Leading "Smart" Growth

Looking at the NOW, NEAR & FAR

INTRODUCTION:
You’re listening to Tiller-Hewitt’s Leadership Lens Podcast. If you’re a leader - or an aspiring leader - who wants to stay relevant and impactful… YOU’RE IN THE RIGHT PLACE.

At Tiller-Hewitt we believe it’s faster, smarter -- and less painful -- to learn from leaders who have walked before us. That’s why we invite top leaders to be our guests on the Leadership Lens.

Your host is Tammy Tiller-Hewitt – Founder of Tiller-Hewitt HealthCare Strategies. Let’s jump into the podcast.

TAMMY:
My guest today is Diane Maas – Chief Strategy and Digital Growth Officer for Beacon Health, a Health System recognized across the industry for its unprecedented innovation.

This interview had me on the edge of my seat as Diane shared countless systems in place to ensure the entire organization stays on track to hit their strategic goals …in what she refers to as “The Now, The Near, and The Far.” Like many executives, Diane works 70-80 hours every week – so not only does she talk about the struggle of work-life balance – she shares her new name for it. And although she is a seasoned and accomplished executive, she shares a recent change in her role and one that some close to her thought would be a career-limiting move, while someone else, her CEO actually bet his house in her favor. Check out how she fared…

TAMMY:
Diane Maas. Welcome to the Leadership Lens Podcast. I am so grateful you're spending some time with us today.

DIANE:
Thank you, Tammy. I always love to spend time with you.

TAMMY:
Well, for those of you who don't know Diane …yet. She is a powerhouse leader and someone who frankly, has always been one of my leadership heroes, both because of her incredible horsepower, along with your ever so gentle rock steady approach. So I'm constantly in awe when we talk - you have a voice of an angel and the power of a warrior.

DIANE:
Oh, Tammy you're still kind. I not sure everybody would say gentle though. Thank you. That was that was nice.

TAMMY:
Anyway, Diane is the Chief Strategy & Digital Growth Officer for Beacon Health a multi-hospital system, located in South Bend, Indiana home of Notre Dame University. Isn't that where you went to grad school Diane?

DIANE:
I did. And as most of you know, we have a brand-new coach as of last week and so we're very excited.

TAMMY:
If you're not familiar with Beacon Health System, it’s an organization that is well known in the healthcare industry for many other things, but their relentless innovation. So, I think there's no time like today where innovation is so important, so I'm super excited Diane for you to talk about it, but I know that as Chief Strategy and Digital Growth Officer you lead two of the six strategies for the health system, smart growth, which I love that name and consumer-driven culture. But, I love what you said about that both of those are designed to ensure that future models of healthcare are designed around the consumer, to provide care that is frictionless, seamless, personalized, and are in the right location to meet the needs of the consumer. So, I cannot wait for you to talk about that.

But on a personal note, Diane and I met each other fifteen years ago when she brought Tiller-Hewitt in to launch her Physician Liaison Program and the rest as they say is history.

DIANE:
It is and it was a great decision because it helped us bring a lot of the structure to our Physician Liaison Program and that structure is still exists today. And we have a phenomenal physician liaison Tammy, as you know with Casey. Casey works with you occasionally and always listens to your podcast and your training programs. So, that structure that you helped us develop still exists fifteen years later.

TAMMY:
I love it. Well, let me ask you kind of backing up about how you got into leadership. My first question for you is, did you always know you wanted a leadership role?

DIANE:
You know when I think about that, I segment management from leadership, so probably not always management, but I always wanted to make a difference and I think making a difference is what I really think about when I think about leadership. So I knew that I always wanted to be at the table to have a voice, so defining leadership in that way, I would say yes, but I don't think you always have to be a manager to be a leader and so I always clarify that. So, I would say yes.

TAMMY:
The fact that you knew you wanted a leadership role to make a difference - talks about why you're such a good leader. So, can you share a pivot point in your career - Maybe a defining moment that felt like an epiphany or affirmation of your chosen path?

DIANE:
You know, I was thinking about this earlier today because I started my career, I don't know if a lot of people remember this, or even know this about me and I tell new people that come into our organization, the story, but I started my career in sales and worked my way up all the way through the organization, but I did sales and then I started our Managed Care Department, and that was my background. And I was good at that, and I really liked it and it was challenging for a lot of years, but I always felt that I wanted something more and different. So I had the opportunity to do a couple of business development projects and I really loved that, but the pivotal project for me was developing what we call Beacon Granger Hospital. It's a small acute care hospital that was strategically located in one of our suburbs. Who would have thought without having any background in in the hospital side of operations that I could put together the business plan, convince everybody that we were going to build this hospital that I can put it together, operationalize it, and then be responsible for it?

