New York Women Leaders Association NY Chapter Meeting: Leading Through Change
Danielle Gratale of Nemours Children's Health discusses ideas and strategies for leading through change at the New York Women Leaders Association Chapter Meeting.
Transcript
so for our next presentation I'm going to ask Daniela if she will turn her camera on and say hello hello everyone I will go ahead and well thank you so much for being with us today so as you pull your slides up can you give us a self- inroduction sure so I'm Daniela Gali I am the AVP of federal Affairs at neor Children's Health uh we're a Pediatric Health System in the deler valley and in Florida um and I work out of our national office uh which focuses on um really looking at how we can improve the health and wellbeing of children not just in that we serve clinically or not even just in our service area but really thinking about the whole
nation all right are you seeing the right view or do I need to flip it here now it looks perfect so take it away great so thank you so much uh for having me here today uh so I've been with mamor for 14 years now uh which has been a a great journey um I've seen a lot of change though in uh the past 14 years which is why I was drawn to uh this topic I started at neor about a year or so into the creation of the national office uh where I work it's national office on policy and prevention so when I first started um we really didn't have a policy and advocacy team we started by focusing on one issue and we've seen it blossom into a a full scale policy agenda uh throughout my course of time here I've seen many different leadership changes um we've had CEO our enterprise-wide CEO retire we've had retirements for our regional leadership um the vice president Executive Vice President that I report to have changed um we've definitely seen a lot that has evolved over that time but a common focus on our core mission of um helping children and families so it's been an exciting journey and I'm happy to share a little bit about it today so I think um the first thing that really struck me just with the prior presentation was um the itive reframing because that's kind of where I'm coming from on change too I think often when you're experiencing a change in the moment it can feel overwhelming sometimes it can feel very negative um but there's a lot of positivity that can come out of change so I think approaching it with a mindset um that sees the opportunity and change um which these quotes really um help reflect upon is a great way to to start and to um kind of set yourself in the right um mental place to help um move things in a positive direction so today I wanted to cover uh change at the macro level so big picture um which is often tied to leadership change um then spend a little bit of time on your team itself and and how you can support a team and make sure you have a resilient team and then thinking a little bit about um a mindset of continuous Improvement
so macro level change I thought this was a good definition of it um thinking big picture so culture change technology change process change even strategy change can be um pretty high level I would say this piece is what I have experienced a lot um throughout my time at neor um right now we're in a place where we have um pretty new strategic plan um one that is really challenging us to make sure that on the clinical side of things we're continuing to do highest quality of care um on kind of my side of the house more the policy and advocacy side um a lot of more um integration with our Communications team and partners thinking a lot about uh not just doing the policy and advocacy work and the practice and prevention work but talking about it and um having more thought leadership opportunities that really helped to elevate it um and to make make it more um on the minds of policy makers and um thinking through how we can do more high-profile events and kind of similar activities to what we've done in the past but amped up for sure um and the way that we work has also changed of course over the past few years uh so going into covid um most of the team with the exception of me um was based in Washington DC we had a couple of other folks in in the Delaware Valley um but primarily it was coming every day um and postco we gave up half of our office space and now we're all over the place so we're in New York and New Jersey and Washington DC and Delaware and Pennsylvania um Virginia Alabama so our national office really is um Florida actually too spread across the east coast and it was really um an opportunity for all of us to think about how do we in this new environment Where We Are more spread out create more flexibility for everyone maintain accountability but also really focus on our relationships because when you're not in that office every day seeing one another um really wanting to make sure that we're building in the time so that those more informal interactions that can really help a team to feel cohesion um weren't suffering because we're more spread out so that's just another change that we've been really thoughtful about over the past few years so digging in a little bit more to some of the leadership changes that we've experienced um as we've gone through leadership change I think it's been really helpful to make sure that um the leadership of the team is doing everything that we can to expose our team members to the thinking um of the new leader and to opportunities to directly interact so some of that is to get a sense of style some of that is to get a sense of vision and strategic plan um and it's also a great opportunity to highlight your team's value so I think it's kind of a combination of a showand tell but also a really good opportunity to listen learn and assess I think that's probably been one of the biggest lessons for me about change is it's not just the outside factors are changing it's really you have such an important opportunity then to be really strategic and really thought ful about what are you doing now that really aligns well and what could you be doing differently um that hopefully can actually lead to better outcomes so a few examples of how my team and I have evolved