Building on Success
Collaborative Workarounds: Getting the Right Things Done
As someone who tries hard to diagnose and treat workarounds that prompt, “I need a new FTE to …,” I was intrigued by Russell Bishop’s book Workarounds That Work. I liked his insight, “Having more work than you can get done is actually welcome news…. you were hired to help. Not to get everything done, but [...]
Collaborative Leadership: A Review of Quicksilver
Quicksilver: A Revolutionary Way to Lead the Many and the Few- Beginning with You is the best book that I have read in decades. What makes it so good? The insights and the clear way in which they are communicated. The central tenet of this book is that catastrophes, such as global economic meltdowns and NASA tragedies, [...]
Tags: collaboration in healthcare, improving physician-hospital relationships, Kenneth H. Cohn MD, Larry Shook, Michael O'Brien, physician administrator communication, physician-administration relations, physician-hospital communication, physician-hospital relations, Quicksilver
Collaborative Recruitment
I am evolving in my role. Several years ago, I regarded myself as someone who brought data to stimulate conversations, more of a guide from the side than the sage on the stage. Lately, I see myself as a worker bee (hopefully not a drone) who collects pollen and disseminates it to those who find [...]
Tags: collaboration in healthcare, improving physician-hospital relationships, Kenneth H. Cohn MD, Methodist Health System, physician administrator communication, physician recruiting, physician retention, physician-administration relations, physician-hospital communication, physician-hospital relations
Collaborative Construction: Implications for Hospital-Physician Relations
Despite the stresses of moving, I am excited to buy a home that a builder built for himself. As several people in construction have told me, builders use their knowledge, experience, and leverage with their subcontractors to make sure that they are living in a home that meets and exceeds specifications. My grandfather, who sold commercial real [...]
Tags: collaboration in healthcare, healthcare reform, improving physician-hospital relationships, Kenneth H. Cohn MD, physician administrator communication, physician-administration relations, physician-hospital communication, physician-hospital relations
Collaborative Stress Management: A New Book Review
Those of you who read my first book, Better Communication for Better Care, know that stress and burnout figure prominently in my writing because, from my work in 40 states, we are experiencing a tidal wave of stress and burnout in healthcare workplaces. As Dr. Jonathon Halbesleben, the author of Managing Stress and Preventing Workplace [...]
Tags: collaboration in healthcare, improving physician-hospital relationships, Jonathon R. B. Halbesleben, Kenneth H. Cohn MD, Managing stress, physician administrator communication, physician-administration relations, physician-hospital communication, physician-hospital relations, preventing burnout
Collaborative Insight: Post 76
As I reflect on major insights that I have experienced over the past three decades, most have arisen from talking with women: In Nursing Collaboration, I celebrated Nikki who took me aside during a busy ED shift and told me, “Just because this is the 7th patient you have seen with a sprained ankle in the past [...]
Tags: collaboration in healthcare, Good to Great, improving physician-hospital relations, physician administrator communication, physician burnout, physician-hospital communication, physician-hospital relations, SEAK
Collaborative Listening: Post 70
A hospital CEO wrote me in April 2009: Thank you for the contact; however, at this time, I do not seem to have need of your expertise. What practices I don’t own already in the community don’t readily lend themselves to collaboration. They are staunch, stand-alone, small, independent practices that don’t want to change anything [...]
Tags: Brian Wong, collaboration in healthcare, improving physician-hospital relations, John G. Miller, physician administrator communication, physician-hospital communication, physician-hospital relations, Tom Atchison
Collaborative Steps
It’s time for some shameless self-promotion. Lee Milteer wrote that in difficult times, we must give ourselves permission to have some positive personal awards. The photo, which I received this week from the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE), shows me accepting the Dean Conley Award from Chris Van Gorder, President and CEO of Scripps Health and Chairman-Elect [...]
Tags: collaboration in healthcare, improving physician-hospital relations, Lee Milteer, Leonard Friedman, physician administrator communication, physician-hospital communication, physician-hospital relations, Practical strategies for engaging physicians, Tectonic plates, Thomas Allyn
Collaborative Competency
In “A Practicing Surgeon Dissects Issues in Physician-Hospital Relations,” I wrote that most physicians lack formal training in communication, negotiation, and conflict resolution. I owe the inspiration for this post to two people: 1) Catherine Henderson, a Graduate Medical Education Consultant with Partners in Medical Education, Inc. reminded me that a decade ago, the Accreditation Council for [...]
Tags: ACGME competencies, Catherine Henderson, collaboration in healthcare, Doris Quinn, improving physician-hospital relations, John Bingham, physician administrator communication, physician-hospital communication, physician-hospital relations, Ruben Azocar, The Healthcare Matrix
Collaborative Workout
During business school, I took a course on Organizational Change with Bill Joyce, one of the consultants who helped design the GE workout program to: realize tangible improvements within a short time reduce bureaucratic barriers that hinder decision making and implementation expose and overcome misalignment of incentives generate ideas at every level increase visibility improve [...]
