RWL Newsletter #36
Greetings from the University of New Hampshire, where you can't assume winter is officially over until August. Technically it was spring break this week, but we got hammered by the blizzard Stella on Tuesday. I had planned on doing a photography trip down to Cape Cod, but had to cancel because of the weather. So since I couldn't drive anywhere, I decided to do a little photography stay-cation. This shot is from the back side of the University - the University gets its water from the Oyster River above this dam - taken during Stella. Flexibility - a key tenet of good leadership!
I hope you had a great week - whether you were on spring break or not! Here are some interesting leadership tid-bits for your weekend unwinding!
Read
What: from the Atlantic, This Article Won’t Change Your Mind, by Julie Beck
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/03/this-article-wont-change-your-mind/519093/
Why: One theory we didn't discuss in my organizational behavior class, at least not yet, is cognitive dissonance. This article is really about how people deal with cognitive dissonance in a variety of settings. Understanding cognitive dissonance is an important part of understanding human behavior. Tribalism and belonging are tangled up in identity, and there is a lot of non-fact based behavior that can be explained once you accept that someone's behavior is driven by identity and not just rational facts. Or, a better way to think of it is, sometimes it is rational for people to behave irrationally, though the author does not explore that. I'll have to find some work on that to share at another point. I liked this quote, because healthcare is a knowledge business, run by smart, hyper-educated people: "High levels of knowledge make someone more likely to engage in motivated reasoning—perhaps because they have more to draw on when crafting a counterargument."
Watch
What: TED Talk, Should you live for your resume... or your eulogy? from David Brooks
https://www.ted.com/talks/david_brooks_should_you_live_for_your_resume_or_your_eulogy?utm_source=tedcomshare&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=tedspread
Why: Colleen and David did a fantastic presentation on Character in my organizational behavior class. This is one of the videos they shared with the class. If you haven't read Brooks' book, The Road to Character, I recommend it. It's great for reflection. In this video, Brooks talks about Adam 1 and Adam 2, and gets at the heart of what we are living for.
Listen
What: Health Leader Forge interview with Warren West, the CEO of North Country Healthcare
http://healthleaderforge.blogspot.com/2017/03/warren-k-west-mba-fache-ceo-north.html
Why: North Country Healthcare is a newly formed system of four critical access hospitals in the North Country of New Hampshire, and I believe it may be the only system of critical access hospitals in the country that do not have a larger community hospital or medical center. Warren was instrumental in bringing the system together, transitioning from being the President and CEO of Littleton Regional Healthcare, the largest of the four hospitals in the new system, to system CEO. Warren has had an interesting career, starting at the age of 16 as a housekeeper in a rehabilitation hospital. I encourage you to check out the full length version because we talk about a number of interesting topics, such as the difference between certificate of need programs between states, that I had to cut from the edited version.
That's it for this week!
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