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leigh.householder

Inspired By TedMed: How 14 Leaders Would Change Healthcare

Published by Leigh Householder on October 27, 2011.

This week is the annual TEDMED conference in San Diego. It’s where the world’s most creative minds meet healthcare’s most innovative science. Where public health meets personal care, and where today’s theory meets tomorrow’s technologies.

We’ve been watching the tweets and snippets from the floor of the conference and they’re inspiring a lot of great conversations around our hallways for how we could fundamentally improve healthcare – what are the barriers to take down, what has great promise, and what could we rethink – and recreate – to bring better health to more people:

“When we think ‘patient,’ we picture a person in a gown being shepherded through the system by healthcare authority figures. Newsflash: Patients are consumers–more demanding, more informed, more unified than ever before. Today, the physician’s opinion is only part of the decision. With less authority, we must find new ways to influence.” – Marcee Nelson, The Well

“Inspire and reward wellness through people’s wallets: have insurance companies create quantified wellness structures that deduct cost from premiums. Clearly outline attainable goals and associate a cost deduction with each accomplishment– i.e., hit the gym three days a week, $x off; no smoking $x off; BMI in check, $x off; plant based diet, $x off; and so on. Enroll in the program and get validation/documentation through annual check-ups at the MD. Maybe this way we can start having positive conversations with physicians and payers instead of arguments, trepidation, confusion and avoidance. Better behavior. Better healthcare.” – Christina Blosser, Accounts

“I see a vicious circle that involves healthcare, co-morbidity, and digital behavior. As pressure for productivity on healthcare providers increases, the result is less time to provide ‘whole body assessments.’ All while non-infectious diseases (such as diabetes, hypertension, etc.) continue to rise and are now coupled with depression, obesity, and anxiety. The result is an under served patient. In addition, most healthcare materials provided to healthcare professionals are wordy and time consuming and do not reflect the manner in which people consume information in a digital age.” – Leah McDougald, Engagement

“Make it mandatory for food/beverage industry to make/market their retail products following stricter nutritional guidelines (i.e. must not exceed 500 mg of sodium, 10 g of sugar, 20 g of carbs). What if we could dedicate more than one aisle to health/organic foods in grocery stores like Kroger, Giant Eagle?  Model all grocery stores to be more like Whole Foods, Trader Joes.” – Dawn Marinacci, Communications

“Focus more attention to healthy food education and access. Something like fair balance on food packaging. I know, it seems a bit socialist but right now the packaged food industry is out of control.” – Sean Cowan, Digital

“Adopt a European approach by offering and mandating 8 weeks of vacation time annually to all full-time employees, which will help to relieve stress, foster better well-being and overall happiness, and lead to a more energized and more positive society. Make cigarettes illegal. Provide a “well-being credit” on your annual tax return for having an annual check-up and receive additional credits for staying within all specified laboratory ranges for diabetes, hypertension, and hypercholesterolemia.” – Kevin Stone, Accounts

“Coin operated elevators, escalators, and moving walkways (with passes for those in need of assistance).” – Joe Daley, Leadership

“A simple change that we can make to dramatically improve the health of our nation is to shift the nation’s paradigm in regards to healthy eating. One example is to develop more “farm to dinner table” support initiatives to provide affordable natural/organic alternatives to fast food. Food is the new pharma!”  – Jude Divierte, Innovation

“Expanding health care options while reducing the red tape generated by payer groups. Some HMOs/PPOs do recognize the benefits of traditional eastern medicine, but aren’t structured to accommodate their holistic, long-term approach. And ease up on denying newer treatments and calling them out as “unproven” – if the doctor feels it could benefit their patient (especially when it comes to life-threatening illnesses) then they should be able to move forward with it.” – Alex Bragg, Planning

“I think one of the biggest challenges facing healthcare will be reducing cost. Hospitals, physicians, and other providers will have to squeeze every penny out of their operations, including renegotiating contracts with suppliers on everything from food to medical devices and pharmaceuticals. This will mean increasing reimbursement pressure, with physician practice models beginning to adapt and Pharma will be more intensely restricted in its marketing activities.” – Christine Crooks, The Well

“Incentivize good health through lower taxes, for example; the rationale being that healthier citizens are less of a burden to the resources of the community and so should be rewarded for the decisions they are making that not only help them but also the health of the greater good.” – Todd Hodgman, Strategy

“Our disengaging use of language. For example, patient, compliance, adherence. Tape adheres; prisoners comply. From the moment a person is diagnosed with a chronic illness, healers and the people they treat must persevere: steady persistence to create a state of well-being, especially in spite of stigma, barriers, or low health literacy.”         – Kathryn Bernish-Fisher, Engagement

“I would incorporate shorter work weeks to allow a third day off. This country’s current state of 50, 60, 70 hour work weeks is coming at a price. We spend less and less time with our families in order to put in our time at work and make our money. Life is too short to have work be the central part of our lives. Our friends and families are ultimately what we’d all love to have more of. I believe this re-shifting of priorities will make us and our children healthier…physically and emotionally.” – Cheryl Foley, Medical Director

“The labeling we’re putting on processed foods is good – more transparency from the companies and an incredibly simplified way for consumers to weigh their options. I hold a processed food next to a natural food and can easily answer the question: is it worth it?” – Ben Harben, Innovation

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kearly

Hey, do I know you?

