Often, when you hear someone say, “It’s a new day,” that means one of two things: There’s a change coming … a shift in the way things are being done. Or, more often, here at Texas Children’s we say it to mean let’s start anew tomorrow – tomorrow is a new day and another chance to offer encouragement, support or forgiveness. It’s an opportunity to learn, self-correct or right your course, or to innovate and advance an idea that could change or save a life.
So when I usher in a new year, I think of it in terms of days and opportunities – 365 opportunities to do something awesome. And I have a feeling that many of you are very much that same way, because that’s the only way we could possibly do the phenomenal things we do, year after year … day in and day out. It’s you, our people.
When I look forward to all that we aim to accomplish in 2016, I do so with confidence because I know we have the most incredible people of any organization. We are driven by our spirit, our enthusiasm and our constant belief that every day we come to work is a new day, a new opportunity, to make a difference.
To celebrate you and that spirit, I asked my team to create this video that showcases Texas Children’s people. Take a look:
You’ve heard me share my personal definition of leadership many times: Leadership = Vision + Structure + People, with people being by far the most important element in the equation. Well it’s true, and when I look back at all we accomplished last year, I am in awe of what you do and how you dedicate yourselves to fulfilling our mission in so many small and big ways.
So every day that you arrive, walk through the door with renewed anticipation of doing something great. Expect to do something that contributes to our powerful, unfolding story, because everyone here does. Move intentionally through each day, seeking the potential to change and improve something or someone — because here, that’s possible every day. At Texas Children’s, every day is a new day to be a part of something amazing.
Happy New Year to all!
November 3, 2015 | (24) Comments
A few months ago I was sitting with Amber Tabora and Angela Hudson, leaders in our Marketing/PR Department, and I told them I had an exciting idea. As an organization, we had lots of great things happening: tremendous, rapid growth of our workforce and patient volume, three huge capital projects underway, and everyone was working at full throttle, and had been for quite some time.
I said, “Guys, let’s do something big. Let’s get out there and try to reach every Texas Children’s employee and show them how much they are appreciated.” Essentially, I wanted to celebrate who we are, all the amazing things we do together every day and everything that makes our organization’s culture so special.
Together, we came up with the One Mission, One Culture, One Amazing Team events – seven hospital-based celebrations. But I didn’t want to stop there. I wanted to get out and see every Texas Children’s team member at all 73 locations throughout Greater Houston. I told Amber and Angela that it had always been my dream to go on a tour and visit all of Texas Children’s locations within 24 hours. Yes, I really said within24 hours. They were all in—at least, until I added that part about doing it all in one day.
Of course, we’ve grown much too big to see all of Texas Children’s in a single day. It actually took 10 days and about 80 hours, but we did it! After seven One Mission, One Culture, One Amazing Team events at the Main Campus, West Campus and Nabisco building, we embarked on a whirlwind, 73-stop One Amazing Team tour. Over the course of three and a half months, we visited all of Texas Children’s locations throughout the community, and it was better than anything I ever dreamed.
Traveling with a core team of 10 people, we covered about 750 miles on a bright blue, fish-themed Texas Children’s shuttle bus, and we met nearly 1,800 staff and employees. I’ll admit it’s difficult to make time to do something like this – we spent full days on the road – and it takes a tremendous amount of time and energy to travel from place to place. But this tour is hands down one of the best things I’ve ever had an opportunity to do. The investment of time and energy was invaluable, and I enjoyed every minute of it.
It was quite an experience to see up close and in person the amazing impact and imprint of Texas Children’s. Many times throughout this journey I wished I could take the entire Texas Children’s team along with me so each one of you could experience what I did. Because it’s not until you visit our locations all over the city that you can even begin to appreciate how much Texas Children’s is doing to change and advance care for children and women.
At every stop, I saw the shared pride and commitment of all the physicians and employees. I talked to practice managers about the families they serve, and I learned about ideas they’ve implemented to extend our reach and broaden access to health care in their communities. I learned about all the ways, big and small, that so many people are leading the way to ensure our patients’ sometimes complex social and clinical needs are met.
It moved me to see how we are serving so passionately in underserved communities, providing families and children with options that would otherwise be beyond their reach. I spoke with parents and kids, and I heard how their care providers, our people, are like members of their families. And the best part? People at every location told me about their close-knit teams – amazing teams – and I saw over and over how they embody and embrace our fabulous culture.
This is an incredible organization, and all of you are really special. You have heard me say that many times, and honestly, we probably all say it so much that sometimes it may seem trite. But it’s really quite remarkable that we are a workforce of 11,000 people with such diversity of interests and experiences, skills and beliefs. And yet, we have such indisputable passion for serving our one mission.
