Selected Podcast
The Art & Science of Business: Using Communication, Information, & Reporting to Manage Risk & Align Strategic Objectives
This podcast, the fifth in a series of five covering the 5 components of the COSO Framework, will discuss how risk professionals can use the power of communication to engage stakeholders & shine a light on organizational opportunities.
Featuring:
Barb is Enterprise Risk Officer at Beverly Hospital, a member of Beth Israel Lahey Health, in Beverly Massachusetts. She is a resource for risk prevention and control for acute care, inpatient behavioral health, and insured physician practices. She supports the medical malpractice program & is a resource for the compliance, privacy, & safety programs. Barb received a diploma in Nursing from New England Deaconess Hospital School of Nursing in Boston, a BSN from Northeastern University, and an MPH from Boston University. Past roles include critical care and inpatient nursing management; performance improvement, infection control, safety, privacy, & employee health leadership as well as Joint Commission coordination. Barb has been an active member of both state & national risk management associations for 17 years & was MA state chapter president in 2009. She was a member of the ASHRM board and deputy-chair of the ERM Task Force, is an ERM faculty member & a member of the Leadership Task Force. Most recently, Barb is ASHRM's 2022 President & was chosen as the ASHRM Risk Manager of the Year for 2020.
Deborah Lessard, Esq, RN, JD, MA, BSN, CPHRM | Barbara McCarthy, RN, MPH, CPHQ, CPHRM, DFASHRM
Deborah has 30 years of progressive executive and consultative experience in the areas of professional and general liability insurance, risk finance, clinical risk management, enterprise risk management, claims and litigation, quality, patient safety, legislative and political advocacy, training, and marketing. She has served on ethics committees and has led legislative task forces, participated in drafting proposed legislation, and testified at public hearings focused on patient safety. Deb has also published articles and chapters on communication, leadership, risk management, ethics, fiscal management, and health care policy.Barb is Enterprise Risk Officer at Beverly Hospital, a member of Beth Israel Lahey Health, in Beverly Massachusetts. She is a resource for risk prevention and control for acute care, inpatient behavioral health, and insured physician practices. She supports the medical malpractice program & is a resource for the compliance, privacy, & safety programs. Barb received a diploma in Nursing from New England Deaconess Hospital School of Nursing in Boston, a BSN from Northeastern University, and an MPH from Boston University. Past roles include critical care and inpatient nursing management; performance improvement, infection control, safety, privacy, & employee health leadership as well as Joint Commission coordination. Barb has been an active member of both state & national risk management associations for 17 years & was MA state chapter president in 2009. She was a member of the ASHRM board and deputy-chair of the ERM Task Force, is an ERM faculty member & a member of the Leadership Task Force. Most recently, Barb is ASHRM's 2022 President & was chosen as the ASHRM Risk Manager of the Year for 2020.
Transcription:
Bill Klaproth (host): Welcome to the ASHRM Podcast, made possible by the American Society for Healthcare risk management to support efforts to advance safe and trusted healthcare through enterprise risk management. You can visit ASHRM.org, that's A-S-H-R-M.org/membership, to learn more and to become an ASHRM member. I'm Bill Klaproth.
On this podcast, we're going to talk about the art and science of business using communication, information and reporting to manage risk and align strategic objectives. With me as Barbara McCarthy, Enterprise Risk Officer at Beverly Hospital, a member of Beth Israel Lahey Health, and Deborah Lessard, consultant with Lessard Consulting.
Barb and Deb, thank you so much for your time. It's great to talk with each of you. So when we talk about the art and science of business using communication information and reporting to manage risk and align strategic objectives, Deb, let me start with you, what are some common communication obstacles and ways to address them?
Deb Lessard: Thanks, Bill. I want to start off with just saying it's important to understand that it's not what you say, it's what the person hears. That's a different way of looking at communication. We're always used to thinking about what we want to say. And as risk professionals, we're experts in what we want to say. But we have to tune our message to what the listener wants to hear. And to do that, you have to be able to get their attention and then you have to be able to keep their attention. It's a whole different way of looking at it.
