Have you ever heard of the phrase, “There is no I in team”? 

Well, there is an “I in Individual”, and teams are made up of individuals. So, in reality, there is an I in Team!  

Nationally leaders are looking to team-based care as one of the solutions to poor quality care.  There is an emphasis on moving away from individual autonomous care to team-based care.  What leaders don’t realize is individual and team is a polarity that needs to be leveraged.

“Individual and Team” represent an interdependent pair of values that are very powerful when leveraged well.  

We often don’t see individual and Team through a polarity lens, which is why it is important to shine a light on it and explore its significance during times of complex change in healthcare.

During this podcast we explore this crux polarity within the context of the clinical healthcare team.  It is a significant polarity today with the national focus on improving the quality of care and moving to value-based care.  

Value-based care calls for collaborative teamwork.  However, most of the current workforce is not prepared to practice as a team.

Tracy and Michelle share their experience as interprofessional clinicians and colleagues.  They give insight on ways to leverage and manage the Individual and Team polarity over time to achieve sustainable outcomes.  

Episode Summary Points:

·        Why we need an I in Team

·        There is a common goal when working as a team

·        Major influencing factors have shifted the focus to team-based care 

·        There is lack of progress in achieving the IOM recommendations 

·        Moving from volume to value-based care increases the tension, especially when

         using a problem-solving lens

·        Majority of current workforce is not prepared to practice as a team

·        Everyone has a preference pole

·        Leveraging Individual and Team helps to achieve the Quadruple Aim

·        Using a problem-solving lens is preventing progress and achievement of sustainable

          results.

Teaching Points:

·        Individual and Team represent two different poles, both are equally important

·        Be aware of your preference pole especially if you are a leader in a power position

          because you can heavily influence how the individual and team polarity is 

           experienced.

·        Listen for “from-to” statements, it may indicate a polarity exists

In this podcast, business leaders navigate the challenges of high-pressure jobs, tackling burnout, micromanagement, and decision fatigue while honing emotional intelligence, communication skills, and problem-solving abilities to strengthen their leadership identity. Through discussions on leadership development, stress management, conflict resolution, and time management, listeners gain insights into achieving work-life balance, overcoming the struggles of being overworked, and fostering personal growth in the ever-evolving workplace.

In this episode we focus on an over-arching healthcare polarity.  The Margin and Mission Polarity.  Everyone in healthcare is impacted by this polarity.  

Both Margin and Mission must to be present for the system to be sustainable and provide the healthcare we need.

Today we're looking at this polarity within the context of complex care and social needs.

During this episode we talk with Lauran Hardin. Lauran is a leader at the National Center for Complex Care and Social Needs. The center is the home for complex care and is transforming care for people with complex health and social needs.  

Lauran is guiding and coaching leaders every day out in the field to manage this polarity.  Her stories and insights are enlightening and inspiring.

Lauan shares with listeners why it’s important to understand the importance of the margin and mission polarity when creating programs that impact utilization and revenue.

Powerful change and transformation can occur when you understand and marshal the power of both sides of the margin and mission polarity.  Lauran shares some stories that will leave you with a feeling of hope.

Join us to learn from Lauran as she shares case studies and outcomes from the world of complex care and social needs.

In this podcast, business leaders navigate the challenges of high-pressure jobs, tackling burnout, micromanagement, and decision fatigue while honing emotional intelligence, communication skills, and problem-solving abilities to strengthen their leadership identity. Through discussions on leadership development, stress management, conflict resolution, and time management, listeners gain insights into achieving work-life balance, overcoming the struggles of being overworked, and fostering personal growth in the ever-evolving workplace.

Relationships are a critical element of interprofessional collaboration.  

In today’s episode, we discuss hierarchy and partnership within the context of interprofessional collaboration in the healthcare setting.  

There is a long history in the evolution of the health professions and how they work together that is rooted in social class and gender differences.

There is extensive literature describing the status inequities and power imbalances between physicians, nurses and other health professionals that exist today.

Historically these differences resulted in a hierarchical power structure within healthcare with the physician in the most superior position of the structure.  Interprofessional collaboration and team processes challenge this hierarchical power structure.

Health professionals bump up against the tension between hierarchy and partnership every day as they try to work in collaborative ways.

When we experience hierarchical relationships as negative or as a problem, it’s natural to want to move away from the experience and toward the opposite, a more partnering relationship.   

There is an upside to hierarchical relationships that we are at risk of losing if we over emphasize partnerships.  

We need both hierarchical and partnering relationships to establish a healthy interprofessional collaborative culture.

