Transcription:
COVID-19 Conversations: How Rush University System for Health is Embracing Resiliency in Challenging Times

Bill Klaproth: SHSMD members play a critical role as to the organizations and communities they serve. This special edition of the SHAMD Podcast as part of the COVID-19 Conversations Series featuring members stories and resources in an effort to provide insight into how some organizations are managing this unprecedented crisis.

Julia Brady: Well, thank you for joining us today. I'm Julia Brady, President of Envision Brand Advisors, a branding and strategy firm that partners with healthcare leaders, marketing strategy and change management. So this Coronavirus has really challenged the ways that we lead organizations, lead our teams and also how organizations are operating. In many ways it's unprecedented, but at the same time as we look at resiliency and leadership in organizations, there are some real frameworks out there that serve as great reference points. And that's what we're going to talk to you about today. Addition to the frameworks. I've connected recently with my friend Ryan Nagdeman who is from Rush University System for Health. Associate Vice President for Marketing Strategy there. And not only are they tapping into some of the principles of that framework, they have also developed a great playbook for how they're responding to COVID-19 from a communications and marketing standpoint, but also as a very integrated organization and health system. So Ryan, I'll turn it over to you and if you can talk to us, share with us a little bit about your role, and just some things that you've talked shared with us so far about how Rush was built for this.

Ryan Nagdeman: Sure. Thanks Julia. I think this starts back with 9/11, and then we wanted to build something that had a response and had us ready to be prepared for something like a, a massive outbreak or infectious disease or something like Coronavirus. And so our CEO, Omar, Dr. Omar Latif, he's been using that line a lot and it's, it's become something that makes sense in a variety of ways. We're built for this, the tower and our hospital were built for this to sort of transport and transform, sorry rooms into rooms for COVID patients and then move a lobby and turn a lobby into a place to treat many more patients. And so it's also a mindset. We're built for this. We're, we're focused on quality and great outcomes and great patient experience. And so when we think about patients who are in need of the greatest help, I think that's something where we pride ourselves on here at Rush to take the sickest of the sick. And we want to be a center of in a place for these patients go.

Julia Brady: No, that's great. Well, and, and several years ago I read a book called The Resiliency Dividend and Judith Rodin wrote this and it was kind of a response to observation. She had after Superstorm Sandy, she referenced since the Boston marathon bombings about how some organizations and their leaders are just built for resiliency and these, again, certain mindsets and approaches they take. And there's several that she touches on that I think very much align Ryan, with what you and other leaders at Rush are doing in terms of the response. And one thing that she, she mentions in there is being integrated. And so can you tell us a little more about how just that approach to integration at Rush, particularly now Leon Center operational and marketing leadership, talk to us about that and how that's helped in this situation?

Ryan Nagdeman: Yeah. I think what's great here is our leaders are here every day and we have, we kick off every day, whether it's at eight o'clock at the university or nine o'clock with the rest of the command center. And it's led by the leaders of the organization. They're, if they're here most of the time, if they have to be virtual for some reason they will. But we have a command center implementation. I think we'll include a link to reading more. We have a document that sort of outlines what we do. We talk about the issues of the day, we look at metrics of the day. And some things that we need to overcome and the integration is you have representation from communications or IS, or the clinical teams, or the supply chain the operations, the chief nursing officer. And so you could sort of go down the checklist and our chief operating officer of the medical practice, the medical group, she'll run us through that every day. And there's a cadence to it. And so, you know, sort of when your turns coming up and you could throw things out, but also you could also collaborate on things and then that sort of sets the tone for the day. And then you could end up with something at 10 o'clock or 11 o'clock and things you have to solve before four o'clock comes around to get through your day, including marketing, communications, assignments, which come up frequently.

