Jackie Timmerman: Hi, welcome and thank you for joining Shelby and I today. As we talk to you about frontline leadership, I'm Jackie Timmerman Glass. And I'm Shelby Esselman. And we just want to talk to you a little bit about frontline leadership, our experiences that we had, and what it's done for us in the last year. Can you believe it's been a year since we graduated?

It's pretty crazy. Oh my gosh, it has been. So, this program was pretty crazy for us. the first day was like a breakdown. I totally lost it on that first day. How about you?

Shelby: we did that at the ropes course at the college. And so we didn't know each other. We came together as a group and we're immediately kind of put into a very vulnerable situation of getting to know each other quickly and having to develop trust rapidly, as we were climbing up the big structure that they had, they're looking down at these people that we didn't really know or have a relationship with yet, but, trusting them as part of our team, that they were going to keep us safe as we kind of.

So it was, it was really kind of cool. Yeah,

Jackie Timmerman: it really broke down my walls when I went in. There was a lot of things I couldn't do and I was frustrated at the fact that I couldn't do certain things. However, I quickly learned what I could do and that I could be a support person for those people around me.

I could cheer them on or I could do something else, but vice versa. It became one of those camaraderie type of things where we were supporting each other and helping each other and figuring out ways to do something differently. So it was an amazing day. I have to tell you, it was a struggle for me.

but I did feel very supported by people who, yes, I knew in the hallways, but maybe didn't know them as well as I did by the end of the day. a funny memory about that event that I felt like I was doing a really good job. I was a cheerleader. I was telling my person, I think it was Cookie that was up there.

Shelby: I was like, great job, Cookie! And I was hollering to her and I was belaying. So I was pulling up the slack and really getting into my rhythm of doing that. And the instructor turned to me and he put his hands up and he said, You need to calm down. And I thought, what are you talking about? Like I'm, I'm calm, man.

I'm in a groove. And as I was kind of contemplating this and rerunning it through my mind later in the car, I looked up and I looked at my face in the mirror. And I was like, it's my face. This is just my normal face. I don't have any control, but I laughed so hard. felt like I was in the groove, I was saying cheering things, but my face was so intense and I just had to laugh about that.

So, fun and positive memories that came out of that too. Yeah, for me

Jackie Timmerman: too. this entire experience has been amazing, I thought. if there's anybody out there who wants to take this, I highly recommend they do it. simply because, if you're not one of those leaders, like I never wanted to be a leader, But, I have to say, this really stirred a different side in me, taking this, program. And I just was more or less, I wanted to be a leader by influence. I didn't want those extra responsibilities or knowing how to do it. Now walking out of this program, I feel like I could be a very good leader.

Plus I was supported by an excellent director during this time. I have a good director now too, but it was different. It's a different person. And so I just sit here and I think about what she did to help me through this program too, which as a director, she supported me by. Asking me questions after a frontline leadership on my one on one going, Hey, so what did you get out of this this week?

Because for her, it was very blind. She didn't even know what the program entailed. she wanted to support it and encourage us to go and be leaders and think outside the box and problem solve and not be button pushers and all those kinds of things. But she would always ask me, when do you get out of it?

And we would have some amazing discussions about the governing, of our organization. The board, what exactly does the board do? that was enlightening for me, and I even went and visited, one of the, meetings over at the Civic Center, watched the board do their thing, watched them inform the community.

And, I sat with people I didn't know. I made sure I sat with people. I sat with a couple little ol country ol boys that might have been there for the meal, but boy did I learn a lot from them, and They knew a lot about our organization just being there.

Shelby: I think that that was one of the great things about the program is that you really learned that you can be a leader wherever you're at.

Just because you're not in a formal leadership position or you don't feel like you have influence over people, you can start being a leader right where you're at. And we learned so much about that there. And part of that too was making the connections, networking with people from different areas.

I thought that that was really important. Getting perspectives from everybody that was in our class, from all different areas and levels of the hospital. I just thought that that was really important.

