Living Well Journal

Leaders! Take Back Your Life! [Part 1]

 

“How much ‘LIFE’ do you have every week?”

I ask this question regularly of my executive coaching clients, most of whom are feeling overwhelmed and exhausted.  It’s a question that quickly cuts to the heart of the matter.

Seven days times 24 hours equals 168 hours in a week.  That’s ALL the time available to each of us to live our lives - - work, family, personal development, community service, spiritual devotion - - EVERYTHING must fit within that allotted time.

But wait, you don’t even have that much time! Eight hours of sleep leaves you with 112 hours a week! Moreover, surveys suggest the average American fritters away 12 hours a week on electronic devices and social media. That leaves 100 hours - - your life is lived in a container of only 100 hours a week.

 

So, you say you work 70+ hours a week, huh?  How’s that working for you?  For your family? For yourself as a person?  Can you keep that up for a successful and fulfilling career?  Not likely.

Leadership is harder than it looks to those who’ve never tried it.  It exacts a real toll in mental and emotional energy that must be methodically recharged to avoid burnout.

Effective leaders, like world-class athletes, create boundaries andritualsin their lives to marshal their attention anddiscretionary time.  Want to reclaim some of your 100 hours to really live your life?

Today’s blog is the first of a series of tips on how to set boundaries and key rituals to harvest more time.  Here’s the first one (you might want to sit down and brace yourself first):

Make your smart phone serve you, not vice versa- - Email. Your phone makes the boundary between personal versus professional time in your 100 hours a permeableone.  You like it that way when it lets you take care of personal and family tasks during the work day.  Not so much when work invades the weekend via texts, emails and calls.  My clients are shocked when I ask, “When do you ever turn off your phone?” 

Try setting a baby-step boundary like this: inform coworkers that you won’t reply to emails on the weekends, but you’re available by text or phone for emergencies.  If you choose to read and send emails to clear your inbox, fine, but that’s at your discretion.  You’ll rarely get bothered by text or call.  Better yet, as a leader you are setting the tone for the organization. You can help set the expectation and culture for your team.  The team looks to you for guidance on how to set healthy organizational norms. 

Your team needs you to be fully “recharged” and at your best.  Taking this step away will allow you some time to regain clarity and focus. And if you share this idea with your spouse or significant other, they will help you wean yourself from weekend email altogether!

Looking forward to continuing this conversation in upcoming blogs. Feel free to post comments below and let me know of some key boundaries you are setting to harvest more time.

Eric Norwood, FACHE, PCC, is President of CenterPoint Insights, a strategic business advisory firm to healthcare leaders, based in San Diego. He is also a member of the MEDI Leadership team of executive coaches, the nation’s largest leadership development firm dedicated exclusively to the healthcare industry.

© 2018 CenterPoint Insights

An Examined Life

"An unexamined life is not worth living."  Socrates 
"The unexamined life is destined to repeat itself."  Thomas a Kempis

 

Every leader I coach wants to grow, improve and "make a difference."  But few know how to escape the frenetic pace of busy-ness to realize that ambition, so life quickly slips through their fingers like sand.

PAYING ATTENTION is the key to an Examined Life.  Yet you and I live in a world of Attention Atrophy.

Have you noticed how your smart phone has shortened your attention span?  How do you feel when you see a Facebook post that requires your attention more than a moment?  [For that matter, how are you feeling at this moment about how long it'll take to digest this blog?]

When was the last time you sat down to spend an extended period of quiet, reflective, contemplative reading?  Did you capture your last "Ah-Ha" moment of clarity and insight somewhere?

 

"Growth is the synthesis of change and continuity,
and where there is no continuity there is no growth."  C. S. Lewis

 

I deal in the world of sustainable change in the lives of leaders.  Author Sibyl Towner in her blog An Examined Life offers a brilliant insight based upon C. S. Lewis' comment:  "Lasting change occurs in the context of continuity  -- the provision of regular events at regular times, with consistent expectations and consequences.  In the context of continuity, you can periodically introduce change in a way that the person has to reevaluate their life with God, themselves and others.  They can make new commitments and live out those change decisions in the context of continuity."

