Ep.034 From Conformity to Innovation: Rebuild Leadership and Systems

0:00Bridge Builders, welcome back to bread to lead the pie class that's built to create phenomenal leaders. Last week, we talked about scaling, surviving mode within organizational structure and how to know where you are today. We're talking about what you do when you get to certain levels of leadership, because here's the deal. What I've discovered over the last decade and turnaround is that the biggest threat to innovation isn't incompetence, it's actually tradition. The phrase we've always done it this way has destroyed more organizations than any competitor ever could or would. And the industries that pride themselves on tradition, they're the ones that start deteriorating at the fastest rate known to man.

0:52Because tradition without evolution is just slow death with better branding. And today we're talking about leading with gumption, having the courage to be different, daring to challenge what everyone else accepts, not for the sake of being disruptive, but for the sake of building something that actually works. Something that doesn't just survive, but thrives. Because as we know, leadership is the software systems are the hardware and innovation is what happens when you refuse to let tradition write your future. Let's go bridge builders.

1:47I think it's very important as we begin to digest the information that we're going to talk about this episode and moving forward in the season. I just have a couple of things I'm just excited about our operational system is officially going to be in five facilities starting the quarter there's a lot of legacy technologies and systems that are slowly beginning to start moving out of the space because innovation is needed and in this space and time we're dealing with this this this this split leadership the pool of leaders or leadership i just let's call it the leadership hustle, for lack of better words, where you have leaders who want to drive innovation, but they don't have signability.

2:38You have certain leaders that do have signing ability, and they're just trying to keep it as smooth and easy to get to retirement. So you have like this thing, and then there's a bunch of people in between. And one of the biggest concepts that we're bringing to light this year is operational blindness. Because, you know, after talking with so many leaders, being in hospitals, talking with executives, I'm beginning to realize that everybody kind of understands the metrics or the reasons why they're underperforming. They just don't have the full solution. And then the second thing is when it comes to leadership and really pushing something through, a lot of leaders lack the ability of follow through, meaning I start this initiative to create change and I drive that change regardless of what happens.

3:22And so we're dealing with this space. And honestly, I just believe that we actually don't lack quality leaders. We don't lack quality clinicians. What we are, what we're struggling is actually putting ourselves in the best position to win just because of these old traditional isms that don't mean anything. You know, we have these silos of like cliques within in the organizational structure of healthcare. And some of you may see it in your own businesses in different industries. But in my business, my industry currently healthcare, there's a lot of silos of departments that kind of work against each other, but not because they want to, but because the systems are so disenfranchised, it causes like this chasm of confusion while everybody's, you know, feel like they're doing the right thing.

4:12It's kind of like your own world and you do your part and everybody else has to do theirs or else. And it doesn't really work as we're talking about moving forward with innovation in this space. We're dealing with, you know, a huge shortage when it comes to staffing all across the board in health care. So our organizations have to get stronger, smarter, faster. And I'm excited to announce that our system is going into facilities. We've released the operational system in a couple of hospitals last year, and our technology is now following those facilities. And I'm excited to say, you know, we have hospital departments operating with less FTE.

4:50Actually, they cut down even more, and they're operating in so much better workflow with a lot more optimized efficiency modeling. And the goal and the thing that we found out with this concept that we that we termed operational blindness that we'll be bringing. And you actually can go to our site, SipsHealthcare.com, click blogs and you can see our white paper there. I believe I put it on my LinkedIn, too. But yes, operational blindness, our newest book, Operational Blindness, is coming out to this. That's bringing to terms why organizations are inefficient. A lot of reasons these leaders are putting in these positions to have full responsibility for departments that they don't truly have full control over because there's so many, many mechanisms that are kind of in the way of them running their business.

5:42And then two, we're operating in a new world running on old systems and we have to start to mature those systems so we give our leaders an opportunity to succeed. And in last week, we were talking about these scales of change. And the truth is, it's hard to actually get to the scale of change if we're still operating with blindness. More than ever, leaders have access to more data more than ever. The problem is that these leaders don't have the proper tools and systems to be able to know how to compute that data to get it to some type of resolve or result. And I think that's the biggest thing that we have to pay attention to, because actually leaders are a lot more fearful of making decisions with all of this data than they ever have before without data.

