Two Weeks in Business School: Top Ten Take Home Points

After 2 weeks at the UCLA Anderson School of Management Johnson and Johnson Health Care Executive Program what did I learn? This is a program for leaders of community-based health care organizations. You compete to get in and then you work hard with 41 colleagues from around the country for 2 weeks: classroom work for 8 hrs a day as well as additional time devoted to development of a Community Health Improvement Project (CHIP).

Here are my top 10 take-aways in a tongue and cheek format. (A la David Letterman's Top Ten, start from the bottom and read up.) Behind each point below is a story, a lecture, a problem to solve, a challenge to face.

1	During your time at UCLA -- you have visited your own future. Take time to visit your own future. Visit, inquire, investigate agencies and programs which are leaders and innovators.
2	A CHIP is a many faceted tool: It's a tool for your future. Use the tool over and over again to create SMART goals, goals which are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Reproducible, and Time Bound.
3	The faculty director is a groovy guy. And not only him, the entire faculty at UCLA. Excellent teachers. Leaders in their fields.
4	In any process, find the bottleneck. Shift it to the economic bottleneck. The economic bottleneck may be what is generating your revenue (think: the physician face to face component of the total health center visit -- you can't get rid of that!). In terms of process management and work flows, if you spend time fixing other aspects before the bottleneck you're wasting your time.
5	Fly coach. If you won't fly coach, there's Amtrak and Greyhound. Appearance matters.
6	Dust off your Shakespeare. Practice your eeees and ahhhs. Community health leaders must have a public presence and prepare for it.
7	IF cost effectiveness analysis is "Doing the right thing, " and cost benefit analysisis is "Doing the thing right." Then what is doing the right thing right? Clearly that is cost effective benefit analysis. Try to understand both and if you can't, get someone who does to help you.
8	Regarding your EHR (electronic health record system): The initial goal is not "best practice." Instead focus on "no bad practices." The main message here -- get one and GET IT ON.
9	Being a leader is like a big juicy peach. I think this is somewhat related to a big hairy audacious idea, except with fuz. Have clarity as a leader.
10	Build a leadership molecule: Vision and culture, operations, systems. They must overlap. If your leadership team has members with talents in these three areas you have a better chance for success.

Below: The famous on-line CHIP tool.

And, thoughts from class.