I try to make the case to leaders for slowing down in order to go fast.  Neuroscientific research brings fresh validation to an "old school" technique with the power to grow through the synthesis of change and continuity.  It's called Journaling.

 

"All of humanity's problems come
from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone."  Blaise Pacal

 

In the July 7, 2017 edition of the Harvard Business Review, Dan Ciampa makes the case that The More Senior Your Job Title, the More You Need to Keep a Journal.  "The best thinking comes from structured reflection - - and the best ways to do that is keeping a personal journal."  "There's strong evidence that replaying events in our brain is essential to learning.  While the brain records and holds what takes place in the moment, the learning from what one has gone through - - that is, determining what is important and what lessons should be learned - - happens after the fact during periods of quiet reflection."

"Writing it down brings a certain clarity that puts things in perspective," he continues. "Journals can also be the best way to think through big-bet decisions and test one's logic... Notes should be made as soon as possible after an event from which one wants to learn - - ideally the same day."

The old school benefits of handwritten journaling actually have a basis in neuroscience as well.  "Brain scans show that handwriting engages more sections of the brain than typing [and] it's easier to remember something once you've written it down on paper."  Handwriting is slower and less efficient than typing, and that is exactly the point: it allows your brain to ponder, chew upon and rephrase ideas into your own words.

My physician leader clients see how journaling parallels the concept of "lab notes" that every scientist uses to discover the hidden threads connecting numerous data points in the experimental lab.

The obstacles to this time-proven leadership tool really boil down to one thing: Do I believe the investment of a few minutes daily in structured, purposeful reflection will provide a harvest of wisdom from the experiences in my daily life?  The experience of the most effective leaders I know is Yes!

 

 

 

 

 

One Thing That Would Fix U.S. Healthcare

I couldn't agree more with the following quote.  The undeniable truth in healthcare is that no amount of medical intervention can counter-balance the damage Americans do to their own health...

In answer to the question: If you could solve one problem in healthcare tonight, what would it be?

Stephen Mansfield, PhD, president and CEO of Dallas-based Methodist Health System said:

"About two years ago, the National Research Council issued a report funded by the Institutes of Medicine and Health. It was a 16-nation longitudinal study to answer this question: Why do Americans spend more money per capita than the rest of the industrial world on healthcare, but our health metrics lag those of other countries?

The answer was not anything to do with what we reformed in healthcare, if you will. The fundamental answer was about the health status of Americans. Shockingly, what they discovered was that the U.S. is either the worst or very near the bottom for most public health measures. The U.S. health disadvantage spans many types of illness and injury.

When compared with the average of peer countries, Americans, as a group, fare worse in at least nine health areas:

1. Infant mortality and low birth weight


2. Injuries and homicides 


3. Adolescent pregnancy and sexually transmit¬ted infections 


4. HIV and AIDS 


5. Drug-related deaths 


6. Obesity and diabetes 


7. Heart disease 


8. Chronic lung disease


9. Disability

If I could fix one thing, it would be that Americans accept personal accountability for their individual health. Most of the nine conditions listed above are autogenic. I think it's a conscious decision that people need to stop smoking, eat less and exercise more. No amount of delivery system reform can offset the impact of our declining health status as Americans."

[Credit: Molly Gamble, Beckers Hospital Review, November 7, 2014]

Reduce Your Stress in 2 Minutes A Day

In my work with healthcare executives around the country, one very common experience for each and every one is stress - - a low-grade fever of pressure, hurry, and worry that robs them of their productivity, sleep and health.

I loved one executive's metaphor for his life:  "My life is like driving a dynamite truck 100 miles an hour, down a winding mountain road, with bad brakes!"