So in order to get their attention and keep their attention, there are some common problems. The first problem is that you may be talking too much. So what you want to try, if you are talking too much, is to combine talking with visual information. I know Barb's going to be talking a little bit later about the visual information and the data story telling.
Another common problem is you can be too vague. So what you want to do there is use real-world examples. Another common problem is that your message or what you're saying may be too similar to other messages. So, what you want to do here is do something called safe novelty. So people will pay attention to you if your idea is novel. But on the same hand, if your idea is too way out there, it could be interpreted as dangerous and nobody wants to pay attention then.
Another problem is that you haven't provided a contextual frame. So, in that instance, you might want to try using some benchmark information. And the last common problem is that you may be going too slow. So you want to use short sentences to pick up the pace. And once you get your listener's attention and you're keeping their attention, you want to reinforce that by creating urgency. So urgency is kind of a combination of the what's-in-it-for-me and then looking at three market forces and combining those three market forces, which are economic forces, social forces and technological forces. The what's-in-it-for-me piece also includes understanding communication within different generational cohorts.
Bill Klaproth: Barbara, anything you want to add to that at all?
Barb McCarthy: Yeah, I think folks need to remember that speaking and communication is a skill and it's a learned skill. And I think that there are folks that are just really great speakers and great communicators and really kind of know what those are and they come to mind quickly. But there are also folks that really don't have a good speaking style, but you can learn that. I think that you need to practice. You can practice with a coach. You also can tape yourself in playback. And I think most of us would be very surprised to hear how we say, what we say, the tone of our voice up and down, as Deb said, how fast we talk, how slow we talk. You know, we'd be surprised once we hear ourselves. So I think it is a learned skill and people need to take time do that, especially if you have important messages that you want to communicate.
Bill Klaproth: Well, that's good to know. You can learn to become a great communicator. Is that right, Barb?
Barb McCarthy: Yes, it is. And I think that we also have to think like our audience. And I think Deb mentioned that as well, to have the same exact message for all of your audiences. You may have a theme that you want to communicate, but you have to tailor your message to your audience. What you might say to a board or a high-level CEO group is very different than the message you might want to communicate to a frontline worker or a director's group. So you really need to tailor it to your audience to make sure they're understanding and hearing what you have to say.
Bill Klaproth: Yeah, that's a really good point. So Barb, then how do risk professionals balance the burden of required reporting with the KRI/KPI necessary for organizational improvement?
Barb McCarthy: I think this is topic that is very hot right now, and it is very hard. I would tell you that most organizations spend a lot of money, a lot of resources and a lot of time on those required reporting data elements and to make sure that the data integrity, to make sure the timeframes and the amount of data that needs to go into a lot of those can be somewhat burdensome. And sometimes we don't really understand why the question is being asked and that it might be an old data indicator that really meant something in the year 2002, but doesn't quite meet as much as it does in 2022. So I think that there are things that we may need to look at as an organization and as an industry. I think many of those required reporting cases and those metrics are really nationally based and not necessarily local or regional, which really makes them more difficult to change.
There's a couple of great articles that just came out in April in the New England Journal of Medicine, one of them is called Metric Myopia and the other one is called Reassessing Quality Assessment. It's called a Flawed System for Fixing a Flawed System. And it speaks to this topic, specifically about what do we collect, what do we measure, who do we report it to, does it mean anything, does it mean as much locally as it does nationally? So I think it's a really interesting topic right now and it's also top of mind.
I would also add that data mining and data presentation is also a skill. And I think we take that a little bit too much for granted that we all know how to do that, but it also is a learned skill that we need to take time to learn correctly. Deb, would you add anything else to this?
Deb Lessard: I think Barb did a great job of talking about it, but let me just add, when we look at what's required in reporting, often, as Barb said, we're not sure why we have to report it, but we do. So we want to make the reporting meaningful inside of our organizations. And one way to do that is by asking why. So you just keep drilling down like you would with an RCA, why, why, why. And you get to the root of why this might be meaningful or maybe it's not. But what you want to be able to do then is to redeem some data insights that you can turn into action.
