On Best Practices

8 tips for start-ups

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Are you used to working in a large organization with a lot of support departments, established policies and procedures, and administrative systems? If so, you may complain about some of it as being bureaucratic,Landscape of wooden pathway with the changing environment too slow and burdensome. You may take a lot of it for granted. But it also helps you get your work done most days.

Before you think the grass is greener on the other side as the saying goes, remember that start-ups don’t have any of this day one. By the end of the first year they probably have the basics in place. As they grow and scale, they create the new systems and processes they need.

I am one of those people who worked my entire career in very large organizations. I’ve been on the start-up side with StarBridge Advisors now for a year and a half. We were fortunate to have basic back office functions available day one through a shared service agreement. But there has still been a lot of new to create.

Based on this new world for me, it’s probably no surprise that I have some lessons and tips to pass along. Here goes:

Create standard templates – Whether it’s administrative tools to reuse such as your master services agreement (MSA) and statement of work (SOW) or tools for client work such as interview forms and assessment outlines, you need to create and continually evolve them. It will make you more efficient and provide consistency for your team and your clients. Our Toolkit for Interim IT Leaders is one example of those tools.

Establish repeatable processes – That old saying “no need to re-invent the wheel” is applicable here. But first you need to create your “wheels” for different processes then regularly revisit them to ensure they are as streamlined as possible.

Share documents – Creating a document repository with good version control should be a first order of business for even the smallest of firms. After all, you need a place for all those templates and documented processes.

Don’t duplicate efforts – Be clear who is responsible for what and who owns what. Collaborate and get feedback from one another but don’t trip over each other. You have a small team and limited hours so every minute counts. Continue reading →

Facebook: cute pics, political organizing or privacy threat?

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Chances are you are on Facebook. More than 2 billion people around the world are active monthly users. I joined in 2006 because my brother said he wouldn’t send pictures of his first grandchild by email canstockphoto7547507 facebookanymore – I could see them on Facebook instead. I joined. And then I soon figured out it was a great way to keep in touch with family and friends around the country.

I have always been suspicious of apps that I could sign into through Facebook. I didn’t want uncontrolled data sharing. I did not answer the many Facebook quizzes; I had heard someone say that the answers were probably building a profile on you for who knows what purpose.

I sometimes check out a sponsored ad if the product really grabs my attention, but I rarely purchase it. It’s an online shopping/browsing thing like looking at catalogs that still come in the mail.

I am vocal about my politics in my original posts, my likes, comments and shares of other posts. And I have joined certain private groups that share my politics. So yes, somewhere there is a profile on me and my politics.

On Twitter, I try to maintain a professional presence as much as possible and leave politics for my Facebook circle instead. I have read so much about online harassment of women on Twitter, and we do have a President who appears to be the cyberbully-in-chief.

With the latest exposure that Cambridge Analytica used Facebook data on 50 million Americans to influence the 2016 election, I am questioning how we can protect our personal information yet continue to utilize social media platforms and all the good they bring: keeping families and friends in touch or accelerating social movements around important issues. Continue reading →

What keeps you up at night – the wrong question

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What do healthcare CIOs have in common as they start off 2018? And how can they get the additional bandwidth they need to achieve all their objectives?canstockphoto13538474 question

When I talk with CIOs. I want to understand their current priorities and challenges. Our team of advisors at StarBridge Advisors can be an extender for a CIO – partnering with them to accomplish key initiatives that they or their leadership team don’t have the time to do.

When I meet with CIOs that I don’t know or who serve organizations I’m not familiar with, I try to get as much background in advance as I can.  It’s easy to do these days. You look at the organization’s website, press releases, and online profiles of individuals and their career history. When I was a CIO, I remember when new vendors would call on me and they’d eerily seem to know a lot about me. I realize now that they were just doing their basic homework.

But as consultants, we don’t know until we talk with a CIO what their priorities and areas of need are.

I stay away from that standard question I heard so many times as a CIO – what keeps you up at night? I like to just sit down with a CIO and learn about their agenda and challenges. Through dialog we can mutually identify potential gaps that StarBridge Advisors might fill.

Based on recent conversations with several CIOs, there are common themes. Are they AI, machine learning, or blockchain? Continue reading →

Another year, another chance

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Whatever resolutions or goals, personal or professional, you had in 2017 – it’s time to revisit, revise, and recommit. The most common ones are go to the gym, eat healthy, lose weight, read more, watch less TV, canstockphoto24043991 (002) NYEspend more time with your family, get organized.