Published by Kristan Early on June 9, 2010.

As a creative person, letting others experience me through my creative expressions is a turn-on.  I mean that in the most Rated G way imaginable.  But it’s true. With every idea, ad, direct mail piece, or television commercial there’s a little bit of me right there, consciously trying to connect to you.

Are you doing the same with your brand?

It’s funny, but how many times during the course of your day do you spend thinking about how you will handle a certain situation, a conversation, an encounter?

What if he says this? What if they do that? What if med legal says no?

We really do think about it and even rehearse how we’ll present ourselves to get what we ultimately want.

What if you put the same amount of thought towards how your company and your products behave with your customers – who happen to be human?  Well, I think you might  get lucky.

I know he likes this…

They really respond when I do this…

I know what she likes, so….

Yes, it is a seduction. And if you don’t realize it, then let’s face it, you’ll be sitting alone Saturday night.

So my advice to all of you is to give of yourself. Learn what your customers like, want, or respond to. And then let them get to know you. Like you.  Even look forward to your every visit. Until just the mere glimpse of you brings a smile, an understanding, the feeling of a secret bond.

Because when you know and give someone what they really want, they often reciprocate.

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leigh.householder

Advice Dan Pink gave me

Published by Leigh Householder on June 1, 2010.

I saw Pink speak at an Innovation Summit last week. He was telling a story about how forgetting carrots and sticks (and just about everything else we think we know about motivation) can create radically more productive and inspired workforces. The story went something like this -

The yearly turnover at call centers in nearly 100%. It’s a dreary job. You’re on the phone, you get a call, it’s typically a complaint. You hear the question or complaint, and you type key strokes and you get a script. It’s routine and rule-based. You’re almost always “housed” in a windowless room. When one call is finished, another automatically comes in. You’re judged by how quickly you complete the calls and how few calls back. Job satisfaction is abysmal. And, from my own experience on the other end of that 800-line, I’d say customer experience isn’t so great either.

And yet there’s a company called Zappos that does things differently. They say to their call center employees—no script, no timing of calls, no monitoring calls. Solve the problem anyway you want, just get it done. Take action; be creative. It’s almost heresy in the call center world. And yet Zappos has among the best customer service ratings of any company in America – one that actually rivals the Four Seasons. And, it’s an online shoe company (not a five-star hotel!)

The stories do make sense. Right-brained, creative people aren’t motivated by carrots and sticks. They’re motivated by these three new ideas: autonomy, mastery and purpose. (Read more about those on another Pink post on WYDiQ)

But, how? That led me to ask Pink: Wait a minute, this all makes sense when you’re talking about a company that was founded with these values. My company has it in their DNA. But, how do you change a carrot-and-stick company? How, for example, would you introduce these ideas into a sales culture that was built on the carrots of commission?

Let’s talk about a company that actually did that, he said. A sales organization that got rid of commissions: Red Gate Software, a firm based in Cambridge that makes development tools for programmers.

They established a commission structure. The sales reps figured out how to game that system by pushing sales into the time period most advantageous for them, by underselling one month to show a bigger gain the following month, and so on. All the natural human response.

So, the management made the commissions more complex. The sales reps figured it out again. They made it more complex… you get the idea. Eventually, both the management team and the sales force seemed more focused on the compensation system than on making great software and selling it to customers who needed it.

Neil Davidson, one of the founders, approached his sales team with the bizarre idea of getting rid fo sales commissions altogether and simply paying people a healthy flat salary. The response surprised him. The salespeople thought the move was a good one, but that other salespeople wouldn’t.

Pink said, Davidson explained it to Tom [not his real name] who said, “It sounds like a really good idea. But James would never like it. Remove the commission and he’ll leave.” James said, “Sounds great. But it will never work with Tom.”

Not only were commissioned sales not leading to better performance, it wasn’t even the arrangement salespeople themselves preferred.

In the absence of commissions, Red Gate’s total sales have increased. And while two salespeople left the company – uncomfortable with the new regime – most stayed and are thriving – including our heroes Tom and James.

Out of this story, Pink drew three big pieces of advice for change management:

  1. Challenge the assumptions of the orthodoxy (You don’t know what people really think until you ask)
  2. Know that other people are more like us than we think (We’re all motivated by surprisingly similar things)
  3. Start small (A little more about this last one:)

Pink talked about how Atlassian dedicated 20% of employee time to innovation projects – just working on what you want to work on. And, in doing so, created great new opportunities and products.

But 99% of companies shouldn’t go there, he said – it’s too risky, too expensive.

Instead, start small.

Do 10%. That’s an afternoon. Who among us hasn’t squandered an afternoon?

And don’t do it with everyone. Choose one department. And don’t do it forever. Just try 3 months.

But, do try it. Because the routine way most of America has been working is about to come to an end. (Read more about that on Advergirl in The India problem.)

At TED, Pink explained this new science of motivation:

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