Barb McCarthy: You know, I also think that a lot of times our brain is working with two sides that are competing with one another. Daniel Kahneman wrote a great book called Thinking, Fast and Slow, and we really are challenged by that. We saw in the pandemic that we had to think fast, we had to think quickly, we had to develop metrics quickly, we had to communicate them quickly, versus what Deb just talked about and doing a root cause analysis where we really want to ask why, but why, but why, and get to that real root cause. That allows our mind to slow down and not jump to conclusion and make sure we get the true root cause versus what we think is the right decision off the bat. Our brains are constantly battling between thinking fast, like we would in an emergency, or thinking slow, like getting to the root cause of what's wrong. And those two sort of communication styles and information collection and presentation styles battle each other all the time.
Deb Lessard: I wanted to add, so Kahneman did his body of work with Amos Tversky who is very well-known and they have a great academic body of work, but they also, as Barb said, this Think Fast and Slow book is for the lay person. It's a very easy read. I think it's a fun read. And what he talks about is heuristics or biases that we all fall into. So there's two different kinds of biases. Cognitive biases are unconscious and there are motivational biases. And so when we are thinking with heuristics or wanting to take shortcuts, we are kind of looking at binary decisions. Do we want to do this? Yes or no? And when we do that, we don't really associate reasonable probabilities with outcomes. That comes with the deliberative thinking slow, and that gets to what we've been saying about you have to think deliberatively, intentionally, and that's why we ask the why's. That's a main principle for risk professionals, asking the why. It sounds very simple, but it's not. So many simple things are not easy, and this is one example of it.
So getting back to the biases, there have been about 200 biases that have been identified and we all have biases. But we can especially see this in healthcare. The three prominent healthcare biases are we're overconfident, we anchor and we use availability and that gets us into trouble sometimes. But oftentimes, we need to know when can we think fast and use these biases, these heuristics, these shortcuts. And when do we have to think slow.
Bill Klaproth (host): So when it comes to the why questions we should be asking, can you give us an example of those?
Deb Lessard: Sure. So why are we doing this? You know, as Barb said, why are we measuring this? Why are we reporting this? We have to understand that. And then we have to go to the next question, "Okay. Why is this important? What is the urgency with this?" At some particular why ,we might be able to bifurcate our answer and say, "Well, this is because we have to report it nationally," or "This is because we have to report it to the state department of health," versus "This is something that we have to understand so that we can make an improvement."
Bill Klaproth: Got it. So why are we measuring this? Why is this important? Questions like that will help you with your whys, if you will.
Deb Lessard: So, mandatory reporting versus and/or improving a process.
Bill Klaproth: Got it. Okay. So, as we research and look at things, we always come up with some kind of a trend line up. "There's a trend developing. There's our answer." But Barb, let me ask you this, everyone likes a trend line, do they often tell the whole story?
Barb McCarthy: Actually, they don't. They're sort of a think fast methodology. They're easy to do. They're an early warning sign. They provide an early warning sign and they're very visual. So it's easy for your learner to see what potentially the trends are in that trend line. But there are some cons, and the con is that they really need frequent revision because what you measure today and put as a dot on a trend line may not be what that actual number is when you look at it a month from now or two months from now. It may need to be updated. So it really is more of a blunt instrument than it is a specific sort of something that we really should hang our hat on, so to speak. It's one piece of data and it's one way to communicate it, but you need a deeper dive and you need different ways of communicating what you want to say to your audience other than just a trend line. But they are frequently used and we see them all the time and we just need to be cautious as they don't tell us the whole story.
Bill Klaproth: Deb, anything you want to add to that?
Deb Lessard: Oh, yes, Barb's onto something. So data storytelling is now becoming a required skill for analyst job descriptions. and that identifies the issues in the trend line. So if you're looking at something, it may not tell the entire story as Barb said. And I want to give an example of this, the visual demonstration of this is Charles Minard's map of Napoleon's disastrous Russian campaign in 1812. And if you look at that map, a lot of people refer to that as the beginning of understanding how to tell a data story. And this map demonstrates all of the analytical principles. It has comparisons. It has causality mechanisms, structure, and explanation. It has a multivariate analysis, it has six variables. It has an integration of evidence. And it has documentation, which is identifying the quality and integrity of the authors and also their data sources. And I would encourage everybody to go take a look at that map. You can just Google Minard and it will come up.
