have
bought bigger house.

I should have it's the emotional bound binding force that really creates a difference in professions I'm not saying the love a touchy thing I'm saying the passionate respect for each other and we're going to need to see that as we see the different faces approaching so we've got to work with what we have at the end of the day we have to work with what we have and as leaders and all of us are leaders regards of the title because each of us has our own place here are some pearls that if you think of you and you bring them and infuse them into your process some of these are very difficult some of these you have to you know swallow and walk away.

I remember when I turned 40 my mother died of breast cancer and I used to wear a pink ribbon and I always used to lose the deal thing so what happened was I got a tattoo and then people would always say Oh Helen like yeah whatever you think because I didn't need to prove it to anybody I ain't just knew who I was and I say that to everybody as individuals than as human beings working in health care we bring something to it whether you're whether you're on the technical side the vendor side the patient side at the end of the day we're all consumers how would you like to feel.

If you were laying on that comp as our previous speaker said and you know people want to advise a job how are you and that could be you first one communicate and ensure your audience of what you are saying and delivering your messages black and white messages are very distinct and very simple say it like it is how many times have we gettin gotten into a meeting and they're dancing around the bush saying it's powerful because regardless of who the person is in front of you if the message is clear and succinct it will be understood.

Build awareness and communicate the importance of conscious and unconscious bias we all walk into it we have to admit it we all have a bias or something some are more aggressive than others but it's our human nature we are all biased towards something it's so easy to criticize and so hard to
appreciate and I think it's the simple innuendo it doesn't even have to be if you look you gotta start appreciating how you are perceived because remember it's not what you think you are it's what other people view you as you know your mother used to say like oh it's a first impression.

It's that first impression in our subconscious in our evolution as who we are today as human beings that created our survival so that that first glimpse really was our survival but it will be you're down on the workforce a simple little can be taken many ways to put my glasses on this is very clear II pay attention and embrace cultural differences including cultural holidays and physical comfort in the work environment you hire people for their skills some people have.

I don't have one whose word fetishes but but but things in there that they need I'm not saying unusual or things that are inappropriate or things that would be disrupted to others I remember going for a job interview in San Diego I was just finishing in Boston and I went in with a suit you know typical Boston look and I walk in and I had like three or four different interviews and I finally made the final cut there was me and someone else I go in there without it I got it it was really from him for a very big organization I walked in there everybody is in shorts thongs and has the dog next to the desk and hariom walk me with a wool suit obviously you know.

I love dogs and I should have wore something but I didn't know my culture didn't know what I was walking into and I blew it because I wasn't loved that culture so what I'm saying is everything you walkin forget your biases and walk in with an mind because it's very powerful offer diversity and culture awareness training.

If you're an environment and you see energy and I just say energy it doesn't have to be you don't have to be the leader of the shop it's the energy you don't need to carry it any further but as we appreciate and as we see I always say to my students I'm like close your eyes forget you're in Boston.

You're anywhere in the world figure out how you should behave because your intelligence will set you free the one thing that anyone can learn or give a gift to anyone in the world is an education because that's something you can work with your whole life regardless if you just have to start from scratch or you can prosper to where you want to be it's an education I'm not saying a book education as much as mentoring understanding educating and learning skills that will be invaluable to you as a person.

That you can then bring forward healthcare needs this innovation healthcare need is diverse thinking because what happened is everybody drank the kool-aid so one person was the Maverick for whatever reason here let's do it here and now we have this conglomerate and no one's any healthier than they were ten years ago with the doctor you say Joe you're overweight start exercising overweight we were young it wasn't pleasant but people would say you know you're fat start walking you know.

Inappropriate now but when it was four years ago people would say yeah you know what I am so we have to be sensitive not because things are changing that is where health care is going all the technology the world's not going to stop human nature from setting in and causing havoc make it easy for employees to mingle including mixing up teams with age race and personalities this is very
important.

