Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Building One Culture, Developing Leaders, and Leading with Curiosity with Royce Brown

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Building One Culture, Developing Leaders, and Leading with Curiosity with Royce Brown · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

• 0:00
  - At Insight Global Health, we are dedicated to
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  - Thank you for listening to Becker's Healthcare podcast.
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  - I am Molly Gamble with Becker's. I'm joined
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  - today by Royce Brown, president and CEO of
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  - AdventHealth Lake Wales. Royce, thanks for joining me
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  - today. It's great to be with you. Thanks
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  - for having me. This is a great platform
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  - and having a blast here at Becker's. Good.
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  - We are listeners, we are coming to you
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  - from the live from the sixteenth annual meeting
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  - here in Chicago. Royce, I hope you've had
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  - a good experience so far this week. It's
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  - been amazing. You know, we were chatting before
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  - just the amount of thought leadership and just
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  - the collaboration has been amazing. It's my first
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  - Becker's and had a blast. We're happy to
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  - have you.
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  - Well, you I briefly introduced you. Why don't
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  - we learn just a little bit more about
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  - AdventHealth Lake Wales and also your role within
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  - the organization as CEO? If you can get
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  - us up to speed Sure. Then we'll we'll
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  - dive into our conversation. Yeah. AdventHealth Lake Wales
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  - is right in the middle of Florida, a
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  - 160 bed hospital.
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  - AdventHealth acquired the hospital in 2019,
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  - so we've been a part of AdventHealth for
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  - seven years now. I became the CEO right
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  - about five years ago next month, and it's
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  - been great to see the community embrace AdventHealth.
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  - AdventHealth is a huge system in Florida, one
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  - of the biggest faith based systems in the
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  - country, now over just a 100,000 employees in
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  - nine states. So it's great to have Lake
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  - Wales be a part of a huge engine
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  - of AdventHealth across the country.
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  - You mentioned thought leadership. I I wanted to
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  - start there. This has been one interesting year,
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  - one dynamic year in many ways.
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  - When we think about leadership, decisiveness and conviction
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  - are just increasingly important in the conversations I'm
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  - part of, and I'm sure you are too,
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  - Royce, and in your work. Is there a
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  - recent decision or pivot or change that really
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  - required the most leadership conviction on your part,
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  - especially as it relates to aligning people,
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  - resources, or or capabilities?
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  - I think the biggest pivot for me this
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  - year has been realizing, and this is common
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  - in hospitals,
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  - is getting a singular culture.
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  - You know, we've had great culture throughout the
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  - hospital, but you tend to have a culture
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  - in the ER, a culture in the OR.
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  - That doesn't really matter matter to the patient.
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  - They see AdventHealth when they walk in our
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  - hospital, and that's required me to make sure
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  - that we have the right people in the
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  - right seats,
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  - spending a lot of time making sure the
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  - leaders are aligned to the mission.
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  - I've always felt like
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  - each department brings great skills and talents, but
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  - connected together, we can reach any height. And
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  - that's that's where I spend a lot of
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  - my time these days is developing leaders, making
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  - sure they're working on the right things, making
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  - sure they're aligned to the vision of the
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  - hospital. But it all starts with us at
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  - AdventHealth at the mission. Are you providing whole
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  - care whole person care to our community?
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  - And even though AdventHealth is big, we wanna
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  - be relevant in every market we're in. The
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  - hospital I'm at has been there ninety eight
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  - years, so it's a very great tradition in
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  - the community,
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  - but it's been faith based with AdventHealth only
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  - seven years. And so making sure everyone's aligned
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  - in one singular culture has been a big
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  - focus of mine, especially as we talk through
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  - all this change that's hitting health care. What
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  - are some signs or or signals or even
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  - metrics that that tell you that you are
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  - moving toward a singular culture across the entire
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  - organization versus
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  - silos where each side of care kinda has
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  - their own flavor going for it? What do
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  - you pay attention to most? I I start
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  - with our people. How engaged are our people?
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  - I've yet to find a hospital that's just
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  - thriving beyond belief without a workforce that loves
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  - working there.
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  - I start each
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  - every six months, we do employee engagement surveys
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  - and making sure
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  - each department feels heard, valued is how we're
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  - gonna get a singular culture.
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  - So it starts there for me. Then, obviously,
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  - are the patients getting what they need? We
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  - are a clinical company first and foremost.
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  - They need to feel safe. They need to
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  - feel cared for. I've always said care is
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  - both a noun and a verb. The noun
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  - side is our people, but the verb side
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  - is how do they feel, how do they
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  - experience our care. And so that's really a
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  - big focus is how engages our team and
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  - carrying out the do they love what they
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  - do every day when they come to work?
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  - Absolutely. What about, if I can, Royce, I
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  - I wanna ask about middle managers. I think
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  - they play such an important role in in
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  - culture development and and sticking to culture and
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  - having it last.
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  - Are there any things that you've done differently
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  - when it comes to engaging or trainings for
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  - or
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  - empowering middle managers to really fulfill
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  - the charge that you just described? Yeah. I'm
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  - glad you asked that. We we've invested in
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  - an organizational effectiveness,
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  - manager at the campus who's
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  - every hour of every day thinking about how
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  - our leaders can be better. I think that's
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  - a crucial job for every executive, but executives
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  - are working on a plethora of things. We're
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  - in the community.
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  - We're at board meetings. We're working on strategies.