Along with that, when I look at the Bureau of Labor Statistics, they said that the demand for healthcare research analysts is expected to grow 25% between 2020 and 2030. So this is a lot faster than the average across all of the other non-healthcare industries. So knowing that and knowing what Barb said is so insightful, that the trend lines don't tell the story. I think it's imperative that risk professionals start to understand the visual benefits of combining diagrams or infographics or even maps, along with their statistics. And that goes right back to the key to getting somebody's attention is to create urgency. And one way to do that is by looking at the what's-in-it-for-me. And you can create that using visual diagrams.
Barb McCarthy: I think when we're also talking to various audiences, say you're communicating to a board or senior level C-suite folks, you need to think like a CEO. You need to think about is this data going to affect the mission, the strategic plan, the operating margin, or maybe even the long-term viability of the organization? So the risk exposure you have with either incorrect or incomplete data can be huge depending on your audience. And I think that's also something that risk professionals really need to take in mind is that there's so much data now out there, there's so much information. How do we make sure that we're collecting it correctly, that we're communicating the correct message? Because when you think of the risk exposure, yes, it's that longterm viability and strategic planning and margin of thinking like a CEO, but there also is the patient safety implications of getting this wrong. There's also potential sanctions if we don't get some of this correct and we miscommunicate it in some fashion. And lastly, it's really inefficient. If we're going to collect data and spend a lot of money and time on it, let's do it correctly the first time and make sure we using our time and our resources wisely. There are issues with collecting a lot versus collecting correctly.
And lastly, we also can get stuck with pet projects. I mean, there are some folks who have done data collection and data mining work for a long time. They know how to run the reports. They know how to collect the data. We may not need that data in 2022 or 2023. And so we also need to refresh it and make sure that when we do our analysis of our risk maturity every year, that we analyze our data collection tools, methods, metrics, and make sure we're collecting the right things for the right reasons for the right audience. And that should be all part of your annual analysis and your annual risk maturity assessment. Anything to add on that, Deb?
Deb Lessard: I want to add that you nicely embed the whole concept here of what we're talking about, the art and science of business. So you have changed the vernacular from risk management to risk professionals, and that really opens up a big window, a big opportunity for us to see that we are not managing this risk and this risk and this risk. We are risk professionals who speak to different audiences. And in order to do that, we have to have the skill or, let's say, the competency of communication so that we can communicate the art and science of business.
Bill Klaproth (host): Really fascinating discussion today, Barb and Deb. A couple more questions. Barbara, let me ask you this for someone listening to this and really enjoying this great discussion and they want to get started down this journey of better communication, better reporting, et cetera, where should they start? What's a good jumping off point to to go down this road?
Barb McCarthy: There's a whole section in our healthcare enterprise risk management playbook on data collection, data mining. We spent quite a bit of time on that, knowing that it is a piece of the COSO Framework. When you look at the COSO ribbon as we call it and how you develop an enterprise risk program, one of the key elements, top five elements, is communication reporting. So we spent quite a bit of time on that in our playbooks. So that would be a good place to start.
Bill Klaproth: Excellent. Well, as we wrap up, if I could just get some final thoughts from each of you. Barb, let me stay with you. Final thoughts, anything you want to add as we talk about the art and science of business using communication information and reporting to manage risk and align strategic objectives?
Barb McCarthy: I think we should wrap the whole subject around what is the culture of the organization. And I think, if we're going to be transparent and we're going to be out there communicating well, then we need to do it correctly. And we need to make sure that there's data integrity and that we're speaking correctly to the audience that we want to communicate to. I also think that we have to pay attention to the generations that we're communicating to. My daughter communicates very differently than I do very differently than my mom did, so we have to pay attention to that as the millennial workforce is really the most prevalent workforce right now. We need to communicate to them specifically.
Bill Klaproth: Yeah, that's a good point. And Deb, final thoughts from you. Anything you'd like to add?
Deb Lessard: Yeah, I want to piggyback on what Barb does said. We have the three generations in the workforce, the baby boomers, the generation X-ers and the millennials. I think it's very important to understand the way we grew up, our culture, that shapes our preferences and our perceptions related to how we communicate, what we want to hear, what our motivations are and what our values are.