um over the past five or six years as we've had a lot of different um leadership changes um so as I said we've had a big focus on National reputation and thought leadership and really making sure that we're not just doing good policy work um on Capitol Hill and with our delegation but that we're making sure that folks are aware of it and really elevating those priorities uh so our CEO had um and our Executive Vice President had shared that these were important priorities to to focus more on the communications and dissemination strategy so um a couple summers ago we did a big event um that I was tasked with making happen uh wanted to do something on mental health so so I worked with our Congressional Delegation and we were able to get uh the Secretary of Health and Human Services Javier rera to come to Delaware and to um do an event really focused on youth mental health um we've definitely seen over the past few years especially I mean the youth mental health um crisis was going on for a long time but I think it's gotten a lot more attention the past few years but we were able as a result of that to pull together national leaders State leaders families um Community leaders and really shine a spotlight on um a problem that deserves more attention and deserves um a lot more policy making in that area um and kind of around the same time we worked really hard and we're able to secure some federal funds uh to really help us um support a mental health Workforce pipeline um in in the state of Delaware so I think having that greater um executive focus on on telling our story and getting out there really helped create some positive outcomes so the challenge that we were given um resulted in I think us doing something pulling off an event like that and then helping to secure the the federal funds um was more than we um had initially envisioned uh to do but was very very positive um similarly we had brought our new CEO to um an advocacy day and um everything went well wonderful meeting and at the end of it ask for feedback I think this is so critical when you're going especially as you're going through big picture changes um and got very candid feedback great day great meetings all went well I want you to push harder think bigger and work on legislation that's more challenging so um that was another piece of feedback that I I was really um thoughtful about so my team has since started working on um a bill that has um bipartisan support um definitely getting it past is still a challenge but um we took that challenge and really thought about how can we do more how can we think bigger and I think sometimes you need the impetus of um of a leader or just of a strategic plan that really pushes you and you might have very positive um outcomes coming out of that so at the same time as things might be happening at the big picture level um at the Strategic level at the leadership level um there can also be changes happening just at the team level um you've probably seen this before the stages of team tuckman stages of team development I think they're really helpful though just in thinking through as you're going through a change whether it is a macro level change for your organization or the external environment or your team itself is changing as folks come on and and U Move off of a team um just thinking through your role as a team member or your role as a leader and how you can help to get to that performing stage because that's really where you want to spend most of your time so just very quickly um the forming stage is when a team is coming together there's lots of uncertainty some level of excitement at the same time but here having a leader who's very clear with vision UH responsibilities and roles sets clear standards of conduct how you will work with one another is really important um from team members perspective asking lots of clarifying questions um can be very helpful storming is that phase where you might see some conflict you're still trying to figure things out um there might be some Ro confusion um folks might not be optimally performing or optimally getting along and again as a team leader really focusing in on those standards of behavior um and making sure that you're moving from the conflict stage to the norming stage and and being transparent and open is very helpful when you're in that norming and Performing stage that's when you really want to see see team members stepping up um taking responsibility and you're hopefully firing on all cylinders and it's a cycle so of course folks will leave um team members will change and you will continue to to go through these stages but the most important thing here is making sure that you're thoughtful about the fact that you are going through these stages and that you are supporting the team throughout them kind of building on that we have spent um a good amount of time on my team because over the past couple years so kind of postco we've had a lot of managers who directly report to me um or a couple of our managers who had been here for a long time found new opportunities that were great for them so we were really thoughtful the rest of us about how do we celebrate those contributions and also recognize the opportunity we have the opportunity to really think about who's doing what uh what is the nature of the work that we're doing and how can we rebuild in a way that is positive for everyone so first it was thinking and celebrating and then it was really taking that time to be thoughtful and think about what our next steps are and as we've been rebuilding um our team we have used some of the tools from HR like things like the dis assessment that helps us think through our Styles and I think really being intentional intentional about this piece is very important because if you want to be able to weather the storm when things really can get challenging thinking through how do I build the right team and how do we work with one another is really important and once you have your team in place what we do on my team is think about how we work together both in terms of our relationships and then um efficiencies in process as well so to help with relationships um especially since we