Jackie Timmerman: I think our group was very lucky, you know, we were class 5, but our group was very lucky. I sat down and was thinking about everybody who was in that class, I consider them very important people in my life.

They were involved in my life in a very trial time in my life. And they're all from different walks of life in our organization. We have about 13 to 14 different areas in the organization that was just a part of our class. And I sit here and I think about all the stuff that I do or people I need to contact and I have all these people that I consider friends at this point because we spent eight months together, crying, laughing, joking, finding solutions, seeing somebody else's perspective, and walking out, understanding each other even better, and knowing how to deal with things.

 we have people we can connect with and get answers. At the drop of a hat. 13 areas, not just departments.

Shelby: Right, I think that's really helpful too. It helps you to know who your resources are in those areas, and it helps you to learn how to work together. I think that it's really easy for us to become siloed in the different areas that we work in, you know, and you start categorizing people.

Like, we understand what we do in our, service area or maybe as a profession, like I'm a nurse and so I, have a, broad understanding of what nursing entails and what that looks like, among perioperative services, but to hear somebody else's perspective, to hear a floor nurse's perspective and how they experienced the pandemic and sharing that information.

 Vern and I were able to talk about an incident that happened in Central Sterile and he was sharing about a time that he was under a significant pressure. boilers went down, and he had all these people barking at him about how he should do things and how he should fix things, and how stressful that was.

And it was really good for me to hear that perspective, because I may not have been barking at him directly, but I was one of the barkers that was experiencing the other side of that, where we were unable to sterilize trays, we were looking at potentially having to delay procedures or re filling, Scheduled patients and seeing that from the patient perspective.

So he and I were able to share that reciprocally. And I feel like that that added to both of our understanding of the situation.

Jackie Timmerman: I agree with that. you get that other, I mean, we had plan ops, we had urgent care, we had all these areas and by the way, we were a group just outside of the pandemic and stuff.

And so we were all a little stir crazy going into frontline leadership. And, it was just I don't want to say it was a support group, but it really was. And it let us see each other's other side of the coin. I'm non clinical, you're clinical. I asked you to be a part of this podcast with me because, for one, I saw a lot in you what I wanted to be.

And what I wanted to, maybe, look at things a little differently. With a little bit of a sense of humor, that nursing sense of humor, which is great. Kind of sick, but the nursing sense of humor and then seeing things just from a different perspective all together, which is just something I absolutely adore about you.

But there's so many other people in this group I adore.

Shelby: Well, and Jackie and I have talked about this before, but I feel the same way about you uh, personality wise. I think that we ended up in some of the same groups as far as, Maybe being introverted and leadership qualities and different things like that.

but something that I recognized in Jackie, something that she had that I wanted was that she really has the ability to be an active listener. When somebody is speaking in class, you can just see her leaning into what they're saying, really taking in, listening. And, I just really appreciate that because that's something that I have to work very, very hard at.

It doesn't come easy.

Jackie Timmerman: Well, I appreciate all that too. I gained an appreciation for so many areas and I thought I had a pretty good idea of how this hospital functioned. You know, I worked in IT for 10 years for San Juan Regional and I was in the muck of a lot of stuff and did a lot of project management and stuff.

But this gave me a whole different perspective and it just, opened up a lot of things for me. Talk about a group who cried a lot. We did. Oh, yeah, we did, but we laughed just as much. Yeah,

Shelby: I would say that we laughed and cried every session,

Jackie Timmerman: although I will say that Connie, she always said Jackie's the, um, the meeting crier.

Something like that. Am I the only one crying in this group? Surely not, but no, everybody had their issues.

Shelby: Well, and speaking of Connie, she's gone on to get recognized for great things and accomplishments. Well, and you, you just got promoted to a manager? I did.

Jackie Timmerman: Director or manager? Thank

Shelby: you. Wow, that's amazing.

 I felt like that frontline leadership really gave me that sense of empowerment to be able to go and do that. kind of like you said about yourself earlier, I didn't ever feel like I had a Significant need to enter into a formal leadership position. I felt like I could lead if I needed to, but I don't have to have that title.