So for example, baby boomers, they grew up during dramatic social change. Generation X-ers are different. They grew up during political and institutional instability. And millennials, they grew up with technology, instant gratification and being very nurtured by boomers. So when you understand these very different ways of growing up and this very different ways that these different generations relate to their organizations, their internal culture, you can see all of the opportunities to better communicate with each generation.
Bill Klaproth: Some really great points on this podcast. I'm going to thank you both for your time today. Really informative and insightful information for all of us. Barb and Deb, thank you so much for your time. We really appreciate it.
Barb McCarthy: Thank you.
Deb Lessard: Thank you.
Bill Klaproth (host): And once again, that's Barb McCarthy and Deb Lessard. And the next offerings for ASHRM's ERM Certificate Program will be July 13th and 14th at the ASHRM Express and September 9th and 10th at the pre-conference program. For more information, you can go to ASHRM.org/education/ERMcertificate.
The ASHRM podcast was made possible by the American Society for Healthcare Risk Management to support efforts to advance safe and trusted healthcare through enterprise risk management. You can visit ASHRM.org/membership to learn more and to become an ASHRM member. And if you found this podcast helpful, please share it on your social channels and check out the full podcast library for topics of interest to you. I'm Bill Klaproth. Thanks for listening.
Bill Klaproth (host): Welcome to the ASHRM Podcast, made possible by the American Society for Healthcare risk management to support efforts to advance safe and trusted healthcare through enterprise risk management. You can visit ASHRM.org, that's A-S-H-R-M.org/membership, to learn more and to become an ASHRM member. I'm Bill Klaproth.
On this podcast, we're going to talk about the art and science of business using communication, information and reporting to manage risk and align strategic objectives. With me as Barbara McCarthy, Enterprise Risk Officer at Beverly Hospital, a member of Beth Israel Lahey Health, and Deborah Lessard, consultant with Lessard Consulting.
Barb and Deb, thank you so much for your time. It's great to talk with each of you. So when we talk about the art and science of business using communication information and reporting to manage risk and align strategic objectives, Deb, let me start with you, what are some common communication obstacles and ways to address them?
Deb Lessard: Thanks, Bill. I want to start off with just saying it's important to understand that it's not what you say, it's what the person hears. That's a different way of looking at communication. We're always used to thinking about what we want to say. And as risk professionals, we're experts in what we want to say. But we have to tune our message to what the listener wants to hear. And to do that, you have to be able to get their attention and then you have to be able to keep their attention. It's a whole different way of looking at it.
So in order to get their attention and keep their attention, there are some common problems. The first problem is that you may be talking too much. So what you want to try, if you are talking too much, is to combine talking with visual information. I know Barb's going to be talking a little bit later about the visual information and the data story telling.
Another common problem is you can be too vague. So what you want to do there is use real-world examples. Another common problem is that your message or what you're saying may be too similar to other messages. So, what you want to do here is do something called safe novelty. So people will pay attention to you if your idea is novel. But on the same hand, if your idea is too way out there, it could be interpreted as dangerous and nobody wants to pay attention then.
Another problem is that you haven't provided a contextual frame. So, in that instance, you might want to try using some benchmark information. And the last common problem is that you may be going too slow. So you want to use short sentences to pick up the pace. And once you get your listener's attention and you're keeping their attention, you want to reinforce that by creating urgency. So urgency is kind of a combination of the what's-in-it-for-me and then looking at three market forces and combining those three market forces, which are economic forces, social forces and technological forces. The what's-in-it-for-me piece also includes understanding communication within different generational cohorts.
Bill Klaproth: Barbara, anything you want to add to that at all?
Barb McCarthy: Yeah, I think folks need to remember that speaking and communication is a skill and it's a learned skill. And I think that there are folks that are just really great speakers and great communicators and really kind of know what those are and they come to mind quickly. But there are also folks that really don't have a good speaking style, but you can learn that. I think that you need to practice. You can practice with a coach. You also can tape yourself in playback. And I think most of us would be very surprised to hear how we say, what we say, the tone of our voice up and down, as Deb said, how fast we talk, how slow we talk. You know, we'd be surprised once we hear ourselves. So I think it is a learned skill and people need to take time do that, especially if you have important messages that you want to communicate.