are so scattered geographically we do um first we spend a lot of time anytime someone is onboarded on uh really going through our standards of behavior and our core competency so those are Enterprise wide across the mors we have a set of standards of behavior things like make sure you're in the moment make sure you're being humanistic um set clear expectations help develop uh others professionally so it's it's the way that we work together not just the the outcomes that we get so we spend time going through those and through core confidence and actually when we're evaluated each year half of our evaluation focuses on our work and the other half focuses on those core competencies and standards of behavior so it's a really great way of making sure that uh the way that you interact and work together um really is seen as as a value and an asset that you want to reward we also in terms of relationship building think a lot about how to make sure it's not just all work all the time so we will do ice breakers in our team meetings regularly uh when we see each other in person we'll try to do coffees or lunches that are more informal just to make sure that we are continuing to get to know and to Value each other as individuals not just as colleagues and that does help uh when getting to the next bullet about creating the space for tough conversations so on my team we do uh rounding coming from like the similar to like the medical rounding uh once a month where we have um in all my one-on-one meetings with direct reports and they do it with where their direct reports it's meant to be open conversation of let's talk about what's going on what what barriers are you facing uh what What's going well too of course but is there anything else I can do as a manager to help support you but it's protected time it's every month sometimes it takes five minutes sometimes it takes longer but having that Forum to kind of go through uh questions and to to raise issues that might not always be comfortable to talk about can be a really important way of surfacing issues again so that if you do get into those periods of uh organizational change where things do feel more turbulent you have a way of making sure that your team members feel comfortable uh coming to you and And discussing things and then more on a regular basis we do the the last two things here we on a quarterly basis talk about profession profal development goals to make sure that folks are on track um and that some of the stuff that they enjoy doing whether it's going to conferences or or writing academic papers whatever it might be that we're being strategic and thoughtful about upcoming opportunities to promote that and then finally I try to recognize my team whenever I can we have an online platform across the Enterprise where we can um publicly praise one another so we use that we do it during team meetings and of course Financial recognition whenever it's possible is always appreciated for for your team
members so in addition to the relationship building side of things um also I think it's important to think about how are you being efficient and effective and a while back probably almost 10 years ago we actually got some training on continuous Improvement and I mean 10 years later we don't do everything exactly um as was initially um conceived but some of the um the core pieces of it like having a huddle board templates and checklist I still use with my team um because I think it's really helpful and important so our huddle board is something that uh we use on a regular basis to um go through to sort of surface any problems and again especially when you're thinking about organizational changes having a place where you and a forum to talk about that can be helpful so it's always kind of what's the issue when is the what's the counter measure when is it du buy and who's responsible we've also Ed um a project board for when we're doing more complicated things just to again assign accountabilities and what's the next step and who's doing what and that kind of transparency as well as um just the the focus on making sure that that we're on top of things again helps keep us really organized which is uh very important and then we use templates and checklists whenever we can so on the uh template side there are um types of things that are kind of repetitive like comment letters thank you letters um just the types of writing that we do pretty often um send to send to regulatory agencies or members of Congress having examples and templates can be really helpful in terms of taking some of the the time away um from having to recreate every time when we do any of the big events or Lobby days we do Lobby days fairly frequently we create checklists and plans for all of those again creates more efficiency we always make time to debrief after um any big event and then really think about what do we want to do next time and then that's kind of revisiting our templates and our checklist to help improve them and then finally each year we go through a strategic planning process and that's when we're really being thoughtful about what is changing internally what is changing externally given the nature of my work we spent a lot of time thinking about Congress and the administration and obviously this year is an election year and regardless of um which side wins it'll be a new Administration um with new heads of all the agencies uh we'll have some new members of our federal delegation so it's really a time for us to be thoughtful about given that there will be changes in priorities um given that we'll be dealing with a different set of actors what do we need to do kind of proactively to plan for that and to make sure that we are in uh the best space possible so right now we are analyzing the priorities of um all both parties um to really make sure that we are are best positioned to to do our job so I think taking the time to be thoughtful about all of these things whether it's your priorities your templates and checklist your strategic plan helps you so that if other unexpected curve balls come in and you do have big picture organizational shifts your core your foundation is very solid and you're not