Month: June 2018 (Page 1 of 2)

This has been one of the most intriguing learning assignments to date for me.

I do not consider myself to be adept in the skill of foresight.  When we have done development activities as a leadership team it has been clear that my personality is not one that naturally leads to being visionary.  In growing as a leader I have attempted to work on these traits and skills in myself, and have learned to turn to others with these skills for their assistance so that we can capitalize on each others’ strengths as a team.

I know little, if anything about the corporations and businesses listed as examples – the US Postal Service, Canada Post, and Walmart, so I had to go looking for information.  I was able to access a discussion paper regarding the future Canada Post published in Sept 2016.  I was also able to access a media release from October 2017 outlining Walmart’s strategic plan.  However, I really only have a surface understanding now of the current and projected future state of both of these organizations on which to form some opinions.

Canada Post has maintained a respected reputation in Canada.  However, three major reviews of Canada Post have been completed by government since the 1980’s, and in 2016:  “Many of the key challenges that were identified in previous reviews are still relevant today, if not more acute as a result of the digital disruption of postal services in developed countries…” (Bertrand, Hoeg, Hopson & McLaughlin, 2016, p. 13).  One could argue that the need for three major reviews in that period of time with no appreciable change tells the story of an organization that has lacked foresight.  The most recent discussion paper provides suggestions but for incremental change, not transformational change.  However, though I don’t have the knowledge or time to expand on this further, two factors that cannot be ignored in this discussion that the limitations imposed by the collective bargaining agreements and the legislation requirements of a crown corporation.

Walmart does not have a reputation as an innovative company, but I believe that they have done a fantastic job of anticipating the needs of their customers.  Whereas they have been criticized for eliminating some products (fabric, fishing rods), they have replaced these with high frequency purchases and met customers’ desire for one stop shopping by expanding to include groceries and bakeries.  The partnership with McDonald’s has made it convenient for families to shop over a meal period.  I know from completing a recent survey that WalMart is moving to online ordering for customers to pick up their purchases when convenient, allowing customers to spend less time shopping and more time on what they value.

I don’t have a document or resource to reference, but I have been informed that WalMart has changed their initial approach on employee engagement.  Certainly tensions with employees in Canada Post have been publicized.  Employees who are loyal and committed to their organization are motivated to use foresight in their workplace (Malgeri, 2010). If we are to learn from companies like SouthWest airlines, foresight is not the only factor in success; companies do well when they adopt a servant leadership approach.

What personally challenged me was this statement in the Canadians value postal services but do not necessarily think about them often and in general assume they will always be provided.  One could easily replace the words “postal services” with “healthcare services” (Bertrand et al., 2016, p. 15).  Having visited health care organizations in the US there is a requirement to have foresight, and urgency to remaining current and to continually improving because there is a competitive market.  I sense complacency in Canada because there is a dangerous assumption that public health care “…will always be provided”.  In writing this blog I am convicted to realize that I have partially adopted this complacent attitude, however, I would suspect that this is a pitfall for any of us working in any public sector role.  What do you think?  Is there a difference in innovation, foresight, planning between the public and private sectors?  I welcome your thoughts.

References

Bertrand, F. , Hoeg, K.T., Hopson, J., McLaughlin, M.  (2016)  Canada Post in the Digital Age:  Discussion Paper 2016.  Retrieved from https://www.tpsgc-pwgsc.gc.ca/examendepostescanada-canadapostreview/documents/EPC-CPR_rpt-eng.pdf

Malgeri, J. (2010). Organizational foresight and stewardship.  Public Manager, 39(4), 39-42.

This learning assignment has truly been eye-opening.

First, I was taken aback by my results on the Gender-Leader Implicit Association test. Even though the test itself explicitly states that many of us have have subconscious biased association favouring males and leadership that we are unaware of (Northouse, 2016), I was still unprepared when confronted with that reality. I was surprised by how often I associate leadership traits with the male gender.

Second, I was surprised by how little I am doing to foster recognition and belonging for other women in my workplace. Health care is typically a female dominated workplace, and the situations that stand out in my memory are the ones where men are prejudiced against. For example, in Home Care I have had the responsibility of communicating with more clients and families who have refused to have a man provide their personal care than the opposite.