I don't have to have a wall plaque with my name on it or, to take on that responsibility. But I did feel empowered to, after I took the class, it just helped me to prepare for that.

Jackie Timmerman: Me too. I wanted to be a leader more by influence. And I remember, Actually standing in front of, our leaders in our organization and actually saying that out loud.

and as I've gone through that program and, you know, I got to sit as a steering committee member this past year, it stirred something in me that says, hey, I want to be that kind of leader who is supportive, who is the one who's going to always say, hey, you're not alone in this. We can work with this other department.

It's not the siloed area. I want more now that I've never wanted before and not for a title, but to be more of an influence across the board. kind of gives you courage to put yourself out there. And it does push your boundaries for sure. some of the other challenges as I was telling you, my director supported me and we got to have those discussions.

I think that was really important. Did you have any of those discussions with your director

Shelby: at all? I did. After, each session that we would have, I would have those discussions with my leadership and also the other staff that were there. I felt like that it gave me a position to be able to come back and say, Hey, you know how we were talking about this issue, or there were some questions about this.

I actually found out a little bit more about that. Let me tell you what I learned from that. And I thought that that was a really helpful. And I think that's a really share and to be able to bring that kind of information back to be able to provide clarity and kind of pass on some of the things that I had learned and to encourage the next class of people, there were two people from perioperative services that were able to attend and are currently in the program right now.

And I think that's neat. And I I was able to, be at their presentation and department leadership. Both Marina and Mandy did such a great job. So it's, been neat to see them get to engage in those activities as well and, grow their leadership abilities.

Jackie Timmerman: That's been the fun side for me, too, is, seeing the opposite side of the coin, sitting back and watching everybody else go through the program this year. and what I've learned, too, is that this program is fluid. it's not a stringent program where they're following a certain criteria.

They are, but they're moving this program to match the in that class. So like our class had a variety, this class has more clinical in it than it does where we had the variety across the board. So they're moving the class or teaching the class to the needs of the people in program.

Okay. Which I thought was really good because I thought, okay, we're just following program. And out of all the programs in this organization that I've been through in 23 years, I have to say, this is the one I wholeheartedly believe in and walked away with so much information and so much understanding of our organization.

Shelby: think that it's, It's so important to be able to go there and come together, like you said about it being kind of tailored to the group that they have there, the needs, I would even say to the, current culture of the organization and stuff plays into that. And I think that it's great to be able to tailor it to what that particular group needs to hear and, brings to the table as well.

Yeah.

Jackie Timmerman: I really hope that our discussion today, brings more people to that program because it is. A program I 100 percent support and I know you as a manager right now, are you thinking about those kind of things when it comes to your staff? is there anybody there who might be one of those leaders in your group that would be wonderful in that program?

Shelby: 100%. I would encourage all of my staff to get in there and engage in that because again, even if you're not considering going into a formal leadership position, I think that there's so much to be gleaned from that. And I think It's just wonderful. I cannot say enough positive things about it.

Me too. It's just great. I would do it again. I,

Jackie Timmerman: yeah, I was lucky I got to do it again. I will tell you that I used this program as my way or my platform for building our training program for our revenue teams. And, you were talking about how it was kind of a collaboration and the misunderstandings and stuff.

And I can honestly say that the program that we have, we have four departments that work together. And sometimes there's misunderstandings of who does what and why do they do that and why are they doing that to affect us? And what it's done for me is it's allowed me to actually go in with the same view of going, Hey, they're doing this because of this.

Creating those understandings, creating that communication, letting people know that it's okay to ask those questions. it's not somebody's doing it to just make your life a nightmare, no. this program actually opened that world to me, so.

Shelby: I agree.

Jackie Timmerman: we hope that all of you guys will maybe step out of that box and try this program.

But, we want to thank you today for listening to Shelby and I today. We hope you have a wonderful day. Thank you, thank you guys.