Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Wright Lassiter III on Leadership, Purpose, and Building a Healthier Future

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Wright Lassiter III on Leadership, Purpose, and Building a Healthier Future · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

• 0:01
  Every year, Becker's annual meeting brings healthcare leaders
• 0:04
  together to unpack the most pressing issues facing
• 0:07
  the industry.
• 0:08
  And every year, those conversations shift in profound
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  and unexpected ways.
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  This April, more than 3,500
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  health care executives will return to Chicago for
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  Becker's sixteenth annual meeting.
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  Seven ninety five elite speakers will offer new
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  lessons, new case studies, and predictions about what
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  comes next.
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  Join us April 13 through the sixteenth.
• 0:29
  For the agenda and event details, visit beckershospitalreview.com
• 0:34
  and click on the events tab in the
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  upper right.
• 0:38
  Welcome to this episode of Leadership Unscripted at
• 0:40
  Becker's Healthcare podcast. I'm Chris Sosa, your host,
• 0:43
  and I'm thrilled to be joined today by
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  Wright Lasser the third. He, of course, is
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  CEO of CommonSpirit Health. Wright, thank you for
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  joining us today.
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  Chris, it's great to be with you.
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  Thank you so much. Wright. So this is
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  a podcast about your journey as a health
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  care leader and how you apply your philosophies
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  to life, your responsibilities, and really everything in
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  between. So are you ready to get started
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  with us? I am ready to go. Perfect.
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  Before we do that, I do wanna give
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  you a chance to give our audience an
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  overview of CommonSpirit Health.
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  I'd love to talk about our organization, Chris.
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  So CommonSpirit Health was created in 2019.
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  We are the largest Catholic health care system
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  in The United States.
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  We were formed by the the alignment of
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  Dignity Health and Catholic Health Initiatives back in
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  February
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  2019.
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  Today, we are about a $40,000,000,000
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  organization.
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  Obviously, as a Catholic
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  health care ministry, we are a not for
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  profit.
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  We operate across 24 states in The United
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  States.
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  We own and operate about a 160 hospitals,
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  and we operate another,
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  nearly 2,500
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  other clinical assets from,
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  home health agencies
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  to senior living centers
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  to
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  physician offices, ambulatory surgery centers, the like. What
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  we say at CommonSpirit is that,
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  our our our job is to try to
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  create health, across the communities we serve.
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  Our mission is to bring the the healing
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  presence of God
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  known through the care that we provide,
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  in the communities that we serve. And,
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  I'm, I've been with the organization now just
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  about three and a half years, joined in
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  the latter part of 2022,
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  and
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  excited to continue to lead,
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  this
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  robust health care
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  ministry
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  across the country to do good on behalf
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  of on behalf of, US citizens and Americans.
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  Oh, sorry. I didn't mean to cut you
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  off there, but, yeah, it's fantastic. And you
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  mentioned robust
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  ministry of of health care that you have
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  going on. Clearly,
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  common spirit touches
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  a huge part of this country
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  and the health care space. So it's just
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  wonderful that we're able to have you on
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  and just give us an idea of where
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  you're coming from. As I said, it's about
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  your philosophy and, you know, how you apply
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  it to life and everything in between. So
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  the first question I have for you right
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  is simply, what is something you learned outside
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  of health care that you have applied to
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  your career?
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  Christian, I would just say that, I think
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  that as
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  as leaders, we all bring
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  a plethora of of life experiences,
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  to
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  to our jobs, to work, to our leadership.
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  For For me, I'd mentioned maybe a couple
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  of things.
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  So I was an athlete,
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  for a long time. I I played basketball
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  in college, played basketball a bit after college.
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  And
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  and so I think,
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  participating
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  robustly in a team sport,
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  I think one of the things that I
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  bring to my approach to leadership is the
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  notion that,
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  it takes a team and and that and
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  that everyone on team has
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  has a role,
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  that teams function best when everyone's accountable for
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  the role that they play,
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  that, flexibility matters,
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  performance matters,
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  communication
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  matters, accountability
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  matters,
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  and also that roles aren't always static.
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  There are times when you play different roles.
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  So when I was in college, I was
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  I started out as a as what would
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  be considered a four, a a kind of
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  a a power forward. Yeah. And then I
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  moved to to being a swing player.
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  You know, I was a captain of the
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  team the last couple of years, so I
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  had to exert leadership.
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  There are times when I needed to be
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  the leading scorer. There are times when I
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  need to be more of a defender.
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  There are times when I need to be
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  more vocal. And I think I bring those
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  kinds of things to
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  to,
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  to my life as a leader that,
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  you know, I don't get overly wrapped up
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  in the fact that I'm the CEO of
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  the company. I mean, that's interesting and that's
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  nice. And, yes, the the company require relies
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  on me for certain things.
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  But,
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  but what's really most important as the as
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  the leader is that I support everybody else
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  and that and that my principal function is
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  to try to get the best out of
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  everyone,
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  so that we can be the best organization
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  we can be. And so how do I
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  create that kind of environment? So I would
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  talk about that as one thing that I
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  bring from outside of health care. And I
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  think the other thing, I got
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  challenged,
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  by a friend and colleague,
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  probably in midpoint of my career,
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  around
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  how do you how do you drive organizations
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  to do better,
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  to do more?
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  And,
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  it sort of started with
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  with me being
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  introduced to,
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  the Toyota production system,
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  and
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  and we were having a debate about quality.
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  And is was quality good enough across health
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  care and and how could you make quality
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  better?