In this podcast, business leaders navigate the challenges of high-pressure jobs, tackling burnout, micromanagement, and decision fatigue while honing emotional intelligence, communication skills, and problem-solving abilities to strengthen their leadership identity. Through discussions on leadership development, stress management, conflict resolution, and time management, listeners gain insights into achieving work-life balance, overcoming the struggles of being overworked, and fostering personal growth in the ever-evolving workplace.

We were so excited to have Vicky Schmidt join us for this episode.  Vicky has experienced some of the very best of care and some of the worst care over the past 18 years.  She is a patient advocate for person-centered care and has shared her story with thousands.

During this episode Vicky helps us shine a light on the patient and clinician safety polarity from a patient perspective. 

This is a significant polarity in healthcare and on the minds of clinicians and healthcare leaders everywhere.

The greater purpose of managing the patient and clinician safety polarity is to create a culture of safety for both those that give and receive care.  

Looking at safety in healthcare through the eyes of someone who has been engaged with and experienced healthcare from across the continuum was enlightening and informative.

In this podcast, business leaders navigate the challenges of high-pressure jobs, tackling burnout, micromanagement, and decision fatigue while honing emotional intelligence, communication skills, and problem-solving abilities to strengthen their leadership identity. Through discussions on leadership development, stress management, conflict resolution, and time management, listeners gain insights into achieving work-life balance, overcoming the struggles of being overworked, and fostering personal growth in the ever-evolving workplace.

Is there ever a time when staffing is not being addressed?

Having adequate staff is a critical component of healthcare.  It is more significant than in any other industry probably.  In other industries when someone doesn’t show up for work or you have a few vacancies you may be able to shift things and it’s not that big of a deal (at least it's not life threatening) or you are able to make things work.  In healthcare, when there are staffing issues, the potential for harm to others increases and satisfaction is challenged both for patients and for clinicians.

There is no one solution or silver bullet to addressing staffing problems!  There is a “short game” and a “long game”.  In the short game you are finding solutions to the problem of not having enough staff and in the long game you are managing the polarities that are beneath the staffing problem as a proactive strategy to avoid experiencing the problem. 

During this episode Tracy and Michelle talk about the recruitment and retention polarity that lies beneath the staffing problem.  Managing and leveraging this polarity is the “long game” approach to staffing challenges.

In this podcast, business leaders navigate the challenges of high-pressure jobs, tackling burnout, micromanagement, and decision fatigue while honing emotional intelligence, communication skills, and problem-solving abilities to strengthen their leadership identity. Through discussions on leadership development, stress management, conflict resolution, and time management, listeners gain insights into achieving work-life balance, overcoming the struggles of being overworked, and fostering personal growth in the ever-evolving workplace.

In this episode we focus on a personal level polarity that we believe is universal.  We venture to say that there isn’t anyone who isn’t or hasn’t been impacted by this polarity.  Clinicians especially, because caring for others is at the core of our roles and responsibilities.  Some individuals become clinicians because of their desire to care for others or to serve others or because they feel called to do so.  

In healthcare today leaders and clinicians are facing significant challenges such as increasing suicide rates, burnout and moral distress.  In addition, some are members of the “sandwich generation”, taking care of kids and parents!   Because this is a polarity, we know it won’t go away, so learning to leverage it is the best option for all.  

Taking care of self and taking care of others occurs in a lot of different contexts.  We experience it as healthcare clinicians, as parents, and as leaders.

During this episode we talk with Dr. Diane Gilbert Bradley about her experiences with managing and leveraging the self and other polarity as she navigated her way through medical school, being a rehab medicine physician and as a corporate executive.

In this podcast, business leaders navigate the challenges of high-pressure jobs, tackling burnout, micromanagement, and decision fatigue while honing emotional intelligence, communication skills, and problem-solving abilities to strengthen their leadership identity. Through discussions on leadership development, stress management, conflict resolution, and time management, listeners gain insights into achieving work-life balance, overcoming the struggles of being overworked, and fostering personal growth in the ever-evolving workplace.

Both of us have spent a good portion of our careers developing and helping organizations implement tools, processes and infrastructures that support interprofessional education and collaborative practice.  As you might guess this is a topic that is near and dear to our hearts. 

During the episode we talk about how the Institute of Medicine (IOM) reports, To Err is Human:  Building a Safer Health System (1999); Crossing the Quality Chasm: A New Health System for the 21st Century (2001) and Health Professions Education:  A Bridge to Quality (2003), served to heighten the awareness of concerns about safe, quality, cost-effective care within the United States healthcare system.  These reports also reinforced the need for interprofessional education (IPE) and interprofessional collaborative practice (ICP).  