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  - Yes. We are deeply invested in our leaders,
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  - but there's someone there now every day working
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  - on development plans with them, focusing on what
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  - they want to develop, not just what the
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  - company wants to develop. And that's been a
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  - big shift for us. That was always handled
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  - more at a corporate or a divisional level.
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  - But now having those boots on the ground
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  - every day, the middle managers are who take
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  - care of the patients every day. They are
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  - the face of every unit, and so them
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  - feeling developed, heard, valued is crucial, and that
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  - OE person's helped us do that.
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  - Can you restate the title of that role?
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  - Yeah. Organizational effectiveness.
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  - Yeah. It it's it's under HR, but it's
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  - really a leader
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  - developer. Okay. That's great.
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  - Let's talk a little bit more broadly. Outside
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  - of AdventHealth Lake Wales, if you look at
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  - leadership, it is opportunities like this grant us
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  - the chance. We hear from different leaders at
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  - different pockets of the country, different size organizations,
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  - structures, and models. Is there an area, looking
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  - at all these external forces that health care
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  - is up against, where you think leaders need
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  - to be more decisive,
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  - especially when it comes to balancing
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  - speed, risk, having the right teams in place?
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  - There's a lot that you need to preserve
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  - and protect Mhmm. While you also might be
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  - pursuing a decision. Can you talk about that?
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  - I think it's crucial to understand we're a
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  - people industry. We're a human industry. I think
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  - there's so much data at our fingertips now.
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  - I have seen
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  - you know, in the last few years, we're
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  - very reliant on data.
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  - Data doesn't always tell the full story, and
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  - I'll give you an example. We were talking
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  - about
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  - employee engagement.
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  - Well, my hospital gets an employee engagement score
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  - for the whole hospital.
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  - Our score was very good. We're top decile
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  - in the country, but that doesn't tell the
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  - story of every unit. That doesn't tell the
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  - story of every person in that unit, and
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  - so you have to have a sense of
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  - connection,
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  - a sense of a gut feeling, as well
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  - as the data.
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  - And I think that helps you make decisions
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  - faster. You can tend to get,
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  - what is it, paralysis
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  - by analysis? By analysis paralysis. Yeah.
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  - We have so much data. I mean, we
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  - have
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  - dashboards,
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  - metrics at our fingertips every day now,
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  - but do you know what your employees are
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  - working on? Do you know how they feel
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  - about what's going on? Because if you can
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  - blend that gut in knowing your people and
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  - use the data, I think you make faster
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  - and more effective decisions. What's the gut feeling
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  - you last paid attention to? I think I
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  - go back to making sure we have the
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  - right leaders in the right seat. Yeah. Do
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  - they know what they should be working on?
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  - One thing that we've done is every one
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  - of our executives at the hospital I'm at
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  - has an executive coach,
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  - making sure that they realize executive coaching is
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  - to help you be better. I think in
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  - our industry, a lot of times, executive coaching
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  - is is, like, remedial or you're on a
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  - performance improvement. You need to get better. Michael
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  - Phelps has a coach.
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  - Tiger Woods has a coach. Right?
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  - We should all have coaches to help us
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  - get better, and that has helped me realize
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  - who is the most effective, who's willing to
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  - receive feedback, who's willing to give feedback.
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  - And modeling that throughout the hospital makes sure
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  - that we are hiring for the right fit
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  - as well as the right talents.
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  - I love that line. I think it go
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  - goes back to being, like, a lifelong learner,
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  - and and there's not it's not a remedial
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  - or a temporary solution. Executive coaching is healthy
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  - for for all leaders.
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  - In addition to gut feelings and then and
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  - executive coaching, are there any other
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  - habits or mindsets, especially among your leadership team,
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  - that have really been the most critical in
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  - keeping your organization and your people moving forward?
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  - A big theme for us this year has
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  - been curiosity.
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  - I had our leadership team read the book
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  - Look by James Gilmore, which is about observation
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  - skills, six looking glasses.
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  - I think a lot of times for me,
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  - you know, five years at a hospital, sometimes
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  - you get blinders and biases.
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  - We should always be challenging the status quo.
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  - How can we get better? How can things
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  - that we didn't see before become seen?
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  - And so our big theme is how are
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  - you openly curious every day? Is what you're
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  - doing working?
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  - Are you challenging your team to think that
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  - way? And I think that's a fun and
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  - joyful way to look at work. Instead of,
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  - you know, doing things by obligation, you're doing
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  - things by inspiration.
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  - You're you're looking at the possibilities instead of
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  - the negatives. So that's been a big focus
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  - for us through the first quarter of this
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  - year. It's great. It's Look by James Gilmore.
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  - James Gilmore. Yep. You recommend? It's fantastic. Okay.
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  - And it's a great read. It's a lot
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  - of stories, but just very simple
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  - training on using that observation muscle every day.
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  - I'm jotting it down. I always love a
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  - a good recommendation. So thank you so much
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  - for sharing that, Royce. Yeah. Thank you for
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  - this conversation.
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  - I wanna really I I you we kinda
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  - touched on a lot of different things from
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  - observation,
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  - power of curiosity,
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  - gut feeling, in addition to all those dashboards
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  - leaders have at their fingertips,
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  - executive coaching as an ongoing
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  - pursuit to get better. So I I really
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  - wanna thank you. This has been Royce Brown,
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  - president and CEO of AdventHealth Lake Wales. Royce,
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  - a pleasure to have you, not only in
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  - this podcast, but at this event. Thank you
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  - so much. I appreciate it.