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  And at the time, and this is now
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  this is more than twenty years ago, I
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  had not heard much about the Toyota production
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  system,
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  Lean Six Sigma. I didn't really know how
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  that was being applied in other industries, and
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  that sort of provocation
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  really helped me,
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  I think in a couple of ways. You
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  know, obviously, all of the the tactics and
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  strategies and the and the the nuts and
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  bolts of lean thinking and that was that
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  was very useful and production systems were very
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  useful. But more importantly,
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  sort of the notion of waste and how
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  to really think about how do you remove
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  waste to make things better,
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  and then also a focus on on the
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  employee, on the people doing the work, and
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  that leaders' responsibilities
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  are to
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  to remove all the barriers so the folks
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  who are doing the work have the best
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  ability to get that done.
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  And then maybe lastly, sort of a mantra
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  that I've I've been employing ever since I
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  got exposed to that was
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  the sort of notion of aspiring higher.
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  And, a lot of folks who work with
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  me know that I that I that I
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  tell them
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  that I see my job as one thing
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  and one thing only, and that's to remove
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  the gap between today and what's possible.
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  And that I ask all my leaders to
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  embrace the same single
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  single responsibility,
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  single accountability, so the single goal that if,
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  you know, if you imagine that if every
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  leader in your organization
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  every day woke up and said,
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  my job is to reduce the gap between
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  today and whatever is possible for the thing
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  that I do,
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  how amazing our organizations would be,
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  how much we would need to strive to
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  be the best,
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  how folks who are running
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  parts of the organization that are really, really
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  high performing, their job is to maintain that
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  if they are at the ceiling, if if
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  you can't get any better, which is which
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  is which is not fathomable in most cases,
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  you can't get any better. But let's presume
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  you're at the 90 nines percentile.
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  Okay. You can't get any better. Okay. Well,
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  then how do you maintain that? And that's
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  and in some case, that's a very hard
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  task.
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  For someone who's running the thing that is
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  at the first percentile,
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  you don't need to get to the ninety
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  ninth percentile. But but how do you get
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  to the second percentile?
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  And then once you get there, how do
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  you get the next step after that and
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  just keep propelling yourself? And so those are
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  some of the things that I that I
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  would say that I've learned from outside of
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  health care that I brought into health care.
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  I love how diverse that answer is because
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  you can
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  at first blush, you might say, okay. I
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  went to the Toyota production plant, and you've
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  seen how they get from a to b
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  to c. You might be able to apply
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  some of that to health care.
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  But the last thing you said about aspiring
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  hiring and saying, okay. Let's not only figure
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  out
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  the nuts and bolts of this or whatever
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  analogy you wanna use, but how do we
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  say, okay.
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  Now that we're here, where do we go
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  to the next thing? I think a lot
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  of leaders like yourself, I think that this
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  in health care especially, that's the philosophy that's
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  been applied and applied very well is, alright.
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  Yes. The buck stops with me in a
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  manner of speaking, but I also have to
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  do right by everyone else because that's how
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  we're all getting better, not just me doing
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  better. Does that make sense?
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  Absolutely. Absolutely.
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  Alright. Right. Right. Second question I have for
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  you then. So
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  as CEO and this applies to not only
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  CEOs, but it might be a little bit
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  different, in your day to day than some
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  others. So how do you keep yourself healthy?
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  Whether it's emotionally, physically,
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  mentally, because you're in the top spot, so
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  you gotta make sure that you're running a
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  peak condition and so you can help everyone
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  else run a peak condition.
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  Well, you know, I would start with this.
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  I'm a big believer that you have to
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  listen to your body.
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  And some of us do that better than
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  others.
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  And some of us,
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  frankly,
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  get better at that over time. So I
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  would say that in,
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  in earlier periods of my life, I didn't
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  listen to my body that well. I I
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  was sort of a I was, I was
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  pretty hard charging and my view was I
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  work late, I get up early, and so
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  I kind of I'm the classic kind of
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  burning the candle at both ends,
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  for, you know, for a long time.
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  But I but I also
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  was really focused on what was important. And
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  so for me,
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  I tell people that for me, my priorities
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  are, you know, in this order, faith, family,
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  work faith, family, work. And and I've had
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  that mantra
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  from the beginning of my career
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  even when maybe I wasn't listening to my
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  body as much.
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  But I always say that, you know, you
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  listen to your body first and determine what
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  it is that you need. So for me,
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  I have to exercise. And when I don't
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  exercise, I don't I don't get to performance.
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  And so I work pretty hard on trying
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  to to be,
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  up and at them early enough so that
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  I can get to the gym and get
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  in a workout. And,
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  you know, I I, I try to remove
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  excuses and obstacles and and the like for
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  my life as as much as I possibly
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  can. So, like, I have a gym in
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  in in the homes and and so I
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  like, this morning, it was it was okay
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  Peloton days. Let me get on the bike
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  and let's get let's get a ride in.
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  I didn't have a lot of time because
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  I was leaving early to get to the
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  office. So alright. Let's and and I had
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  late some late meetings, late dinner meeting last
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  night. So, alright, let's get home, spend a
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  little time with the wife,
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  get to bed at a reasonable time. As
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  my wife would always say, not early enough
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  for me, but at a reasonable time, get
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  a decent amount of sleep, check my Oura
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  Ring in the morning and and see what
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  my readiness and sleep scores were so I
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  sort of know how I'm starting the day
• 11:22
  and then get a little exercise in. So
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  I try to do that. I love to
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  eat and cook,
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  and so I try to work really hard
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  on,
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  eating the right things because I I like
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  I like,
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  I like French food, which,
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  isn't always the healthiest for you. And I
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  I like like food in general. And so
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  for me Yeah. If I can continue to
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  to burn
• 11:45
  enough calories to earn all the good stuff
• 11:48
  that I like, then I do that.
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  I,
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  I also,
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  you know, I think about as I go
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  through the course of the year, how do
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  I make sure I spend time
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  outside of work and reflecting on things that
• 12:02
  that give you joy and give you a
• 12:03
  little satisfaction and give you a little respite
• 12:05
  from from, from your day to day? And
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  so my wife and I,
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  we travel a fair amount, and and oftentimes,
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  we're traveling around two things. We're traveling around
• 12:17
  jazz,
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  jazz music. So we try to find a,
• 12:21
  you know, a jazz festival,
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  in a place that we like, and we
• 12:25
  do a lot of traveling around wine, and
• 12:27
  we enjoy wine, and we we drink wine,
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  collect wine, and the like. And so so
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  those are things that we try to do,
• 12:35
  try to make sure we have enough family
• 12:36
  time.
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  And I'll tell the team, I tell our
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  team all the time, guys, listen to yourself.
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  When you feel like your when you feel
• 12:45
  like your your needle on your gas tank
• 12:47
  is getting low,
• 12:49
  make sure you take the time to do
• 12:50
  what it takes to get your get your
• 12:52
  needle back to back to high because we
• 12:54
  need us all at a high level.
• 12:56
  And so I will, I try to role
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  model that for the team so that people
• 13:00
  don't feel like you gotta work.
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  I tell the team regularly, you know, when
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  our when our daughter was young and still
• 13:06
  at home that I would never miss one
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  of her events if it was a sporting
• 13:10
  event or some other kind of school based
• 13:12
  event. If it meant I had to leave
• 13:14
  the office,
• 13:15
  at 03:00 to and come back at seven
• 13:17
  or eight because I needed to get some
• 13:19
  stuff done, I do that. But, so I
• 13:21
  always tell other teams, be present in the
• 13:22
  way that you need present in your family,
• 13:24
  whatever that means to you. And I don't
• 13:26
  define that, but that's how you how you
• 13:28
  need to define it. So those are things
• 13:29
  that I try to do,
• 13:31
  to keep myself
• 13:33
  in a good both mental and physical state,
• 13:36
  for the demands of of a job like
• 13:38
  mine.
• 13:39
  Excellent. Thank you so much for sharing all
• 13:41
  that. Right? I do have several follow-up questions.
• 13:43
  We're on top of the list this one,
• 13:45
  though. So you mentioned that it used to
• 13:48
  be hard charging.
• 13:50
  And was
• 13:51
  I'm not gonna suggest that there was a
• 13:53
  switch that was flipped, but what kind of
• 13:55
  helped
• 13:56
  you evolve from someone who had this attitude
• 13:58
  where you had to, you
• 14:00
  know, work day night all the time to
• 14:02
  someone who's found this,
• 14:04
  for lack of a better term, this, work
• 14:06
  life balance that you have going.
• 14:08
  Yeah. You know, honestly, I don't I'm not
• 14:10
  sure. It wasn't it certainly wasn't like an
• 14:12
  event. Like, I didn't, you know you know,
• 14:14
  knock on wood and and and and thank
• 14:17
  you. Like, I haven't had, like, a major
• 14:18
  health event that that created it or, you
• 14:21
  know, a family, you know, crisis or anything
• 14:24
  of that nature. You know, honestly, I think
• 14:26
  it's a little bit of just, as you
• 14:28
  become wiser as you get older,
• 14:31
  talking with people,
• 14:33
  who are sitting in your same seat,
• 14:36
  you know, I probably spent a little I
• 14:37
  spent on that I spent a lot more
• 14:39
  time now than maybe I did earlier
• 14:41
  in my,
• 14:42
  life as a CEO,
• 14:44
  just chatting with other CEOs,
• 14:46
  and just
• 14:47
  and and and I think that we all
• 14:49
  talk to ourselves and talk to each other
• 14:51
  a lot about balance is critically important. Like,
• 14:54
  I always knew balance was important, and I
• 14:55
  would always do some things. But I think
• 14:58
  on the on the personal side around sleep,
• 15:01
  for instance, it probably really began,
• 15:05
  when I started wearing wearables that began giving
• 15:07
  me advice. I'm a I'm a I'm a
• 15:09
  very much a data person. I have a,
• 15:10
  you know, an undergrad degree in chemistry,
• 15:12
  and so I love data. And so when
• 15:14
  I began to get data from, you know,
• 15:16
  I think the first generation Fitbit, you know,
• 15:19
  to now the Oura Ring, but, you know,
• 15:21
  various
• 15:22
  various wearables that that gave you data, they
• 15:25
  would tell you.
• 15:26
  And, you know, I was sort of, I
• 15:28
  always felt like, oh, I could get by
• 15:30
  on four hours of sleep and night wake
• 15:31
  up and no big deal. As you get
• 15:33
  older, then that starts to weigh on you
• 15:34
  a little bit, and you start saying, I
• 15:36
  feel more tired. Like, I'm feeling tired a
• 15:37
  lot. Like, why do I feel tired a
• 15:39
  lot? And I would say,
• 15:40
  well, it's probably because you're only getting four
• 15:44
  hours of sleep a night or five hours
• 15:45
  of sleep a night. Like, you need more
• 15:47
  than that. And so I started reading too,
• 15:49
  about, you know, what it takes to be
• 15:51
  healthy. And
• 15:52
  and, so I think it's just a bit
• 15:54
  of just self discovery. Like, nothing. There was
• 15:57
  no,
• 15:58
  there was no event that that sort of
• 16:00
  created the switch.
• 16:01
  But you get feedback from family and you
• 16:03
  have and you become wiser and you realize
• 16:05
  that, okay. I can't do I can't do
• 16:08
  at at age x what I could do
• 16:10
  at age y. And so how do you
• 16:12
  begin to evolve as you as you as
• 16:14
  you become wiser and have more more,
• 16:18
  more trips around the sun? Yeah.
• 16:21
  Yeah. Certainly, I can relate in terms of,
• 16:23
  a couple things. One, just having
• 16:25
  other people to lean on. No matter what
• 16:28
  level of leadership you're at, when you can
• 16:30
  say, you know what? Hey. There's other people
• 16:32
  going through this too. How can we all
• 16:34
  make ourselves better? That's always a help. And
• 16:36
  you mentioned the wearables. Yeah. I I would
• 16:38
  never be one personally to say, okay. I
• 16:41
  need to hit this goal, knuckle, knuckle all
• 16:43
  the time. It doesn't
• 16:45
  those numbers, that data does not necessarily
• 16:47
  rule how I do things, but it certainly
• 16:49
  is very helpful in crystallizing. Okay. As you
• 16:52
  said, you know, if I were getting tired
• 16:55
  all the time, it's like, well,
• 16:56
  It it helps to make that connect those
• 16:58
  dots when you say, okay. I'm not sleeping
• 17:00
  enough. Well, here's the proof. Right? Sometimes you
• 17:02
  just need that proof right in front of
• 17:04
  you to say, alright. Here's how and and
• 17:06
  why I need to change. So, yeah, I
• 17:08
  I would imagine all that's very helpful in
• 17:10
  being a CEO
• 17:12
  of Cognizant as well.
• 17:14
  Right. So
• 17:16
  next question I have for you. So I
• 17:17
  imagine when when you're taking care of yourself
• 17:20
  better than you have been by by your
• 17:22
  admission and that just comes with the experience
• 17:24
  of age, which is wonderful.
• 17:26
  So if you do have tough days, are
• 17:28
  are there people or just some sort of
• 17:30
  method that you turn to to move forward?
• 17:33
  So, Chris, I really appreciate that question,
• 17:36
  for a couple of reasons because I oftentimes
• 17:38
  would say that, you know, when you're sharing,
• 17:40
  you know, sharing challenges
• 17:42
  is probably more helpful for learning than sharing,
• 17:45
  like, all the successes. Right? Yeah. But here's
• 17:48
  what I would tell you. I work really
• 17:50
  hard, Chris, to not have really tough days.
• 17:53
  And you might say, well, that doesn't that
• 17:55
  doesn't seem realistic. Like, you run a big
• 17:57
  complicated company in a in a industry that
• 18:00
  has lots of challenges.
• 18:02
  Your organization chooses to serve in communities and
• 18:05
  markets that are hard. Like, how could you
• 18:06
  not have tough days? You have bad bad
• 18:08
  news happens.
• 18:09
  And you're absolutely correct. I think tough days
• 18:11
  is a lot about perspective and a lot
• 18:14
  about, how you see the world.
• 18:16
  I work really hard to
• 18:19
  not allow myself to have wild swings
• 18:22
  of highs and lows that would maybe create
• 18:24
  a tough day when you're in the really
• 18:26
  low period,
• 18:28
  for a couple reasons. Number one, I'm a
• 18:30
  a big believer that
• 18:32
  we face a challenge.
• 18:36
  The worst thing to do is spend a
• 18:38
  lot of time stewing over it, because it
• 18:40
  doesn't make it better.
• 18:41
  Or if you're facing some things that are
• 18:43
  unknown, the worst thing to do is to
• 18:45
  start imagining all the horrible things. Because when
• 18:48
  you do that,
• 18:49
  reality is never as bad as you as
• 18:51
  you conjure in your mind. And the the
• 18:53
  human mind is very good at at creating
• 18:56
  very dark stories
• 18:58
  for the unknown. And then you when you
• 19:00
  actually walk down the alley, you find out,
• 19:02
  oh, it's not quite as as scary as
• 19:04
  it is. But if you have days where
• 19:06
  you you do have frustration,
• 19:09
  I I sort of practice a little bit
• 19:10
  of,
• 19:12
  I practice deep breathing,
• 19:14
  to to manage myself.
• 19:16
  If something's
• 19:17
  really frustrate
• 19:18
  frustrating,
• 19:19
  and I feel like I need I need
• 19:21
  counsel or advice, you know, it sort of
• 19:24
  depends on what the issue is.
• 19:26
  I'd say my my wife, who is
• 19:28
  a retired clinical psychologist, serves as a a
• 19:31
  great,
• 19:32
  source of
• 19:34
  of comfort and clarity.
• 19:36
  And so at tough times, I will I
• 19:38
  will I will seek her out for for
• 19:41
  some counsel.
• 19:42
  And even that she's
• 19:44
  very far removed from my world,
• 19:47
  you know, she oftentimes has has
• 19:49
  clarifying,
• 19:50
  comments,
• 19:51
  for me.
• 19:53
  If it's something that's really a really complex
• 19:55
  business issue that I, you know, I have
• 19:56
  a I have a small cadre of
• 19:59
  CEOs that I can call upon to say,
• 20:02
  hey. You got a minute? I wanna talk
• 20:03
  to you about about something.
• 20:06
  When my father was alive, I used my
• 20:08
  father in that in that way a lot.
• 20:11
  My my I tell people my father was
• 20:12
  probably my
• 20:14
  my my best mentor,
• 20:16
  throughout my career. He wasn't in health care,
• 20:18
  but he was a really wise wise man.
• 20:20
  And so,
• 20:21
  I used to really enjoy,
• 20:24
  when when he was still on the earth
• 20:26
  to call him up and say, hey, manage
• 20:28
  you it's not necessarily around tough days per
• 20:30
  se, but he he loved to debrief on,
• 20:33
  hey. So what stuff's going on in your
• 20:35
  world these days? What what's what's what's worrying
• 20:37
  you? Like, what are you having challenges with?
• 20:40
  And, what let's talk let's talk about some
• 20:42
  of those challenges. He was a he was
• 20:43
  an education he was an educator. He was
• 20:45
  a higher education administrator, college college president, college
• 20:48
  chancellor, and but he also taught a lot
• 20:50
  on leadership. And, so I we'd love to
• 20:53
  chat a bit about that.
• 20:55
  And so those are things that that I
• 20:57
  that I do,
• 20:59
  on days when there's a little vexing.
• 21:02
  But I really work hard to not have
• 21:04
  very many of those days at all.
• 21:06
  Well, I think that speaks to the power
• 21:08
  of preparation, does it not? I mean, as
• 21:09
  you you said, you can't control everything,
• 21:12
  but there's there's quite a bit that you
• 21:13
  can. And so when you get to those
• 21:15
  times when it's like, alright, You could have
• 21:17
  a wild swing. It might not be as
• 21:19
  severe as it might otherwise be because you
• 21:22
  said, okay. Here's what I've done to make
• 21:24
  sure this is probably not going to happen.
• 21:27
  So I love that for sure.
• 21:30
  And certainly, you know,
• 21:32
  having that support system is always very helpful
• 21:35
  for for any level of leader.
• 21:37
  I don't imagine that we can just have
• 21:39
  our audience call up your wife and say,
• 21:41
  hey. I need some advice.
• 21:42
  But I'm sure there are a lot of
• 21:44
  people like her who can,
• 21:46
  provide that counsel in in one way shape
• 21:48
  or form.
• 21:49
  Yes.
• 21:51
  Right, you've talked about self discovery on this
• 21:53
  podcast, and that no doubt is an important
• 21:55
  part of any leader's evolution.
• 21:57
  So in that spirit, I would simply like
• 21:59
  to ask you, what is something you've learned
• 22:00
  about yourself from from working in health care?
• 22:03
  So, Chris, you know, I I have talked
• 22:05
  a bit about self discovery, and I think
• 22:07
  that,
• 22:09
  what I've learned about myself
• 22:11
  I probably start with,
• 22:13
  perseverance.
• 22:15
  You know, I think that health care oftentimes
• 22:17
  demands,
• 22:19
  that,
• 22:21
  you stick to things, that,
• 22:23
  the first time you try, you might not
• 22:25
  be successful, that,
• 22:27
  you know,
• 22:28
  if you're trying to
• 22:30
  convince
• 22:31
  a policymaker
• 22:32
  about something that's important,
• 22:34
  for health care that the sometimes the first
• 22:37
  time doesn't get it done. If you're
• 22:39
  trying to make a proposal
• 22:41
  to
• 22:42
  create a new service, you know, sometimes
• 22:45
  people don't agree the first time.
• 22:48
  If you're working on
• 22:50
  improving quality and safety,
• 22:52
  you know, it's not linear. It's sometimes like
• 22:55
  a step stepwise improvement. And so, you know,
• 22:59
  I think that, I've certainly learned
• 23:01
  that,
• 23:03
  I have more perseverance than maybe ever I
• 23:06
  thought about when I was younger and when
• 23:07
  I before I had a career and a
• 23:09
  profession that perseverance is something that's, really critical
• 23:12
  to me.
• 23:13
  You know, I'd also say that I've benefited
• 23:15
  really greatly from
• 23:17
  from parents who instilled a lot of values,
• 23:20
  in me. And I think that,
• 23:24
  I would say that, courage is something that
• 23:26
  I've learned about myself that frankly was likely
• 23:29
  instilled in my upbringing, but it it comes
• 23:32
  out
• 23:33
  at times when you think about
• 23:36
  holding your ground, making
• 23:39
  making the right decision. You know, Martin Luther
• 23:40
  King, made the comment,
• 23:43
  many decades ago that it's it's always the
• 23:46
  right time to do the right thing. And,
• 23:49
  I grew up in the South, and I
• 23:50
  grew up back at the time with parents
• 23:52
  who were sort of part of some of
• 23:54
  that,
• 23:55
  effort around civil rights for our country. And
• 23:59
  and I think this notion of doing the
• 24:01
  right thing,
• 24:03
  because it's the right thing to do and
• 24:05
  that,
• 24:06
  you know, sometimes
• 24:08
  it it takes courage to stand up for
• 24:11
  what's right.
• 24:13
  I can think about some key times in
• 24:15
  my career when when I've had to display
• 24:18
  courage
• 24:20
  to maybe agree with my organization to take
• 24:22
  a stand on something that,
• 24:24
  that some might have considered hard,
• 24:27
  to do. And so, you know, sort of
• 24:28
  the courage to do do things the right
• 24:30
  way,
• 24:31
  I think there may be a couple of
• 24:33
  things. Persistence and and courage are a couple
• 24:35
  of things I think I've learned from my
• 24:37
  my time in in health care.
• 24:39
  It's a fantastic and, certainly a very valuable
• 24:43
  lesson.
• 24:44
  Right? And I'm glad you
• 24:45
  put it in that context because it does
• 24:47
  lead me to my last question.
• 24:49
  Doing the right thing
• 24:51
  all the time is never easy.
• 24:54
  Right?
• 24:55
  And
• 24:56
  it comes with risk. So
• 24:58
  you
• 24:59
  expressed some of that in in the answer
• 25:01
  you just gave, which is terrific. So if
• 25:03
  you could if you if there are any
• 25:04
  details you wanna share along those lines, or
• 25:06
  very simply,
• 25:07
  is there a risk or two that you
• 25:09
  have taken
• 25:10
  that you that that has paid off that
• 25:12
  you love to illuminate at this time?
• 25:15
  You know, that's a question that, frankly, you
• 25:18
  probably don't think about in the moment. But
• 25:20
  as you re reflect and think retrospectively,
• 25:23
  some things come to light.
• 25:25
  I can think of a number of things,
• 25:27
  Chris. So maybe I'll just let me highlight
• 25:29
  one or two,
• 25:31
  for the listeners of of your podcast.
• 25:35
  So I would reflect things like
• 25:39
  like this. I mean, the first risk that
• 25:41
  I would that I would talk about is
• 25:43
  the risk that I took
• 25:45
  to actually go into health care. So when,
• 25:48
  when I was early in my twenties, I
• 25:51
  I,
• 25:52
  stepped away from medical school.
• 25:55
  I took what I thought would be maybe
• 25:56
  a one or two year sabbatical from that,
• 25:59
  and I did research.
• 26:01
  And
• 26:04
  my intention was to go back and pursue
• 26:06
  a career in medicine.
• 26:08
  But in some conversations with folks, I got
• 26:12
  encouraged to seek out,
• 26:14
  some advice from others before I made the
• 26:16
  decision.
• 26:18
  And
• 26:19
  one of the persons that I went to
• 26:20
  seek out,
• 26:22
  invited me to his office as a CEO
• 26:24
  of a health system
• 26:25
  on a Saturday morning,
• 26:27
  at 07:30AM.
• 26:30
  And
• 26:31
  he invited me for a thirty minute meeting
• 26:32
  that's that lasted three hours.
• 26:34
  And,
• 26:36
  ten days later, I was in the office
• 26:38
  of his chief operating officer at their request,
• 26:41
  because they wanted to offer me an opportunity
• 26:43
  to come work at that organization.
• 26:46
  And it was doing something that I knew
• 26:48
  nothing about. It was,
• 26:51
  this was back in December
• 26:53
  1989,
• 26:54
  and it was installing a computer system, electronic
• 26:58
  health record, a clinical information system. It was
• 27:00
  installing Cerner
• 27:02
  in a in a small hospital system because
• 27:04
  they wanted to go paperless.
• 27:06
  And they wanted to get rid of paper
• 27:07
  in the lab, and they wanted to get
• 27:09
  rid of film and radiology, and they wanted
• 27:11
  to get rid of paper and pharmacy,
• 27:13
  And they wanted to hire me. I knew
• 27:15
  nothing about any of this stuff
• 27:17
  to be part of the team to help
• 27:19
  them create this, quote, unquote, first step to
• 27:21
  other people as hospital system in those clinical
• 27:24
  areas.
• 27:24
  And then and I made the decision that
• 27:26
  I was not going to go back and
• 27:28
  pursue a career in medicine, but I was
• 27:29
  gonna take this on and then ultimately take
• 27:32
  on a career in health care administration. So
• 27:33
  that was probably one of the first risks
• 27:35
  related to health care that I that I
• 27:37
  took, and it it sort of it paid
• 27:39
  off well in terms of this was exactly
• 27:41
  where I needed to be, where where where
• 27:43
  the man upstairs,
• 27:44
  had a as a place for me. And
• 27:46
  so I'm thankful that I that I listened,
• 27:48
  and I made that pivot. So that's that's
• 27:50
  one example.
• 27:52
  You know, another example I would give is
• 27:54
  that, you know, I've had the opportunity
• 27:56
  to
• 27:57
  have, the organization that I lead
• 28:01
  serve as lead plaintiffs
• 28:03
  in,
• 28:04
  big lawsuits trying to help the health care
• 28:06
  industry.
• 28:07
  At Alameda,
• 28:09
  when I was the CEO at Alameda Health
• 28:11
  System,
• 28:12
  I was asked if our
• 28:15
  system would
• 28:16
  be part of a be a lead plaintiff
• 28:18
  on a lawsuit around,
• 28:21
  changes in the Medicaid
• 28:23
  rules that would have impacted pretty negatively a
• 28:26
  number of of hospitals and health systems across
• 28:28
  the country.
• 28:29
  And
• 28:30
  we felt that it was important
• 28:32
  not just to us.
• 28:34
  And, and so I said to our board,
• 28:36
  I think we should be one of the
• 28:38
  lead plaintiffs in this, which
• 28:41
  has the risk of
• 28:43
  drawing the ire
• 28:44
  Yes. Of of really important,
• 28:47
  lawmakers,
• 28:49
  regulators.
• 28:50
  But I really think it's important, not just
• 28:52
  for us, but for the industry,
• 28:54
  writ large.
• 28:55
  And so we made that decision. We won
• 28:59
  the we won the
• 29:00
  we won the the lawsuit, and, you know,
• 29:03
  many
• 29:04
  not just Alameda Health System, but other organizations
• 29:07
  benefited from that.
• 29:09
  I had the opportunity
• 29:11
  a number of years later to be put
• 29:13
  in the same position when I was leading
• 29:14
  Henry Ford around March
• 29:17
  and how that some of the rules and
• 29:19
  regulations that were changing there and, again,
• 29:23
  asked by
• 29:25
  American Hospital Association if we would be one
• 29:27
  of a couple plaintiffs to really make the
• 29:29
  case for why this was important.
• 29:32
  And, again,
• 29:33
  that was a time where I felt it
• 29:34
  was important, not just for my organization. Henry
• 29:36
  Ford was a very big recipient of three
• 29:39
  forty b
• 29:40
  drug discounts, but also that was important for
• 29:43
  our industry, you know, kind of a similar
• 29:45
  story. It was a risk. There were many
• 29:47
  organizations
• 29:48
  asked that said, yeah. No. We don't wanna
• 29:49
  be in that spotlight.
• 29:51
  We thought it was important enough. I thought
• 29:53
  it was important enough to be in that
• 29:55
  spotlight and, again, took that risk. And so
• 29:57
  those are two kind of kind of bigger
• 29:59
  examples.
• 30:00
  And I think I think many of my
• 30:02
  colleagues who might listen to this podcast can
• 30:04
  think about all kinds of risks that we
• 30:06
  take, whether it's risks with partnerships,
• 30:09
  you you know, risks to try something new
• 30:10
  in the organization, to try a new try
• 30:13
  lean thinking in your organization or to try
• 30:15
  a partner with with a with a with
• 30:17
  an entity to consider a a merger or
• 30:19
  an acquisition that might be risky and and
• 30:22
  and
• 30:24
  troubling, but but to have good outcome. And
• 30:26
  so, you know, I I think I'm thankful
• 30:29
  that,
• 30:31
  I've taken some risks that have paid off,
• 30:32
  and I think it goes back to what
• 30:34
  I said previously about this notion of feeling
• 30:36
  like it's always the right time to do
• 30:38
  the right thing and to be a courageous
• 30:40
  leader and that,
• 30:42
  I think that so many of my colleagues
• 30:44
  across the health care field are courageous leaders,
• 30:46
  and we
• 30:48
  we wanna do the right thing at the
• 30:49
  right time. And and so I've had the
• 30:51
  good benefit of
• 30:53
  of, maybe being in the right spot to
• 30:55
  do some of those things on a few
• 30:56
  occasions.
• 30:58
  Right. You've inspired a couple of follow-up questions.
• 31:01
  First being
• 31:02
  that conversation that went from thirty minutes to
• 31:04
  three hours,
• 31:05
  could you give us an idea of what
• 31:07
  transpired that
• 31:08
  and certainly,
• 31:10
  your colleagues saw something in you
• 31:12
  that maybe you didn't see yourself that said,
• 31:14
  you know what?
• 31:16
  Wright's the right person to lead this
• 31:19
  endeavor that we have even though it's not
• 31:21
  something he's ever done. And so so what
• 31:23
  was there a transformation there, or how did
• 31:25
  that go?
• 31:27
  You know, honestly, I I think that it
• 31:29
  was the first example
• 31:31
  that was displayed to me around
• 31:35
  sponsorship,
• 31:37
  mentorship,
• 31:38
  and and sort of projecting future,
• 31:42
  future forward qualities that might not be evident
• 31:45
  today.
• 31:46
  Chris, just to be very honest with you,
• 31:48
  like, I didn't know that transformation was happening.
• 31:51
  I was
• 31:52
  I was a, you know, 24,
• 31:55
  25 year old,
• 31:57
  sitting in the office of a, you know,
• 31:59
  a much older gentleman, a powerful CEO, but,
• 32:03
  you know, what to my mind, a big
• 32:05
  company
• 32:06
  was talking to me a lot about
• 32:08
  things, some of which I didn't fully understand.
• 32:11
  He was talking to me about
• 32:13
  how Medicare came about and and how health
• 32:16
  systems do what they do and
• 32:18
  and the struggles between doctors and and administrators
• 32:23
  and all these things that a lot of
• 32:24
  what he was saying to me, I was
• 32:26
  sitting there as someone who was really
• 32:28
  uninitiated in his world saying,
• 32:31
  this guy is spending a lot of time
• 32:33
  pouring a lot of words into me, and
• 32:35
  I'm and there were times during a conversation
• 32:37
  where I was really confused as to I
• 32:40
  am not sure what's happening right here. Like,
• 32:41
  I've been here for an hour, and he
• 32:43
  told me thirty minutes,
• 32:45
  of about advice. We spent the first first
• 32:47
  thirty minutes around advice, and then he started
• 32:49
  saying, so do you understand health care? Do
• 32:51
  you know what you know, all the things
• 32:52
  are going on? And he just started giving
• 32:54
  me lessons about things.
• 32:56
  And,
• 32:58
  you know, what I I think what I
• 32:59
  took take away from that is
• 33:02
  is is the responsibility
• 33:04
  of senior leaders
• 33:05
  to be or have their eyes open
• 33:08
  to,
• 33:10
  leaders who are
• 33:11
  who are still blossoming and still blooming. And
• 33:14
  that, you know, one of the reasons that
• 33:15
  I think I'm very committed to trying to
• 33:18
  make a path for
• 33:20
  for the generations to come behind me is
• 33:22
  because
• 33:23
  that's that was the example that was being
• 33:26
  unfolded
• 33:27
  in front of my eyes that that Saturday
• 33:29
  morning in
• 33:30
  1989
• 33:31
  in Dallas, Texas, and I I didn't know
• 33:34
  it was happening, honestly. I was
• 33:36
  there was not something that I said that
• 33:38
  this this wasn't an interview. I I didn't
• 33:40
  go there with a resume.
• 33:41
  This was supposed to be thirty minutes of
• 33:43
  a kid talking to an older gentleman,
• 33:47
  who was running a big health care system
• 33:48
  about
• 33:49
  should he should I or should I not
• 33:52
  return to doing something that I thought was
• 33:54
  the thing I wanted to do, which was
• 33:55
  to become a doctor.
