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| Dear Friend,
A tiny fleck of dirt was all it took to stop it from working.
That's the subject of this past Monday's blog post, Why You Should Have Fired Them. Follow that link to the blog or just keep reading for the rest of the story.
I have a plumbers torch that I use to get kindling started. You’ve probably seen them; it’s a moderately heavy brass nozzle that fits on the top of a small propane tank. It’s worked for years – that is, until yesterday. It just wouldn’t light for more than a second; the flame would just blow itself out.
When I took the thing apart, I discovered a small fleck of dirt, almost the size of half of the period at the end of this sentence. I cleaned it away, and voila, good as new.
Sometimes, a relatively small fleck, one person, that is, inside a large organization can stop the organization from working. One disruptive individual. One imagined victim. One complainer. All it takes is cleaning him or her away to bring the entity back to health.
It’s not the people that you have to fire that ruin your organization; it’s the people you should have fired but didn’t.
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| | | Business Life in the Time of Coronavirus Mini-Series
The coronavirus crisis caused a short term economic crisis for many medical groups. Our mini-series shows you the way out. Plus, many of the concepts discussed are applicable during both good times and bad.
[If you haven't already seen them, follow this link to watch our entire series.] |
| | Tuesday - How to Prevent Breaching Your Own Cybersecurity
Watch Tuesday's video here, or just keep reading below for a revised, more polished transcript: |
| I saw in the Wall Street Journal that the U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts has filed criminal charges against a number of former eBay executives for cyberstalking and offline harassing (boxes of cockroaches, a bloody pig’s mask, a funeral wreath, etc.) a couple who run a consumer website critical of eBay.
According to what I read in the Journal, there are apparently emails, some reportedly from the former CEO of eBay, a guy named Wenig, that he wanted the charged executives to "take her down” (or something to that effect).
We’re all concerned these days about cybersecurity. How do we prevent somebody from getting into our electronic systems where so much data is kept?
But here’s a twist on cybersecurity. In essence, part of the evidence the U.S. Attorney is going to use in prosecuting these people and who knows how many other current or former eBay employees is electronic: These are emails, text messages and so on which have been discovered and are undoubtedly going to be used against them at trial.
Here’s takeaway number 1: Be very, very careful about what you put in email. What you put in email will be discovered in the event of a civil suit or criminal investigation.
What you need to know first, is not to create evidence against yourself. Although I don’t litigate myself, I do a lot of work developing strategy in connection with litigation and in coordinating litigation, and I’ve seen incredibly stupid crap appear in people’s emails. Avoid that.
Takeaway number two ties in to a story several weeks ago involving some video which apparently was taken down by YouTube. However, viewers had stored copies of this video (which states a position contra to the official narrative on coronavirus) on Google Drive or another one of these “free” cloud storage services. Only later did they discover that the company that hosts the “free service” had apparently crawled through their storage and deleted their copies.
So we now know that these providers aren’t really providing anything for free; what they’re giving you is usage of some service whether it’s email or storage, so that they can data-mine it in connection with targeting their advertising, or in this case, for their own Orwellian control purposes.
The point isn't to warn you that Google or some other "free" service will snoop through your drive to delete some random video. What I am saying is that the documents you believe are safe, that is, private, on those hosting services are not safe. Whether they are discovered and turned over to law enforcement in the event of an investigation or turned over through discovery in a civil lawsuit remains to be seen. However, you cannot consider those documents – whatever they are – stored on those services as safe.
Last, let’s talk about "free" email because it's the same thing. When you’re using Gmail, Hotmail, any of those services for your communications, you must assume that the information is not ultimately secure. It may, for purposes of communicating with counsel still preserve attorney-client privilege, but it is not going to preserve your secrecy if the company who hosts the service is crawling through it. It’s just not secure.
These are common tips, but I don’t think many people even consider them.
I want you to think about them.
People spend billions of dollars protecting against cyber criminals. Why don’t you spend a few bucks not breaching your own security?
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| | Wednesday - Don't Let Models Dictate Your Business Structure
Watch the video here, or just keep reading below for a slightly polished transcript:
There’s an old saying that a person doesn’t really want a drill, they want a hole. I actually think there's yet another level of thinking – why do they want the hole? Perhaps it's to hang a painting.
The same idea holds true with many healthcare structures, whether it's an IPA, a clinically integrated network (a "CIN" – which they might be if they’re not structured right!), and so on.
