Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Leadership, Analytics, and Decision Making in a Data Driven World with J. Tod Fetherling

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Leadership, Analytics, and Decision Making in a Data Driven World with J. Tod Fetherling · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

• 0:00
  This is Scott Becker with the special edition
• 0:03
  of the Becker's health care and the Becker
• 0:05
  private equity and business podcast.
• 0:08
  Thrilled today to be joined by a long
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  term professional in leadership,
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  Todd Feathering.
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  And Todd's got this fascinating career. Currently, he
• 0:17
  serves as a board member.
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  He also describes himself
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  as an author, a speaker, a health data
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  and analytics leader.
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  He also,
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  like myself, is a weekend golfer chasing even
• 0:30
  par. Although for me, I'm not chasing even
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  par. I'm just trying to stay okay.
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  Todd, let me we'll talk today about trends,
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  about what you're most focused on, where you're
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  most excited, and a lot more.
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  Take a second and introduce yourself to the
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  audience.
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  Yeah. Thanks so much for having me today,
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  Scott. Todd Feddling.
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  After thirty five years in health care data
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  analytics
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  and running five startup companies,
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  So I did take a little break for
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  the last year and a half, and I've
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  been writing four books.
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  And I know you're also in the process
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  of finishing a book, and
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  I am super excited to read that as
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  well.
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  Would would thank you. Talk about what you
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  write about. Where do you spend your time
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  speaking and and writing today?
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  Yeah. So the books all came about as
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  a result
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  of
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  my experiences
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  is as an entrepreneur and doing
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  startups in the in the health care analytics
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  space.
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  I have these frameworks in my head, four
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  frameworks that I just felt like I needed
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  to get down on paper.
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  And so that's,
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  what I've been focused on, and they break
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  down
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  into strategy,
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  advanced analytics,
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  what I call decision sciences,
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  and leadership.
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  And of those subject x, strategy, decision sciences,
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  leadership,
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  just to name three of those,
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  what excites you the most? What do you
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  find the most interesting when you start writing
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  about it, thinking about it? Where do you
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  where does your where do you gravitate to?
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  If you didn't have to discipline yourself to
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  write on all four or five, and I
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  I know you they're all waivers of love,
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  really. What's something you find most interesting?
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  I think what I am finding most interesting
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  is this intersection
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  of advanced analytics
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  and decision.
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  What I've begun to study
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  is
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  how people go about
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  translating data into insights and ultimately
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  making a decision.
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  And although data sciences
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  has certainly progressed,
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  and I believe it's gonna progress even more
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  in this AI quantum world, these
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  waves of technology innovation that are going on
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  right now,
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  it still comes down
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  to the human element
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  of
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  making a decision
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  and executing
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  up against that,
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  that strategy.
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  Thank you. When you you've worked with numerous
• 3:02
  different startups.
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  When things go well in a startup in
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  a new business,
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  what drives it to go well? What what
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  when you look at that, what do you
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  think about?
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  Ultimately, I think it comes down to the
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  vision
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  that the organization
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  has
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  and then the mission. For me, the vision
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  is the head and the mission is the
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  heart.
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  If if you get those two things right,
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  you will find that business will accelerate and
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  accelerates because it attracts
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  the right people to the business.
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  And then using
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  these frameworks
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  that that I've built over the years,
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  it makes it a little easier to execute.
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  Thank you. And any advice for leaders building
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  businesses
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  that you would share? Any any few thoughts
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  for people building businesses?
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  Yeah. I think number one, it's it's always
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  about the people. Like, who is on your
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  team?
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  Are they aligned
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  to your vision and mission?
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  And so that human element
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  has been a consistent thing, at least in
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  my startups that I found. And then the
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  second thing and and the real advice I
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  would give to leaders
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  across any size enterprise these days
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  is asking better questions.
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  What I'm finding is the more time that
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  people
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  spend thinking about the questions before they ask
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  them
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  winds up translating into true breakthroughs
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  both in process,
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  technology,
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  and and human resources.