As a woman leader in my workplace I haven’t really taken the time (well, sometimes I feel like I haven’t really HAD the time) to think about myself or other women in leadership roles. There are as many men as women at our Director table and I am not consciously aware of any overt prejudices against women in leadership, however, the learning materials from this week have caused me to reflect more on what I am unconsciously accepting or ignoring. Certainly I do think that there are always opportunities to promote recognition and foster a sense of belonging amongst my fellow women in senior leader and frontline management positions. The positions come with multiple responsibilities, and building support and capacity is important for their individual and team success.

After reading the Catalyst report (2016) I have identified many ways that I can personally foster recognition and a sense of belonging:

• Make personal connections with my staff – not just the managers that report directly to me, but the front line staff that report to them. This includes seeking to understand their successes and challenges at work, but also getting to know them personally.
• Recognize when other staff are engaged in inclusionary behaviours, and where possible (within a unionized environment) reward this behaviour. This recognition and reward can be personal (a quick thank you in person or by email) or public (a “bouquet” in the organization’s newsletter, or a mass email to all the staff in the department with a cc to the ED, or VP)
• As I am the Chair of a number of meetings I can seek out those who aren’t normally vocal and encourage them to participate, and capitalize on the information they have to offer if possible
• During staff meetings include an agenda item where staff can share experiences of inclusion and exclusion. There would need to be enough time to validate these experiences, and then time to ask for staff input into how we develop share language, understanding and vision so that the number of inclusion experiences go up, and the number of exclusion experiences go down
• Although our organization has policy that makes overt biases and stereotyping unacceptable, there is an opportunity to me to be more aware and conscious of language in the workplace and to role model behaviour that immediately addresses unacceptable language and actions
• There is an opportunity to recognize and coach the champions and ambassadors to continue to role model positive change
• I need to role model inclusionary behaviours.
• One value can be highlighted each week at our weekly huddles and then follow up with this education during personal interactions
• I can work with my managers and champions to celebrate success stories and share setbacks and barriers that the teams can work on correcting or eliminating
• I can work with the team to establish metrics, develop plans, and openly share the strategies created by the team to get to where we want to be

I am truly intrigued by this week’s learning materials that have challenged my assumptions and directed my thinking towards what I unconsciously accept as fact or truth. Have others’ discovered personal unconscious biases? Have others been challenged by their assumptions? Are others in work environments where women leaders are not recognized as equals with their male counterparts? Looking forward to the discussion.

References

Northouse, P. G.  (2016).  Leadership:  theory and Practice.  (7th ed.)  Thousand Oaks, CA:  Sage Publications Inc.

Nugent, J. S., Pollack, A., Travis, D. J.  (2016). The Day-to-Day Experiences of Workplace Inclusion and Exclusion.  Retrieved from http://www.catalyst.org/system/files/the_day_to_day_experiences_of_workplace_inclusion_and_exclusion.pdf

Responses to Case Study #1 – “The Glass Ceiling”

Refer to P. G. Northouse, Leadership:  Theory and Practice (7th ed.), pp. 412, 413.

In the case study Lisa encountered a number of advancement barriers:

a. She was devalued in a typically male leadership role and although informally sought out for her knowledge, she wasn’t formally or publicly recognized for her knowledge by her peers
b. There was an implied prejudice that her promotion would negatively affect the public perception of the company (“there has never been a female partner in 103 years”)
c. There were only male raters assessing the performance, potentially negatively affecting the evaluation
d. There is an assumption by the CEO that she doesn’t know what is happening globally within the firm and has to be brought up to speed
e. She would not promote herself initially using the justification that she just wanted to be a team player, and “one of the boys”. There is a possibility that she was making this decision due to gender bias or the perceived threat of social disincentives
f. There is a prejudice that she won’t be able to handle it as a woman leader if she makes a mistake, and that she is not agentic enough
g. Though not explicit it appears that the CEO is engaging in homosocial reproduction specifically continuing to recruit and retain all male partners.
h. Although not explicit there is the potential that Lisa is experiencing pressure to represent her gender in a male dominated work environment

There are a number of steps that the CEO and executive leadership could have taken to retain Lisa:

a. Acknowledged and recognized her knowledge and expertise
b. Done an individualized evaluation with peer input when assessing her performance
c. Developed a promotion policy based on set standards including the success of accounts, the number of new accounts, customer satisfaction
d. The CEO could learn to refrain from making derogatory and sexist comments (Eg. “two women in one room, that’s scary”)
e. She should have been made a partner prior to her colleague if her performance indicated that she deserved to be a partner
f. If her performance didn’t warrant a promotion to partner this should have been constructively communicated to her, and she the CEO could have offered to provide training and coaching so she could be successful in this pursuit eventually

