Your people problems are actually systems problems

Thank you, Mick. Appreciate it.

Well, I've been in I've been adjacent to the healthcare industry for over 35 years. I haven't worked inside healthcare organizations. I'm not a clinician. I'm not an administrator inside a hospital or a medical group, but my background started for a long time, many years, in healthcare marketing. And I led two healthcare marketing agencies in the US, one of which I co-founded 20 years ago. And then I transitioned after a period of of doing that to doing more business consulting generally mostly again for the healthcare industry in different areas of of the work that's being done inside of healthcare that includes Workplace culture, it includes patient experience, it includes relationships between providers and their patients, it includes marketing and communications, a lot of different related topics. And the way integrate came about was I got involved with a group called a loving organization consortium. and this was a group that was developed by another consultant that I know, and it is developed around how people work in healthcare and how the environment in which they work affects their performance, affects their mental health, their physical health, and their ability to to do their best work. And in that process, the founder, his name is Apurv Gupta, Dr. Gupta, had developed a framework that I found very attractive. It's called the Integrate Framework. And basically, what it does is it looks at organizations through what we call human systems, meaning not just traditional structured business systems, but how different systems in a business affect the people who work in the business. So I thought that was really fascinating and I was drawn to it. And there were several other people who likewise felt it was a good way to focus on solving problems in initially in healthcare, it's really applicable in a lot of different industries in terms of workplace environment and the culture and the The behaviors of people who work in those businesses affected by the environment that they work in. So we decided we wanted to help organizations who are having some of those challenges with people in their organizations. And it's a common challenge to understand how to look for the underlying reasons that those challenges exist. address them to hopefully improve them.

Well, that's a good question because when you ask leaders in organizations how they think their culture is, most of them will say it's great. And then the next question becomes: well, how do you know that? And how do you measure it? Because you really can't measure your culture by simply asking the employees to give you feedback. If they don't feel that it's a safe environment in which to give honest feedback. So a lot of organizations try to measure culture on the basis of employee engagement and however they define people engaging, whether it's filling out surveys or participating in committees or in other groups inside the organization, teams, things of that nature. But really, the way that you measure culture is in behaviors. How are people behaving in the organization? That tells you really what you need to know about culture. Whether those are the leaders or the rank and file employees or the middle managers, however, you're looking at that. So when we're asked to come in and help with that, the first thing we do is develop an assessment. That is based on measuring behaviors. And certainly it involves creating an environment in which people in the organization feel safe about sharing honest feedback. And then it also looks to other indicators of how their behaviors are affecting the customer experience, or in the case of healthcare, the patient experience, and how it's affecting employee. satisfaction, employee retention, burnout, whatever the issues are that might be indic behavior behavioral indicators of of cultural challenges. So we're we're not coming in to render our opinion on a business's culture. We're coming in to measure it in a way that is more objective and that is based on behaviors of. people in the organization.

Well, we look at what what I was referring to earlier about the integrate framework, which is why we're calling our organization Integrate Consulting Partners. It's really a way of looking at an organization through different lenses in terms of how systems are are viewed. So for that particular framework, one of the One of the things we look at is leadership, and what are the indicators around the leaders and the the feedback from the leaders and feedback from others about the leaders, and the way leadership comes across in the organization, how top-down the decisions are, how much feedback from the bottom-up is factored into leadership decisions or not. So leadership is one lens we look at. The teams is another lens we look at in terms of how the work is organized into teams and how teams are organized and how they function and how they interact both inside a team as well as from team to team interaction. So we look at that because all of these are human systems, they're involving people. Doing work together or individually. So we look at those. We look at the information and communication systems and how how is information shared and how is it communicated? And what is the environment for honest communication, or how much communication has to be interpreted because it's being presented in a politically correct way, but maybe a way that is not. Fully embraced as honest. So we look at those kinds of issues. We look at the culture generally. How do the people in the organization evaluate the culture? How do they feel about it? That doesn't mean that is the answer to the culture question, but it does give us some clues because you're getting feedback. And the feedback often differs significantly between The higher levels in the organization and more the field level of the organization. So we look at culture again through those kinds of assessments that I was talking about and this kind of process to get a more behavioral view of culture. We also look at management, management processes, management systems, management reporting models. We look at policy. and how policies are set inside an organization. We look at workflows and how work is done and how it's organized and how the work either how the work impacts the people doing the work, and whether it's it's an environment in which people can perform at their best. Because you have a lot of environments now where there are fewer people being asked to do more. And so, how are the workflows structured to allow people to fulfill on that expectation if that's the expectation that's being put on them? So we look at that. We look at the people that are being served by the organization and the community in which the organization functions. And that could be the public community. It can also be in the case of healthcare, for example, the patient community, the patients they serve. or any customer group that they serve. And we look at the the systems in terms of how people inside the organization do their work and and report on their work and feel that they can share feedback when the challenges exist and they're trying to get things to improve. So that's a pretty robust way of of looking at an assessment, but it's different because it's all human systems. it's different than a lot of times how businesses think about systems.

