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Creating a High Performance Laboratory

2009 Frontiers in Laboratory Medicine

Birmingham, UK

January 28-29, 2009

Larry Siedlick, CEO

Sunrise Medical Laboratories

Sunrise Overview

• Located Just Outside New York City

• Founded in 1972 as Local Community Lab

• Comprehensive Clinical/Anatomical Services

• Approximately 400 Staff

• ~ 1.7 million patient encounters annually

• Became part of Sonic Healthcare July 2007

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Physician Office Market Sharein the New York City Area

Source: Laboratory Economics January 2007

Estimated Total Market Size = $ 1 billion

LabCorp

7%

Sunrise

6%

Other labs

10%

Quest

62%

Bio-Reference

12%

Enzo

3%

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“And now,

for something completely different”

– Monty Python (Famous English Philosophy Group)

High Performance – Rule #1

Welcome to Healthcare

“It’s not supposed to be easy”© 2007 by Larry Siedlick

No Whining Please

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High Performance– Rule #2“Leadership Matters”

Rule #3• Rules 1 & 2 applies to ALL organizations

Private for profit

Not-for profits

Government

Unionized

Non-unionized

Large and small organizations

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Today‟s Goal “Scratch the Surface of Understanding”

• Purpose and Passion - Role in High Performance

• Connecting the Way to High Performance

• Leadership Responsibility

• Basic Characteristics of Senior Leadership

• Perception vs. Reality

• Competencies to Lead

• What is the “Meaning of Life?

And other small stuff you probably already know

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“What is the Meaning of Life?”

• What is your organization‟s purpose? Not to be confused with “what you do”

• Lab tests influence ~70% of all medical decisions

• Purpose inspires people

• Passion – Powerful magnet for talented people

• Passionate Workplace = Passionate Performance

____________________________________________________________________________________________

“We provide advanced medical laboratory services to prevent, diagnosis and treat medical diseases to positively impact

human health.”

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Passion‟s Role in a High Performance Organization

• New Organizations/Projects are rarely without passion

• Mature Organizations/People: Passion can be lost in the "operationalization“

• Are you "passion-challenged?" 50% of senior executives struggle with maintaining the passion.

Question: „Can I really evoke a strategy, a compelling saga, if myleadership is passionless?‟

• Where do you look if your passion is lost?

Introspection

Define what we are passionate about because we are languagebeings.

“Languaging passion” makes clear in our own minds what we areup to, and to be able to articulate it to others.

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“Languaging” My Passion

“My passion is to revolutionize leadership in a way that would

allow us to significantly alter the future.”

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Some Challenges Facing Laboratory Leadership

• Control demand for tests and stop unnecessary testing

• Improve delivery of the service Customers are more demanding

Who is the customer – clinician, patient, government?

Developing organization-wide Customer Service Culture

• Services may be competitively awarded Could mean only low price wins

• Future Consolidation of Laboratories

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Some Challenges Facing Laboratory Leadership

• New Quality Metrics

• Training/Career Paths for laboratorians

• Maintain existing staff expertise across services

• Shrinking Talent Pool

• Less Financial Resources

• How to ask staff for a higher level of performance Searching for the magical “Silver Bullet”

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Connecting the Dots to High Performance Culture

• Attracting/motivating the right people … requires great organizational culture…

• Great Organizational Culture is … determined and driven by great leadership…

• Great leadership … worked on EVERYDAY...

• Everyday … the laboratory offers new opportunities to lead

____________________________________________

“ Attracting, retaining and motivating good people is directly proportional to your organization‟s culture.”

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Attracting the Right People“Hiring for Dummies”

• Being customer service minded and a hard worker are personality traits and NOT learned technical skills.

• Most organizations hire people for what they know… then they fire them for who they are

• Spend more time in the hiring process finding out who people are

• Hire for behavior; train for performance

____________________________________“To select the wrong person for a job is a common mistake;

not to remove them is a fatal weakness.”

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Customer Service Culture “Why is it so hard for many laboratories?”

One Possible Theory

• Technically Driven Culture vs. Customer Driven Culture

• Management – Total Commitment to Internal and External Customers

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Service Culture at Sunrise“Top Down Philosophy”

• #1 Priority is our Internal Customers

Management recognizes our staff ascustomers

Strong emphasis on both teamwork andresponsiveness to individuals

Senior Management is accessible and placesstrong emphasis on work environment

• “Perception is Reality”

We understand that our staff‟s perception of culture is their reality – no matter what we think.

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What Motivates Staff to High Performance “A million things to do in your spare time”

• Giving Verbal and Visual Recognition

Say thanks to someone everyday

Smile - Keep the workplace friendly

Give recognition in front of peers

Walk the 4 Corners

Praise someone everyday

Give credit where credit is due

Non-monetary awards

• Asking Questions and Listening Carefully

Listen to your staff. Listening tells you what staff needs(“Perception is Reality”)

Listen to staff ideas and act affirmatively on those suggestions

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Other Things That Get People Working

• Opportunities for Growth Within the position and, if possible, beyond the position

• Empathetic and Thoughtful Leadership• Do what you say you're going to do

• Keep all your promises

• Involves staff in decisions that directly affect them

• Go out of your way to help staff

• Be sympathetic to personal problems

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How do we get the right people and get them working?