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  And so I'm gonna ask you this question,
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  which is gonna turn the tables on you
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  for a second, Todd.
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  If I was gonna ask you one insightful
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  or good question,
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  or what would I ask you? What would
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  bring out what is
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  interesting to you to talk about to our
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  audience? What question would you ask you? Then
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  you're gonna be stuck having to answer it.
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  Alright.
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  The question
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  that I would probably ask myself,
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  and I and I have a 100,000
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  times probably at this point in my life,
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  is what are you missing?
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  What are your blind spots? What do you
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  think you need to understand
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  before you make that decision?
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  Todd, you and I have both been in
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  business for a few decades. I hate to
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  admit that, but we've all been at it
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  for a long time.
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  And and one of the great secrets is
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  that we're always evolving and always trying to
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  figure it out.
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  How do you assess
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  what you are missing
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  and
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  and how you're allocating time and priorities? How
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  do how do you assess that and think
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  about that?
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  In the book, Omnimix,
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  is really,
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  from a storytelling
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  perspective of an organization
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  going
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  through exactly that.
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  And what what I come back to
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  is,
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  do we have the right use cases
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  identified
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  that we wanna work on, and what are
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  those priorities?
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  I'm also a huge fan, whether
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  it's at HCA,
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  or my own start up,
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  is,
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  creating a pilot opportunity
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  so that we can test and iterate.
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  And that's where I find there's some magic
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  As you go through that iteration process
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  and begin to discover
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  those elements that you had in that original
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  question,
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  you can then
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  take it through the rest of the strategy
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  execution
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  components
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  and, come out with a better answer.
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  Thank you. And and and how do you
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  go about
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  there's this great concept from James Collins in
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  Good to Great about firing bullets, not cannons,
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  which really goes to the concept of testing
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  things but not putting so much at risk
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  that if the test doesn't go how you
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  want it to, you're not broke.
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  How do you think about pilots and getting
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  after it,
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  without,
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  you know, without burning the boats, without putting
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  yourself in dire straits?
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  Yeah. And and there's two things that I
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  think about in in that regard. One, in
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  the Barrow's book on strategy,
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  I spend probably more time on the front
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  end doing strategic planning.
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  I think that's part of my DNA that
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  I came up with in the in the
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  health planning world,
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  before I got into health data and analytics.
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  And so
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  being able
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  to take that, assess, decide,
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  execute
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  component
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  then allows
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  for the individual
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  and also a huge fan of Colin, the
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  pilot projects
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  allow you to take five, six different pilots
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  without huge investment
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  and to begin to test and iterate on
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  those so that you have what I would
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  call a minimum viable product,
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  minimal viable investment
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  in the execution of those ideas.
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  And then as those gain traction both with
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  your team and your customers,
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  then you can double down and and do
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  a larger investment around it.
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  Thank you. No one and and I and
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  I love that.
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  How do you decide whether to double down
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  on something or not? And and what's more
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  valuable, the time and energy you're putting in
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  or the money you're putting in or a
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  mix of both?
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  In my view, it's always time and energy.
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  Money is sort of,
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  money will always find the best ideas and
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  execution. And so
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  I focus on,
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  the human side and the the energy side,
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  more than anything else.
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  The
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  I think there's tipping points, and it really
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  comes to the
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  when there's a defined
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  customer value proposition,
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  if you are finding customers easily
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  that wanna say yes to what you're trying
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  to do,
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  that's the point where it triggers in my
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  brain that that we need to double down
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  both time, energy, as well as money,
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  and and start to scale this business venture
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  up.
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  Thank you. And and any advice and thoughts
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  that you would give to emerging leaders, emerging
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  entrepreneurs, or just emerging careerist? All all are
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  important.
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  Yeah. So emerging careerist is, is an interesting
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  topic. I I probably get three to five
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  people a week that reach out to me
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  and are in some various form of career
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  transition.