Bill Klaproth: Well, that's good to know. You can learn to become a great communicator. Is that right, Barb?
Barb McCarthy: Yes, it is. And I think that we also have to think like our audience. And I think Deb mentioned that as well, to have the same exact message for all of your audiences. You may have a theme that you want to communicate, but you have to tailor your message to your audience. What you might say to a board or a high-level CEO group is very different than the message you might want to communicate to a frontline worker or a director's group. So you really need to tailor it to your audience to make sure they're understanding and hearing what you have to say.
Bill Klaproth: Yeah, that's a really good point. So Barb, then how do risk professionals balance the burden of required reporting with the KRI/KPI necessary for organizational improvement?
Barb McCarthy: I think this is topic that is very hot right now, and it is very hard. I would tell you that most organizations spend a lot of money, a lot of resources and a lot of time on those required reporting data elements and to make sure that the data integrity, to make sure the timeframes and the amount of data that needs to go into a lot of those can be somewhat burdensome. And sometimes we don't really understand why the question is being asked and that it might be an old data indicator that really meant something in the year 2002, but doesn't quite meet as much as it does in 2022. So I think that there are things that we may need to look at as an organization and as an industry. I think many of those required reporting cases and those metrics are really nationally based and not necessarily local or regional, which really makes them more difficult to change.
There's a couple of great articles that just came out in April in the New England Journal of Medicine, one of them is called Metric Myopia and the other one is called Reassessing Quality Assessment. It's called a Flawed System for Fixing a Flawed System. And it speaks to this topic, specifically about what do we collect, what do we measure, who do we report it to, does it mean anything, does it mean as much locally as it does nationally? So I think it's a really interesting topic right now and it's also top of mind.
I would also add that data mining and data presentation is also a skill. And I think we take that a little bit too much for granted that we all know how to do that, but it also is a learned skill that we need to take time to learn correctly. Deb, would you add anything else to this?
Deb Lessard: I think Barb did a great job of talking about it, but let me just add, when we look at what's required in reporting, often, as Barb said, we're not sure why we have to report it, but we do. So we want to make the reporting meaningful inside of our organizations. And one way to do that is by asking why. So you just keep drilling down like you would with an RCA, why, why, why. And you get to the root of why this might be meaningful or maybe it's not. But what you want to be able to do then is to redeem some data insights that you can turn into action.
Barb McCarthy: You know, I also think that a lot of times our brain is working with two sides that are competing with one another. Daniel Kahneman wrote a great book called Thinking, Fast and Slow, and we really are challenged by that. We saw in the pandemic that we had to think fast, we had to think quickly, we had to develop metrics quickly, we had to communicate them quickly, versus what Deb just talked about and doing a root cause analysis where we really want to ask why, but why, but why, and get to that real root cause. That allows our mind to slow down and not jump to conclusion and make sure we get the true root cause versus what we think is the right decision off the bat. Our brains are constantly battling between thinking fast, like we would in an emergency, or thinking slow, like getting to the root cause of what's wrong. And those two sort of communication styles and information collection and presentation styles battle each other all the time.
Deb Lessard: I wanted to add, so Kahneman did his body of work with Amos Tversky who is very well-known and they have a great academic body of work, but they also, as Barb said, this Think Fast and Slow book is for the lay person. It's a very easy read. I think it's a fun read. And what he talks about is heuristics or biases that we all fall into. So there's two different kinds of biases. Cognitive biases are unconscious and there are motivational biases. And so when we are thinking with heuristics or wanting to take shortcuts, we are kind of looking at binary decisions. Do we want to do this? Yes or no? And when we do that, we don't really associate reasonable probabilities with outcomes. That comes with the deliberative thinking slow, and that gets to what we've been saying about you have to think deliberatively, intentionally, and that's why we ask the why's. That's a main principle for risk professionals, asking the why. It sounds very simple, but it's not. So many simple things are not easy, and this is one example of it.