A number of organizational policies and opportunities could be developed to help women in this work setting:

a. Policy for promotion to partner based on objectives and standard criteria
b. Policy of non-acceptance of gender biased comments
c. Policy that supported mentorship and training available to all employees independent of gender
d. Education of clients if reluctance to have a female partner truly exists
e. Education of the staff that there does not need to be gender bias

Some ways the organization could raise gender consciousness are as follows:

a. Mandatory education sessions that include case studies
b. Have CEO spend time in a gender inclusionary work setting so that he is able to learn to role model
c. A review of policies to determine if there are gender biases inherent in the organizational documentation
d. Public recognition of all employees that are meeting or exceeding performance expectations so that it is evident that performance of genders are equitable
e. Adopt or develop a monitoring tool so that progress or setbacks are identified and acted on

“Then it came to me that reform should begin at home; and since that day I have not had time to remake the world.” (Durant, as cited in Watson, 1951, p. 245)

Durant discovered this truth when searching for the answer to the question: what is happiness? In observing another family he was able to come to the realization that his greatest blessing was the family unit that had been given to him, and then made the intentional change to invest in his daughter rather than allow the other affairs of this world take precedent over time spent with his loved ones. Too often I find that I fall into the trap of not making time with my family a priority, and as Durant discovered, my happiness is adversely affected when I lose sight of this.  I have been created for relationship, and when there is depth and intimacy in my family relationships, I am truly happy.

Yet the reason I was drawn to the quote above is because I am not certain that I entirely agree with it. I do agree that reform should begin at home – I owe that to my family and to myself. I have been granted the privilege of being the steward of my children, and I have an obligation and responsibility to steward them to the best of my ability. But I would argue that when reform begins in my home, that is when I truly have the time to remake the world.

I really have a very limited impact to remake the world on my own, but by investing in the people around me, and in particular my daughters, my reach extends far beyond my own ability. My daughters all have characteristics and traits that have identified them as leaders. They have been recognized and selected for leadership roles by teachers, peers, coaches and others. As their mother I have one of the largest roles to play in their lives when it comes to teaching them and modelling what effective leadership should look like. And as I make the time to grow them into effective leaders, that is when I choose to make the time to remake the world. I will do my own part, and they will do their part; if I have mentored them correctly their achievements will be greater than my own. As I teach them to invest in others, to serve others, to put others above themselves and purpose themselves for causes greater than themselves the possibility of remaking the world within our sphere of influence grows exponentially. And picturing that legacy adds one more drop of happiness into the joy that I already experience by being in  close relationship with them.

As I finish with my personal thoughts, my heart is saddened because I know that there are many who are not as sheltered or privileged as I am, and many will not find their happiness where I have found mine. And yet in spite of broken family relationships I know many who found happiness elsewhere. I look forward to learning from the varying perspectives and experiences of others, and expect I will be challenged to broaden my thinking as a result of your responses.

Reference

Watson, L.E. (1951). Light from many lamps. New York, NY: Simon and Schuster, Inc.

As I am on a missions trip in Kenya right now, I was directed to conduct my interview with someone on the missions team.  I was able to steal a little bit of time with the President and Founder of Sew Love Foundation Inc., Lori Peters late one evening when the tasks of the day had been completed.  Due to the fact that there are 5 ladies staying together in a room and Lori is a friend outside of our roles with Sew Love, the interview ended up being less formal than it would have been with a fellow student, or a colleague from work, but still a valuable learning experience.

Q:  What skill behaviours to see as contributing to your success?

A:  First and foremost is a passion for the “why” – why are we doing this.  Second would be a faith in God, that he will guide and provide, and trusting in what he shows me and leads me, and being led by the Holy Spirit.  Next would be dedication, which is different from passion.  When things get hard, you can’t not keep going, you “can’t not” get the job done and let things slide because the “why” holds us, and the “who’s” hold us.  Lastly would be learning to ask for help, and releasing people to help without getting in the way and not hyper-focus and not be controlling.

