Tag Archives: learning

A decade of blogging: 10 years of insights on healthcare, technology, and leadership

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This week marks 10 years since I became a blogger! With a focus on the intersection of healthcare and technology, a lot has happened in 10 years. For my regular readers, you know I cover much more than healthcare and technology including leadership, career advice, women’s issues, and yes, even politics. And I weave in personal stories at times.

When I started this blog in 2014, I was serving as the CIO at University of Michigan Hospitals and Health Centers. The social media coordinator in the Communications department encouraged me to start and helped set it up. I leaned on our IT chief of staff to help manage it. From the start, I assumed that I had multiple audiences to speak to – my IT staff (I encouraged them to subscribe but promised to continue my monthly CIO messages aimed at just them), our health system staff, health IT colleagues in the industry, and anyone else who was interested. My first blog was about our major Epic go live a few days later – “Three days and counting….”. It was the first of many practitioner based blogs over the years.

So, why blog? As I wrote in my “About” page:

“One of my passions is the development of the next generation of IT leaders, especially young people who are beginning their careers or who are beginning to take on leadership roles. I’ve been there: a young mother of two with a full-time management job while a part-time graduate student.  I remember the years when I was the only woman at the leadership table. With this weekly blog, I share perspectives on the critical issues facing Health Care IT, the organizational transformations that IT organizations face, the challenges of leadership, and the work we need to do together to keep the paths of opportunity open for all. What we do matters.”

When I left Michigan in early 2016 to start down a path of interim management, consulting and leadership coaching, I took over the blog myself and committed to continuing writing weekly. I had relevant topics each week as I served in four different organizations in interim IT leadership roles in subsequent years and launched StarBridge Advisors with colleagues in late 2016.

If you are a subscriber, you know that my weekly commitment has waned in the past year, and I publish less frequently. As I have reduced and refocused my work commitments, topic ideas come to me less frequently – mostly from events in the industry and beyond, articles, discussions with people I coach and mentor, and my regular contact with health IT leaders.

There have been times when I just can’t be silent on something and go more political. Continue reading →

From listener to host: conversations with health IT leaders

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I’ve been a fan of podcasts for several years and a regular consumer of many different ones. I’ve shared some of my favorites in past blog posts. My health IT favorites are the multiple shows that ThisWeekHealth offers.

While still an avid listener and consumer, I am also a regular contributor. Since 2022 I’ve been one of the Townhall show hosts for ThisWeekHealth. That means I’m committed to doing one interview a month with a health IT leader along with the 7 other hosts. New Townhall shows are aired every Tuesday and Thursday on the Conference Channel. I’ve had the pleasure of interviewing many current and former health IT leaders in the past year including:

We have had so much to cover in my two most recent interviews that my guests each agreed to schedule a part 2. Continue reading →

HIMSS as a networking event

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For those of you attending HIMSS23 in Chicago next week, it will be a mix of education, vendors, and networking. Let’s face it, while education and the exhibit hall are what our organizations are willing to invest in, networking is what we all look forward to each year. Seeing colleagues we’ve known for years, finally meeting in person people we’ve only known on zoom, and making new connections. Especially after a few years of virtual only conferences.

I won’t be attending this year. But that doesn’t stop me from giving some advice on the networking front.

Whether you are in transition and looking to make connections for your next opportunity or you are focused on learning from your peers and sharing success (and failure) stories from your own work, effective networking is critical to your work and your career.

Here’s some general networking advice:

Network extensions – Everyone you know knows a few more people who could potentially be helpful. Proactively and respectfully work your network.

Professionalism – Always present yourself as the consummate professional whether at work, online, or in business interactions after hours.

Two-way street – Figure out what you need from a connection and what you can offer to them.

Diligent follow-up – If you commit to provide a reference, make an introduction, or something else, be sure to do it in a timely manner.

Networking is one of the greatest values of the annual HIMSS conference and HIMSS provides many ways to find people with similar interests as yours. Here’s some slightly modified advice specific to HIMSS from previous years posts: Continue reading →

Leadership lessons at sea

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How do you handle or deal with unmet expectations or changes that are outside your control? Do you complain and spread negative energy or accept it and make the most of it? More importantly, as a leader, how do you stay calm, instill confidence, and take care of the people impacted?

