Cookies, coaching, staffing, and more!
RWL # 340
Happy Wednesday from the University of New Hampshire! I went out for an early morning run on Monday down by the Oyster River and saw that the town had put the docks in (I stood on a dock to get this pic). I’m very excited because the docks allow me to launch my kayak at low tide on the upper part of the river. Low tide is my favorite time to paddle. You see the most wildlife and there are no power boats around. Summer is coming!
Speaking of summer, we’re about 3 weeks from graduation! Daughter #3 will be walking the stage and off the family payroll on that day, the Lord willing and the creek don’t rise. The wife and I will officially enter a new stage of life. No more kids in school. We’re pretty excited - almost as much as #3.
I hope you noticed the change in name for the Sunday edition of RWL. You can unsubscribe now to that section of the newsletter if it doesn’t fit your taste, but I hope you give me a couple of weeks. I’m looking to also bring my Health Leader Forge podcast over to Substack, so you will have the option of getting those notices as well soon. I am scheduling some meetings with potential guests now to plan for the new Being in the World podcast that will be linked with the new Being in the World newsletter. I look forward to sharing those with you later this summer.
Links this week on cookies, coaching, staffing, and more! I hope you enjoy them. Give me a “like” or a comment if you do. It lets me know I’m sending you stuff you appreciate.
As usual, willing good for all of you!
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What: Insider, I'm the cofounder of Crumbl Cookies. Here's how we captured Gen Z and became a cult favorite
https://www.businessinsider.com/crumbl-cookie-coo-founder-how-to-start-franchise-2022-7
Why: Have you had a Crumbl Cookie? These are premium, super-soft, very creative, gourmet cookies. And they ain’t cheap. They are high-fat content, high-sugar cookies, which triggers all the neurons when you eat one. Your taste receptors light up like the Las Vegas strip. I had a brief infatuation with them, and I will go back, but I’m not in a rush. And yet, Crumbl stores are popping up all over. This is a quick interview with a founder of an exploding business.
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What: WSJ, ‘Participation Trophies’ Are a Fake Crisis. Here’s the Real Problem for Youth Sports.
Why: When my kids were growing up, my wife and I encouraged them to play youth sports. I didn’t do any when I was a kid, but my wife was very involved and got a lot out of her experiences. One thing we opted out of were the “travel teams”. We kept them in local community activities. I’m really glad we did. They got to play and explore different sports at an adequate level of competition. The emergence of the travel team system seems to me to be part of the arms race of college admissions. I think my kids learned the values team sports have to teach without the cost (time and money) of travel teams.
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Watch
What: Atul Gawande, Want to get great at something? Get a coach (16 min)
https://www.ted.com/talks/atul_gawande_want_to_get_great_at_something_get_a_coach
Why: Gawande is a surgeon and author. I’ve referenced him several times before. In this video he talks about how anyone looking to improve, individually or in a team, can use a coach. Coaches provide external feedback that allow us to improve. I’m writing this and thinking about the various dimensions of practice where I could use a coach.
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Listen
What: After Hours, Betting on Netflix, Co-CEOs and India (40 min)
Why: I’ve been bullish on India for years. I have always believed, and continue to believe, that China’s governance by the Communist Party will limit China’s growth and integration with the world. No one is inspired by an autocratic regime. No one except other would-be autocrats. To achieve real, sustained growth in a modern economy, people need to have economic and political freedom. China has a lot of room to grow because it was coming from such a bad starting place, but I think in the near future we will see it continuing to slow.
India also has a bad starting place, but it has liberal governance structures left over from its colonial period, much in the same way that the US had liberal governance structures from its colonial past. Freedom generates messiness, but it unleashes potential. I am long-run bullish on India because it has institutions that are freer than China’s. It will just take more time to get there.
The India segment on this podcast makes some pro- and con-points about where growth might happen and what the challenges are for India. I’m still bullish.
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What: Design Matters with Debbie Millman, Will Guidara
Why: Guidara is an elite restauranteur. In this interview he talks about his career and some of the restaurants he worked in and developed. As a person who was formerly a healthcare leader and now teaches healthcare leadership, I heard a lot of lessons in this podcast that easily transfer to the healthcare space - or really any industry. Guidara talks about an early period in his career when he was being developed to be a leader, he was made to work in the accounting department during the morning, and the kitchen in the afternoon/evening. Learning both sides of the business simultaneously allowed him to not see a tension between operations and finance - something I wish more leaders appreciated. I find this especially prevalent among clinicians who want to take on leadership roles.
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What: The Journal, Nursing Shortage? There's an App for That (16 min)
Why: Hospitals and other healthcare organizations are resorting to apps and gig work to fill the nursing shortage. It’s Uber for nurses!
I’m skeptical, but how different is this from using an agency? I guess not much. The devil is in the details, though. Yes, a trained nurse is a trained nurse. But every ward and clinic runs a little differently. If you have different faces coming and going all the time, it seems like this creates risk. A nurse works in a team - an Uber driver is a solo practitioner. That’s a big difference. This would apply to all the other forms of gig work, too, it seems. When the job doesn’t require coordination with other teammates, gig work would be ideal.