Greetings from … Wayne, Pennsylvania! I’m traveling this weekend to visit my sister and her family because my nephew was making his first communion. We’re all vaccinated (I’m the only one who is partially vaccinated - I get my second shot Tuesday - yay!) so we thought it was worth the risk to see each other. Ironically, my wife and I flew down to visit last February and it turned out to be our last significant trip before the pandemic. It’s great to be able to see my sister and her family again after more than a year and I am glad we were able to participate in that important milestone for my nephew. So much of life has been on hold - it feels like we have all been holding our breath for over a year.
I wrote last week that I was feeling COVID burn out, and that is still true. Aside from the personal limitations COVID has imposed on all of us, it has also made teaching more challenging and less satisfying. For me, the main satisfaction from teaching is the personal interactions with the students, and the chance to see them grow and experience their excitement at seeing their own successes. With COVID, that experience has been blanched. By this point of the year I usually know all of my students quite well - and through those relationships I can provide them more guidance and support. This year I have not succeeded in making those connections with most of them, so I feel like I have failed them. A relationship is two-sided, but undergraduates, by definition, do not know what they need, so I hold myself responsible for not having facilitated the process given the constraints.
On the plus side, as of now I have managed to place 29 of our 35 students in summer internships - and 27 of those internships are full time and paid. I’ve been able to secure many new sites with promising, meaningful experiences for the students, despite COVID. I’m confident I will be able to place the last six before the end of the semester, so that is satisfying. I feel that the work I have put in since taking over the internship program at the beginning of March (and COVID) last year will pay off next year as we emerge from the shadow of pandemic. I am very grateful to the leaders who have agreed to take our students and seen the value of hosting students despite the ongoing challenges this year has held.
The year of COVID has been challenging to all of us. Challenges reveal strengths and weaknesses in individuals and systems. When a weakness is revealed, it is useful to reflect on how you can shore it up, without brooding or giving up. (I confess, I do engage in some brooding but I try not to give up.) But it is also useful to celebrate and build on strengths - maybe even more so. A lesson from military strategy is you do not fight the enemy where you are weakest - you always try to prepare the battlefield so that you can fight from your strengths. So that is what I want to reflect on this summer when I have time. What do I need to shore up (without brooding) and where can I continue to grow and provide even better service and value? I hope you have time to reflect when this time is over and do the same - to shore up your weaknesses and celebrate your strengths.
OK! till next week - thanks for reading and enjoy the links!
(pic is a dream of trees - the leaves are coming back - very happy about that)
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Read
What: FastCompany, You’re probably not doing this one activity that can help your career
Why: The one activity they are referring to is volunteering. I spoke with my students about the value of volunteering last week and asked them to think about how they might include this in their career going forward. There are all sorts of benefits, as outlined in this article, including getting leadership exposure earlier in your career than you might in a paid position, getting to practice new skills, and networking of course. Quick read.
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What: HBR, How to Improve Your Sales Skills, Even If You’re Not a Salesperson
https://hbr.org/2017/05/how-to-improve-your-sales-skills-even-if-youre-not-a-salesperson
Why: A quick article explaining why we should all think about how we are involved in “sales”:
Move beyond the used car salesman cliché. “Selling is not about putting undue pressure on and talking incessantly,” all while “wearing a light blue polyester suit,” he says. Rather, selling “is persuading, inspiring, and leading.” Your goal is “to work in collaboration” with a client or colleague “to drive change.”
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Watch
What: Brian Tracy, How to Set Goals: 80/20 Rule for Goal Setting (6 min)
Why: I’ve been thinking about goal setting, so I was intentional this week about looking for a video about the topic. I liked Tracy’s application of the Pareto Principle to goal setting - 20% of the goals you set are probably the most important; successful people tend to have one big goal that they work on relentlessly. He suggests an easy exercise to try out this Pareto Principle approach - I suggest giving it a try.
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Listen
What: The Dispatch Podcast, The Treasure of the Scout Mindset (74 min)
https://omny.fm/shows/the-dispatch-podcast/the-treasure-of-the-scout-mindset
Why: This is a fun interview with Julia Galef, author of The Scout Mindset. I thought their discussion of epistemic vs social confidence was particularly interesting, as well as the question of how these forms of confidence are gendered. Description:
Are you a “scout” or a “soldier”? What do those terms even mean? In Julia Galef’s new book, The Scout Mindset, she argues the scout mindset is underrepresented in today’s world. “The scout’s role, unlike the soldier, is not to go out and attack or defend,” she says. “It’s to go out, and see what’s really out there as clearly as possible and to put together as accurate a map of the territory or a situation as you can.”
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What: A16z Podcast, On Monetizing Community with Patreon Cofounder Sam Yam
https://a16z.simplecast.com/episodes/creator-monetization-patreon-9qgY9RwY
Why: A very interesting discussion with Patreon cofounder Sam Yam. There is a revolution happening in the way we pay for and consume and pay for creative output. I’m a fan of Substack (as you can see since this newsletter is coming from that service), and I’ve used Kickstarter in the past. I’ve helped people through GoFundMe, though I’ve never used that myself. All of these services are redefining our relationship with creators and the products they create - whether that is art, music, or journalism. This conversation delves into that process, and how it is reshaping the institutions that used to act as intermediaries.
In healthcare it will be interesting to see how we progress toward subscription models. In a sense health insurance is a subscription already, but it will be interesting to see where this goes.
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)