My husband and I are just back from a 13-day Viking cruise called “In Search of the Northern Lights”. Did we see them? Yes, check. Did we see and do everything that was promised in the itinerary when we booked the cruise? No.

A few hours into our first night at sea the captain announced that there was a medical emergency onboard and that we were heading back to our port of origin, Bergen, Norway. Within an hour he announced that there would be a medical evacuation by helicopter instead. A sign that the guest’s medical situation had worsened. He and his team handled it effectively as they were trained to do.

For the rest of us, the next few days were sailing north of the Arctic Circle with stunning scenery plus tours and excursions on land in Alta and Tromso, learning more about Norway’s history, culture, social systems, the impact of climate change in the Arctic, and the life of indigenous Norwegians, the Sami people.

On day 7, the captain announced the bad news that would affect all of us. Due to a weather system with hurricane level winds, we were going to stay in our current port, Tromso, an extra day, skip the next two ports altogether (Narvik, Norway and Amsterdam), and have an extra day at sea once we could safely start to sail again. So, we were faced with three sailing days from Tromso heading straight to London where we were to disembark. On the first of the three sea days, the captain gave us more bad news. We weren’t surprised, we physically felt what was happening on the sea.

We had left Tromso when there was a break in the storm but ended up at sea in very high winds. We later learned that the winds were up to 60-70 miles an hour and the waves were up to 25-40 feet. That meant very slow going. Continue reading →

Lessons from the road

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This is not a consultant’s or salesperson’s road warrior set of lessons. But rather observations and a few life lessons after a two-day drive home from Florida to Massachusetts. While my husband napped during one of my driving shifts, I had plenty of quiet time to think and observe. Here goes on my lessons from the road:

  • Without the big picture and context, it’s easy to make a mistake. That’s what happened when going around Washington DC day two. I lacked context for the different options. I took an exit based on how I interpreted the signage that caused us to get rerouted and sit in the rush hour traffic we were trying to avoid.
  • You need to ask yourself if shortcuts are worth it and at what cost if you are unsure of the outcome. Near DC, I took the express lane with high tolls when I wasn’t sure if I could exit in time for the next highway that I was supposed to take. My goal was to avoid DC rush hour traffic as much as possible, so it seemed worth it.
  • Estimated hours and schedules for anything is just that, an estimate. You never know what obstacles will get in the way to change it. Watching the ETA on your navigation system can give hope until you run into heavy traffic, accidents, or construction work and the ETA starts bouncing around. We ran into so much of all this on the way down to Florida that we had two 15 hour driving days instead of what was expected to be closer to two 10-hour days.
  • Alerts are great for awareness and/or taking action but you never know the true impact until you get in the middle of the situation. Our map/navigation app gives crash and hazard alerts, whether they have been cleared yet or not, and the number of minutes delay they will cause. In most cases, the delay was far longer than the initial alert said it would be.
  • The higher you go in an organization, the more uncertainty you face requiring a steady hand and focus on the goal. On the way home, we decided to take a route that avoided the big Northeast cities and all their traffic even if it meant more miles. At one point driving through Pennsylvania, we had about 45 minutes at 1600 feet altitude with very heavy fog and near zero visibility. My husband’s steady hand on the wheel was reassuring.
  • Everyone you talk to will have an opinion or advice, but you must decide what is right for you. People who make this trip regularly are willing to start off in the middle of the night to avoid rush hour in a big city. That so didn’t sound like something we would do so we left early morning each day.
  • Even two people make a team and teamwork is critical. Friends who have done this drive talk about doing 5 hour driving shifts before taking a break. Not us. My husband and I would drive as long as we each were comfortable and switched drivers often making our pit stops as efficient as we could. Fortunately, our two furry team members were perfect in the back seat – happily sleeping in between each stop.
  • Technology has changed the way we live and travel – duh! I’m old enough to remember when we used a paper trip tik book from AAA for family vacations as a kid. Probably many of you are old enough to remember when we used to have spiral bound paper map books for a state or city with the tiniest of print. Now we rely on smart car navigation systems and apps on our iPhones.

We spent two relaxing weeks visiting friends at their condo overlooking the ocean. The balcony was an awesome office with a view for keeping up on email each day and doing some time sensitive work calls. Daily morning beach walks and afternoon pickleball, lovely sunsets and moonrises, a few museums and some shopping, and seeing a midnight space launch from a 35 miles distance down the coast. Our two dogs behaved and got along well with their two dogs. Good news – we’re invited back next year. Now that we’ve done the long drive that many northerners do in the winter months to spend time in sunny Florida, we know what it takes and learned a few travel and life lessons along the way.