6:35Because data has been so like it is the future or is all the end all be all. But properly and rightfully interpreted data is important for making a decision, but just getting clunky data for the sake of it. That's kind of what we're doing. And we see organizations because, you know, technology has priced themselves crazy within the health care space for whatever reason. But we see these organizations actually buying these, you know, small little tools and trinkets to try to help them consume that data and make better decisions. But it's just it's just making these sub departments even more disenfranchised.

7:16And those are the things that we have to kind of fix. And we'll be talking about a lot of these those things in this podcast. class. If you're new to a bread to lead pod class, this is bread to lead. This is not a podcast. It's a podcast class with the objective that you learn something that you can go apply into your organization, your career. Now I am currently in the business of healthcare. And so I'll have a lot of business or organizational references to the business I am in. However, you can get this business advice that I'm giving you and provide it to whatever industry that you're in. But we're really talking about truly, truly building optimal organizations and driving change in leadership.

7:53So if you're listening to me for the first time, pen, paper, pad is great. Or even screenshotting the time that you listen to a good point that you want to come back to. I think it's very important that the context of this and then those that have been listening, thank you for helping us stay in the top 15 in the business category as far as ranking. And then when it comes to the monthly Rankins. Thank you all for that, for helping us stay there. Obviously it is working and you're doing well. Yes. Our newest book, operational blindness is coming out pretty soon. You all that are familiar with me.

8:26I like to write a white paper in a book every year, especially if there's a real need that I feel like that the voice or some type of content needs to go out. So if you're interested in that book, we'll be talking about it soon on how you can be able to get it for actually for free. So we'll talk about those things in a little bit. So let's get to segment one. But I think it's important because one in the book, Operational Blindness, I make a lot of references to who says elephants can't dance. And it's a book written by Lewis Gertzner, who actually just passed. And he was the executive that turned around the American great IBM.

9:07and where IBM was in the 90s is kind of where healthcare as a whole is right now. And when Lewis came into IBM or came into the company, he had no technical experience with running a tech-driven company or even technology itself, but he understood people, organizations, and processes, which is much more like me coming into healthcare. And one of the biggest things he did was get rid of these sage old traditions that cause more harm than they actually do. And what we found out, what we find about traditions, some of them are good, but most of them are just to keep carrying on those people that are underperforming.

9:46So you kind of create these isms of survival. And what happens if you kind of think about it within an organizational structure, as people are developing and growing, most organizations, your best talent either promotes up or they promote out. And who kind of stays within the organizations are those that do enough to get by or they're not as prominent as far as talent. Now, I'm not saying that people that spend 10, 15, 20, 30 years in one place doesn't have talent. What I am saying is that a lot of the isms and the culture and the myths or the sacred cows that hold organizations together, the fact that we've always done something this way, a lot of times it's being controlled by people in the organization that just have been there the longest through survival, not necessarily the longest through performance.

10:35And I think that's very important for us to understand and ask ourselves, where are we getting this tradition from? And is it a tradition of those that have burned a path that created true change where I am? Or is this a tradition from somebody who's been in the organization the longest, but has never been a top performer? And I think it's very important for us to understand what that looks like so that we can realize where, you know, how we need to operate. And of course, you have top performers who are the exception. However, when it comes to really, really, really asking ourselves, how do we come to our decision making models?

11:14We really have to ask ourselves, where did this decision making model come from? Which which takes us to a system rooted concept or construct. I have to go figure out what's going on at the system level. Yes, the symptom is my team is frustrated. Yes, the symptom is my leadership isn't communicating. Yes, the symptom is the OR is not talking to SPD. Yes, the system is we can't get materials management to be on the same page with us and EVS. Yes, that's the symptom. But systematically, who put what processes or developments in place on the railroad that we're running on? and we have to think about it like when we're coming into an organization or we're really looking at an organization, I like to look at it like I'm looking at a railroad, right?

