Overcoming Adversity

Below is my most recent discussion as part of a Leadership Development series.

Respect and Trust

Last fall I attended a meeting where a talk was given by music composer Philip Glass. As he discussed his career and collaborations with various musicians, he made this provocative observation about those that turned out to be most successful.  “The key to a successful collaboration is trust. Not respect, but trust.  Trust is much harder than respect.”

I think Mr. Glass is on to something.  Most of us tend to give respect liberally because it is not a limited resource.  For example, we feel respect for people we admire because of their abilities, skill, or achievements.  Conversely, those we are not so fond of can still invoke our respect because of their position or the authority they possess. We can even have respect for inanimate things like the power of technology or laws that we need to comply with. 

Trust is different.  We can’t trust things like laws or technology because those things don’t trust us back.  The only thing that can be trusted is another person. Trust is holistic, a collection of feelings that culminate in how we regard an individual or group.  It binds our relationships together and grows only with continued use. 

The trust we have in someone is comprised of our impressions of their character and competence.  Surprisingly, it doesn’t take long for us to create those impressions.  Several studies have shown that people can size up competence and trustworthiness in as little as a quarter of a second based on appearance alone.  Of course more accurate impressions evolve over longer periods of time and with more experiences.  We trust people who trust us, who we perceive to be driven by something other than self-gain, that exhibit willpower and self-control, that get the results we need, and that communicate to us with clarity and resolve.

All of these trust factors play out in our organization every day.  Each of us has an opinion of how much we trust the leaders of the Ministry, our leaders in the Springfield Communities, the people we report to, or the people we work with.  That opinion is dependent on how we are kept in the know, the tolerance and forgiveness we receive for the mistakes we make, the credibility of the words people use, the reliability of their actions, and their openness to our influence.  We may respect their authority or who they are, but trust is built on experiences with them, how we think about them when they are not in our presence. 

You may have a lack of trust in various groups or people within our organization.  It is understandable.  We have gone through tremendous amounts of change during hard times.  Several difficult decisions were made that created disagreement and at times a loss of control.  Of course apologies and reasons for these events don’t forge trust, only time and new experiences can do that.  But trust is necessary.  It has been said that every government must have food, weapons and trust.  If it can’t provide all three, weapons should go first, then food.  Trust must be guarded to the end.  Without trust we cannot stand.  As it is for governments, so it must be for us.  We must rebuild trust that has been lost and become better and stronger in the process of doing so.

Mr. Glass was right.  Trust is much harder than respect but we are not helpless to regain it.  Please help us.  I respect the work that you do and trust that you can help move Mercy forward. You may have ideas I need to hear. If so, email me or reach out on Twitter at @DrScarrow.

Talent Development

Below is my most recent discussion as part of a Leadership Development series.

The Hard Thing About Hard Things

By the time this is published, most or all of you will have heard or been affected by the recent reduction in force. Across Mercy about 350 individuals, more than 100 in the Springfield Communities, have had their positions eliminated. Another 100 have kept their jobs but had their management positions reduced. Many of you have heard the reasons for these actions. Continued implementation of cuts in the Affordable Care Act, cuts in Medicare reimbursement, a switch to value-based payments, and lack of Medicaid expansion in Missouri are among many reasons that the Springfield Communities will see at least $30 million less revenue in the coming year, despite taking care of more patients.

Less revenue forces us to find ways to reduce our costs if we are going to maintain the quality and breadth of service our community expects from us. Given that approximately 60 percent of all our costs are wages and benefits, it is no surprise that part of that cost reduction results in a loss of co-workers.

As this financial reality became clearer and it became apparent what actions we would need to take, our priority became placing the brunt of the reduction in force on management and doing everything we could to augment salaries and additional manpower to front-line positions – to the ER, hospital floors and clinics where patients are cared for. Thus the jobs affected in the Springfield Communities have primarily been vice presidents, directors, managers and supervisors. Some of these individuals have been with Mercy for many years and dedicated their entire professional careers to our organization, which makes it disheartening for all of us. That, of course, is the hard thing.

Decisions about cutting costs and making our organization sustainable start on pieces of paper, analyzing numbers, reviewing metrics…and then that time ends. Numbers turn into positions which turn in to people. People we know and work with and care about. People who have families that rely on them, with bills that have to be paid, and dreams that now have to be reimagined. That’s when it gets real. That’s when the emotions of the moment become our reality and the numbers and metrics that led to them seem distant and hollow.

For those who have not been directly affected by the reduction in force, I suspect some will continue to have fears. Perhaps some will fear they could be next. Perhaps some question our commitment or ability to sustain the organization. I cannot quiet all those fears. The fact remains that these are challenging times for health care. But while this moment may be difficult, we will face these moments together and overcome our challenges. Perhaps it is comforting to know when times get hard that there have always been hard times. Through each of those times we have gotten better, learned how to work smarter and remembered how we were resilient. One day when we inevitably face another difficult time, we will no doubt look back on this moment and recall the sadness of what it is like to do hard things. Yet as we recall the sadness, we will also know that when we had to, we were able to do hard things – the hard things that allowed us to continue in the service of others. We will be mindful to let our hopes, not our hurts, shape our future.

I thank each one of you for your continuing service and resilience in this moment. If you have questions about the reduction in force or want to express your thoughts to me directly, please email me at Alan.Scarrow@mercy.net.