Ban books? No, encourage young readers

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It’s that time of year – whatever holiday you celebrate during this Season of Gratitude there is likely some gift giving involved. You may have an obligatory attitude of just getting it done or (hopefully) a more positive giving attitude spending time selecting thoughtful and more personalized gifts. When I had leadership teams reporting to me, I would give them a book each year. It was often the hardest gift to buy – deciding on the perfect book that they would all like. Over the years, my books included some of the best titles on innovation, leadership, technology, public health and more.

Now my holiday gift book buying is all for younger people. In addition to the one big gift for each of my grandchildren, I get them a book. I will be starting two of them on the “National Geographic Kids Almanac 2023” this year – it is filled with information on animals, science, nature, technology, conservation, and more.  I bought “Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls: 100 Inspiring Young Changemakers” for one of the granddaughters at my daughter’s suggestion. I was delighted to get the suggestion as I have been patiently waiting for my granddaughters to be old enough so I could start buying some of the feminist books for girls I see in bookstores. And for my grandson who loves all sports and is learning to read, I’m getting a fun story he should like – “The Dog That Stole Football Plays”. The football player on the cover has a “Jets” jersey on and that happens to be the name of my grandson’s flag football team. Hoping he loves the story, and it encourages him to read more!

I have another book buying annual holiday tradition that continues. I buy a book for each of my grandnephews and grandnieces back home in Minneapolis where I’m from and where my siblings and their families all live. That group is older – mostly teenagers. So, we have progressed over the years from picture books when they were little to books focused on their interests including baseball, ballet, and opera during middle school years, to more scholarly and political books now that they are in high school. For example – “A Choice of Weapons” by Gordon Parks, “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas”, and “The 48 Laws of Power” by Robert Greene. I count on my three nieces to help me with recommendations and to understand their kids’ evolving interests. The grandnephew who wanted baseball books when he was younger is now into Nordic skiing and heavy metal with his own band. Yes, with my sister’s (their grandmother) help, I found a book he will like.

I can’t talk about nurturing young readers without mentioning the current banned books controversy that goes hand in hand with concerns about teaching critical race theory and talking about LGBTQ. Continue reading →

From an oversubscribed podcast fan

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If you’re a podcast listener like me, you probably have subscribed to a lot of different podcasts. You get a recommendation from a friend or colleague, somehow you hear about a new podcast on a topic of interest, so you search for it and subscribe. At least that’s what I do. It results in being way oversubscribed. Let’s be honest, you can only listen to so many different podcasts regularly whether on your commute, when you’re working out, or walking the dogs.

It’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of the This Week Health channels. I subscribe to all three – Newsroom, Community, and Conference. I am a regular listener of the Daily News shows on Newsroom to keep up and because they are nice and short – about 10-15 minutes each except for the Monday show. I listen to many of the Community Town Hall interviews and humbly note that I’m one of the hosts committed to doing one a month. My interviews so far this year have included John Glaser, Kisha Hawthorn, Lisa Stump, Scott MacLean, and Pamela Arora – leaders in our industry you probably recognize.

Since it’s conference season, Bill Russell and his team at This Week in Health have been doing the Interviews in Action series again – 10-15 minute interviews with many health IT leaders which can be found on the Community channel.

If you want to keep up and learn from others, check them out and encourage your team to listen as well. As in past years, Bill will be doing the end of year highlights shows – they are a great way to introduce others to these podcasts. There will even be one with all the Town Hall hosts covering highlights from our interviews this year. And as Bill has done every year for the past 5 years (congrats Bill on an awesome 5 years!!), we can count on tweaks to current channels and maybe some new programs in the coming year.

Back to the oversubscribed challenge and a bit of a diversion. Continue reading →

CHIME Fall Forum 2022 – it’s a wrap!

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This week was my first in-person conference with CIO colleagues since Spring 2019. The CHIME Fall Forum is an annual gathering of health IT leaders, and this year is the 30th Anniversary of CHIME. Prior to the pandemic, I’ve attended CHIME fall forums almost every year since 2000 when I first joined CHIME. It was so good to again see friends and colleagues I’ve known for decades and finally meet in-person new colleagues and connections I’ve only known via Zoom for the past few years. There is nothing quite like in-person events for networking and informal conversations with colleagues. Kudos to the entire CHIME staff and board who did an excellent job once again!

