Aligning With Values & Purpose

People Are Not Cogs: How We Can Be GREAT in Healthcare

A piercing and entertaining article in Harvard Business Review online, “People Are Not Cogs,” by Nilofer Merchant, author of The New How, offers keen insights worth considering by healthcare executives and physician leaders. Merchant makes some incisive points about how industry has traditionally measured productivity and hence factored in the ‘value’ of the individuals on [...]

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Physician, What Hinders Your Vision? 10 Obstacles to Overcome

We see things not as they are, but as we are. (This quote is attributed to several sources, including the Talmud). Ever wonder what factors limit your ability to see beyond today’s possibilities? Or what keeps your organization or practice from achieving the results you see other groups can meet? Or what keeps YOU from [...]

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TEAMWORK in PCMH: How Well Are Health Systems Developing This Competency?

The Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) is an idea whose time has come—although it’s not a new concept. Internal Medicine, Family Physicians and Pediatricians all claim to have proposed this idea 20+ years ago. In fact, for those of us who were practicing 20 years ago PCMH sounds like the way we practiced all the time [...]

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Physician Leaders Benefit From Revisiting “The Fifth Discipline”

A conversation with a leader this week prompted me to recommend Peter Senge’s excellent classic, The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of The Learning Organization. Originally published in 1994, Senge introduces the concept of “the learning organization.’ I recall health systems were enthusiastic about this concept many years ago, and I discern an uptick [...]

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Integrating Healthcare Organizations Present Three Transformation Coaching Opportunities

I came across an excellent article by Dan Zismer in ACPE Journal, on the psychology of newly integrating healthcare organizations: The Psychology of Organizational Structure in Integrated Health System. Zismer is becoming a thought leader on the topic of integrated healthcare and leadership structure required to lead this new paradigm of care. One of the topics [...]

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“Physician, HEEL Thyself” Tells a Sad Tale of Physicians and Nurses

My eye caught what I thought was a typo in the New York Times last week: HEEL…. instead of HEAL… “Physician, Heel Thyself” is a biting story by Theresa Brown, a nurse and NYT blogger, about her experience getting verbally clubbed by a physician. Ouch…. I felt embarrassed for my profession. It is shocking to [...]

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Physician Leaders: Reposition Your Role to Stay Engaged

A recent session I hosted for physician leaders highlighted the “evolution” of a physician leader’s journey: Where do you go next when you’re at the pinnacle of your career? At the top of the heap? Or maybe you’re finding yourself at a professional plateau after just a few years in practice. For some physician leaders, [...]

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What Can Military Medicine Teach Physician Leaders?

This month’s issue of the ACPE’s Physician Executive highlights Military Medicine. The timing is interesting for me because over the past six months I’ve been supporting physician adoption of technology in military health facilities through a Department of Defense contractor, KSJ Associates. Not having any experience in military medicine, this project has been fascinating on [...]

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When the Going Gets Tough, Physicians Get Creative

I have been wondering how much the economic down turn will affect healthcare and physicians. It’s hard to know, but one thing I DO know is that you can’t sit by and wring your hands. As physicians, most of us have the luxury of knowing our medical skills will always be our back-up plan. But [...]

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Physician, Is “Boldness” Your Next Move?

Over the past three weeks, as we’ve gone through an historic election, a saying from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe kept coming to mind: Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Sometimes the “next” step for you is not the incremental and cautious, but rather the BOLD and courageous. Now, I didn’t say “risky.” Not [...]

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What Will be Your Legacy as a Physician?

I’ve heard some physicians wonder out loud if their career has been “wasted” – either because they were on a path that wasn’t a good fit, or they spent years focusing on accumulating and worrying, rather than on contributing and enjoying. The question is one of personal value: Am I measuring up? And by whose [...]

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What Direction Can Your Career Take: 5 Ways to Think Big

When my physician clients first come to me for coaching, they often view their career options in one of three ways: 1) they have no idea what their options are, or 2) they have too many ideas and can’t sort them according to what’s realistic or practical, or 3) — and this is the most [...]

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