The solution I offer each one I meet is simply this: take time to stop, sit down, breathe and think.

That's why I offer this link to a blog by a former West Point grad and Microsoft exec who learned how to deal with the overwhelming stress in his life through simple techniques for slowing down and thinking.

Reduce Your Stress in 2 Minutes a Day

5 Ways to Drive Innovation in Healthcare

Innovation is an over-used - - and under-realized - - word in the world of healthcare.

Our sense of the gravity of the work we do pulls us to be careful, honoring the tried-and-truth methods.  As in all aspects of life, however, a strength that is overplayed becomes a weakness.  Hence the 15 year lag between the benchtop and the bedside for clinical innovations in healthcare.

A recent article in Beckers Hospital Review highlights the attributes most highly correlated among healthcare institutions and their leaders who are weaving real-time innovations into their daily work.  

5 Things the Most Innovative Health Systems Do Differently

Ideal Performance for Corporate Athletes

In my work with executives, one theme always come to the forefront early in our work together:  the need to slow down, think, and recover energy.  The following excerpts come from "The Making of a Corporate Athlete" by Loehr and Schwartz in The Harvard Business Review, January 2001.

"To bring mind, body and spirit to peak condition, executives need to learn what world-class athletes already know:  recovering energy is as important as expending it." 

"Extensive research in sports science has confirmed that the capacity to mobilize energy on demand is the foundation of Ideal Performance State (IPS).... effective energy management has two key components.  The first is the rhythmic movement between energy expenditure (stress) and energy renewal (recovery), which we term "oscillation."  In the living laboratory of sports, we learned that the real enemy of high performance is not stress, which, paradoxical as it may seem, is actually the stimulus for growth.  Rather, the problem is the absence of disciplined, intermittent recovery. Chronic stress without recovery depletes energy reserves, leads to burnout and breakdown, and ultimately undermines performance.  Rituals that promote oscillation - - rhythic stress and recovery -- are the the second component of high performance. Repeated regularly, these highly precise, consciously developed routines become automatic over time."

The recent achievement by Diana Nyad, swimming 103 miles from Cuba to Key West, was capped by an interview where she shared the secret to her accomplishment:  Swim until night time, then reset the goal to swim until dawn ... and repeat the cycle 3 times.  Even in an event designed to test the outer limits of physical exhaustion, the mind must recycle its energy to keep going. I highly recommend this article for anyone who wants to balance the stress of work with ideal performance in all aspects of their life.

Ready to Dump Your Health Insurance?

It is becoming increasingly apparent to me that the future of cash-based healthcare services is brighter than many people might think.

I know a man, a very successful entrepreneur, who got fed up with his $900+ monthly premium on his $10,000 deductible health plan for himself and his wife.  So he said, "I'm out."

He dropped his health plan and joined a Christian healthcare cooperative instead.  Because he lives a life free of substance abuse and unsafe lifestyles, he pays $300 a month as a donation to the co-op.  His donations pay for the healthcare expenses incurred by other co-op members.  It is not insurance (but the Accountable Care Act provides an exclusion for membership in such co-ops).

It sounded flakey to me until he told me what happened when he needed cervical spine surgery.  

The projected cost of the surgery was $45,000.  He negotiated with his preferred surgeon, the hospital and the anesthesiologist and got a total cash price of $14,000.  He had the surgery, submitted the bill to the co-op and they paid it.  And all he paid was his monthly $300 co-op donation - - no deductibe, no copay.

Now stop and think:  everyone was happy with this arrangement!  The hospital and the physicians voluntarily accepted this deal - - which can only mean it was a better deal than they would have gotten from Aetna.  And with no delay in payment, no denials, no EOBs, no collections efforts.  Just cash.

So, as the classic question goes, "What's wrong with this picture?"  The answer is, "Nothing!"