And then there are bigger, loftier goals. My daughter has a saying on the wall of her home office, “Do Something Great Today”. It means doing something bigger than herself.  For her, it is helping her company act more responsibly, to act more sustainably. It is a great motivator to live her values and find ways to have a greater impact.

She also has her personal mission statement on her office wall – “live a life that I’d want for my two daughters”. If she wants something for them, then she must do the same – like be healthy or be a good friend.

I was inspired by a Happy New Year post on LinkedIn from Vicki Davis, VP at Healthcare IT Leaders. She said, “No matter what life has for us, we should enjoy every minute of it. Celebrate the beginning of a new year the most, as it is a clean slate. Set positive goals and resolutions. Hang them where you can see them every hour of the new year. Choose your actions and words wisely this year so that you are remembered as a good human being, a great friend and a true guide when you end this year.”

We all are driven by different motivations. But fundamentally, I believe we all want to be good people and do good for others.

I look forward to another year of learning and making a difference through my client work and the non-profit organizations where I volunteer my time. With my colleagues at StarBridge Advisors, we work with organizations to advance healthcare by leveraging technology.

While I have yet to formulate any bigger than me goals for this year, I am recommitting to some basic resolutions. Continue reading →

2017 lessons from an entrepreneur

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If 2016 was a year of transition for me, then 2017 was the year of settling into the new. That is, if launching a new business and working with new clients can be called settling in. As 2018 looms, it’s time canstockphoto46064496 (002)to reflect on lessons from 2017.

2017 has been a year of learning what it takes to grow a business and gain the trust of clients. I covered this in the post, “One year anniversary, how are we doing?” It’s also been a year of learning how to spend more time with family – my retired husband, my daughters and grandkids. But that will have to wait for a future post.

My most important business lessons this year:

Do what you love and are good at – Yes, it’s important to have stretch goals and get out of your comfort zone. But if you truly love what you do, you are going to get better all the time. Our client work at StarBridge Advisors involves a range of IT consulting, interim management and leadership coaching. As an operations type person and change agent, I enjoy being an interim CIO. To work for a period with a new team and figure out how best to help them succeed is challenging and rewarding. And to work with someone as an executive coach as they learn about themselves, identify their development needs and goals, and work through their action plan is also very challenging and rewarding.

Relationships are everything – Whether it’s our clients or channel partners, developing and sustaining honest, open and trusting relationships is critical to success. Continue reading →

HIMSS Stage 7: what does it take?

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This week, I participated in another HIMSS Analytics Acute Care EMRAM Stage 7 review team as the CIO reviewer. During the opening presentations by the organization’s leadership, I leaned over to theHIMSS EMRAM 2018

full-time HIMSS reviewer to say, “They are hitting it out of the ballpark”. By the end of the day, our three-person review team had indeed reached that conclusion. The full-time reviewer said, “Some organizations barely clear the bar but this one far exceeded it.”

Only 6.1% of hospitals have achieved Stage 7.  What does it take?

On review day, the review team is presented with information that includes a system overview, including governance, clinical and business intelligence, health information exchange, and plans for disaster recovery and business continuity.

The review team has been given a 17-page document that includes checklists for each major clinical area.

Several case studies are presented that demonstrate how the organization has used the system to improve clinical care.

The organization prepares for this visit for months, developing the case studies and verifying they have met every specific criterion. The full-time reviewer spends time on the phone reviewing their readiness.

Achieving Stage 7 takes teamwork throughout the organization to fully leverage all aspects of the vendor’s product. It takes engagement and passion from executives and clinicians.

The organization we were reviewing implemented their EMR according to these guiding principles: Continue reading →

Working remote: self-sufficiency required, collaboration a plus

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I woke up Monday morning after a sleepless night with a text from my daughter, Ann, “do you have power?”. Only 10 miles from our house, her neighborhood had lost power and Internet access due to the Lunch Learn Graphicstorm while we were up-and-running. Ann works from home as Communications Manager for a national company, and was not interested in wasting a sick day sitting in the dark. So after dropping my granddaughters off at daycare, she set up shop in our dining room.

Except for being limited to just her laptop and not the two large extension monitors in her home office, she was ready for a productive day. A year ago, I would have thought she was crazy for needing two monitors, but she convinced me to get a second. There’s nothing like it for multi-tasking and having multiple windows open when you are working on a project.

