Building, Not Breaking

Why is it that there’s rarely a desperate urge to give a shout-out, the way there is to call them out?

Doing the right thing is an act of bravery. Acknowledging them is also an act of bravery.

Do you know a person showing bravery by doing the right thing? You can also be brave by penning them a quick email or text or calling them.

Overwhelming the toxic negativity with waves of genuine admiration and solidarity is not an act of naïve kindness, but an intentional act of building.

We’re All Allies

Too often we sabotage our own happiness, letting familiarity and dysfunction turn allies into perceived enemies. We inflate our contributions to a relationship and diminish the other party’s. We let familiarity and contempt best our shared history.

This is a mistake that’s a familiar one: failure to discern among allies, competitors, and enemies. Our spouses, parents, MILs, FILs, SILs, BILs, Republicans and Democrats, payers, providers, and pharma: all allies. We’re in this together; no need to be pushed around by others’ agendas up the food chain.

Relationships, Relationships, Relationships

Leaders in all sectors of health care are deluding themselves, believing they are the Rockefellers and Morgans of the era. The truth is, they’re all Native American tribes: feuding and weakening one another as European settlers lay in wait for their ultimate slaughter.

Greed has poked blind our eye to observe the richness and nuances of relationships. Relationships, relationships, relationships.

Preparation

Be prepared.

If I plan to succeed, I must succeed to plan.

Building Psychological Resilience

Psychological resilience is possibly the most valuable workplace asset these days.

An important pillar to building psychological resilience is crafting the future with intentional goals. After all, those who stand for nothing will fall for anything.

Where are you going? Have a clear vision of what the future looks like and embrace the unexpected to take you from here to there.

As a leader, are your actions nourishing or stripping the team’s psychological resilience?

Safety In Discomfort

Too often, we mistakenly think that our comfort zone is a safe zone: “If I feel comfortable, I must be safe!”

The road to a safe, shared future is stepping outside of our comfort zone, engaging with those around us as our divine brothers.

What Works For Our Customers?

Here’s example of an actionable access resource that brings joy to clinician members and office staff: https://www.mct2d.org/resource-library/medications-and-cgm-coverage-by-payer-in-michigan-quick-reference-guide

Here’s an example of an actionable access resource that brings joy to patients: https://www.mct2d.org/resource-library/affording-your-type-2-diabetes-care-a-patient-toolkit-on-insurance-coverage-and-cost

Are your tactics helping your customers achieve their goals? How can you find out?

Patients As a Part of the Access Equation

We want to do everything for all patients, just like we want to do everything for all our children.

The old-school thinking of ‘doctor knows best’ must cede to a new approach of partnership so that patients become their own advocates. We must shift the narrative in our heads to catch up with reality.

Encourage the heart and believe that when equipped with necessary resources, they will become their own advocates.

Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.

What the Future Holds for Us

A sense of impending doom cedes to arbitrage. When the mass is convinced of an impending doom, the entire nation barrels toward alienation, disaffection, despair, and violence.

Hope for better days ahead cedes to investment. When the mass is hopeful of better days ahead, the entire nation elevates toward unity, joy, constructive effort, and peace.

Elevating the Role of Patients

Alienation and disaffection drive despair and violence.

We need to abandon the narrative of ‘us vs. them’ and seek common ground as seekers and learners.

Increasingly we’ve been expecting patients to take charge of their access. It’s time our narrative catches up to reality.

Afterall, who are we to elevate them if they’re expected to take on majority of the painful work to heal themselves.?

The new ‘modern’ is an era of divine relationship: ‘the other is not another but my divine brother.’