So, I think for me, that really was a turning point, that not only did I like the contracting side and the strategy side, but I also really did enjoy the operational side of the business. And that I could take the idea from start to finish and making it successful. That part of our business today is wildly successful, and I no longer have operational responsibility for it because I keep developing new things. But it really told me that you when you have an idea and it's a great idea, fight for it, because it took me five years to fight for that idea and make it happen.

TAMMY:
Wow. Well, I like how you said you didn't say the word sell to them, but you are convincing people that the idea was a good idea. Do you feel like that sales foundation that you had also helped you sell the idea and why it was the right idea for the organization?

DIANE:
I would say sales but also data. I think a lot of people forget that you have to have the data to make projects like that a reality. Data-driven decisions is something I talked a lot about with our teams is when we set strategy and we go after projects like that, they have to be data-driven. But the sales side certainly helped and relationships, which I'll talk about probably as we go through the conversation today. And I think that those three areas in combination makes it hard for people to say no to you.

TAMMY:
I love that. I can't wait to hear more! What do you think the top leadership challenges are today, both professionally and organizationally? How do you face those challenges? And what do you think are some of the warning signs of when the organization is getting close to running off the track?

DIANE:
Yeah, great question. I think the pace, the rapid pace today is definitely something that's changed over the years and a lot of that is due to technology. Everything moves so much faster, and people expect you to do things a lot quicker and not everybody can keep up with that. So, I think that's definitely a challenge today, but also workplace. Our workforce challenges, especially in healthcare is a huge, huge issue for us. Having the talent that we need to get the job done, is one of our biggest challenges. I think that will continue into the future. So, automation for us is absolutely key to automate as much as we possibly can. To do things only once is absolutely key. How we face those challenges, we have a very rigorous strategic planning process, that's derived from our mission and our values, and making sure that we follow that process and follow it all the way through. So, I always have to look at what the date is on the calendar, because I'm always working at least a year in advance and making sure that we have this process that starts every year that we are, you know checking the data, checking the results, making sure that we follow the process to help us be successful. And that we've got the checks and balances in place to make sure that it's working.

And I think that the warning signs of if we're getting close to running off the track, you can start to see the fatigue in people. I think healthcare right now in particular especially in our area right now, we've been hit extremely hard with COVID and there's not been a break. You can see the fatigue in people, and you know, we're dealing with the now, where we really like to deal with a call it the now, near and the far in our planning cycle. We can't get to that sometimes because we're just dealing with the now. You know, do we have enough people to staff what we have, and the people that are waiting in the emergency room, and are we canceling surgeries? And but while we have some people with dealing with the now, many of the others have to keep our vision on the near and the far to make sure that we're going to be okay in the future. And so, I think it's that balance of not getting people so far off track and only focusing on what you know is happening today.

TAMMY:
So, I love what you said the now, the near, and the far and when the now is a crisis, it's really hard to get away from the now. And during covid, well you’ve never gotten out of COVID and its going in 2 years, so my question to you is I love hearing that you have people looking at the now the near and the far, but it’s hard to get away from the now but even so, do you still have people that are not even in the NOW – they’re not even allowed to come to now town – they have to stay in far town?

DIANE:
We do. It was kind of interesting because we formed an incident command right away when COVID became a reality for us and many of the executives were on incident command because there were making decisions that had to happen right then. At one point in time, we were probably about 2 months into it when our CEO looked at some of us and said, “You guys are off incident command.” Some of us were like Whoa - why? He’s like you guys gotta go back to your jobs. I went back and started working on some of the projects that I had ongoing - even though we were under a capital freeze at the time - to make sure that they were ready to go once those capital freezes were over. And so yeah, there are some of us that don't operate in the now that continue to move the organization forward so that we're ready, and there's that push-pull between sometimes because so many people are focused in, hey, do we have enough people to take care of the people that are in the bed, but we have to be vision focused and ready for it when it's over.

TAMMY:
This is one huge, huge example of how Beacon is so innovative. So many people - because it's when a crisis is going on - you think that's all you can pay attention to, but to be mindful enough to know someday it's going to be over, and we've got to be ready for that someday. And so I love hearing that that you've stayed vision focused even in the midst of a crisis, even if you didn’t want to leave the command center.

DIANE:
It speaks to the leadership team that you concede control to incident command in this situation, that they are making decisions for the rest of the organization. That was something that we excelled at during this process and got things done very, very quickly. It was very impressive actually to see us move that fast.