kind of trying to figure out what do I do on an everyday basis at the same time that you're trying to kind of correct course you know that your fundamentals are strong and it's just a matter of kind of taking a new information um and figuring out how to adjust at that point so some final tips and takeways here um I think my number one message is there's a lot of opportunity in change and it really can be uh positive as long as you don't feel overwhelmed by it and you're willing to take the time to be thoughtful um ask questions and really think about what what am I doing now um that could look different or could be better and and kind of take the positivity in that and move there as long as you can do that um I I think you really can um weather changes in a way that is uh very positive um certainly Focus all the time on building those strong relationships and those open Communications Channels with your team because if you don't have that in place the strong team Dynamic it becomes so much more difficult to work together when there are big picture um shifts either in the internal Environ en or in the external environment um certainly work with your HR department and other colleagues to figure out ways like Myers Briggs or dis assessments things like that that help you figure out how to work best together with different communication Styles um and I really think just embracing the the spirit of continuous Improvement can help you to stretch yourself and to do it in a way that um can help you actually land better than where you were so I'll end with this quote because again I think it's um a positive way to to frame everything that we afraid to give up the good to go for the great thank
you well thank you so much for that wonderful presentation and do you have time for a few questions sure well thank you Daniela so this one came in this one came in from Gracie early in your presentation and Gracie asks any tips on how to connect with new co-workers you have never met in person sure so I do that all the time so we are um like I said all over the place and we have one Hospital in Wilmington Delaware and another in Orlando Florida so usually I try to do something like this where we can actually see each other on video first um if it is someone that you expect that you will be working with on a regular basis usually I'll set up some sort of a Cadence um if it's not it might just be let's do a half hour teams meeting and then um you know check in as needed by email whenever we can though uh if I'm in Florida or in Delaware I will try to meet people in person because I think you absolutely can start to build a strong relationship virtually but having those in-person connection points really does help so start it virtually like this try to be on camera if you can and at the point at which you can I think try to try to meet in person because it it does make a big difference that's great thank you all right we have two more questions before we move on to our panel and India says I Ma I manage a team with members close to retirement any tips on getting them on board with change and evolution so I I I think at different stages in one's career you certainly look at things differently but I think with folks who are close to retirement there's probably still a lot of experience that they can draw upon so almost instead of trying to convince them to get on board with uh the changes sometimes a conversation of all right here's where we need to go what do you think about the best way to get there so it's not so much a manager imposing a change as we know we need to get here how can we work together what do you think throughout the course of your career what have you seen uh to be effective that's I mean with Focus all across um the board on my team some some are really new some are more experienced when we do have something new I really try my best to work as a team to figure it out I also am very transparent so if we're working on something and it seems to not be going well I have no problem saying okay let's try this again and let's brainstorm so I really think kind of bringing in folks to the conversation and letting them have a role in um how you implement the change can be a positive way of getting there together that's great thank you I well this is gonna be our final question from Ria and she says you mentioned conferences and training how can I pitch my boss on spending the money on this type of continuing education I mean certainly every organization has its own budget constraints um like I personally believe in it I think it's really important myself so usually my team as long as I have something budgeted for it which I I usually do each year it's a matter of picking out which conferences are most most strategic with my uh team members as opposed to pitching them on the concept um I guess in terms of pitching someone on the concept who maybe isn't sold on it if there is any level of budget flexib I think it's really thinking about what is the gap that you're trying to fill through a particular opportunity uh so one of my team members literally just came back from a conference this past week um and came back and is sharing presentations and notes with the entire team so if there's a way to talk about this specific conference will help me in this way and I'll bring back value to the team by sharing key lessons um and you go to one and it works out well and and you make some new connections and and can use that as a basis for for future conversations with your boss the combination of networking new skills learned and bringing back some of those learning to your team I think there might be um a positive way to to build a case for it it's it's just a matter of what what uh priorities are and and what you can fit in the budget that's wonderful thank you well so as we before we move to our panel do you have any final thoughts or words of wisdom for all of our viewers today sure sorry about that so I think uh just in reflecting on change overall um sometimes things don't always go well at first uh when a new change is happening and that's okay I don't think it should be viewed as a Sprint I think any type of change really is um meant to be a long-term opportunity so keep listening keep trying and if at first you don't feel like you made the great impression that you wanted to on a new leader or if something didn't go as planned um you know don't lose heart just keep at it because I think there's lots of opportunity over time to uh to continue to see the opportunity and change and to continue to make it positive that's great well thank you so much for your time today Daniela