(At this point there was a break in the interview and there was a significant amount of coaching that took place but I was not the primary facilitator of that coaching.  One of the other members of the team staying in our room actually made the comment that Lori does not “do this well” – does not ask for help when needed.  Lori gave a number of reasons why it is difficult, but was also able, with prompting from both team members to give responses as to why these barriers cannot hold her back from continuing to ask for help.  She has been offered assistance in the past, and then had people not follow through, or assist in a way that was not helpful – she recognized that she needs to communicate and set expectations for follow through and what it is that she needs for assistance.  Another barrier she identified was that she has difficulty asking for assistance when she feels she isn’t organized and doesn’t have the entire plan set out, and she was able to self-identify that she doesn’t always need to have all the details in place and that she can release some of the planning and delegation to others.)

Q:  When are you at your best?  When do you perform well?

A:  Honestly, when there are crises.  In pressurized situations I can rise to the occasion when others would crumble.  I see this as a gift from God.

Q:  Where do you want to be 5 years from now?  Describe your idealized future as if it is happening.

A:  I want to be more present with my family – my family back in Canada and my Sew Love family here in Kenya.  Not so wrapped up in the tasks and the details, but present with the people and in relationship with them.  And I want to be in a place where I am taking better care of myself.

Q:  How do you get there?  What ideas do you have for realizing this?

A:  Ask for help.  Don’t get caught up in the details that don’t matter.  That is very difficult for me due to the way that my mind works, but it is absolutely necessary.

For the last 2 questions I recognize that as a leader there were opportunities to facilitate a more in-depth conversation and ask for greater specifics.  However, as I stated earlier the interview ended up being less formal than I had anticipated, and at one point Lori became quite emotional as she recalled that her first trip to Kenya was with a young woman from our church that we lost to cancer late last year.  My leadership decision at this point was to not pursue the line of questioning further and leave the coaching for another opportunity.

Employee development in health care appears to have its share of successes and failures. As I have disclosed in a previous post I am not very tech savvy, and certainly not very familiar with social media platforms and the ways to optimize their use, so I am looking forward to learning from my fellow students for this assignment. After completing the assigned readings, these are my thoughts on a potential employee development plan.

1. Include a way for patients to provide their feedback to employees and programs directly using social media or a survey that is communicated back to either the employees or to the manager in real time. The front line managers for most of my programs already have weekly huddles with all the staff so small improvements can be discussed in a timely manner with all staff. We also have quality teams for most of my programs, so large scale improvement suggestions can be taken to those teams. If patients are able to share their experience in other provinces and other countries, there could be learning from what others are doing to make the patient experience positive.
2. When patients submit ideas they could be invited to be patient or family representatives on quality teams or large scale projects. This would provide opportunities for co-creation and innovation and facilitate customer (patient) empowerment. Although this would not use technology directly, there should be a way to recognize patients for their contributions on a social media platform, website, or other means. If patients or families submit a suggestion for improvement and that change is implemented there should be an electronic feedback loop to that person that indicates that changes were made based on their suggestions. This would communicate to patients/families that their input is valued and acted on. Although not an internal organizational citizen behaviour, this could potentially lead to customers/patients speaking highly of their health care once discharged.
3. Have a way for patients to rate their provider. This is already available in an electronic format for physicians at RateMD.  Because of the number of healthcare professionals in our organization with varying education levels I would suggest that this direct feedback has potential to be useful for other self-regulated professionals, but any paraprofessionals or unregulated professionals I would suggest that the feedback only come back to the manager. As the literature suggests that different employees require different levels of feedback it is anticipated that this type of feedback would not be very useful for any provider without a professional background. For professionals, develop a way for the rankings to be de-identified and then presented in a way so that each employee can see how they compare to others in their ranking. This has the potential to be an internal motivator for professionals to improve in patient service in comparison to their colleagues. Recognition of employees who are consistently getting high rankings could influence customer focused citizen behaviour.
4. Also develop a technological platform for customers/patients to rank the facility, program or service in real time. Develop an app that every patient or family member can access to rank or comment on their overall experience. Again, develop a way for the rankings to be de-identified and then made available so that the managers and employees can visualize how they compare with other facilities or programs of a similar size.
5. Develop a platform that enables employees to provide peer feedback on each other. This could be set up on an internal SharePoint site with a notification sent every time someone submits a comment or feedback. As a disclaimer, I think that this would be difficult to monitor as it would need to be set up in a way ensure that the peer feedback is constructive and useful. If employees are permitted to submit anonymous feedback, this could potentially be destructive or lead to negative organizational citizen behaviours. If employees are not permitted to remain anonymous, they may not wish to come forward with any feedback that would be useful for employee development.
6. Develop a platform for employees to provide improvement ideas to management or senior leaders in real time. Often staff have great ideas but they get forgotten, or if they do get shared with their manager, they get lost due to the operational concerns of the day to day business. Ensure that when ideas are put forward that multiple people and departments receive notification (ie. The quality department, any other department who may be affected) so that those who are able to act on innovative ideas are able to more forward quickly. This would create greater momentum and staff engagement. Staff who bring forward innovative ideas would also need to be recognized to encourage the culture of creativity and idea generation.   This would create a culture of employee support and a positive organizational citizen behaviour.  Where possible, employees would also need to be empowered to make changes with patients/families without having to go through a manager for authorization every time.
7. Develop a technological platform in which employees are able to complete self-assessments, upload formal and informal learnings, post a learning or development plan, and request performance evaluations outside of the regular schedule. This would be a personal platform that only the employee can access with some limited permissions given to the manager to permit feedback where requested.