I’m truly humbled by all of the employees I met along the way who have taken the time to let me know how much they appreciate my stopping by to meet them and their teams. And of course everyone asks, “Are you going to do this again?” Without a doubt, yes. Just maybe not quite as soon as next year … In the meantime, continue your work of serving our families, and know that I appreciate everything you do. And most importantly, remember that no matter how big we get, the contributions each of you makes are valued. Each one of you is essential to our mission, and together, we will always be one amazing team.
Stay tuned for a video of all the highlights from the tour. Until then, here’s a gallery of some of my favorite moments on the road: One Amazing Team tour photo gallery.
September 14, 2015 | (6) Comments
I’ll admit I don’t cook much. I grill, of course, but I’m smart enough to leave most of the cooking to my wife Shannon, who is phenomenal in the kitchen, especially when she bakes. She’s always turning out something amazing. And she’s one of those cooks who is so good she can improvise with or without a recipe. She tosses in a dash of this, drops in a scoop of that, and it’s perfection every time.
One of my favorite things Shannon makes is chocolate chip cookies. Everyone lucky enough to taste one of the cookies wants to know what she puts in them and how she makes them taste so good. Like most good cooks, Shannon has some “secret” ingredients that make her cookies different and better than the norm. She figured out that using real butter, cream cheese and pure vanilla extract in her recipe makes a superb chocolate chip cookie – a cookie that others want to eat and emulate.
The same thing happens in industry. When you make a departure from the norm, add something special and different, you often end up with a winning combination, a successful structure or business model that others want to emulate. Usually it’s because of a combination of ingredients that are not easily accessed or replicated. Organizations like this have what I call a “secret sauce.”
Here at Texas Children’s we’ve got a lot of secret sauces, and one of the most potent is our shared leadership model, thanks to six very special “ingredients.”
Dr. Dean B. Andropoulos, Anesthesiologist-in-ChiefDr. Michael A. Belfort, OB/GYN-in-ChiefDr. George S. Bisset III, Radiologist-in-ChiefDr. Charles D. Fraser, Jr., Surgeon-in-ChiefDr. Mark W. Kline, Physician-in-Chief
Dr. James Versalovic, Pathologist-in-Chief
Before these six medical leadership roles existed, Dr. Ralph Feigin was our sole physician-in-chief, and he and I worked together to lead the organization. Our relationship laid the foundation for the shared leadership model we have today. After Dr. Feign passed away, Dr. Kline became physician-in-chief. And soon after, we established the surgeon-in-chief and ob/gyn-in-chief roles, assumed by Drs. Fraser and Belfort, respectively. Most recently, we rounded out the leadership team with Drs. Andropoulos, Bisset and Versalovic as in-chiefs over our three hospital-based services.
Having these six leaders in their formalized roles has created a distinctive and powerful dynamic at Texas Children’s. All are making enormous strides in developing their divisions to be of the highest quality and caliber and of a standard essential to our continued commitment to excellence. Each of them brings a unique and brilliant perspective to the table, and it is of tremendous value to me, to the executive team and to the organization that we have this clinical leadership team in place.
The strength of our leadership model really shined through a few years ago as we worked through the renewal of our three-year operating agreement with Baylor College of Medicine. Having the in-chiefs at the table was incredibly helpful, each one providing a different guidepost that we needed to make critical decisions related to our academic partnership. I was able to introduce and represent their best thinking and ideas, their divisions’ needs and must-haves and, ultimately, advocate for the things that would ensure the best outcome for the organization.
Our shared leadership model looks very different now than it did in those early days with Dr. Feigin and me. Today, that model cascades to leaders at all levels across Texas Children’s. We embrace and practice collaborative, shared leadership between our administrative and clinical leaders across the organization. Other health care organizations may look like that on paper, but ours demonstrates it daily. We work together at every level, and it’s a true partnership. We make decisions together, not just unilaterally. That’s our secret sauce, and it all starts with the remarkable relationship I’ve been afforded with our six in-chiefs.
You know that my Maxim no. 4 is about having a leadership definition, and you all know that my definition is “Vision + Structure + People, with people by far being the most important element.” The in-chiefs breathe life into that definition. Our shared leadership model demonstrates how we’ve taken a great vision and a really smart, appropriate structure and populated it with incredible people. Each in-chief “ingredient” in our secret sauce is unique, but they all share a common attribute – an intensely focused passion for our one mission at Texas Children’s.
When you’re cooking with this kind of clinical leadership team’s knowledge, experience, focus and investment in our mission, it makes for a pretty enviable secret sauce. And with their help, we are serving up something pretty amazing, every single day.
And about those chocolate chip cookies … Shannon said we could share her recipe with the organization. Now everyone can know the secret to delicious cookies.