• 33:57
  And interestingly enough, that gentleman had had the
• 33:59
  same thought about, I think I wanna be
• 34:02
  a a physician, but his parents didn't have
• 34:04
  the wherewithal to send him to medical school,
• 34:06
  so he decided to go do something else.
• 34:09
  And I think maybe he saw a little
• 34:11
  bit of me in him
• 34:13
  and said, you know what? I took a
• 34:15
  path that was different, so let me offer
• 34:17
  this path to this young man. Honestly,
• 34:20
  I that's what I that's what I think.
• 34:22
  Like, he never ever told me
• 34:24
  that some point afterwards when I went to
• 34:26
  work there, you know, a month or so,
• 34:28
  forty five days later, he never said. And
• 34:30
  I stayed there for two and a half
• 34:32
  years, left to go to graduate school to
• 34:34
  get my health care degree
• 34:35
  returned there
• 34:37
  again at his
• 34:39
  offering.
• 34:40
  But he never ever said to me,
• 34:44
  here is what happened during that call that
• 34:46
  that sort of convinced me. He he never
• 34:49
  really gave me that sense.
• 34:51
  You know, he did say to me when
• 34:53
  I was leaving to go to grad school
• 34:55
  that,
• 34:56
  you know, when you come back and you're
• 34:57
  gonna come back to us,
• 35:00
  you'll be ready to take on a lot
• 35:02
  more, and I can see that in you.
• 35:04
  But
• 35:04
  you never I never knew why. I I
• 35:06
  never knew the why. I'm fortunate,
• 35:09
  and I'm I'm sort of blessed to have
• 35:11
  had that opportunity.
• 35:13
  And, I'd certainly try to give opportunities like
• 35:15
  that to others, but,
• 35:17
  I don't know what that transformation was in
• 35:19
  that meeting, to be very honest with you.
• 35:21
  Well, fortunately,
• 35:23
  I think we can agree that path has
• 35:25
  led you all the way to here, you
• 35:26
  know, to to CEO of CommonSpirit.
• 35:29
  So where I wanna wrap up is this.
• 35:31
  So given all your experience experience now,
• 35:35
  why do you think that CommonSpirit
• 35:37
  is
• 35:37
  in a good place to take on
• 35:40
  the challenges that lie ahead for health care?
• 35:43
  Well, I'd so I appreciate that that question.
• 35:44
  So I'd say a few things. First and
• 35:46
  foremost, it sort of starts with it doesn't
• 35:49
  start with me. It starts with a 160,000
• 35:52
  people who wake up every morning with a
• 35:54
  with a common spirit badge who are committed
• 35:56
  to our mission and our vision and our
• 35:58
  commitment to,
• 35:59
  supporting vulnerable populations across the country and trying
• 36:03
  to transform from within and from without to
• 36:06
  be better. So I think it starts there.
• 36:09
  Secondly, I would say that,
• 36:12
  CommonSpirit is in the position it's in because
• 36:14
  it it has a firm commitment
• 36:17
  to doing better,
• 36:18
  has a firm commitment to
• 36:21
  to serve
• 36:22
  and,
• 36:24
  and that, we exist for that one purpose,
• 36:27
  and it's to serve the communities who put
• 36:29
  their faith and trust in us.
• 36:32
  And then I would go beyond that and
• 36:33
  say that, you know, when commissary was formed
• 36:35
  six years ago,
• 36:38
  it was formed because it's because the thinking
• 36:41
  was that a large scale organization
• 36:44
  like CommonSpirit
• 36:45
  could do things for health care writ large,
• 36:48
  for the field of health care that maybe
• 36:50
  smaller organizations
• 36:51
  could not do.
• 36:53
  And so,
• 36:55
  and I think that we are
• 36:57
  positioning this organization to do just that.
• 37:01
  We are really working hard to use the
• 37:03
  size and scale of a large entity
• 37:06
  to create efficiencies and effectiveness
• 37:09
  that
• 37:10
  that will be transformative for our health care
• 37:12
  system at large.
• 37:14
  And then I would say, lastly,
• 37:16
  we have the blessing of the assemblage of
• 37:19
  a
• 37:20
  of a host of leaders across the organization
• 37:23
  from our national leaders to our regional and
• 37:26
  market leaders and our facility leaders who care
• 37:28
  greatly about,
• 37:30
  not just the mission of the organization,
• 37:33
  but but serving
• 37:34
  and trying
• 37:36
  to empower the communities that we have the
• 37:39
  the privilege of serving to be better,
• 37:41
  and to be better stewards of their health
• 37:43
  and to be healthier because we are in
• 37:45
  partnership with them. And so for those reasons,
• 37:48
  I I think that,
• 37:51
  that College Bird's in a great place to
• 37:52
  use our innovation
• 37:54
  mindset,
• 37:56
  to use our perseverance and stick to it
• 37:58
  ness, to use our
• 38:00
  reliance on Catholic social teachings,
• 38:05
  to rely on helping,
• 38:07
  the humanity we touch be the best version
• 38:09
  of themselves.
• 38:11
  And so I'm
• 38:13
  privileged to be the leader of the organization
• 38:15
  and and so thankful that I have the
• 38:17
  colleagues that I have to work with to
• 38:18
  get done what we're trying to get done.
• 38:21
  Right. Thank you so much for going on
• 38:22
  this exceptional journey with us into your life
• 38:25
  and your insights into health care and really
• 38:27
  just life in general. It's been a a
• 38:30
  great ride, I'm sure, and our audience is
• 38:32
  gonna love it. So all the best, to
• 38:34
  you in common spirit, and here's hoping our
• 38:36
  paths cross again soon.
• 38:38
  Thanks so much, Chris.
• 38:39
  Appreciate it. Thank you.