TAMMY:
Yes, so take that a step further because that was an example of an industry that traditionally took forever to do anything and why it drives physicians mad, like what takes us so long, we proved that we can do things in record speed. So, what did you guys learn about that that you're now taking into the future, proven that you can do it faster?

DIANE:
So, I think when you have a single agenda, it's easier to do that. When life kind of returns a little bit to normal, we don't exist on single agenda items and so what we've tried to do with our strategy is to learn a little bit from that is, is to focus on, I don’t want to say a few because we're not quite that disciplined, but to pick the things that have the biggest impact and work on those and move those forward faster, than having so many items that we put into our action items for strategic planning that we can't move them forward as fast as what we need to. So, we've tried to pare down what ends up on our strategic plan for the year.

TAMMY:
That's good. It's just good to learn that you learned. You know, I've seen some organizations just flip flop back. It's like, are we not going to learn something from that experience? So you talked about automation and again this is what I've just been saving myself for is just to hear other innovative things that Beacon is doing given you’re the leader in the industry. Tell me about is there anything specific that you can share that's not a competitive secret that you're doing around consumer demands or staffing shortages or automation.

DIANE:
Yeah, so I love I love this question because we have worked really hard on the consumer side of automation because that's generally where healthcare has been behind. So, we worked really hard for online scheduling. We actually brought that up during covid. So last December, we launched our online scheduling for most of our offices and then subsequently rolled it out for the rest of them and some of our outpatient areas. I have to tell you, it's been amazing to see the results. About 40% of the people who use our online scheduling are new patients. About 74% are commercial patients. So, big numbers from that perspective, it’s been really profitable for us from that perspective. We don't have the utilization that I want on that area yet, but that's been great. Text reminders, which is lowered our no-show rates to about 2% when we are about 6%. Yep.

TAMMY:
Wow

DIANE:
That's been great and we're in the process now of rolling out virtual patient intake, so that you can do everything before you get to us. You know, fill out all of those forms that we all hate to fill out, all the consent to treat forms, fall risk, the PFQ9 that we have to do for a lot of our Medicare and pay-for-performance plans, which is the psychological profiles and then social determinants of health. So, all of them will be done before the patient hits our door. So you don't have to wait in line. You don't actually have to hit the front desk. So, all of that we worked on from an automation perspective, so hitting kind of that front-end process has been a big push for us. You know it seems like it's easy - but think about all the change management we have to go through to make that happen.

TAMMY:
Nothing about what you said, sounds easy. I mean, those are those are monumental tasks you took on. But my question is, did you guys build your own software to do this? Did you partner with a vendor? Who's your automation partner?

DIANE:
Yeah, so we so we use Cerner as our electronic health record. And so, they don't have solutions built in. So, we've had to pick vendors for each of those and each one has a different vendor, which is not necessarily fun so again during covid we selected vendors for those and had to implement with each of them. And I like to move fast. That's one of the reasons why I now have digital and so we've really, we've been pushing the organization to move forward on each of those topics.

TAMMY:
And what about Telehealth? Was that something you had before covid or is that something that you stepped way up with COVID?

DIANE:
Yep, so we had telehealth prior to covid -we definitely saw an increase in utilization during covid and we’re going to continue to advance that program as well. It’s a little clunky for us right now and we definitely have some work to do but we were able to transition and hardly missed a beat for our physicians to telehealth visits and that really did help us to keep our physicians working in the office during covid, so we felt really good about that.

TAMMY:
Oh good. What about Medicare patients? Is there any struggles with the older population to be able to navigate the automation trails?

DIANE:
So, some of them actually prefer to have it automated rather than wait on the phone. And so I can't say that we've seen any particular age group that's been a problem for us. But again data, the more data we have the, the better answers I'll be able to give you. I think we're not…we've not been in it long enough Tammy to be able to say this age class isn't using it as much as this one. More to come on that.

TAMMY:
Gotcha. Since Tiller-Hewitt works with organizations that want their leaders to consistently deliver strategic growth and measurable results, what are your secrets and successful strategies around strategic growth…Or as you call it, smart growth, which I love and measurable results?

DIANE:
Yeah, so we have built a discipline into the process. We use tools called level zeros and level one. So, it all stems from the strategic plan, and in the strategic plan we have metrics built around it. And then we do is call the level zero, which takes every strategic goal initiative and breaks it down. And then every part of our organization has a level one that tracks what they're supposed to be doing that rolls up into the level zero. And then we have quarterly results review that, if you are in the red, you have to stand up and present what you're going to do to bring yourself back into the green.

