Crisis Management

This week in HMP 722 we had a class on crisis management.  Crisis management is definitely something that most do not want to go through, but it is something that all organizations need to be prepared for. One of my favorite parts about the presentation were the real life examples they included in their presentation. It made it easy to visualize their topic and have examples of crisis management to draw from.

I decided to look into this topic a little bit more to learn about some more examples of crisis management in healthcare. I found an interesting article from Becker's Hospital Review talking about some crisis scenarios and the solutions that the hospitals came up with for dealing with the scenarios.

For example, the article talks about a hospital that was damaged by a tornado. Natural disasters can be devastating and there is no way to stop them. They only way to manage them is through your response. This hospital in the article quickly worked to move to temporary office spaces and continue on with their business. They adapted well and didn't let the crisis define them.

To read about more crises and responses I have linked the article below.

https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/news-analysis/5-hospital-crisis-scenarios-and-how-to-overcome-them.html

Theory X and Theory Y

My next and final presentation in HMP 722 is fast approaching so I have started researching the topic. My group and I are presenting on theory X and theory Y. I had never heard of this concept before prior to this class, it has been very interesting to learn about so far and I wanted to share a little bit of my research.

Theory X and theory Y are theories that have to do with management and leadership. The two theories examine why employees work and their motivation to work. The two theories are as follows:

Theory X assumes that employees are unmotivated, they dislike work, and they will avoid it as much as possible. Managers that believe in theory X think that they need to force their employees to work and they also think that employees are only motivated by fear and money.

Theory Y assumes that employees like to work and they like to work toward a goal. Managers that fall in the theory Y category believe that their employees like responsibility, they are creative, and the average employee has intellectual potential that is unused.

These two theories are very interesting and I believe there is truth in both of them. For more information I have attached the link to a Youtube video explaining these theories in greater detail.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NK8-LhqF4N0&t=7s

Company Culture

This past week we had a presentation on company culture. Company culture is a really important part of the workplace. It has a huge impact on the day to day experience of working at a job. To learn a little more about this topic I decided to look into different companies that are known to have really positive company cultures. I found an article from entrepreneur.com that says that the following 10 companies have the best culture. 

10. Adobe

9. Facebook

8. REI

7. Google

6. Squarespace

5. Chevron

4. Twitter

3. Southwest Airlines

2. Warby Parker

1.  Zappos

It was interesting to read about these different companies and learn about why they have such good company cultures. My favorite to read about was Zappos, the #1 on the list. One thing that makes their company culture so strong is that they really focus on hiring people who fit their company. They are very focused on having employees that believe in the companies values and they hire for fit. It was interesting to read that if they hire an employee and the employee decides the job is not for them, they will give the employee $2,000 to quit within the first 2 weeks. This really shows their focus on having employees that align with their values. 

Another interesting thing to note is that none of these companies are healthcare companies. Not sure why that is, or if its just a coincidence. 

I have attached the article below.

https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/249174 

Mentorship

This week in HMP 722 we had a presentation on mentorship.  It was interesting to hear my classmates perspectives on mentorship and hear about mentors they have had. My favorite part of the presentation was when we shared qualities that we look for in a mentor. It was a good exercise and interesting to see what qualities my peers look for in a mentor.

Some of the qualities we came up with in class:
- Experienced
- Helpful
- Honest
- Successful
- Respected

I believe that mentors are very important and I can tell that my peers agree. A strong mentor can be very beneficial. Throughout the presentation I was thinking about positive mentors I have had. Although I don't have a formal mentor I do have someone that I view as a mentor in my life. A family friend of mine is a retired HMP professor and has he helped me to figure out where I want to do my internship and what direction I want to take my future career in. In the beginning of this year he set up multiple meetings for me with professionals in the healthcare field so I could sit with them and ask them questions so I could figure out what I was interested in. When I thought I was interested in doing an internship in long term care he set up a visit for me to go to a facility and tour and get to know what goes on and what an internship there would be like for me. He has been very helpful to me and I definitely view him as a positive mentor.

This positive mentorship relationship helped me realize what qualities I look for in a mentor.  I enjoyed the mentorship presentation and I am looking forward to building more relationships with mentors down the road in my career.

Power and Influence

One of our topics in class this past week was power and influence. This was a fun topic and important topic to learn about. Power and influence can effect our future careers in health care in many ways. We've learned that in order to move forward in our careers we must influence others by showing our skills and working hard. Power and influence is important and it was interesting to learn about from a health management perspective. 

In addition to HMP 722, one of the other courses that I am taking is Health Economics. When we were learning about power and influence I thought back to my experience in Health Econ and how we also talked about this topic in that class. We talked about it in the sense of monopolies in the market. We learned about how different organizations can not gain too much power so that they dominate the market. Power can be a good thing, but too much of it can turn into a bad thing. This is true across many disciplines. 

I looked into power and influence a bit more after thinking about it from the Health Econ side of things. Although not related directly to healthcare I found an interesting article to read on the topic of power and influence. Recently Amazon has come under fire for becoming too powerful and having too much influence over the economy. Jeff Bezos, the owner of Amazon has now become the richest man in the world and the company has gotten so big that people think that it is now affecting retail stores. This is an interesting read and I have linked the article below. It made me wonder, how much power is too much power?

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/apr/1/bernie-sanders-says-amazon-power-and-influence-us-/