nation all right are you seeing the right view or do I need to flip it here now it looks perfect so take it away great so thank you so much uh for having me here today uh so I've been with mamor for 14 years now uh which has been a a great journey um I've seen a lot of change though in uh the past 14 years which is why I was drawn to uh this topic I started at neor about a year or so into the creation of the national office uh where I work it's national office on policy and prevention so when I first started um we really didn't have a policy and advocacy team we started by focusing on one issue and we've seen it blossom into a a full scale policy agenda uh throughout my course of time here I've seen many different leadership changes um we've had CEO our enterprise-wide CEO retire we've had retirements for our regional leadership um the vice president Executive Vice President that I report to have changed um we've definitely seen a lot that has evolved over that time but a common focus on our core mission of um helping children and families so it's been an exciting journey and I'm happy to share a little bit about it today so I think um the first thing that really struck me just with the prior presentation was um the itive reframing because that's kind of where I'm coming from on change too I think often when you're experiencing a change in the moment it can feel overwhelming sometimes it can feel very negative um but there's a lot of positivity that can come out of change so I think approaching it with a mindset um that sees the opportunity and change um which these quotes really um help reflect upon is a great way to to start and to um kind of set yourself in the right um mental place to help um move things in a positive direction so today I wanted to cover uh change at the macro level so big picture um which is often tied to leadership change um then spend a little bit of time on your team itself and and how you can support a team and make sure you have a resilient team and then thinking a little bit about um a mindset of continuous Improvement
so macro level change I thought this was a good definition of it um thinking big picture so culture change technology change process change even strategy change can be um pretty high level I would say this piece is what I have experienced a lot um throughout my time at neor um right now we're in a place where we have um pretty new strategic plan um one that is really challenging us to make sure that on the clinical side of things we're continuing to do highest quality of care um on kind of my side of the house more the policy and advocacy side um a lot of more um integration with our Communications team and partners thinking a lot about uh not just doing the policy and advocacy work and the practice and prevention work but talking about it and um having more thought leadership opportunities that really helped to elevate it um and to make make it more um on the minds of policy makers and um thinking through how we can do more high-profile events and kind of similar activities to what we've done in the past but amped up for sure um and the way that we work has also changed of course over the past few years uh so going into covid um most of the team with the exception of me um was based in Washington DC we had a couple of other folks in in the Delaware Valley um but primarily it was coming every day um and postco we gave up half of our office space and now we're all over the place so we're in New York and New Jersey and Washington DC and Delaware and Pennsylvania um Virginia Alabama so our national office really is um Florida actually too spread across the east coast and it was really um an opportunity for all of us to think about how do we in this new environment Where We Are more spread out create more flexibility for everyone maintain accountability but also really focus on our relationships because when you're not in that office every day seeing one another um really wanting to make sure that we're building in the time so that those more informal interactions that can really help a team to feel cohesion um weren't suffering because we're more spread out so that's just another change that we've been really thoughtful about over the past few years so digging in a little bit more to some of the leadership changes that we've experienced um as we've gone through leadership change I think it's been really helpful to make sure that um the leadership of the team is doing everything that we can to expose our team members to the thinking um of the new leader and to opportunities to directly interact so some of that is to get a sense of style some of that is to get a sense of vision and strategic plan um and it's also a great opportunity to highlight your team's value so I think it's kind of a combination of a showand tell but also a really good opportunity to listen learn and assess I think that's probably been one of the biggest lessons for me about change is it's not just the outside factors are changing it's really you have such an important opportunity then to be really strategic and really thought ful about what are you doing now that really aligns well and what could you be doing differently um that hopefully can actually lead to better outcomes so a few examples of how my team and I have evolved um over the past five or six years as we've had a lot of different um leadership changes um so as I said we've had a big focus on National reputation and thought leadership and really making sure that we're not just doing good policy work um on Capitol Hill and with our delegation but that we're making sure that folks are aware of it and really elevating those priorities uh so our CEO had um and our Executive Vice President had shared that