So, we have the lean process built into our system and our performance improvement people help me with that and keep us on track. So, it's a very, very disciplined process to make sure that we're successful at hitting our goals across all of our strategies so that we're able to continue to grow in all of our strategies.

You know, specific to the strategic growth side, I have four construction projects going on right now to make sure that we continue to grow in the areas in which we need to and not just on the hospital side. So more on the outpatient part of our business to make sure that we're growing, developing, and making sure that we're in the right place at the right time where people want to use us.

TAMMY:
Is that back to your consumer focus, where you're making sure that you're in the right location to meet the needs of the consumers?

DIANE:
Yeah, I think it's wrapping the consumer focus and that strategic growth, you know, where the payers want us to go, where the members want us to go, and where's the market going? And taking all the data that we have and trying to predict that because we can think that we need to be in, some line of business, but if the payers aren't going to pay for it, it doesn't matter. So, we have to try to predict where everybody's going, and then make sure that we're there at the right time and that we have the right location and then that the patients want to use us at that location. And so, it's really tying all that together and I think those two strategies do go hand-in-hand because then having the tools that are easy for the consumers to use us as well.

TAMMY:
Let's talk about you - a little bit more on a personal level. What do you feel like your biggest accomplishment and or failure has been that’s been a real learning experience for you?

DIANE:
I mentioned Beacon-Granger Hospital, which was one of the small acute care hospitals. I still think just because the results were so big on that. We saw many point changes in market share for us and payer mix change. So that for me feels like one of the biggest accomplishments that I that I've had and then I stepped subsequently did another small acute care hospital that opened right during covid. So, the jury’s still out on that one, but that one just feels like it was such a big thing. Right? Because that was the first one, so I would say that that one's still remains maybe the biggest at this point.

TAMMY:
Did you write anything or journal along the way, so perhaps you could write a book, a case study, some kind of paper around the dos and the don'ts of building a new hospital from literally from conception, preconception to completion?

DIANE:
You know, I didn't journal, but we have a very robust minutes of everything, so I suppose I could go back and do it, and having done it now twice, I think it's seared in my memory forever. And just, you know, at the time it's funny, the things that you remember, there was a door shortage, so I always remember ordered doors first because doors were a problem on that project.

TAMMY:
So, what's the most important risk you took as a leader and why?

DIANE:
So, this is a story and I have to tell you this. So, about a year-and-half ago, I was in a meeting with our CEO and CFO, and we were talking about digital. And so, I, of course, Tammy you know me, I'm not shy about sharing my opinion, and I was like, well, here, all the traits that I think we need for the new person who's going to take on digital. And I saw them both look at each other and I thought, what I say? And so the CEO said, “well I think you should do it”. When I burst out laughing and I said “uh….no” and they're both like double team me and they're like, you need to do this. I said, “I don't I don't know anything about digital. Oh, I'm not going to do that.” So, about a week later, he approached me again and said, “Diane, I think you need to take on digital.” I said, “I didn't know anything about digital, NO!”. And so, this, this conversation went like three other times. So, as you know Tammy, my son Ryan's in digital and I called him, I said, you know Ryan, they want me to take on digital and he goes, “OH MOM, that's a career-limiting move.” And I'm like oh - well thanks - thanks for the vote of confidence there.

So, I went back to my boss and I said, you know what, I'm thinking about this and my son says this is the career-limiting move and so he burst out laughing and it goes, I’ll bet my house that you'll be successful at this. He said, I want you to take digital. Long story short, I ended up taking digital a year ago last month and so a huge career risk, right, because I didn't know anything about it other than it certainly had my opinion. But I now have digital and have learned how to implement digital solutions for our organization. And I honestly thought that was, like, a huge risk because I said to my boss, and I hope I can say this. I said, if I suck at this, will you tell me, and can I have my old job back?

TAMMY:

I love it.

DIANE:
I gave up Beacon-Granger Hospital as I told you that I thought was one of my biggest accomplishments. And a lot of the other operations that I had on the retail side. I traded it for digital, just doing something that I knew that I could do to take on something I didn't know if I could do

TAMMY:
So, I have two questions. Number one, did you implement the plan or remember in the beginning you said - I shared my opinion for the person who will be taking on digital, did you end up implementing all the stuff that you shared your opinion about in the beginning?

DIANE:
Some of it, you know so here's the thing I learned that it’s harder than what I thought it was going to be. Had to go a lot deeper, but much of that and we moved a lot faster. So one of the things that I'm kind of known for is I move very fast and I don't let obstacles stand in the way. And so yeah, it was able to move along a lot faster.