11:59And I have this new beautiful train that I want to put on the train tracks on this railroad. However, if I never change the destination or the journey of that railroad, it doesn't matter what beautiful train I put on the tracks is going to end up in the same exact place that the other trains did before. So when I'm systematically looking at an organization, we have to ask ourselves before we move anything forward, where did we get this tradition from? Who created these systems? Who made this a rule? And is that person, somebody still in the organization or is this somebody that got fired, that left, that was underperformer, but we got comfortable running on this way that we keep underperforming?

12:42What we realize is that organizations have the wrong metrics. And a lot of those metrics, policies, procedures, SOPs, and things that were put in place were put in place by people that you wouldn't even follow today. So I want to tell you what tradition really is. Tradition is the comfortable lie we tell ourselves when we're too afraid to change. It's the shield we hide behind when someone suggests a better way, and we don't want to admit we've been doing it all wrong. It's the excuse we use to avoid the hard work of redesigning what's broken. Though we always have done it this way. Translation is, I don't want to think about whether there is a better way, because that may mean that my way is either outdated or it's never worked in the first place.

13:31Or this is how the industry works. The translation for that is, I'm afraid to be the one who does it differently. If it's not broke, don't fix it. The translation for that is I can't see that it's breaking because I'm not willing to look. This is this is something. Let's let's park here for a second. A lot of us do this with our finances. If I don't look at my account, if I don't go talk to that person, if I don't have that hard conversation, it would just kind of fix itself. If it's if it's not broken, don't fix it. But it's literally hanging on a hinge. like these are things that we have to address and here's the pattern that i've seen industries built on tradition don't fail overnight they erode painfully and slowly and we're looking at the cause the the cosmos the cause and effect excuse me i said cosmos we're looking at the cause and effect of slow painful erosion in our organizations in our industries right now in health care specifically, but if you're listening from different industries, I want you to really pay attention.

14:39What big companies or what big spaces in the industries or subset of industry and your market that you're in eroded in painfully slow? This is where we are. And first, what happens when you know that an organization or an industry is eroding slowly, painfully and slowly is first they stop attracting young talent because young talent doesn't want to join something that feels stuck in the past so we're like man we have a shortage there is a shortage in health care because the way that we recruit and present health care is that of the past and it doesn't attract these new age group of generations regardless of age it doesn't attract them because it makes it look like we're not moving forward then the next thing that happens in an industry.

15:29You stop retaining the best talent because the best people get frustrated by resistance to change. So when I'm going into an organization, I want to know how many best people have left here. And a lot of times the best people get pushed out by the ordinary producers. It's frustrating because people that have the ability want change in their paces faster. There are paces. Let's just get it done. Let's not sit on it. So the first way, you know, an industry or your organization or your own companies eroding is it when you stop being able to attract high quality young talent. The second thing you stop being able to retain the best people.

16:09The third thing you stop innovating because innovation requires questioning assumptions and tradition is built on protecting them. So it's hard to accept new innovation because innovation brings a light to all of the things that you did just because of tradition. So tradition protects it. Innovation questions it. And finally, that industry, that subset, that company, that business becomes irrelevant, not because they didn't work hard, but because they worked hard at preserving what should have evolved. And tradition isn't inherently bad, of course. Tradition that refuses to evolve is what's fatal.

16:56Tradition's okay, but tradition that doesn't evolve is fatal. Perfect example for those that like sports. If a team won championships in football, running the football without wide receivers, back in the day, they would have won a bunch of championships. but today you have to be able to throw the ball as well as run it back in the day if you had a six and eleven six foot eleven seven foot center or power forward you just throw it to them and they can square at any time today in the nba point guards are 610 and 611 so that approach doesn't work anymore the tradition of working as a team making taking the easy shot can stay the same But the way in which we operate the game, the game plan, the program has to change as the market or the industry is changing.

17:53That's what we're talking about when tradition isn't inherently bad. Tradition, showing up on time, having a chipper attitude, loving what you do, being being joyful at that tradition, having a progression program where people that come in entry levels can progress through your organization. that's a great tradition to have. A tradition that refuses to evolve that becomes fatal is when we've been doing something one way and you're seeing it start to slow down in that way. We have to change. For an example, if you got the majority of your intern staff from high schools and junior colleges for 40, 50 years and over the last 10 years, it's not the same anymore.