Julia Brady: Absolutely. Well, and that actually leads to another one of the kind of principles of resiliency is being adaptive. And so as you mentioned, you know, and I think this is something that as leaders and as myself as a past marketing leader in a large health system that's based in the North shore of Chicago, that sometimes I would sometimes joke with the team, I'm like, a good day is when 70% of what we've kind of planned to do or happen has happened. Kind of more typical day is 50, 50. So I can imagine in, as we're on these, you know, the time of Corona that you're needing to response and adapt in real time, far more often. Can you talk a little bit about how you, how you kind of encourage your team to be flexible?

Ryan Nagdeman: Sure. So it's weird. We were, you know, a month ago we were talking about every month we bring in burritos and we have breakfast with burritos, and a week after that, 40 people were at home, you know, and there were no burritos and now we're having them virtually. And so we're, yeah, there's 40 people at home. There's three or four people who come in here each day from the communications team. And we have to sort of take the football and there's a sports analogy in there. And to sort of then work with the rest of the team to filter the assignments down. And so you're right, we've had those days. If we can get just 25% of the work we needed to get done today, that'd be great. Now we have to get 100% of it done. And so we come up with a list of daily assignments, daily communications, and or posters that need to be created and you go through the day and check all those off to reach a daily message or social media or media interviews that has to be scheduled. And we get through all of it. And it's, it's, we're wildly efficient right now. And so we're also studying that to look at, what can we keep from this crisis in a moment to sort of embed back into our normal lives when normal returns, if you will.

Julia Brady: Yes. Yeah. Well, and I think another thing that has allowed your team and your organization to be successful is just the deep seated values that you hold as an organization and sort of the leadership values and just, a favorite professor, colleague of mine when I was at Northwestern University of Kellogg School of Management, Harry Kramer would really talk about values based leadership. And having his work and research as well as, as we look at resiliency models, that ability to lead with consistency and not just kind of turn it on when things get tough is incredibly important. So I think there's some things that we've really seen here that Rush has been able to exhibit and one is this sort of authentic leadership style. So if you can, you know, share a little bit about that and just how that authenticity has now impacted ways that you even create videos, communicate with others and how you've been able to kind of lead with some assuredness and calmness.

Ryan Nagdeman: Sure. I in addition to the daily meetings, we have great messages that go out from leadership or we need to inspire certain areas. And some of that stuff, we're, we're shooting iPhones. And so, you know, a month ago I would never have imagined we'd shoot our CEO on an iPhone where it's usually in studio and we've gone over messaging points. But really it's sort of like we have to motivate the troops. We've got, you know, can I get five minutes here and you come in and you turn on your iPhone, and record a message that needs no editing because he's on it and he knows every point he needs to hit. Because we're coming out of something we did at the command center where he's able to address the messages and the points that people need to hear about. And so that been a shift. We do WebEx meetings where, one of them, it was all Q and A. There wasn't even an agenda. You know, the leaders sat up there socially distant and sort of ask for what's on your mind, what are you worried about? And we're very transparent. That's something that when we did some internal research for brand project, the team component, the collaboration and the transparency were hot themes that, that we baked into who we are and how we communicate. And it wasn't difficult to do. It was very natural to Rush.

Julia Brady: Yeah. And I think that transparency and that sort of openness and your style of communication as an organization has really come through. And again, is much tougher to become that way or shift things when you're, once you're in the midst of a crisis. I think another important part is leading with empathy and sort of the sensitivity and compassion to what everyone is going through. And you know, you are literally on the front lines as are your providers and healthcare workers, and you have team members working from the front lines at home. And trying to you know, maybe balance caring for younger children and other things like that. How would you say that that has you know, in what ways sort of that has come to bear in your leadership styles you work with and really try and kind of keep your team motivated?