From the DEI retreat on Monday to the League of Women’s luncheon and track sessions on Tuesday, to the somewhat creepy humanoid robot interview that CHIME CEO Russ Branzell so patiently did as the keynote on Tuesday, to the insightful “CHIME 30th Anniversary – Past, Present, Future” keynote panel on Wednesday, to the inspiring keynote from Carey Lohrenz on Thursday, and all the track sessions and receptions in between….it was a great few days in San Antonio.

I’ve been involved in the CHIME DEI Committee for the past two years. The panels at the DEI Retreat on Techquity and Next-Gen Leadership generated lively discussion amongst the diverse group of attendees. Kudos to Sheree McFarland, CIO West Florida at HCA, and Cletis Earle, SVP and CIO at Penn State Health, who co-chair the DEI Committee with support from the CHIME staff.

The CHIME League of Women track sessions covered a range of topics aimed at encouraging women to lean into leadership roles and take career risks. These were standing room only sessions – a diverse, multi-generation group of women attended with many male allies. Personal journeys and challenges faced were openly shared by the panelists. Kudos to Sheree McFarland and Sarah Richardson, SVP & Chief Digital and Information Officer at Tivity Health, for their leadership to the League of Women.

Past board chairs in attendance took the stage at the opening session to be recognized.  I am grateful for their contributions and leadership over the years. 25 of the past board chairs over CHIME’s first 30 years are white men. Seeing them on stage together was a stark contrast to the diverse group at the DEI retreat and the League of Women’s sessions. Change is happening and health IT leaders are becoming a more diverse and representative group. Continue reading →

A post vacation teaser for future posts

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I am just back from a long vacation in Europe. Probably too long away from home but it was wonderful overall. I learned a lot, saw a lot, took hundreds of pix that I now must organize, kept in touch with family back home, and made some new friends.

And I have a lot of takeaways for future blog posts such as:

  • smart technology in everyday life (Europeans seem ahead of us)
  • importance of infrastructure (can’t say enough positives about the train system in Europe)
  • value of language translation tools (Google translate is a great tool for basics)
  • learning value of travel (part of trip was Road Scholar cruise with professors lecturing onboard and local experts on tours)
  • email management (the art of monitoring while on vacation)
  • and yes, some political commentary (Europe knows what it takes to fight fascists and Nazis)

I will be writing some of these posts in the weeks to come as I am still catching up and getting back into work and routines.

I leave you with a quote we saw on a small riverboat in Narbonne, France (which looked like a wonderful place for retirement if you didn’t have family and grandkids you wanted to see often). I used the Google translate app to get this: “If you think adventure is dangerous, try routine, it’s deadly!”

Related Posts: 

Vacation season reminders for a more balanced life

4 tips when you must work on vacation

Generational differences at work

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A recent Becker’s article got me thinking about generational differences at work. Scott Becker wrote the article, “Working with younger generations – 7 thoughts”, focusing on millennials and Gen-Z. He acknowledged that if you label entire generations with broad cliches you may not understand any real differences or similarities between generations. He noted that the state of the economy when you graduate can influence your view on work and career the rest of your life. He goes on to comment on work-life balance, social consciousness, job hopping, tech savviness, and mental health. I encourage you to check out the article.

I am passionate about developing next generation leaders and spend a lot of time informally mentoring and advising people as well as providing both leadership and career coaching services. As a baby boomer, the “next generation” for me includes Gen X (born 1965-1980), Millennials (born 1981-1996), and Gen Z (born 1997-2012). And then there is that micro-generation called Xennials born in the late 1970s or early 1980s. That is where my two daughters and their husbands fall – I can see how they aren’t quite Gen X or Millennials when I think about the general labels. Xennials are described as having an analog childhood and a digital young adulthood.

I have decades of experience to draw on in leading and teaching others, but I also consider myself a continual learner and learn every day from the generations coming behind me. The book “Wisdom @ Work, The Making of a Modern Elder” by Chip Conley is an excellent resource. As the description says, “The secret to thriving as a midlife worker: learning to marry wisdom and experience with curiosity, a beginner’s mind, and a willingness to evolve, all hallmarks of the “Modern Elder.” Continue reading →