Happy New Year from all of us here at the Last Homely House (LHH)! 2020 is officially history. It was the year that seemed to last a decade. So long - you won’t be missed!
My wife and I took the dog for a walk in UNH’s College Woods this morning, which we love to do. The Oyster River, which is where I often paddle, flows through College Woods, but it is much smaller up here than it is below the Mill Pond dam where I usually paddle. Picture above is the New Year’s sunrise over the Oyster River. It was a lovely way to start the New Year right. I’m setting health and fitness goals for myself this year, like most folks. I’m also going to be doing a daily piece of visual art like I did in ‘18 and ‘19, and I’m committed to writing on my blog daily as well. I have a lot of work goals, like making progress on a couple of research projects, improving our undergraduate internship program, and starting an executive masters in healthcare administration program. My wife and I are chomping at the bit ready for our immunizations so we can start spending time with family and traveling again. I hope you are taking New Year’s day to make your own commitments to self-improvement both personally and professionally. 2021 is going to be a great year!
Until we can all get the immunization and be together again, stay well and stay safe!
Read
What: Bonica, Mayhugh, & Bewley, Operation Retirement: A Four-Stage Model of Military Retirement and Transition to Civilian Healthcare Leadership
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3748531
Why: A little shameless self-promotion here. This is a pre-print of an article I’ve been working on for the last few months, based on research I have been doing for the last few years. My colleagues and I interviewed 28 Medical Service Corps officers from the Army, Navy, and Air Force, who had retired from the Military Health System and transitioned to leadership roles in (non-Federal) civilian healthcare. I think we find some very interesting trends that are worth considering both for anyone who is looking to retire from the military and seek employment outside of the federal government, as well as findings for anyone who wants to employ veterans.
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What: Matt Ridley’s Blog, WHY MRNA VACCINES COULD REVOLUTIONISE MEDICINE
http://www.rationaloptimist.com/blog/mrna-vaccines-could-revolutionise-medicine
Why: Matt Ridley is a science and innovation write whom I enjoy reading. He asks:
“What if 2020 went down in history as the year synthetic biology dealt a mortal blow to future viruses and illnesses in general, rather than the year a virus ruined our health, wellbeing and livelihoods?”
This post is a short primer on mRNA and how it might change everything. Not that mRNA was discovered in 2020 (it was discovered in 1961), but it will be the first time an immunization based on mRNA technology was mass produced and (at least started to be) distributed broadly. We could look back at 2020 as a milestone in medical history for a good reason.
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What: Psychology Today, The Power of Positive Envy
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/science-made-practical/202012/the-power-positive-envy
Why: This article presents envy as having a positive side - “benign envy” - the kind of envy you can use to motivate yourself to work harder so you can close the gap between what someone has and you don’t. The author also talks a bit about malign envy, but let’s stay away from that one. (HT the Evil HR Lady)
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Watch
What: TEDxSanFranciscoSalon, Designing the rest of your life | Dave Evans (19 min)
Why: This is perfect New Year’s day watching. Evans is co-Author of Design Your Life which I have written about previously, and an instructor at the Stanford Life Design Lab. This is an energetic presentation that covers most of the macro ideas he and his co-author Bill Burnett write about in their book. They apply design thinking (human centered design) to the idea of creating a meaningful and joyful life. What is great about this book is it is not abstract. They have a series of exercises and approaches to thinking about and exploring what it is that you really value and what you want to do with the discretionary parts of your life. We all have constraints which they call “gravity problems” and they acknowledge that there are things we don’t have discretionary control over. But there is a lot of room in our lives where we can make choices, even if they are choices along the margins, to make them better. The book is an excellent guide for discovering what those choices should be. Watch the video - then maybe get the book.
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What: Ask a Career Coach: Personal Branding 101 (60 min)
Why: This is a good overview of personal branding for your career. It’s longer, but it’s thoughtful and not full of nonsense the way so many other presentations on this topic tend to be. Personal branding is really just learning to pay attention to your reputation. It’s an old fashioned idea with a new name, but it’s still just as important as it has always been.
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Listen
What: HBR Ideacast, Better Ways to Manage Up and Out (26 min)
https://hbr.org/podcast/2020/12/better-ways-to-manage-up-and-out
Why: This was an interesting discussion of management communication. I’ve written on the topic of managing up in the past because this is a skill that most of us do not naturally have. I liked this passage from the podcast:
I often think bragging is seen as bragging when it doesn’t really have a context to it, it’s just about you’re saying what you’re great at, but it’s not landing for the person that you’re saying it to in any way that’s valuable to them.
The interview is full of interesting insights like that. Worth a listen.
Thanks for reading and see you next week! If you come across any interesting stories, won't you send them my way? I'd love to hear what you think of these suggestions, and I'd love to get suggestions from you. Feel free to drop me a line at mark.bonica@unh.edu , or you can tweet to me at @mbonica .
If you’re looking for a searchable archive, you can see my draft folder here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1jwGLdjsb1WKtgH_2C-_3VvrYCtqLplFO?usp=sharing
Finally, if you find these links interesting, won’t you tell a friend? They can subscribe here: https://markbonica.substack.com/welcome
See you next Friday!
Mark
Mark J. Bonica, Ph.D., MBA, MS
Assistant Professor
Department of Health Management and Policy
University of New Hampshire
(603) 862-0598
mark.bonica@unh.edu
Health Leader Forge Podcast: http://healthleaderforge.org
'It is the small things, everyday deeds of ordinary folk, that keep the darkness at bay. Simple acts of kindness and love.' - Gandalf (The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey)