Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Jean Ann Larson, Senior Associate Dean for Leadership Development at the Heersink School of Medicine and Chief Leadership Development Officer at UAB Medicine

Transcript

Jean Ann Larson, Senior Associate Dean for Leadership Development at the Heersink School of Medicine and Chief Leadership Development Officer at UAB Medicine · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

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  Every year, Becker's annual meeting brings healthcare leaders
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  For the agenda and event details, visit beckershospitalreview.com
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  and click on the events tab in the
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  upper right.
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  This is Laura Dirdo with the Becker's Healthcare
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  podcast. I'm thrilled today to be joined by
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  Jean Ann Larson, senior associate dean for leadership
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  development at the Harrison School of Medicine at
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  the University of Alabama at Birmingham and chief
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  leadership development officer at UAB Medicine. Jeanine, it's
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  a pleasure to have you on the podcast
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  today.
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  Thank you so much, Laura. It's great to
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  be back having another conversation with you. Happy
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  New Year everyone.
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  Shout out to everybody who's joining in to
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  listen to the podcast.
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  Again, as Laura has indicated,
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  she indicated my title,
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  and I serve in a couple of different
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  entities, certainly for the health system, the school
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  of medicine as well, but my role really
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  spans them. And for both entities, I'm essentially
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  the chief leadership
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  development officer.
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  And basically, my work and my team's work,
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  we're focused on the senior leaders
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  at the various UAB
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  entities.
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  And it's interesting, Laura, and maybe, you know,
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  you can tell me down the road, I've
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  become aware of, seen,
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  very few people
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  who have my type of role as well
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  as my scope.
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  And so it's very, very interesting. And, essentially,
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  what that means is that we really function
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  as almost an internal consulting
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  team of organizational development consultants to really serve
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  the leaders across the organization,
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  whether that's delivering workshops, programs,
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  all kinds of other types of activities to
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  really help leaders become their best.
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  That's amazing to hear, and what a great
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  synopsis of everything you're accountable for and how
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  you make an impact on the university as
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  well as the health system and those things
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  integrated together. I know you've got accountabilities
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  both, you know, on the larger academic system
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  side and then for the rural hospitals and
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  health care facilities
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  that the system,
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  works with and manages too. So that is
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  just amazing to hear and and definitely a
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  unique role. I haven't heard a ton
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  of folks that have that kind of scope
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  and integration within what they're doing. And so
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  it's just really cool to hear about that
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  and the investment that UAB Medicine and,
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  the university are making into
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  the leadership development and growth for their broader
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  teams. So, thank you for your for setting
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  the stage there. And, you know, looking back
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  at the last year or so, could you
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  tell us about a project or initiative that
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  you ran, that was successful? What did you
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  do, and what were the results?
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  Yeah. Absolutely. Great great question. And, again, you
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  know, part of an academic medical center, it's
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  very complex.
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  And then in the meantime, and this will
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  tee up my answer to this question,
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  we've recently acquired
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  five hospitals, and then we're starting to even
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  further integrate some of our existing,
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  entities, you know, really more tightly into the
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  organization.
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  So
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  one of the things I think we've accomplished
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  in 2025, and we're continuing to go forward
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  this year,
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  is we were able to reach more leaders
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  and really start supporting them as well as
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  building some relationships with some of those newer
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  entities, which is teeing us up for what
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  we need to do. So I guess it's
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  not so much an an, quote, unquote, initiative
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  per se, but it's a theme that's allowing
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  us to grow our reach and extend the
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  network to support
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  UAB Medicine and helping us become a little
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  bit more tightly integrated
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  and really to start thinking of ourselves as
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  a system.
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  Now a common theme for our workshops and
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  consultations, and this won't be a surprise to
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  you or probably any other healthcare executive, but
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  we're focusing a lot on
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  managing change for the organization,
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  but also in ourselves and in those that
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  we lead.
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  Because, again, it's really challenging, and it's it's
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  an interesting thing. I've been at UAB in
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  April. It'll be my my tenth year, and
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  one of the long
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  time executives that works with us, in some
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  of our programs and serves as a guest
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  speaker for us, he made a comment noting
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  that we've experienced more change at UAB in
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  probably the past two to three years than
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  in the prior ten.
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  And even though I've only been here ten
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  years, I would I would say that's true.
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  For the first four or five years or
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  more, we had pretty much all of us.
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  We had the same bosses. We had the
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  same leadership teams.
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  And then since then, there's been a lot
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  of changes
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  in senior leadership. You know? I've had different
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  bosses over the years. Other people have. We've
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  reorganized a bit. And when you've gone from
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  not having a lot of change to something
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  like that,
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  yeah, I liken it. It's kind of mister
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  Toad's wild ride, and it's all good.
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  And the relationships are great, but it's just
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  getting used to where we now sit in
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  the organization and who we report to. So
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  we're really trying to do a lot to,
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  you know, help people deal with that, help
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  them show up in a positive way, and
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  then very importantly, help their help them lead
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  their teams in change management as well.
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  And, oh, by the way, this is not
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  new to 2025 or 2026.
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  We're also
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  implementing,
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  epic
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  throughout, you know, our existing entities as well
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  as our acquired entities. So there's a lot
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  of change around that as well.
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  The other thing that I'm tickled by, and
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  I wanna do more of it in 2026,
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  it's always a challenge that we have anytime
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  we're doing organizational development, leadership development, whatever,
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  is we've been able to put a little
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  bit more rigor around how we definitively identify
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  and measure
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  our impact on leader retention
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  and the probability
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  of promotion.
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  The current dean and I, and specifically him,
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  has always had a
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  hypothesis that, Jean Ann, due to your role,
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  due to the scope of your team, you
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  help us recruit senior leaders to UAB,
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  and you help us retain
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  people at UAB.
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  So
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  working with some colleagues,
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  in human resources and really using some of
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  their systems that they have in place and
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  putting it up against some of our records,
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  we were able to really prove his hypothesis
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  true.
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  So what's interesting is that the health system
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  recently was running turnovers of basically 17%,
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  which I don't think is unusual
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  for many health systems.
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  However, what we were seeing, all of our
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  programs put together
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  for people who went through our programs,
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  it was more like a 6% turnover rate,
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  which is exciting
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  because it's telling us that, yeah, a, for
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  one thing, we're selecting the right people in
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  our programs, many of which are very competitive,
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  and there are people that we want to
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  invest in. We want these people to stay
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  with us. We also saw some similar similar
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  statistics
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  around promotability. Now that often varied more by
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  program.
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  But again, as one of my former bosses
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  said, basically, Jean Ann, if somebody goes through
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  one of these programs and they stay at
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  UAB, good things will happen to them.
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  That's that's probably a great anecdote. So, again,
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  something we're we're very proud of, and we're
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  gonna continue to watch that going forward.
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  I love that. What a a great story
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  and ability to see change, to understand how
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  you need to pivot, to get used to
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  having that rapid change and then build that
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  into the culture of everything that you're doing
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  and and program around that for leaders as
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  they come into the organization or they elevate,
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  so they have that similar mindset and mind
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  frame and and can embrace
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  what it is that it is UAB Medicine's
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  DNA that can help,
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  transform the system and and really become
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  the health care destination for the future.
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  And, you know, looking ahead and digging more
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  deeply into this next year, what are some
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  of your big priorities as well as headwinds
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  that you're focused on for 2026?
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  Yeah. Very good question. I mean, I'm talking
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  about, you know, the new entities, the new
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  whatever. But now we have to really lean
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  into that. Because if I look at my
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  team and I look at all of
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  UABE and we talk about senior leaders across
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  the areas,
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  we're serving roughly, you know, a few 100
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  people. Now with some of the entities, it's
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  becoming closer to probably a thousand, you know,
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  supporting them, supporting their teams, helping them lead
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  better. So we are really going to have
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  to focus on some of the new entities,
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  and we're starting to do that. We dabbled
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  a bit last year, but literally bringing them
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  into existing programs.
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  But more than that, literally doing needs assessments
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  and finding out what's unique, how do we
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  serve them.
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  We certainly talk about, and I'm sure all
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  health organizations do, we have similar similar challenges.
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  So we talk about change management, dealing with
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  conflict. How do I delegate? How do I
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  take care of myself? How do I avoid
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  burnout in myself and my teams? But there's
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  still some interesting nuances. So it's not just
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  putting stuff in place that, oh, it worked
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  over here, but it's really listening and understanding
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  what leaders are challenged with and how can
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  we meet them where they are. So I
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  think we need to continue to do that.
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  Now the interesting thing I have what we
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  affectionately call a very small but mighty team,
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  but it helps us be creative.
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  You know, we can't just do stuff and
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  say yes, but literally being strategic and thoughtful
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  about how are we gonna engage with folks
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  and how do we prioritize
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  what we do to really provide the most
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  value. So, again, it's kind of more of
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  the same, but now we have to get
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  real from what we were doing last year.
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  So I have to bring them into the
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  fold and literally,
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  bringing in some people. And I think I'd
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  mentioned to you even before the official recording
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  started,
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  really making sure one of our signature programs
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  that I have individuals
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  in that program, it meets twice. It has
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  two cohorts a year that we're pulling people.
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  We're recruiting, if you will, into the program,
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  nominating
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  people from all these different entities so we
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  can learn from each other, so we can
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  appreciate,
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  you know, some of the complexities now that
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  we bring in by simply expanding the organization,
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  and really hoping to help
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  promote systemness and helping people feel like, wow.
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  I'm part of this greater whole, and there's
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  a force multiplier for me and for my
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  organization
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  by being part of UAB health system.
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  That's amazing to hear. And, you know, what
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  a a great system you brought in place
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  even with a a smaller team being creative
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  and strategic and prioritizing the right things to
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  maximize the time that you have together and
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  figure out how you can continue to build
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  a strong pipeline of leaders overall.
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  Now I know there are a lot of,
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  factors going into play, a lot of uncertainties
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  in how to do today. So
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  when you are thinking about the next year
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  as well, what are is, the hardest thing
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  you'll think you'll have to do?
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  Yeah. Very good question, Laura. And it's it's
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  kind of something we kinda always have had
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  to deal with in the background, but now
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  it's gonna be more. And I think the
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  hardest thing we will have to do, and,
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  I mean, that stands for every one of
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  my team, and I have an awesome team,
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  is we're gonna have to say no. We're
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  gonna have to prioritize.
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  And the frustrating part of that is we
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  feel our work is I mean, we love
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  doing what we're doing. We love working with
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  leaders. And it it's sometimes very difficult to
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  say no because you know, wow. If we
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  can engage with this group of leaders, if
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  we can engage and bring them in, we
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  can provide a lot of value.
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  And we're gonna have to sometimes say no,
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  defer, find other creative solutions for them.
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  But we wanna make sure also that we
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  don't overcommit.
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  You know? It it's frustrating for the team.
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  It's frustrating for the potential clients, and we
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  wanna make sure that we continue to show
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  up in a positive way. It's very important
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  to us is that we continue to role
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  model, you know, self care, you know, that
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  we don't go into burnout because we do
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  a lot of work in that space in
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  all of our leadership development courses.
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  So I worry, you know, if I if
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  I'm not careful about saying no, you know,
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  it won't be good for us and it
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  won't be good for our clients. I think
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  that's gonna be the hardest thing is having
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  to really
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  sometimes say no when we all wanna say
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  yes or maybe a team member really wants
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  to say yes, and we just can't.
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  That makes a lot of sense. It's such
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  a, tempting thing to be overcommitting
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  and especially when there's a lot of opportunities
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  and many things coming down the pipeline. But,
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  I appreciate that
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  advice because having that limited and focused view
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  of what's gonna be most important,
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  make sure that you're in a place where
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  you're successful moving forward.
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  I think before we wrap up, I wanted
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  to ask, where do you see some of
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  the biggest and invest growth opportunities for the
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  organization?
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  Yeah. Great great question.
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  I'm I'm very excited, and I, think a
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  great opportunity for us is really realizing the
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  potential that some of our new entities bring
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  to us.
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  And it's quite exciting. We can certainly learn
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  from each other, and we can discover best
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  practices from each other.
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  And also at the same time, making sure
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  that no one gets lost in the cracks.
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  We can better serve the state. We can
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  better serve our communities. We can make our
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  services more accessible at the right time in
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  the right place.
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  So I think that's very important and will
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  help us meet the incredible demand for our
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  services.
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  The other thing I would say is also
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  more partnerships, and that's one of the things
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  that I've tried to do where I can.
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  If we have expertise across the organization, whether
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  it's using someone for a guest speaker or
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  say, hey. Would you come in and work
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  with this team and us because you have
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  the knowledge and the expertise?
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  Anytime we can do that, I look forward
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  to more opportunities because they've been very, very
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  rewarding
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  for us while we do it.
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  And, again, really continuing to help all the
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  leaders that come to us. We were founded
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  basically to develop leaders with the understanding and
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  the assumption
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  that if we did this, UAB Medicine as
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  an organization
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  would remain sustainably successful.
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  And this remains our goal even through unprecedented
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  growth and opportunity, both for the organization as
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  well as, I think, the individuals that come
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  to us.
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  That's amazing to hear. And, Jeanine, thank you
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  so much for joining us on the podcast
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  today. This has been such a fun discussion.
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  I could really tell you've got a passion
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  for what you do, and it's inspiring to
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  think about everything you've got going on at
• 14:22
  UAB Medicine.
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  I'm looking forward to seeing you as well
• 14:26
  in April at our annual meeting. I know
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  you'll be speaking on a panel and really
• 14:29
  sharing some more details about all of these
• 14:31
  programs and how you're looking at the future.
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  So I'm looking forward to that very much
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  so. Great. Well, thank you, Laura. It's always
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  a pleasure chatting with you, and I look
• 14:39
  forward to seeing you as well in Chicago.