Thru Leadership that is …

• Effective

• Passionate

• Emotionally Intelligent

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Passionate Leadership to Achieve High Performance

• Be purpose-driven People will follow and embrace that passion and purpose as their own

• Know your people Leaders know the people who work for them Commit to developing skills and helping them reach their full potential People want to contribute meaningfully; create an environment where they

can do so.

• Get people involved Participation vs. “Following Orders” Creates a personal interest in the decisions Enable people to contribute

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"High-performance organizations are purpose-driven, while all others just operate day by day.”

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Is Leadership Genetic?Survey of 300 CEOs Worldwide

• "Is leadership predominantly something you are born with or something that you develop through experience?“• 40% said leadership was born

• 60% said it was gained through experience

• “What they considered to be the most important aspects -- and the most difficult -- of being a leader?”• Most Important: Having the right people was second only to

creating vision

• Most Difficult: Having the right people just behind maintainingmomentum and developing people.

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Emotional Intelligence for Beginners“With Apologies to Daniel Goleman”

Key Traits of High Emotional Intelligence

• Optimism

• Self-Awareness

• Empathy

• Impulse Control

• Reality Check

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Basic Competencies for High Performance Leadership

• Know yourself (Self Awareness)

Leaders serve to remind people what is most important,but first they must know what's important to them.

• Be optimistic and empathic (Social Awareness)

You set the tone for those around you.

• Connect with others (Relationship Management)

Understand what makes your staff perform at their bestand what they need to help the organization succeed.

• Self Control of, and responsibility for, your actions

(Self Management)

Assume responsibility yourself.

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Basic Competencies (Continued)“Vision without action is daydreaming.”

• Make timely decisions

Make a sound decision and move on.

• Communicate

Perhaps a leader's most significant function - thegood news and the bad.

“Intent vs. Impact”

• Develop a vision

Leader's job is defining the vision for others andinspiring them to follow.

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Leading the Change to High Performance“Change is good – you go first.” - Dilbert

Guide people toward the desired objective:

• Say what you mean. Be straightforward and credible. People who understand what the leader wants stand a far better chance of working things out on their own.

• Empathize, don't disdain. Strive to understand a person's circumstances and help him develop a plan to improve the situation.

• Have respect. People should feel responsible for their own actions and ideas. Respect their personal values, rather than forcing your own upon them.

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The Role of a Leader in High Performance Organizations

• Strategist for Future Look three years out into the future

Ask the most important strategic question: “How will ourorganization survive and improve in the future?”

• Ambassador to important staff and customers Increases staff‟s trust in you and establishes your credibility

• Inventor Finding your staff and external customer‟s pain and develop new

processes or services to relieve it.

The inventor function ensures that the strategic direction of thelaboratory aligns around the staff‟s and customer‟s pain

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The Role of a Leader in High Performance Organizations

• Coach, teacher to your direct reports Culture of learning al all levels

Teach the big picture perspective you have

Teach some basic financial/budget facts so staff understands whatis really happening from a financial standpoint.

• Investor Treat your organization as an investment of a life time

Strive to constantly increase it‟s value

Striving to increase value leads you to good decisions and creates astable work environment for people

• Student Stay active in some form of continued professional development

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Organizational Trust Theorem“The level of motivation in an organization can

never rise above the level of trust.”

• Staff accepts and executes decisions even if they don't fully understand them.

• Staff gives up short-term benefits for long-term, mutually beneficial rewards.

• Staff shares the burden in difficult times

• Staff responds with understanding to work emergencies

• Staff invests their ideas and suggestions in the future

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Harness Your Team„s Creative EnergyConditions Necessary for Creative Energy

• An inspiring purpose

• A sense of urgency that is shared by all

• A "we're all in this together" attitude

• Goals that broaden people„s abilities

• A belief that teamwork can meet these goals

• Know what your team really wants_____________________________________________

“For 25 years you‟ve paid only for my hands when you could have had my brain for free.” – Retiring General Motors Worker

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What People Really Want

• Want to feel like members of a great team

• Want to know the work they do is necessary

• Want to know the work they do is important for the organization's survival.

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Does all this Cultural Stuff really lead to High Performance?

You Decide

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Sunrise Cultural Results

• Productivity Metric - Annual Transactions/Full Time Staff Member

Quest is 3,639 and LabCorp is 3,820*

Sunrise is 3,776

• Financial Benchmark – Revenue/Full Time Staff Member

Quest is $151,053 and LabCorp is $143,632*

Sunrise is $206,220

• Financial Results - Similar to Largest US National Labs

• High organic growth rates

• Low staff turn-over at all levels

• High customer retention

* LIR April 2007

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One Final Theory“The Ultimate Quality Metric”

“The quality of a person‟s life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, regardless of their chosen

field of endeavour.” – Vince Lombardi, US Football Coach

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Contact Information

Larry Siedlick

Sunrise Medical Laboratories

240 Motor Parkway

Hauppauge, NY 11788

Email:Lsiedlick@sunriselab.com

Phone 631-435-1515

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