RWL Newsletter #14
Greetings RWL friends! Whew - what a week. I'm doing my best to crush my students with mid-terms - it's hard to believe we are that far along in the semester already! I'm sitting here typing while they take a Bruce Springsteen-themed finance exam. They're working on the financial statements for Thunder Road Hospital, Glory Days Nursing Home, and Jungleland DME, Inc. Hey, it keeps me entertained.
So for your entertainment, here are three cool things I found this week that I want to share with you:
Read
What: Contract Theory: Nobel Offerings to Health Economics (HT to RSW for the link)
https://www.ohe.org/news/contract-theory-nobel-offerings-health-economics
Why: Oliver Hart and Bengt Holmström won the Nobel Prize in Economics this week for their contribution to Contract Theory. In a nutshell, contract theory is about how we make agreements with other human beings and enforce those agreements. Writing a bad contract can result in all sorts of perverse outcomes. Health care makes use of all sorts of contracts - employment contracts, insurance contracts, purchasing contracts, etc. I was talking with my students this week about one aspect of contract theory in particular - "incomplete contracts". The idea is no matter how ironclad you try to make a contract's language, there is always going to be a contingency that comes up that you didn't foresee. We talked about the importance of repeat business and reputation in overcoming some of these problems. This is a short write up about the award, but it's worth a read. Contract theory was one of the things that first made me want to do advanced study in economics.
Watch
What: Angola Prison Hospice: Opening the Door
https://youtu.be/mMLjANwBRDk
Why: Journeying with someone through the end of their life is a powerful thing. Journeying with someone through the end of their life, while they (and you) are serving a life sentence is even more powerful. I did a tour in Western Louisiana at Ft. Polk and some of the people I worked with invited me to come to the Angola Prison Rodeo. I've been fascinated with Angola ever since. I think if you watch this, you will be, too.
Listen
What: HBR Ideacast, Macromanagement Is Just as Bad as Micromanagement
https://player.fm/series/hbr-ideacast/544-macromanagement-is-just-as-bad-as-micromanagement
Why: I'd never heard the phrase "macromanagement" before, so I thought it was an interesting way of looking at another leadership flaw. Is your leadership style too hands off? Unfortunately I know I've been guilty of both macro and micromanagement, sometimes with same people at the same time. It's worth a listen to think about.
That's it for this week! Have a great weekend!
If you find these links interesting, won’t you tell a friend? They can subscribe here: https://tinyletter.com/markbonica
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 by e-mail, or you can tweet to me at @bonicatalent .
Thanks for reading and see you next week!
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
Twitter: @bonicatalent
"I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by a conscious endeavor." - Henry David Thoreau