these were important priorities to to focus more on the communications and dissemination strategy so um a couple summers ago we did a big event um that I was tasked with making happen uh wanted to do something on mental health so so I worked with our Congressional Delegation and we were able to get uh the Secretary of Health and Human Services Javier rera to come to Delaware and to um do an event really focused on youth mental health um we've definitely seen over the past few years especially I mean the youth mental health um crisis was going on for a long time but I think it's gotten a lot more attention the past few years but we were able as a result of that to pull together national leaders State leaders families um Community leaders and really shine a spotlight on um a problem that deserves more attention and deserves um a lot more policy making in that area um and kind of around the same time we worked really hard and we're able to secure some federal funds uh to really help us um support a mental health Workforce pipeline um in in the state of Delaware so I think having that greater um executive focus on on telling our story and getting out there really helped create some positive outcomes so the challenge that we were given um resulted in I think us doing something pulling off an event like that and then helping to secure the the federal funds um was more than we um had initially envisioned uh to do but was very very positive um similarly we had brought our new CEO to um an advocacy day and um everything went well wonderful meeting and at the end of it ask for feedback I think this is so critical when you're going especially as you're going through big picture changes um and got very candid feedback great day great meetings all went well I want you to push harder think bigger and work on legislation that's more challenging so um that was another piece of feedback that I I was really um thoughtful about so my team has since started working on um a bill that has um bipartisan support um definitely getting it past is still a challenge but um we took that challenge and really thought about how can we do more how can we think bigger and I think sometimes you need the impetus of um of a leader or just of a strategic plan that really pushes you and you might have very positive um outcomes coming out of that so at the same time as things might be happening at the big picture level um at the Strategic level at the leadership level um there can also be changes happening just at the team level um you've probably seen this before the stages of team tuckman stages of team development I think they're really helpful though just in thinking through as you're going through a change whether it is a macro level change for your organization or the external environment or your team itself is changing as folks come on and and U Move off of a team um just thinking through your role as a team member or your role as a leader and how you can help to get to that performing stage because that's really where you want to spend most of your time so just very quickly um the forming stage is when a team is coming together there's lots of uncertainty some level of excitement at the same time but here having a leader who's very clear with vision UH responsibilities and roles sets clear standards of conduct how you will work with one another is really important um from team members perspective asking lots of clarifying questions um can be very helpful storming is that phase where you might see some conflict you're still trying to figure things out um there might be some Ro confusion um folks might not be optimally performing or optimally getting along and again as a team leader really focusing in on those standards of behavior um and making sure that you're moving from the conflict stage to the norming stage and and being transparent and open is very helpful when you're in that norming and Performing stage that's when you really want to see see team members stepping up um taking responsibility and you're hopefully firing on all cylinders and it's a cycle so of course folks will leave um team members will change and you will continue to to go through these stages but the most important thing here is making sure that you're thoughtful about the fact that you are going through these stages and that you are supporting the team throughout them kind of building on that we have spent um a good amount of time on my team because over the past couple years so kind of postco we've had a lot of managers who directly report to me um or a couple of our managers who had been here for a long time found new opportunities that were great for them so we were really thoughtful the rest of us about how do we celebrate those contributions and also recognize the opportunity we have the opportunity to really think about who's doing what uh what is the nature of the work that we're doing and how can we rebuild in a way that is positive for everyone so first it was thinking and celebrating and then it was really taking that time to be thoughtful and think about what our next steps are and as we've been rebuilding um our team we have used some of the tools from HR like things like the dis assessment that helps us think through our Styles and I think really being intentional intentional about this piece is very important because if you want to be able to weather the storm when things really can get challenging thinking through how do I build the right team and how do we work with one another is really important and once you have your team in place what we do on my team is think about how we work together both in terms of our relationships and then um efficiencies in process as well so to help with relationships um especially since we are so scattered geographically we do um first we spend a lot of time anytime someone is onboarded on uh really going through our standards of behavior and our core competency so those are Enterprise wide across the mors we have a set of standards of behavior things like make sure you're in the moment make sure you're being humanistic um set clear expectations help develop uh others professionally so it's it's the way that we work together not