Because of my limited knowledge of technologies these are a few suggestions that are likely in use right now in other sectors, but only recently incorporated, or not utilized in health organizations. I look forward to reading the innovative and creative ideas that are being suggested in other contexts and any suggestions for my health care environment.

I have had the opportunity to teach groups of adults many times, and I would argue that my role as a physical therapist is highly, if not solely dependent on my ability to educate adults one on one. But my most profound experience in understanding andragogy is my personal experience

As a first year physical therapy student we were required to spend 8 months learning anatomy. Three hours per week in lecture, 2 hours per week in the cadaver lab. We were required to purchase tools, do our own dissection to see how tissue relates to one another, and learn from the dissected models already in the lab. In that first year of my bachelor’s degree it was overwhelming the amount of information that we needed to synthesize, learn and memorize. The practical learning alone was overwhelming – essentially learning Latin (ie. All the anatomical terminology) added to the complexity.

I doubt that I am alone in this experience, but the honest truth is, the learning in the first year of my bachelor’s degree was based on getting the best possible grade that I could in that class. I had always been a good student, and I measured my learning by my performance. I really, really enjoyed anatomy, but my study was based on wanting that good grade and completing my program – more of an external motivation than internal. Also, the time perspective of andragogy was in play – there was no immediate application of this knowledge, only future application. I understood the reason for learning anatomy, but did not really understand how it would relate to how I would treat people in physical therapy practice.

Many years later I had the opportunity to go back into the cadaver lab for a post-graduate course that I attended at the university of Toronto. The course was all about the upper limb (how the arm works in interaction with the neck and torso) and the morning was spent reviewing anatomy. Dissected pieces of the arm, neck, upper body were set up in stations all over the anatomy lab, and we were to review how the muscles, nerves, tendons, ligaments, joints interacted. The specimens were also set up in different anatomical positions to simulate how all of these structures relate when in motion. I had been told that going back to the anatomy lab after years of practice would be impactful – I had no idea how impactful.

I had been treating patients for years by this time, and what I was learning was at an entirely different level. I now had a reservoir of experience, and there was an immediacy of application to this learning. I had matured, and there was no longer a dependency on the curriculum or the professor directing what I needed to learn to get that good grade; I was now able to self-direct my learning and apply it to the pathophysiologic response of patients I had treated in the past. There was a keen readiness to learn because my internal motivation was to develop as a professional for the benefit of my patients and to have the personal fulfillment of growing in my career. There was a deeper understanding of the reason why the knowledge of anatomy is so critical to treating patients, and my self-directed learning as I viewed all the specimens was definitely more problem centred.

Separate from all of the principles and assumptions of andragogy, that learning opportunity not only impacted me intellectually, it was perhaps one of the most spiritual encounters I have ever experienced. With a strong belief in creation and intelligent design, I was not only able to recognize the practicality of the learning, but also able to step back from the intellectual exercise and experience the wonder and the beauty of the human body. I actually became emotional as I stood in awe of the creation and the Creator. Maturity and experience allowed me to step back from the science and appreciate the art. And the education that day was far from merely cerebral.

I look forward to hearing from others on their adult learning experiences and their impact.

References

Unit 6 Notes, Leadership 500