So getting back to the biases, there have been about 200 biases that have been identified and we all have biases. But we can especially see this in healthcare. The three prominent healthcare biases are we're overconfident, we anchor and we use availability and that gets us into trouble sometimes. But oftentimes, we need to know when can we think fast and use these biases, these heuristics, these shortcuts. And when do we have to think slow.
Bill Klaproth (host): So when it comes to the why questions we should be asking, can you give us an example of those?
Deb Lessard: Sure. So why are we doing this? You know, as Barb said, why are we measuring this? Why are we reporting this? We have to understand that. And then we have to go to the next question, "Okay. Why is this important? What is the urgency with this?" At some particular why ,we might be able to bifurcate our answer and say, "Well, this is because we have to report it nationally," or "This is because we have to report it to the state department of health," versus "This is something that we have to understand so that we can make an improvement."
Bill Klaproth: Got it. So why are we measuring this? Why is this important? Questions like that will help you with your whys, if you will.
Deb Lessard: So, mandatory reporting versus and/or improving a process.
Bill Klaproth: Got it. Okay. So, as we research and look at things, we always come up with some kind of a trend line up. "There's a trend developing. There's our answer." But Barb, let me ask you this, everyone likes a trend line, do they often tell the whole story?
Barb McCarthy: Actually, they don't. They're sort of a think fast methodology. They're easy to do. They're an early warning sign. They provide an early warning sign and they're very visual. So it's easy for your learner to see what potentially the trends are in that trend line. But there are some cons, and the con is that they really need frequent revision because what you measure today and put as a dot on a trend line may not be what that actual number is when you look at it a month from now or two months from now. It may need to be updated. So it really is more of a blunt instrument than it is a specific sort of something that we really should hang our hat on, so to speak. It's one piece of data and it's one way to communicate it, but you need a deeper dive and you need different ways of communicating what you want to say to your audience other than just a trend line. But they are frequently used and we see them all the time and we just need to be cautious as they don't tell us the whole story.
Bill Klaproth: Deb, anything you want to add to that?
Deb Lessard: Oh, yes, Barb's onto something. So data storytelling is now becoming a required skill for analyst job descriptions. and that identifies the issues in the trend line. So if you're looking at something, it may not tell the entire story as Barb said. And I want to give an example of this, the visual demonstration of this is Charles Minard's map of Napoleon's disastrous Russian campaign in 1812. And if you look at that map, a lot of people refer to that as the beginning of understanding how to tell a data story. And this map demonstrates all of the analytical principles. It has comparisons. It has causality mechanisms, structure, and explanation. It has a multivariate analysis, it has six variables. It has an integration of evidence. And it has documentation, which is identifying the quality and integrity of the authors and also their data sources. And I would encourage everybody to go take a look at that map. You can just Google Minard and it will come up.
Along with that, when I look at the Bureau of Labor Statistics, they said that the demand for healthcare research analysts is expected to grow 25% between 2020 and 2030. So this is a lot faster than the average across all of the other non-healthcare industries. So knowing that and knowing what Barb said is so insightful, that the trend lines don't tell the story. I think it's imperative that risk professionals start to understand the visual benefits of combining diagrams or infographics or even maps, along with their statistics. And that goes right back to the key to getting somebody's attention is to create urgency. And one way to do that is by looking at the what's-in-it-for-me. And you can create that using visual diagrams.
Barb McCarthy: I think when we're also talking to various audiences, say you're communicating to a board or senior level C-suite folks, you need to think like a CEO. You need to think about is this data going to affect the mission, the strategic plan, the operating margin, or maybe even the long-term viability of the organization? So the risk exposure you have with either incorrect or incomplete data can be huge depending on your audience. And I think that's also something that risk professionals really need to take in mind is that there's so much data now out there, there's so much information. How do we make sure that we're collecting it correctly, that we're communicating the correct message? Because when you think of the risk exposure, yes, it's that longterm viability and strategic planning and margin of thinking like a CEO, but there also is the patient safety implications of getting this wrong. There's also potential sanctions if we don't get some of this correct and we miscommunicate it in some fashion. And lastly, it's really inefficient. If we're going to collect data and spend a lot of money and time on it, let's do it correctly the first time and make sure we using our time and our resources wisely. There are issues with collecting a lot versus collecting correctly.