We talk about what is being learned and the current realities educators and leaders are facing.  Recent reports indicate the traditional cultures and practices in healthcare settings do not support ICP (Brandt, KItto, & Cervero, in press) and those who have experienced IPE go into practice settings that do not support what they have learned.  IPE and ICP represent an interdependent pair.  Both are necessary to prepare the future and the current workforce to work collaboratively.

Achieving the national goals of safe, quality, efficient, effective care will require a healthcare workforce prepared and supported to work collaboratively.  Managing the IPE and ICP polarity is key in achieving sustainable outcomes.  Leveraging strong partnering relationships between practice and education leaders may be one way to manage the IPE/ICP polarity and support current and future workforce preparation.

In this podcast, business leaders navigate the challenges of high-pressure jobs, tackling burnout, micromanagement, and decision fatigue while honing emotional intelligence, communication skills, and problem-solving abilities to strengthen their leadership identity. Through discussions on leadership development, stress management, conflict resolution, and time management, listeners gain insights into achieving work-life balance, overcoming the struggles of being overworked, and fostering personal growth in the ever-evolving workplace.

We were so excited to have Dr. Erin Craft-Otterbacher join us for this episode.  Erin is a new Family Practice DNP graduate. She is a very bright, knowledgeable young lady who we know you will enjoy learning from and listening to.

During this episode Erin helps us shine a light on caregiver burden and the need to manage the tension between the needs of the caregiver and the needs of the care recipient. 

Managing the tension between this pair of needs is an emerging and significant polarity in healthcare.  The polarity is universal.  Most of us have had caregiver experiences or even care recipient experiences. More and more middle-aged adults are becoming members of the “sandwich generation” and feeling the squeeze and burden of caring for aging parents and children at the same time.  

Have you felt this tension or do you know someone who has?

Join us as we talk about the negative consequences from neglecting the needs of the caregiver, the potential negative and devastating outcomes that can manifest and the call to recognize this significant and highly valuable role of caregivers.

In this podcast, business leaders navigate the challenges of high-pressure jobs, tackling burnout, micromanagement, and decision fatigue while honing emotional intelligence, communication skills, and problem-solving abilities to strengthen their leadership identity. Through discussions on leadership development, stress management, conflict resolution, and time management, listeners gain insights into achieving work-life balance, overcoming the struggles of being overworked, and fostering personal growth in the ever-evolving workplace.

Today we are exploring a major crux polarity in the healthcare system that is often looked at as two separate or independent issues.  The topic today is the patient satisfaction and clinician satisfaction polarity.  While this pair appears to be opposites, they have an interdependent relationship.  Achieving positive sustainable outcomes cannot be accomplished by focusing on one or the other  – heck no!  It’s a both/and opportunity.

In this episode we will discuss the current realities surrounding this polarity.  Why an over-emphasis on patient satisfaction actually got healthcare leaders into trouble over time and how the Triple Aim may have contributed to our current realities.

This episode invites you to consider your own experience as a healthcare leader and/or practicing clinician and expand your thinking to see patient and clinician satisfaction as a “good tension” that can be leveraged to create organizations that are the best for patients to receive care and for clinicians give care.  

If you are a first time listener, we suggest you listen to Episode #1 to gain a foundational understanding of polarities before listening to other episodes.

In this podcast, business leaders navigate the challenges of high-pressure jobs, tackling burnout, micromanagement, and decision fatigue while honing emotional intelligence, communication skills, and problem-solving abilities to strengthen their leadership identity. Through discussions on leadership development, stress management, conflict resolution, and time management, listeners gain insights into achieving work-life balance, overcoming the struggles of being overworked, and fostering personal growth in the ever-evolving workplace.

We are so grateful to have two “living legends” as our first guests on the podcast, Dr. Barry Johnson and Bonnie Wesorick.  They are both phenomenal leaders whose life’s work has been to bring Polarity Thinking™ to the world.  We are blessed to have them as our mentors, colleagues and friends!

During the interview Barry shares how the original Polarity Map®  emerged in 1975 and how the work has expanded globally.  Barry partnered with Bonnie Wesorick in the 1990’s as she recognized the significance of managing polarities to achieve healthcare transformation. Bonnie shares her journey in supporting a consortium of over 400 healthcare organizations in applying Polarity Thinking™ and how that led to the development of the first healthcare specific Polarity Assessment™ .

If you are a first time listener, we suggest you listen to Episode #1 to gain a foundational understanding of polarities before listening to other episodes.

In this podcast, business leaders navigate the challenges of high-pressure jobs, tackling burnout, micromanagement, and decision fatigue while honing emotional intelligence, communication skills, and problem-solving abilities to strengthen their leadership identity. Through discussions on leadership development, stress management, conflict resolution, and time management, listeners gain insights into achieving work-life balance, overcoming the struggles of being overworked, and fostering personal growth in the ever-evolving workplace.