Shannon’s Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
1 cup unsalted real butter (NOT margarine)*
1 T Philadelphia Cream Cheese*
¾ cup white sugar
¾ cup brown sugar
1 tsp high quality vanilla extract*
4 eggs
2¾ cup all-purpose flour (may need to add up to 3 cups)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda (make sure it is fresh*)
2 cups 100% milk chocolate chips (the large ones if you can find them), NOT semi-sweet; Ghirardelli is my favorite brand.*
Instructions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Mixing the ingredients by hand is best, but optionally, you can carefully use a Cuisinart with the dough attachment.
Cream together butter, cream cheese, white and brown sugars and vanilla extract.
Beat 4 eggs and add to cream mixture.
In a separate bowl, mix all-purpose flour, salt and baking soda.
Gradually add the dry mixture to the wet.
Gently stir in the chocolate chips.
Drop dough by the spoonful onto un-greased baking sheet.
Bake for 8-10 minutes at 375 degrees. Keep an eye on them due to variances in ovens. Cooking time will also vary depending on the size of spoon used.
For giant cookies, I use an ice cream scoop sprayed with PAM, and the recipe will make about 12 with a slightly longer cooking time.
Remember cookies continue to bake after they are taken from the oven so take them out just before they are the color you want them to be.
A different twist: Mark really likes these with chopped up peanut butter cups too!
*Denotes the specific touches that I have found contribute to a superior cookie.
Enjoy!
August 17, 2015 | (17) Comments
Mark talks with a group of Emergency Center preceptors about the importance of their role in shaping the workforce as we grow.
“The best companies in the world are those that have outstanding frontline leadership.”
That’s no. 10 of my Maxims of Leadership, and it is evidenced every single day at Texas Children’s. Our organization, which is innovating and growing at such an amazing pace, is propelled by our people. Our incredible staff and employees are why we are one of the best organizations in the world. Recently, when I had an opportunity to visit with our Emergency Center preceptors, I enjoyed being reminded yet again just how true Maxim no. 10 is.
By definition, a preceptor is a teacher responsible for upholding a certain law or tradition – a precept. Our preceptors throughout the organization are the nurses who train new nurses to care for our patients, upholding our high standard of care. Just in the EC, our preceptors have trained 47 nurses and eight emergency medical technicians (EMTs) since October 1 – 13,900 hours spent training and teaching in less than a year. Across the organization, we’ve had about 1,100 clinical orientees since October 1 who’ve received more than 280,000 hours of training. As you can see, our preceptors are making an awesome contribution.
Our preceptors in units throughout Texas Children’s impart wisdom and practices that can’t be found in textbooks or taught in a classroom. They nurture our culture and create a sense of warmth, security and family for nurses who are just starting out and getting a foothold in their careers. This instills confidence and inspires excellence, helping ensure that our new nurses transition more seamlessly into our organization.
Essentially, like all good teachers, preceptors give their “students” a model to which to aspire. And the really great teachers know something else that’s just as important – they know when and how to give their students the space to grow and demonstrate just how much and how well they’ve learned. Actually, I like the way Carrie Stocker puts it. Carrie is a nurse who joined us a few months ago and recently completed orientation with three awesome preceptors. She explains it like this:
Preceptors must master the art of dancing. My preceptors knew when to lead and when to follow. The best dance partners know each other and each other’s movements really well so they can make adjustments in the moment. My preceptors’ constant adjustment from leading to following ensured for my maximum growth. By providing a gradual release of responsibility, my preceptors first took the lead and then smoothly and confidently allowed me to take the reins. They had equipped me quickly with the skills I needed to be able to dance with the stars here at TCH!
Well said Carrie. There is absolutely an art to leading and following and knowing when to do which.
The time that our preceptors spend teaching and molding new nurses fortifies the organization in immeasurable, yet very tangible ways. And quite honestly, that’s true of every single person here – clinical and non-clinical – who takes the time to help teach a colleague a new skill or a better or more efficient practice. As Texas Children’s continues to grow at such a staggering rate, we rely on everyone’s willingness to do that. And I get it – some days, that’s hard. Our patient volume is growing, we have more patients with higher acuity, and we feel that across the organization. Daily, we balance that with training and teaching all the new Texas Children’s staff and employees we are aggressively onboarding to help us care for all of those precious patients. All told, our workforce of 10,000 will grow to 15,000 in three years – yes, 50 percent.
But the way I see it, this growth in volume and workforce is an amazing opportunity to serve our mission. The reason we are blessed with all of you – staff and employees who are hands down the very best at what you do – is because we are meant to use every person and every gift we have to fulfill our mission. We are meant to mold others and to advance care. We are meant to heal children and women for years to come. That’s why it’s so very important to share our gifts and inspire our people. It’s what we’ve always done, and it’s why we’re one of the best organizations in the world.