just the the outcomes that we get so we spend time going through those and through core confidence and actually when we're evaluated each year half of our evaluation focuses on our work and the other half focuses on those core competencies and standards of behavior so it's a really great way of making sure that uh the way that you interact and work together um really is seen as as a value and an asset that you want to reward we also in terms of relationship building think a lot about how to make sure it's not just all work all the time so we will do ice breakers in our team meetings regularly uh when we see each other in person we'll try to do coffees or lunches that are more informal just to make sure that we are continuing to get to know and to Value each other as individuals not just as colleagues and that does help uh when getting to the next bullet about creating the space for tough conversations so on my team we do uh rounding coming from like the similar to like the medical rounding uh once a month where we have um in all my one-on-one meetings with direct reports and they do it with where their direct reports it's meant to be open conversation of let's talk about what's going on what what barriers are you facing uh what What's going well too of course but is there anything else I can do as a manager to help support you but it's protected time it's every month sometimes it takes five minutes sometimes it takes longer but having that Forum to kind of go through uh questions and to to raise issues that might not always be comfortable to talk about can be a really important way of surfacing issues again so that if you do get into those periods of uh organizational change where things do feel more turbulent you have a way of making sure that your team members feel comfortable uh coming to you and And discussing things and then more on a regular basis we do the the last two things here we on a quarterly basis talk about profession profal development goals to make sure that folks are on track um and that some of the stuff that they enjoy doing whether it's going to conferences or or writing academic papers whatever it might be that we're being strategic and thoughtful about upcoming opportunities to promote that and then finally I try to recognize my team whenever I can we have an online platform across the Enterprise where we can um publicly praise one another so we use that we do it during team meetings and of course Financial recognition whenever it's possible is always appreciated for for your team
members so in addition to the relationship building side of things um also I think it's important to think about how are you being efficient and effective and a while back probably almost 10 years ago we actually got some training on continuous Improvement and I mean 10 years later we don't do everything exactly um as was initially um conceived but some of the um the core pieces of it like having a huddle board templates and checklist I still use with my team um because I think it's really helpful and important so our huddle board is something that uh we use on a regular basis to um go through to sort of surface any problems and again especially when you're thinking about organizational changes having a place where you and a forum to talk about that can be helpful so it's always kind of what's the issue when is the what's the counter measure when is it du buy and who's responsible we've also Ed um a project board for when we're doing more complicated things just to again assign accountabilities and what's the next step and who's doing what and that kind of transparency as well as um just the the focus on making sure that that we're on top of things again helps keep us really organized which is uh very important and then we use templates and checklists whenever we can so on the uh template side there are um types of things that are kind of repetitive like comment letters thank you letters um just the types of writing that we do pretty often um send to send to regulatory agencies or members of Congress having examples and templates can be really helpful in terms of taking some of the the time away um from having to recreate every time when we do any of the big events or Lobby days we do Lobby days fairly frequently we create checklists and plans for all of those again creates more efficiency we always make time to debrief after um any big event and then really think about what do we want to do next time and then that's kind of revisiting our templates and our checklist to help improve them and then finally each year we go through a strategic planning process and that's when we're really being thoughtful about what is changing internally what is changing externally given the nature of my work we spent a lot of time thinking about Congress and the administration and obviously this year is an election year and regardless of um which side wins it'll be a new Administration um with new heads of all the agencies uh we'll have some new members of our federal delegation so it's really a time for us to be thoughtful about given that there will be changes in priorities um given that we'll be dealing with a different set of actors what do we need to do kind of proactively to plan for that and to make sure that we are in uh the best space possible so right now we are analyzing the priorities of um all both parties um to really make sure that we are are best positioned to to do our job so I think taking the time to be thoughtful about all of these things whether it's your priorities your templates and checklist your strategic plan helps you so that if other unexpected curve balls come in and you do have big picture organizational shifts your core your foundation is very solid and you're not kind of trying to figure out what do I do on an everyday basis at the same time that you're trying to kind of correct course you know that your fundamentals are strong and it's just a matter of kind of taking a new information um and figuring out how to adjust at that point so some final tips and takeways here um I think my number one message is there's a lot of opportunity in change and it really can be uh positive as long as you don't feel