And lastly, we also can get stuck with pet projects. I mean, there are some folks who have done data collection and data mining work for a long time. They know how to run the reports. They know how to collect the data. We may not need that data in 2022 or 2023. And so we also need to refresh it and make sure that when we do our analysis of our risk maturity every year, that we analyze our data collection tools, methods, metrics, and make sure we're collecting the right things for the right reasons for the right audience. And that should be all part of your annual analysis and your annual risk maturity assessment. Anything to add on that, Deb?
Deb Lessard: I want to add that you nicely embed the whole concept here of what we're talking about, the art and science of business. So you have changed the vernacular from risk management to risk professionals, and that really opens up a big window, a big opportunity for us to see that we are not managing this risk and this risk and this risk. We are risk professionals who speak to different audiences. And in order to do that, we have to have the skill or, let's say, the competency of communication so that we can communicate the art and science of business.
Bill Klaproth (host): Really fascinating discussion today, Barb and Deb. A couple more questions. Barbara, let me ask you this for someone listening to this and really enjoying this great discussion and they want to get started down this journey of better communication, better reporting, et cetera, where should they start? What's a good jumping off point to to go down this road?
Barb McCarthy: There's a whole section in our healthcare enterprise risk management playbook on data collection, data mining. We spent quite a bit of time on that, knowing that it is a piece of the COSO Framework. When you look at the COSO ribbon as we call it and how you develop an enterprise risk program, one of the key elements, top five elements, is communication reporting. So we spent quite a bit of time on that in our playbooks. So that would be a good place to start.
Bill Klaproth: Excellent. Well, as we wrap up, if I could just get some final thoughts from each of you. Barb, let me stay with you. Final thoughts, anything you want to add as we talk about the art and science of business using communication information and reporting to manage risk and align strategic objectives?
Barb McCarthy: I think we should wrap the whole subject around what is the culture of the organization. And I think, if we're going to be transparent and we're going to be out there communicating well, then we need to do it correctly. And we need to make sure that there's data integrity and that we're speaking correctly to the audience that we want to communicate to. I also think that we have to pay attention to the generations that we're communicating to. My daughter communicates very differently than I do very differently than my mom did, so we have to pay attention to that as the millennial workforce is really the most prevalent workforce right now. We need to communicate to them specifically.
Bill Klaproth: Yeah, that's a good point. And Deb, final thoughts from you. Anything you'd like to add?
Deb Lessard: Yeah, I want to piggyback on what Barb does said. We have the three generations in the workforce, the baby boomers, the generation X-ers and the millennials. I think it's very important to understand the way we grew up, our culture, that shapes our preferences and our perceptions related to how we communicate, what we want to hear, what our motivations are and what our values are.
So for example, baby boomers, they grew up during dramatic social change. Generation X-ers are different. They grew up during political and institutional instability. And millennials, they grew up with technology, instant gratification and being very nurtured by boomers. So when you understand these very different ways of growing up and this very different ways that these different generations relate to their organizations, their internal culture, you can see all of the opportunities to better communicate with each generation.
Bill Klaproth: Some really great points on this podcast. I'm going to thank you both for your time today. Really informative and insightful information for all of us. Barb and Deb, thank you so much for your time. We really appreciate it.
Barb McCarthy: Thank you.
Deb Lessard: Thank you.
Bill Klaproth (host): And once again, that's Barb McCarthy and Deb Lessard. And the next offerings for ASHRM's ERM Certificate Program will be July 13th and 14th at the ASHRM Express and September 9th and 10th at the pre-conference program. For more information, you can go to ASHRM.org/education/ERMcertificate.
The ASHRM podcast was made possible by the American Society for Healthcare Risk Management to support efforts to advance safe and trusted healthcare through enterprise risk management. You can visit ASHRM.org/membership to learn more and to become an ASHRM member. And if you found this podcast helpful, please share it on your social channels and check out the full podcast library for topics of interest to you. I'm Bill Klaproth. Thanks for listening.