Well, I guess the the issue of how easy it is depends on how challenging the the environment is that you're that you're coming into. but what we do is we help first, as a consulting group, we help them look at their challenges in a a way that provides them perhaps more honest clarity about what's really going on. So Were you know that integrate framework is part diagnostic to help identify where the problems may be, and then it's part remedial, if you will, in terms of how do you work those problems once you've identified them. So sometimes it involves giving them a playbook on how to look at their systems, where the challenges are, and where Could the systems support the people doing the work more effectively and help them make decisions or at least have a basis to make decisions about changes that they want may want to make in the way of workflows or in the way of communications internally, or in the way of leadership style, or in the way that you know, physical and psychological safety? of the employees is assured. so we'll give them we'll give them as clear a roadmap as we can for how they can evaluate their systems. We can help them evaluate their systems as well in terms of what to do, give them really a very prescriptive approach to at least consider ultimately they're going to decide what they do or don't do, but we'll give them a prescriptive guideline to follow. And then unlike a lot of consulting groups where you give them the guidelines, you give them the roadmap, you give them the playbook, and then you, you know, let them do their thing and you tell them, well, we're here for you if you have questions. We we get in there if they want to invite us in. And we work elbow to elbow with the teams and the leaders in the organization to help them implement those those changes that they may think they want to make, but feel that they do need help with because they're also very busy doing their day-to-day jobs and they they only have a certain amount of bandwidth. And sometimes they need that type of side-by-side support. And we're more than willing to roll up our sleeves and And participate in that.

Yeah, that's a really good question. I guess for me, it's what I just spoke about in terms of working elbow to elbow with the organizations that you consult with. Because like many traditional consultants, earlier in my consulting career, I was focused on helping organizations with their strategy and with the structuring of of the game plan, if you will. But I wasn't typically involved, or at least not very much involved, with the actual implementation of the playbook or the roadmap. And I found that over time, when when as a consultant you give them what you feel is the correct prescription and things don't improve, you have to start asking, why is that? Is there something that you could do or could have done as the consultant to help them execute more effectively? And you know, I I started to come around to the realization that I need to help practice what I preach and help them do the do the work that I'm recommending that they do. It doesn't mean I'm I'm doing that for them, but I'm helping them through that process as a guide, as a partner.

and and that that's been a a significant shift over, I guess, the past five or or so years since COVID really, since we were coming out of COVID for sure, in terms of how you how you help organizations actually have a positive impact with your recommendations as a consultant.

Well, it's also the organizations need more hands on help now because many of them are working with fewer people. Like I said, a fewer people expected to do more. That includes the leaders a as well as the as the you know field level employees. And so how's the work going to get done? That's always something that we ask. It's not just Here's what we think you need to do, and here's why we think you need to do that. we go to the next issue of how are you going to do that? and where where are you concerned that you may have challenges in even if you agree with our recommendations, how are you gonna execute? And where might you need help with that? And is there a role we can play to help you be successful with?

It's a it's a great question. And whatever my answer is today might be different six months from now or even sooner than that because of how quickly AI is evolving. in the healthcare industry specifically, AI solutions are starting to be adopted, both in a a clerical or administrative capacity, as well as in some cases in a clinical capacity. And there's a lot of Cautious application of it or concerns about whether, number one, it's gonna work the way it's supposed to work. Who's going to oversee that and be able to judge if it's working properly? It's not just a, well, we'll have IT monitor it. you know, there you really need a governance strategy for how AI is going to be. Selected, adopted, integrated into the organization, monitored, you know, the regul particularly in healthcare, the regulatory and compliance considerations, the the human safety issues that go along with it, and of course, the big elephant in the room, which is people being concerned that the increased use of AI in the organization is going to be a job security threat. or that somehow the the use of AI is going to usurp my value, if not my entire job. So when you are looking at that, that's that's a that's an evaluation of AI, not just in terms of its functional efficiency or effectiveness, but also in terms of the the environment in which you can apply it safely, safely for in in in in healthcare for patient care, if it's clinical, safely for employees, in terms of job security, in terms of support rather than replacement, and in terms of how you evaluate whether what you thought was going to be helpful as an AI solution. is in fact helpful? Or is it creating more work for the people that it's supposed to support and allow to have more time? So all of those issues are very relevant to to our work and it's part of our it's part of our assessment when we're looking at their technology and their their governance strategies.

Yeah, it it's still me. If if it if I was AI, I'd probably look a lot better. My hair would be a different color. I'd just be you know, generally more appealing visually, but what you see is what you get.

Well, you certainly should go to our website, which is icp.consulting. That's Integrate Consulting Partners, iCP.consulting. you could also send me an email to Lonnie.hirsch at icp.consulting if you want to contact me directly. And happy to have a conversation with anyone who's interested in any of these topics.

Your what you think of as your people problems are usually systems problems that are affecting your people and their performance and their satisfaction and their sense of their ability to do their best work. So if you think it's a people problem and it's not just one person, start looking at your systems in a different way.

Thank you, Mick. I enjoyed it.