18:36You can't stay with that tradition because that's not where your market is anymore. You have to find out where they are so that you can start attracting them to you. But then if I don't look at my tradition, how are we recruiting them? How are we showing them the future? How are we getting the best and brightest minds in healthcare? What are we doing to be able to retain them? If that doesn't change, we're going to continue to deal with the erosion of talent in our industry. And it goes back to the organizations that are still clinging to the, this is the way we've always done it. They're not stable.

19:11They're stagnant. Instability and stagnation look the same, but they're actually different. Stagnation says, hey, let's not change anything. Let's not breathe. Let's just kind of keep things afloat. You know, we'll make it work or what we do. Let's not do more. Let's not do less. Let's just do enough. Let's do enough to pass our CMS regulatory tours. Let's do our best to make sure that we're doing the best job we can staying in the gray areas of following our regulatory standards. Let's do the best job we can at patient care. That's that is that is. Stagnation stable is we're growing, developing and progressing at a pace we can afford to go at.

19:59that's what that's what stable looks like versus stagnant because stagnant things rot naturally stagnant things rot so we have to make sure that we're being stable in the way that we make decisions but not stagnant and never making one that helps the organization and I think that's very important right now we're going to do a little bit of a commercial break for those organizations that are knowing, you know that you have good leadership, you know that you have people that work hard, but something just seems to not work right. This is why you have to reach out to sibshealthcare.com. Let us hear what you're going through and how our operating systems, Thoroughby Design, can not only help you run your department, but also monitor it with our preventative maintenance and our preventative care technology that allows for the supervisor to know that there's a technology that prohibits and mitigates mistakes before they happen.

21:01One of the biggest things that we have to understand is that human behavior is almost measurable. You can pretty much count with a clock how many times somebody is going to make the same mistakes. And it looks the same. You know these things. So our technology understands human behavior and we prohibit a lot of mistakes that happen that typically causes most of the effects with an organization. So look into that. If you haven't got any of our books, Bread to Lead, Built to Bleed, or now our new book that's coming out, Operational Blindness, please be on the lookout for that link coming out soon.

21:33But go to Amazon and go and pick out a book and purchase a book. And for you and your team, Bread to Lead helps you with foundational leadership, Built to bleed, exposes SPD managers to the operational business side of SPD and operational blindness, talks to the executive about what to do to keep these mistakes from continuously happening and having the hospital lose money. Okay. Commercials are over. Let's get back to the pod class. Segment two, we're going to be talking about the cost of conformity. And I want to share with you a story. About five years ago, I walked into an organization that had been operating the same for about 30 years.

22:19Same processes, same hierarchy, same assumptions about what worked because it worked in the past. And on paper, it looked fine. They were profitable. They had loyal clients. They had longevity, but underneath they were dying. And their turnover was accelerating. Their margins were shrinking. Their reputation was shifting from established to outdated. And when I suggested changes, workflow designs, technology upgrades, cultural shifts, I got the same response for leadership. That's not how we do things here. So I asked a simple question. How does that work for you and why am I here? If you brought me in because you know that something's wrong, but the paper, it looks good.

22:58If your response is going to be that's not how we do things here. How is that working for you and what am I doing? there was nothing but silence and I let them sit in that silence because they knew they could feel it the slow decline the talented people leaving the opportunity slipping away and the notion to keep blaming COVID or other places or other things having that ability to blame it is leaving now the board executives are being expected to figure it out. But admitting it, that things were slipping, admitting that they've been wrong. And tradition doesn't allow for being wrong. Tradition demands conformity and conformity at even the cost of the hospital, the organization, or the business.

23:56And conformity of just staying stagnant, let's just keep what we have here. You never can keep it. You either grow it or it kills off. And that conformity, there's a cost in it. It's called the cost of innovation. That conformity, there's a cost in it. It's called the cost of growth. That conformity, there's a cost in it. It's called the cost of relevance. And eventually the cost will eventually be survival where every decision that is made could keep the doors to the business open or close it. And here's what most leaders don't understand. Conformity feels safe, but it's the most dangerous position that you can take.