These really aren’t destinations. In our metaphor, they aren't the painting on the wall. In fact, they’re not even the hole.
What they are is the drill. They’re tools that describe a method of getting you to the business entity or outcome that you seek to create or achieve. They’re not ends in and of themselves.
On the one hand, you can view this as a mini-lecture on the fact that business structures are tools to achieve your desired end.
But my main point is somewhat different: What’s most important for you is to first decide what it is, on a business level, that you’re trying to achieve.
Forget for the moment (but only for the moment!) about legal structure and compliance and the fact that it's a "fill in the blank" such as a CIN.
Instead, simply concentrate on what it is, bottom line, that you want to achieve.
Then, and only then, should we ask the question of what tool or tools . . . the specific structure or structures . . . can be applied to get you there.
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| | Thursday - Fast Times and the Problem with Slow Medical Group Decision Making |
| Listen to the podcast here, or just keep reading for the transcript.
We’re living in a time of fast-paced change. Sure. But, I think people have been saying that since the Enlightenment. Maybe it’s the one thing that’s remained constant. But maybe it’s not. Some things have certainly remained the same.
For example, more than seven years ago, in my blog post entitled Who’s Driving Your Practice’s Bus?, published in April 2012, I wrote that for many medical practices, it appears as if no one is driving the bus; that is, no one is in charge of the group’s business. Instead, the practice operates like a runaway bus — yes, the providers are seeing patients, but where is it headed? Instead of a map with a clearly marked final destination, it’s just rolling along. Many groups have a related problem: There isn’t a bus driver, there’s a whole committee of them. In fact, for some groups, there is a whole Greyhound bus full of them.
There is no question that the healthcare market is changing rapidly. This means that groups must have the ability to make business decisions rapidly.
Drawing on the work of the late Col. John Boyd, considered by many to be the second greatest military strategist to have lived, success requires a faster cycling through what he termed the OODA loop. In simplified form, the loop consists of observing, orienting, deciding and acting. (The OODA loop is actually much more complex with various internal feedback mechanisms). The point, however, is that the competitor who can cycle faster through the loop gains a tremendous strategic advantage over its opponent.
Whether you take the time to study Boyd or not, it’s axiomatic that a group must be able to make decisions quickly. That requires that someone, not some committee, be in charge.
Note that I’m not saying that groups need dictators: far from it. However, group leaders must be empowered to lead – and they must actually lead. |
| | | Calibrate Your Compass
Read our exclusive RedPaper to guide you through this evolving situation.
The coronavirus crisis caused a short term economic crisis for many medical groups. Our RedPaper shows you the way out. Plus, many of the concepts discussed are applicable during both good times and bad.
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| | Help Us Help You With Helpful Content
What tailored content would you most like to see during this time? How can we focus on solutions to your most pressing strategic concerns?
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| | | | We all hear, and most of us say, that the pace of change in healthcare is quickening. That means that the pace of required decision-making is increasing, too. Unless, that is, you want to take the “default” route. That’s the one is which you let someone else make the decisions that impact you; you’re just along for the ride. Of course, playing a bit part in scripting your own future isn’t the smart route to stardom. But despite your own best intentions, perhaps it’s your medical group’s governance structure that’s holding you back
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| In fact, it’s very likely that the problem is systemic. The Medical Group Governance Matrix introduces a simple four-quadrant diagnostic tool to help you find out. It then shows you how to use that tool to build your better, more profitable future. Get your free copy here.
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| | | | | | Whenever you're ready, here are 4 ways I can help you and your business:
1. Download a copy of The Success Prescription. My book, The Success Prescription provides you with a framework for thinking about your success. Download a copy of The Success Prescription here.
2. Be a guest on “Wisdom. Applied. Podcast.” Although most of my podcasts involve me addressing an important point for your success, I’m always looking for guests who’d like to be interviewed about their personal and professional achievements and the lessons learned. Email me if you’re interested in participating.
3. Book me to speak to your group or organization. I’ve spoken at dozens of medical group, healthcare organization, university-sponsored, and private events on many topics such as The Impending Death of Hospitals, the strategic use of OIG Advisory Opinions, medical group governance, and succeeding at negotiations. For more information about a custom presentation for you, drop us a line.
4. If You’re Not Yet a Client, Engage Me to Represent You. If you’re interested in increasing your profit and managing your risk of loss, email me to connect directly. |
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