We avoid slicks at all costs breakup clicks they're destructive they're hurtful and they are counter intuitive to innovative ideas it's like ganging up when you were kids that are beating up on you how did you feel right that's what happened in health care because we had maybe a room of 30 people in two vendors for instance for electronic health records, would go in and do their spiel and this says what did we do they put we put a big order and then it's like okay.

He's just like this we do we always squeeze and when we are to say lack of interoperability meaning if you wherever you are the data isn't miraculously cleaned and transferred and by the way these are on my own opinions so you take another advisement that this is coming from me but you should put that disclosure in there as well create timelines with explanations and sharing understanding by all of the endgame regardless of who the person is or what age group is a directive by March 31st at four o'clock close of business.

We will have the following and stick to it if there's extensions or some reasonable reason why you just make it simple and clear there's no there's no wiggle room the more you have as a timeline of decisions and the more for deadlines be consistent it's very powerful so as you come to a millennial as you come to someone who's 65 67 we have some consultants 74 that doesn't rock in it with all his Gantt charts.

We need people and it doesn't matter who's in front of you skills are what we need they're respectful they're considerate and they're professional and ethical those are the things you cannot compromise on anything else fair game we did have a an engineer who you know didn't take a bath for a month literally he was brilliant and I'm just saying as examples.

So everybody started and I simply walked up and said look we have a gene here just remember what hygiene stands for headed to the whole room of everyone no one who's so secluded out feel smart enough that he got it okay we don't need to we don't need to pigeonhole or shun anyone because we need these individuals pair individuals together synergistically accentuating encouraging.

The diverse skill sets in healthcare again we always do people again Jack Walsh 101 I want the people around me cool challenge my decision and tell me why I'm wrong and you feel you're right objectively creeped out the emotions. Creep out the energy tell me why your decision is better than money. 

I want people like that some of the best projects that we have we're done were four people saying wait a minute let me think about this and here's see why we should do it this way not pontification of getting down it's like really give me your two-minute elevator speech of why you're right or more right than I am draw in that it's very powerful it gains respect and you meet a lot of great people along the way if nothing else I want to be able to be in a supermarket and walk up to everybody and say hey how are you very powerful.

The human side of healthcare before making a decision listen to both sides of the argument regardless of title or age as we come into healthcare more and more even in not even healthcare in any business entity generally I found the first person who came as wheel was the culprit right but they got to you first more and more decisions have been made under the wrong circumstances when you have conflict in the work.

Environment listen to both sides and ironically sometimes you don't have to like the person that's a misconception and I didn't like this person well you don't you got to respect them if they're ethical in your book if they have a skill set I may not like you as a person you know make sure they didn't do anything illegal but you know we have this put that side that's independent of business.

Now people will argue with me on that topic I haven't worked with a lot of people who I would say as a jerk they weren't abusive they were just like I don't know I just don't like you you're just I don't know you didn't say thank you to the waitress like I don't know why I don't like you but I don't like you it should not affect your business decisions your business decisions to be the swimlane with which you make choices that benefit the common good.

That's the difference and having people you know I called the Jerry Springer effect sometimes you have people in their life and then it's like okay you know this is Jerry Springer stuff let's get back to the basics heavens every birth can be all the way from the top down you get past it you move through it and you basically you figure out what you need to do both whistle take timeout this is Jerry Springer.

I have no interest in this what's our decision everybody go back to the corners that's gonna be the work environment now we're not we don't want people all assimilating and drinking the kool-aid I want somebody to say no we need this way because the consequences down the street will be this I don't know something can't wait again baby did let's go to lunch no because five years from now the company will take because of that decision that Challenge.

So you always have to think downstream of your consequences not today not tomorrow not a year from now where do you want to be and now we say that to a lot of startups that I consult for it's like where do you want to be in 50 years that's where you want to end up so how do you get there make everyone feel special in their own way get the light factor front and center we see people who appreciate things in different lights based on their age group Millennials think differently than our senior population and tell me 55 and olders senior now in the terms.

That you see because you know 49 I got my AARP card which plans but you know what it's got eight incher so it's cheap but the practical senses we're seeing all this and we have to be light enough to be respected I'm not saying like us to the point of being our friends appreciate what we're trying to do and I think the more you're diverse to your team is diverse the more that you will get used to the fact that our culture is changing.