Ryan Nagdeman: Yeah. You know, we weren't mastering this. We have a space issue in the office and, we didn't quite figure out how to be flexible and work from home until this happened. And we're learning about that right now. And you know, it was at first it was, we may be home for a week or two and now it's been a month. And so we're making things normal. You know, we have calls focused on work, but we're also talking about you know, it's okay to have a virtual trivia hour and you still have a little fun. And somebody had started something on our Microsoft Teams group. It's called virtual Zumba, which is getting a lot of, it's been fun because it pokes fun at me, but you know, they'll take the images or quick videos of me and then doctor them up. But it's something that celebrates that goofiness or little fun moment that you would have had here. When we message about, and I just did this last Friday, when you talk about thanks for the week, please continue to do this. The things I outlined were keep having fun, keep looking for moments like that and you endorse it so that way you don't feel guilty.

You know, if I stare out the window for 15 minutes, that's wellness and I need a moment like that. Or if I call someone and talk for a half hour. Because in some cases you're right. People are at home with their families and they're worried. But are also worried about people who were single or have a parent that they, they're trying to think about. And so we're also saying if you need help just raise your hand, take a day off, this is going to go on for awhile. You can't work seven days a week even though some of us do, but you need maybe a half day here or there. So we really gotten flexible with the time and it's, I think when we come back to the office environment, we should think about incorporating some of these learnings into it.

Julia Brady: That's a great point because I think there's always been a challenge with sort of that balance and sometimes feeling like this impression that working remote or working from home is a privilege. And I think everybody now realizes that it has its challenges regardless of the situation. Just yesterday, in my case an Internet service issues, very real challenges. And I think particularly in healthcare, and I think back to my time at North Shore University Health System where you know, we have this ethos that because our frontline providers were, you know, on the front lines in the system that all of the team members needed to be as well. And so I think now we're realizing that, you know, there's so many different ways to be productive, to add value, and that also that role, especially in the healthcare world it is far from a nine to five job. That because of that it's okay. Like you said, if you can take moments during your day to say hello to a friend, to go for a quick walk, to do some things, these mental health breaks, because there are going to be times that you may have to respond to a crisis that is, you know, at nine o'clock at night or 10:00 AM on a Sunday. So I think that sort of appreciation for it's never going to be a perfect balance. But doing things I think is, I've read and one of the links that we'll share here is an article that talks about different pieces of resiliency and one key is stress management. So being intentional, deliberate, and also when you can kind of bringing mindfulness into your day as much as possible.

Ryan Nagdeman: Yeah. I think one of the things we've done to help with that, to give you kind of an idea of when you'd have some time is you know, I have, we are almost in shifts and so I was here yesterday, but I know tomorrow I won't be on campus. I'm here today. And that's helpful to always have a communications person in the command center. And so there's a rotation of three of us that are there because it's, it's going to be a long run, lots of sprints and, we're trying to make it a ways. And we also have a designer or videographer or group of writers that are listed each day. So you sort of know you're on call to get the content of the day produced. And you may not be listed and you may still get an assignments. So that's why it's critical to learn from our 9:00 AM. And then when we meet as a group, we have 50 people on our marketing communications, WebEx, you'd know what the assignment could be for the day. And then somebody you know had shared on the team side, they opted out. I don't have anything going on, I'm going to take the afternoon off, you know. Well we all know in our mind that, you know, she worked probably a full day yesterday and got through her major assignment and that's, there's transparency in that and there's accountability in that. And I see so much more of that now than I did when I would run up and down these halls and try to check in with someone or check in with a group or a team. That all comes through in a great project management tool and sort of check-in tool.

Julia Brady: Absolutely. Well Ryan, thank you for sharing just your time, your perspective and, and just experiences with us. Again, it's impressive what you and the team at Rush, and really, you know, worldwide. With those on the front lines are doing. So appreciate you taking a little bit of time out of your day to talk with us and I'll look forward to staying in touch and continuing to keep tabs on the great work you're doing. Thank you.

Ryan Nagdeman: Alright. Thanks Julia.

Bill Klaproth: Thanks for listening and know that we are thinking of you during these unprecedented times. For general updates and resources on COVID-19 head to AHA.org/COVID-19 and visit SHSMD.org for a collection of specific COVID-19 resources for strategists.