TAMMY:
So, what lesson would you share with a leader who's doing equally what you're doing, minus the digital and but they don't have a leader above them that are saying, no, I think you can do it. I want you to do it and I mean, what advice would you give them? Do it? Don't do it? I mean it was a career - it wasn't limiting move but you know, it was a risk.

DIANE:
Yeah, so believe in yourself. I think that that's one of the things that women especially sometimes, don't always do. But you have to believe in yourself, go back to the basics, that you know, you're good at like I'm a strong project manager, and so I treated this like any other project that I would do and then surround yourself with people that have the skills that you don't have, and read, you know, I had to read up on a lot of stuff and there were a couple times that I was like, I could have stayed where I was comfortable, but, you know, push yourself outside that comfort zone. And yeah, that's not always easy. But it is I have to say it's rewarding in the end.

TAMMY:
How do you continue to make sure that your team is aligned and focused? I know you talked about the what did you call it, level zero level one? So is that part of how you helped to make sure your team's aligned and focused on the overall goals of the organization or the project?

DIANE:
Definitely. Yep, so that and also time. You know, you have to spend time. You have to communicate, but that structure that we've built is all about making sure that the alignment and the focus is there on the right thing. So, what we tell people if it's not on your level one, and it's not on the organization's level zero, then it can't be your priority. It makes things really clear for people.

TAMMY:
Well, I love that. It's like you built a system that works and you stick with it, you know, plan the work and work the plan kind of scenario that people get away from it becomes flavor of the day or the month or the plan. I love that. Yeah. I think that's a real secret sauce.

Well knowing that you are I respectfully say this, a workhorse. I said horsepower earlier, but I'm just going to go for the workhorse. How do you keep a work-life balance? And what does that mean to you?

DIANE:
That's something I'm in search of. So, I will say that that's something I'm not good at and I've not found, although I encourage my team to find that. So, I'm working on that. That's on my performance appraisal every year and it's on the to-do list. I've added yoga recently, I do it at lunchtime. Probably half the time, I move it for a meeting. But I'm in search of work-life balance. I'm not there. I can't. Yeah, I've yet to figure out how to do my job in less than 60 to 70 hours a week so, as you know, that's not work-life balance.

TAMMY:
It is nice to see that you're taking some time off, you know, and I think you guys had a mission this year to go visit all the different football stadiums.

DIANE:
We do. So, this is on my husband's bucket list. So, I'm doing it along with him, but we have a goal of getting to all the NFL stadiums and we visited twenty over the last six years. We did the Boston Stadium this year and Kansas City Stadium. So, we try to do a couple each year and you know, so you can work and have fun. So, I believe, instead of work-life balance, work-life harmony is what I'm trying to figure out.

TAMMY:
Because some people just love their job so much. Sometimes they don't feel like they're working, but they also have a family, so they have to stop working. So, I like the harmony, that's good.

Talk to me about your secret weapon or secret talent that has helped you in your leadership role.

DIANE:
So, I'm a big believer that it's about relationships. So, you have to have a really good relationship with people, and you can make whatever you need to happen, happen. But you’ve got to have that relationship and then it's about hard work. We were brought up, you just work till the job's done and just do it, you know, don't complain about it, just do it. And so, I just looked my life at work that way, you'll have great relationships. Do what you say you're going to do when you're going to do it. It's not that hard and just do it. It's no big secret, it’s kind of the work ethic and being present and that's how I try to live my life.

TAMMY:
I love it. I love it. Well, I can't believe that our time is already up. But before we end, I'd like to close with what we call the FAST 5 WRAP-UP.

What are you currently reading?

DIANE:
Two things, for work, The Inevitable by Kevin Kelly and I always have fiction, so James Patterson, Fear No evil.

TAMMY:
Okay, what are the words or the Mantra that you live by?

DIANE:
Be present

TAMMY:
And how do you start your day?

DIANE:
I’m early in the office. I'm here by 5:30 or 6:00. That's my time to do what I need to do.

TAMMY:
And what is the most important characteristic of a leader?

DIANE:
Integrity

TAMMY:
And last, what is one piece or one word of advice you would give to your younger self?

DIANE:
Believe in yourself. Fight for yourself.

TAMMY:
Well Diane, it has been a pleasure having you on the Leadership Lens Podcast and I hope you will come back again and continue to share all of your innovative and leadership stories with our listeners.

DIANE:
Absolutely. It's always fun Tammy

CLOSING:

Tiller-Hewitt works with leaders who want to consistently deliver strategic growth and measurable results.

The organization is recognized as the leading experts in strategic growth, network integrity, and physician engagement. Thanks for listening to this episode of the Leadership Lens. For more leadership resources and strategic growth solutions, visit tillerhewitt.com.