We respected each other’s space and work. We had minimal conversation when I went to the kitchen for coffee. But in our two brief morning interactions, we casually discussed the common challenges of remote workers – one being the isolation. And I got some new ideas from her.

Half the dining room table was covered in my receipts as I was working on expense reports. I used to just hand the task over to my executive assistant, but in my new life, I do them myself. I dislike the task so much that I get way behind. Monday was the day to catch up. Continue reading →

Outside eyes can help

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A year ago, I was asked by a University CIO to participate in an External Advisory Committee on Information Technology. At that point, I was just finishing up the interim CIO engagement at University canstockphoto47150931Hospitals and launching a new HIT advisory firm, StarBridge Advisors. I asked the CIO “why me” and considered the time commitment. I said yes.

This week I attended the second half day in-person meeting of the committee. The first was a few days before I started the interim CIO engagement at Stony Brook Medicine in March.

These commitments to other organizations take time: time to review extensive materials in advance, travel and connecting flights, and in-person meetings.

But they are a win-win.

I learn and they learn. I am impressed with this CIO and his IT leadership team as I have gotten to know them. I am impressed with the support and engagement they have been able to garner from the Chancellor and Provost. I am impressed with my colleagues on the committee – a mix of university CIOs and IT business leaders. And I’m impressed with the ambitious, multi-year roadmap to replace their financial, HR and student administration systems with a new, integrated solution.

While my IT experience is in healthcare, I have worked in academic medical centers and collaborated with university IT teams. Financial and HR systems are universal across industries. But I have not gone this deep, before, into the unique systems of the higher education sector. I’m learning that student administration systems have some of the same complexities and challenges that electronic health records have in my world.

Of course, IT implementations regardless of industry and domain have many common components. Addressing a current state that is fragmented, self-developed, and highly customized with proven, integrated vendor solutions is not new to me. The many decisions involved in data conversions and archive strategies, the establishment of robust data governance, the inclusion of change management throughout the project – these are all components that we in IT know are fundamental to success. Continue reading →

One year anniversary, how are we doing?

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For the first birthdays of my four grandkids, there have been party hats and “smash” cakes. But what does a small team of entrepreneurs do on the first anniversary of founding their firm? They take stock and plan canstockphoto48088945for year two.

David Muntz, Russ Rudish and I launched StarBridge Advisors in October of 2016. So how does a health IT advisory firm measure success after year one?

Number of clients – We have already assisted 12 healthcare provider organizations with some repeat engagements and have national reach.

Revenue – Any first-year projections can be a crapshoot but you need to start somewhere. We may have been overly optimistic but we are well on our way with our client base and pipeline.

Size of our team – In addition to our three principals, we now have almost 20 advisors on our team available for interim management, leadership support and consulting. Their IT leadership experience includes serving as CIO, CTO, CISO, CMIO or CNIO in healthcare organizations.

Channel partners – We work closely with several larger consulting firms who offer services that we don’t. We partner with Healthcare IT Leaders, a leading staffing firm and Rudish Executive Search, which specializes in healthcare.  And we are working with a few start-up technology vendors who are bringing to market new and novel solutions for healthcare providers.

Referrals – Our principals combined have over 90 years of experience in the healthcare industry. Our relationships are a key component of growing a new business and getting known in the market.

Name and brand recognition – A year ago we had decided on a name and incorporated, but had yet to figure out our branding. That was some fun work at first; by January we launched our website and social media presence. Continue reading →

Thinking about relocating?

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“My spouse won’t move.” You may have heard this if you have ever hired someone who would need to relocate their family. You may have even heard it after you extended the offer. If it happens that late in thecanstockphoto49324635 process, it may be just an easy excuse because they weren’t going to accept the position anyway.

Whether your spouse and family are willing to relocate to a particular city is something that should be discussed and agreed on together very early in the process. Why waste everyone’s time if it’s not going to work.

Relocating is a big decision. I’ve done it several times. And each time, my husband and I discussed it early on. Was this a part of the country we were willing to live in? Was this city one that we’d be happy in? What did the housing market look like? These are just some of the considerations.

If you are early in your career, you probably want to figure out what kind of future opportunities are in that area, is it family friendly, are there good schools, and can you afford to buy a house. If you are later in your career, you may think of your next move in terms of where you might want to eventually retire or living closer to your grandkids.

Regardless of where you are in your career, there are some common considerations. Assuming it’s a job you really want and an organization you really want to work for, here is my advice on what to consider when relocating: Continue reading →