So what we used to see in healthcare we're no longer a lot of things are remote now a lot of things are tella but these are technology and we're seeing who's behind those screens so I think announce the appreciation of being different not being and again.

I stress you have the ethical have to be legal you have to be professional and all of those factors but outside to be able to really appreciate it an employees work remote have weekly FaceTime and routine recognition this is very important out because we have a lot of remote workers and we forget about them I thought all of Joe's losses on the conference table what we haven't talked to Joe in you know two weeks make weekly contact.

Hey how are you doing how are you doing what's going on very powerful because a lot of the health care is turning remote our help desks our contacts our expertise of our second opinions a lot of things are happening that way but if you have a remote employee pay attention to them as if they were in your backyard with that I want to say two statements.

That I always tell my students I don't you know really give lectures in the industry I work for three fortune companies successfully and there's two things that I always say and good people do nothing that or not you know the old saying you know.

It is in the subway see something say something you got to do it in a positive way because that is powerful and copying is the highest form of flattery at the end of the day if somebody's talking what you do say you're in the workforce and some you know Joan is already you know doing your hair your son highest form of flattery and mentoring is ageless.

Everyone can learn from everyone regardless of title and remember mentoring could be learning what to do and what not to do people always want to get a mentor like I want to be like you someday I used to get a mentor saying I need to be how what you are doing the skills and things like that which is far more powerful I've had a lot of the black guys of what I shouldn't have done or I shouldn't have you know broken the glass if you will but I couldn't sleep at night knowing they never hurt anyone and that's you can go home and say I never hurt anyone and you know conscience unless you're a sociopath you would say ok.

I did good today that's what you have to do and again I can't say it enough the joy I you know avoid the Jerry Springer drama Healthcare is having it we all have an industry of human nature but at the end of these little tricks and pearls can help me on the workforce it's very very powerful so that's that's our Artur talk and if you have any I know we have to go eat food but if you have any suggestions or anything.

About the Author

Helen Figge,
Chief Strategy Officer,
MedicaSoft

Helen is an experienced and passionate healthcare innovator and futurist with expertise in partnering with c-suite executives and peers supporting team development. She excels in strategic planning supporting global governance programs while building international collaborations, client loyalty programs and helping to formulate global best practice solution portfolios. She has served in three Fortune companies and non for profit organizations such as Health Information Management Systems Society (HIMSS). Additionally, she has supported, consulted and guided several start-up and stealth mode health IT companies to successful next steps. Helen has achieved HIMSS fellow status and certification. Helen has served on several national committees and Boards such as HIMSS, CHIME, The Sullivan Institute for Healthcare Innovation, WEDI, State University of New York’s Global Institute for Health and Human Rights and the School of Public Health supporting cybersecurity. Helen currently serves in several senior advisory roles including the Albany College of Pharmacy and Allied Health Sciences President’s Council, the National Health IT Collaborative for the Underserved, Inc. based in Washington, D.C., Board Member at Large and HIMSS National Liaison for the State of New York and past Chair, Health 2.0 Boston. Helen has secured service and career awards including recognition by Health 2.0 as a “Ten Year Industry Leader”, named four consecutive years, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019, as “Most Powerful Women in Healthcare IT” by Health Data Management and named in 2018 and 2019 on Becker’s prestigious “Women to Know in Healthcare IT” listing. She publishes and lectures extensively and regularly presents and authors on healthcare technology. She holds academic appointments, holds a Baccalaureate in Science, a Doctorate of Pharmacy, an MBA in healthcare administration, completed a drug information research fellowship, is a Certified Six Sigma Black Belt and Six Sigma Lean Sensei. Helen is a career coach, mentor and passionate about supporting the environment. She volunteers her time for several philanthropic organizations including the Alzheimer’s Association. In her spare time, Helen cultivates organizations interested in positioning product development and go to market strategies for innovative products supporting healthcare. Helen is Chief Strategy Officer for MedicaSoft based in Arlington, Va.