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  The thing that is available
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  to us today that wasn't available
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  two years ago
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  are all of these advanced,
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  AI opportunities.
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  And so today,
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  I can
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  if I know how to correctly
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  prompt,
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  AI,
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  I can have it actually
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  filter for me
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  what types of things that I'm passionate about.
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  Of those passions, which ones have the greatest
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  opportunity,
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  to provide economic benefit,
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  to myself
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  and also where I can find that happiness
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  factor.
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  The the Japanese call it,
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  ikiai,
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  and I am a huge component or a
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  huge fan.
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  That particular model as it relates to,
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  career journeys.
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  But it's the same thing for a business
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  journey.
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  If you can find that intersection
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  where you can make customers
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  extremely happy
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  and employees are extremely happily delivering that service.
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  I mean, that's that's that's what it's all
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  about.
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  And I absolutely love that. And, Todd, are
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  you doing separate work on boards today, speaking,
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  investing?
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  How do you sort of fill your time
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  now that you're not involved in your start
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  ups?
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  That is a a great,
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  question. So the answer is yes,
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  all across the board.
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  Doing several
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  private investments here in the Nashville area.
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  Spend a fair amount of time writing as
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  you as you might imagine. And like I
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  said, I I
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  literally the day I left work, I had
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  these four books that I just had to
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  get out of my head. And so spend
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  a large amount of time,
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  doing that,
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  serving on boards,
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  doing a lot of speaking about advanced analytics
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  and quantum here lately and trying to
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  think that future vision of what that's gonna
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  look like as it starts to get introduced
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  to businesses.
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  And then, as you started off on your
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  podcast, I I I am kinda working pretty
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  hard on my golf game. I,
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  I took thirty days and played every day,
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  for thirty days when I first retired,
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  and I am amazed
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  at how much progress,
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  a broken down old athlete like myself,
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  can make whenever you truly get focused.
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  It's probably not surprising to business leaders and
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  entrepreneurs that have to stay focused on their
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  business every day, but the same thing applies
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  for these everyday skills using technology
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  and human perseverance.
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  Almost anything is within reach.
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  And and and let me ask you a
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  question about that.
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  I've gone through different periods of time where
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  I play every day, but I'm not working
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  on something.
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  And sometimes my handicap goes in the wrong
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  directions.
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  Other times, I'm able to really pick things
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  up and sort of get better.
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  Any tricks to spending those thirty days, did
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  you work it all on
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  putting,
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  driving, irons, wedges, or just really go play
• 12:54
  for thirty days? How do you how do
• 12:55
  you think about that?
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  In the thirty days, I I literally just
• 13:00
  dove in deep and tried to work on
• 13:02
  everything.
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  What helped probably the most is,
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  Nancy Q runs
• 13:08
  a golf school,
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  and I took four lessons. The one that
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  helped me the most, believe it or not,
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  was the on course lesson.
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  So as you think about business coaches and
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  whatnot, if they could come spend time with
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  you during the day and want to, like
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  this golf coach did for me, that did
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  more to improve my game.
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  When I got over the initial
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  sort of improvements in my game,
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  then I found the best,
• 13:36
  way to lower my handicap was actually chipping.
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  Everything inside of 50 yards to the green
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  is is making a world of difference.
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  I I absolutely love it. Just fantastic. I
• 13:49
  I need work on my game. My index
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  is going in the wrong direction
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  the the last several times I've played.
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  Finally starting to feel like I'm coming around,
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  but a challenge.
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  Todd, what a great pleasure to visit with
• 14:01
  you. Todd Feathering, fantastic leader, fantastic businessperson, and
• 14:05
  just a wonderful person. Todd, thank you for
• 14:08
  joining us on the special edition of the
• 14:09
  Becker's Healthcare, Becker private equity business podcast. Thank
• 14:12
  you for taking the time. Thank you. I
• 14:14
  really enjoyed our conversation today and look forward
• 14:18
  to reading your book here this spring. God
• 14:20
  bless you. Thank you so much.