This insight was affirmed in a must-read Op-Ed article in today's Wall Street Journal entitled, "Jeffrey Singer:  The Man Who Was Treated for $17,000 Less."  If health plan premiums rise as precipitously as some are projecting under ObamaCare, a lot of people will be dumping their insurance like this!

If Airlines Worked Like Healthcare

As we struggle through the transformation from the Old to the New World of healthcare in the US, this is a (painfully) funny way to see ourselves from another perspective ... Laughter makes the heart healthy!

If Healthcare Worked Like Airlines

Overpaying for Healthcare? How do you know?

Transparency of pricing data is needed for consumers of healthcare to make rational choices.

Today that data is hard to come by.  But a bill being sponsored by Senators Charles Grasley (R-IA) and Ron Wyden (D-OR) proposes to publicly share the purchasing data of the nation's largest purchaser of healthcare:  Medicare.

Give the Public Access to the Medicare Database

"For no compelling reason, a commanding tool for trying to contain health care costs is lying unused. That sidelined powerhouse is the Medicare claims database, which holds a record of all payments from taxpayers to physicians and other providers for seniors’ health care."

"If bipartisan legislation now before the Senate becomes law, this information would be made available to all Americans through a free, searchable online database. It would instantly position Americans to secure more value for the $2.7 trillion being spent this year on health services. That’s because the publication of the Medicare data will become health care’s new financial baseline; the measure of what America’s largest and most powerful buyer of health care gets for nearly $600 billion a year."

Because US healthcare has been paid through intermediaries for the last 50 years, consumers have little sense of healthcare prices and there is virtually NO relationship remaining between cost and price in healthcare.  This isn't due to doctors and hospitals gouging the public, but simply rational people working within an irrational, Rube Goldberg-type system.

Some healthcare providers may oppose this bill.  But the only innovations that have actually WORKED to reduce healthcare spending have involved individual consumers having "skin in the game" and making rational economic choices for their own care.  To do so, consumers need price data.

The MEDPAR data base is the most complete database out there.  If it were opened to the public, there would be a surge in data-mining firms that would slice and dice it for easy consumer consumption. 

Medicare is already the baseline against which health plans and providers negotiate managed care contracts.  The fact is that hospitals and physicians lose money on Medicaid and often times on Medicare - - they make up those losses by negotiating better-than-Medicare rates on their commercial insurance contracts.  But all those are on the decline, inexorably headed for parity with Medicare. 

The uninsured/self-pay patient is paying the "rack rate" unless he negotiates a discount in exchange for cash payment -- typically 40% discounts are avaiable for prompt payment.  Having access to Medicare price data would introduce significant negotiating information for consumers.

We find ourselves in a transitional chasm between two worlds: the Old World of fee for service based healthcare paid through intermediaries and the brave New World of capitated, value based health care.  But it is not clear that the Old World will go away entirely with everyone buying insurance through exchanges (or defaulting to a single payer system.)  If individuals are to retain their ability to negotiate their own purchases for healthcare, the MEDPAR database could be a powerful tool in their hands.

Employed but not Engaged

A recent Gallup poll, The State of the American Workplace, reveals an important insight for leaders.

Employed, but not Engaged on the Job

Only 30% of workers are truly engaged in their work - - they are excited and invested in their work and the enterprise they work for.  Another 18%, however, are “actively disengaged” to the point they are undermining the work of others.

Here’s the insight for leaders:  geography, gender and job title have little effect on engagement, but the size of the work group does.  Smaller teams engender higher engagement.

Think of a nurse on an inpatient unit.  If she is assigned to a shift team that is not subject to being pulled to another unit, she will be more averse to calling-out:  she knows the individuals who are depending upon her and who will be carrying extra patients in her absence.  The personal sense of accountability and responsibility to real people makes a huge difference in one’s engagement on the job.

Empowering small, cohesive teams within a larger organization or department creates purpose and engagement.  People need the personal relationships of team mates to feel invested in their work.  Treating people as interchangeable cogs in a larger wheel, conversely, robs them of purpose and engagement.