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Practicing what we Preach – Creating and Implementing an Executive Management System

Meghann Brock, MBA, LSSBB, Director of Strategic Initiatives at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center Santa Rosa, California, one of our Catalysis Healthcare Value Network members, shares below about their implementation of an Executive Management System.

Effective leadership is crucial for the success of any organization. Leaders must not only be skilled in deciding which systems to implement in their organization, but they must also be willing to examine and address their own leadership systems. At Kaiser Permanente Santa Rosa, we recognized the need for an Executive Management System to improve our leadership team’s infrastructure and oversight, and we are already experiencing positive results from employing this system. Continue reading →

How to Start Developing Leader Standard Work

Posted on by CATALYSIS

Leader standard work (LSW) has been a major topic of conversation throughout the Catalysis community. It helps leaders stay focused on what matters most. Dr. Mike Conroy, Chief Medical Officer for Sutter Medical Group in Sacramento, recently joined our podcast, The Lens, to share how he uses leader standard work. It provides, in his words, “the clarity of what I need to be doing as a leader.” So how can someone get started developing their own leader standard work? Below is his advice on both creating LSW and connecting it to a management system. Continue reading →

2022 Staff Reflections

Posted on by CATALYSIS

We at Catalysis value reflection about how our work impacts each other and how can we help contribute and provide better support as we navigate change. One exercise we have used to do this is to look at our work through the lens of an exercise some may know as rose, thorn and bud. These pieces of the plant, while independently cannot stand on their own, come together to grow into something beautiful and fragrant. In this way, the rose is symbolic of our work and reflection. We cannot grow or improve without our challenges and support of one another and the work in front of us. As we head into 2023, we thought it only fitting for a few of our area leaders to take this opportunity to pause, reflect and share their roses, thorns, and buds as a means of year-end and new year beginning reflections. If we don’t first plant the seeds for 2023, by pausing and reflecting, growth will never occur.

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Developing People Through Everyday Conversation

Colby Parrott, Director of Organizational Effectiveness from The Vancouver Clinic, one of our Catalysis Healthcare Value Network members, shares strategies below of how to effectively develop people and support employee retention.

Imagine if you only receive feedback on your work one time a year or if a one-to-one with your manager rarely happens. If these habits occur in your organization, what do you think your personal development journey will look like? How motivated might you be to stay?

Now with The Great Resignation, The State of Discontent, and Quiet Quitting upon us, there is a renewed focus on employee retention. While employees are re-evaluating what is important to them, employers are re-thinking their people strategies. One strategy of interest is in people development. Oftentimes, we associate performance management with traditional approaches that focus on retrospective evaluations of past performance. Or, performance management moves quickly towards punitive actions rather than first understanding the whole person. Continue reading →

Habit Changes for a Daily Management System

When you embark on the implementation of a daily management system, how you behave and how you approach your daily routines may need to change. As can be seen by anyone attempting a new routine or trying to change a habit, this is hard work and requires focus and discipline.  James Clear’s best-selling book Atomic Habits (Clear, J. 2018) delves into this topic.  Clear provides useful advice regarding how to change and/or create new habits.  Let’s see how his guidelines can help a leader as they begin to act differently as part of implementing the daily management system. Continue reading →

Learn, Share, Connect: Accelerating change during dynamic times

Learn, share, connect is a phrase that we at Catalysis commonly use to describe our work with the healthcare community. And “catalysis” is a process that accelerates change, which is our mission. So it seemed fitting that we expand upon these ideas for the theme of our upcoming Summit. Learn, share, connect: Accelerating change during dynamic times. But what does that really mean? Continue reading →

Some Assembly Required: Racing Bikes and Management Systems

Posted on by Karen Flom

Racing bikes are designed for maximum performance.  The design is intended to minimize aerodynamic drag, rolling resistance, and weight.  With an untrained eye, you may identify its parts:  tires, crank arm, pedals, handlebar stem, brakes, and shifters.  Looking at the parts may not give insight into the assembly of how to best optimize performance.  If assembled in the wrong way, the parts will not be able to function, let alone reach the desired level of high performance.  However, if you assemble a racing bike according to the intended design, you’ve got something perfectly fit to its purpose. Continue reading →

Insights from a Nurse Lean Leader

Posted on by CATALYSIS

The 2022 Lean Healthcare Transformation Summit featured the first ever Nurse Leader Panel bringing voices from those at the front line in Nursing leadership.  Throughout the interview-style conversation, panelists detailed how they used a management system to support their teams and manage through COVID and other nursing related crises, as well as advised attendees on how to improve quality and make processes easier for those on the front line. While discussion was thoughtful and detailed, we recognized that we were not able to answer all the questions submitted. Instead, we reach out to one of these nurse leaders to provide responses to some of these questions that had gone unanswered.  Included below are some thoughts from Stephanie Guareño, Senior Nurse Process Improvement Manager from the Mount Sinai Health System in New York.  Stephanie’s sound advice provides helpful insight for organizations as they navigate and establish relationships within nursing teams to move their transformation forward.  Continue reading →

If you want to go far, go together

Posted on by CATALYSIS

There is an African proverb, “If you want to go fast, go alone, but if you want to go far, go together.” Don Shilton, Catalysis Executive coach and former CEO of St. Mary’s Hospital in Kitchener in Ontario, Canada recently referenced this quote while sitting down to record an episode of our podcast, The Lens. Don used this quote to illustrate the value of a buddy system in leadership development. Below are some highlights of what Don shared on the why behind the buddy system and the important characteristics to look for in choosing and identifying a “buddy” in personal development. Continue reading →