24:42Because while you're conforming, the world is changing. And when you finally decide to adapt, you're so far behind that you can't catch up. That's why scripture says to be in the world, but not of it. Yes, I'm here operating, but I'm not so indoctrinated in the culture of conformity that I can't see that we need change. I'm in the world, like I understand the language, the lingo, those things, but I'm not so conformed in it where I can't see that things are getting out of hand. And the organizations that thrive aren't the ones that conform. They're the ones that dare to be different, not recklessly, but intentionally.

25:21So let's really diagnose this tradition trap, like where the real hardware software check is, like organizationally. And here's where the tradition trap happens. It's where you have organizational structures that were designed decades ago that don't reflect how work actually happens today. Hardware problems. The traditional trap comes from processes that were built from a different era that never updated. The tradition trap comes from systems that prioritize control over agility. The tradition trap comes from infrastructure that makes change, change harder than staying the same. That's when you know that you're stuck in a tradition.

26:07And those softer software problems, the leadership problems, when leaders who built their career on the tradition and see innovation as a threat. The leader that had that's grown and matriculated and promoted in the industry or methodology of tradition that has been proven not to be the most efficient or or a proper way to run the organization in today's time. When innovation for transparency and openness and growth is present, those are the leaders who decline innovation. Because now if if we have technology that can really read behaviors. And truly show work throughput, you no longer can hide around the manual scribbled in numbers that you write or being able to blame something for not working.

27:04now you have to actually add value to the organization that you're in that's a threat to them the tradition trap when it comes to the soft wear side of it the the leader side the cultural side is culture punishes failure so nobody risks trying anything new if i build an organization that punishes you for trying to make something better or i'm punishing you for failure and don't have coaching build-up moments, people will be scared to try anything, and they'll rather just keep their job than to try to make the organization better. Teams that have learned helplessness, they stopped suggesting improvements because they got shut down too many times.

27:48If every time you're coming up with a way to make the organization better and it keeps getting shut down, people feel helpless. That's where your organization is. And decision-makers who confuse longevity with effectiveness. and we've been doing this for a while, or we got to see this thing out, you know very quickly, especially when you're running an organization the size of hospitals or the size of midsize business and up, you know if something's going to work in the long run or not. You know it. You just know it. And here's the disconnect. When you build your hard systems for stability, but the environment requires adaptability.

28:28Healthcare changes every day. Every organization, especially today's times, is evolving at a faster rate. We have to understand that, listen, yes, the intention of what was created maybe brought stability for some time. But adaptability is required now. We have to relook at our system. that soft where that soft skill problem is when we built a culture or tradition it was programmed for preservation to preserve what's good it's almost coveting the successes of the past while denying the successes of the future because we are resisting transformation and change that's that's really what tradition and culture is i am preserving the wins of the past and not accepting the changes of the future that will help us win in the future the changes we have to make today to help us win the future i'm i'm embracing the past so we build culture and tradition on the past but in order to have a better future i have to change today our systems our structures and even create new traditions and culture to be able to have successes in the future It's why it's very important.

29:45Very important. Because tradition says we have to protect it. Innovation says we have to build what we need. And most organizations are just running on outdated systems. That's incompatible with the hardware the future requires. So the hard question is, is our infrastructure flexible enough to support innovation? And the softer question to ask is, do our leaders have the courage to challenge tradition? And most organizations fail both checks. And that's why industries built on tradition are deteriorating. OK, now I said all that to say. I want to talk about with you about what it takes to break that tradition trap.

30:36What does it take to cut through the noise? I'm going to keep it straight. I'm going to keep it straight with you. It takes gumption, audacity, the willingness to be different when everyone else is comfortable being the same. It takes your ability to say, hey, this is the type of organization I want to see if I was here 10, 15 years and building that regardless if you're going to be there or not. Here are the five principles of innovation and leadership. Principle one, question everything. Just because something has been done a certain way doesn't mean it should continue. Start asking why. Why this process?