overwhelmed by it and you're willing to take the time to be thoughtful um ask questions and really think about what what am I doing now um that could look different or could be better and and kind of take the positivity in that and move there as long as you can do that um I I think you really can um weather changes in a way that is uh very positive um certainly Focus all the time on building those strong relationships and those open Communications Channels with your team because if you don't have that in place the strong team Dynamic it becomes so much more difficult to work together when there are big picture um shifts either in the internal Environ en or in the external environment um certainly work with your HR department and other colleagues to figure out ways like Myers Briggs or dis assessments things like that that help you figure out how to work best together with different communication Styles um and I really think just embracing the the spirit of continuous Improvement can help you to stretch yourself and to do it in a way that um can help you actually land better than where you were so I'll end with this quote because again I think it's um a positive way to to frame everything that we afraid to give up the good to go for the great thank
you well thank you so much for that wonderful presentation and do you have time for a few questions sure well thank you Daniela so this one came in this one came in from Gracie early in your presentation and Gracie asks any tips on how to connect with new co-workers you have never met in person sure so I do that all the time so we are um like I said all over the place and we have one Hospital in Wilmington Delaware and another in Orlando Florida so usually I try to do something like this where we can actually see each other on video first um if it is someone that you expect that you will be working with on a regular basis usually I'll set up some sort of a Cadence um if it's not it might just be let's do a half hour teams meeting and then um you know check in as needed by email whenever we can though uh if I'm in Florida or in Delaware I will try to meet people in person because I think you absolutely can start to build a strong relationship virtually but having those in-person connection points really does help so start it virtually like this try to be on camera if you can and at the point at which you can I think try to try to meet in person because it it does make a big difference that's great thank you all right we have two more questions before we move on to our panel and India says I Ma I manage a team with members close to retirement any tips on getting them on board with change and evolution so I I I think at different stages in one's career you certainly look at things differently but I think with folks who are close to retirement there's probably still a lot of experience that they can draw upon so almost instead of trying to convince them to get on board with uh the changes sometimes a conversation of all right here's where we need to go what do you think about the best way to get there so it's not so much a manager imposing a change as we know we need to get here how can we work together what do you think throughout the course of your career what have you seen uh to be effective that's I mean with Focus all across um the board on my team some some are really new some are more experienced when we do have something new I really try my best to work as a team to figure it out I also am very transparent so if we're working on something and it seems to not be going well I have no problem saying okay let's try this again and let's brainstorm so I really think kind of bringing in folks to the conversation and letting them have a role in um how you implement the change can be a positive way of getting there together that's great thank you I well this is gonna be our final question from Ria and she says you mentioned conferences and training how can I pitch my boss on spending the money on this type of continuing education I mean certainly every organization has its own budget constraints um like I personally believe in it I think it's really important myself so usually my team as long as I have something budgeted for it which I I usually do each year it's a matter of picking out which conferences are most most strategic with my uh team members as opposed to pitching them on the concept um I guess in terms of pitching someone on the concept who maybe isn't sold on it if there is any level of budget flexib I think it's really thinking about what is the gap that you're trying to fill through a particular opportunity uh so one of my team members literally just came back from a conference this past week um and came back and is sharing presentations and notes with the entire team so if there's a way to talk about this specific conference will help me in this way and I'll bring back value to the team by sharing key lessons um and you go to one and it works out well and and you make some new connections and and can use that as a basis for for future conversations with your boss the combination of networking new skills learned and bringing back some of those learning to your team I think there might be um a positive way to to build a case for it it's it's just a matter of what what uh priorities are and and what you can fit in the budget that's wonderful thank you well so as we before we move to our panel do you have any final thoughts or words of wisdom for all of our viewers today sure sorry about that so I think uh just in reflecting on change overall um sometimes things don't always go well at first uh when a new change is happening and that's okay I don't think it should be viewed as a Sprint I think any type of change really is um meant to be a long-term opportunity so keep listening keep trying and if at first you don't feel like you made the great impression that you wanted to on a new leader or if something didn't go as planned um you know don't lose heart just keep at it because I think there's lots of opportunity over time to uh to continue to see the opportunity and change and to continue to make it positive that's great well thank you so much for your time today Daniela