I’m mostly a fiction reader, but I have a particular affinity for the strategy and management articles in Harvard Business Review, despite neither attending Harvard (fallback school) nor having a business degree.
In their Nov. 8 Harvard Business Review article on not letting purpose get lost in the daily grind, Lisa Earle McLeod and Elizabeth Lotardo argue that, like parenting or teaching, even the most noble of professions can struggle to keep a feeling of higher purpose alive because employees are managing an onslaught of daily tasks.
Health care has long been a profession with a higher calling and purpose. Whether one works in direct patient care, in administration, or for a company that supports direct patient care, the connection to personal impact – on someone’s life or well-being – is usually a short and straight line. Post-COVID, however, with increased distrust of the health care establishment, growing violence against health care workers, and rising levels of exhaustion and burnout among health care workers themselves, many are finding themselves at a greater distance from the personal, meaningful impact.
This article didn’t talk about health care at all, but the recommendations to re-connect anyone who works directly or indirectly in health care to the meaning of the work are apropos:
- Articulate the ripple effect of people’s work. Take the time to support employees in articulating how their efforts impact others.
- Reframe your measures of success. We can’t abandon quantitative metrics; in health care, performance metrics have taken on a new importance as they increasingly are tied to payment. But, framing numbers and data in terms of human impact creates more emotional engagement.
- Celebrate external impact. Your team knows what you value by what you celebrate.
None of these recommendations are earth shattering. But, they are a good reminder for health care leaders of the imperative to take time to connect every employee’s work to the higher purpose of alleviating pain, providing comfort and compassion in a dark hour, and sustaining life.
See what else Groundswell Health is working on in healthcare >>
Hereford Regional Medical Center: Bringing Advanced Heart Care Home
In rural communities, challenges accessing specialty healthcare can mean the difference between early intervention and harmful delay. For Hereford Regional
Building Trust at a Critical Time: How Community Engagement Sustains Rural Hospitals
When a rural hospital earns the trust of its community, that trust becomes one of its most valuable assets —
Groundswell Health and HealthConnect Partner to Strengthen the Future of Rural Hospitals
Across Texas, community hospitals are doing more than providing care — they are sustaining the health, identity, and stability of
The Elements of Design for Effective Content on Complex Issues
When the Texas Organization of Rural and Community Hospitals came to Groundswell Health with a request to produce an
Medicare Advantage Headlines >>
Why Medicare Advantage Plans are Losing More Providers
Medicare Advantage plans’ excessive denials, restrictive provider networks, and contentious contract negotiations continue to increase the number of health systems
Medicare Advantage Has Become Notorious for Prior Authorization Burden
Medicare Advantage plans denied 7.4 percent of medical professionals’ prior authorization requests, or about 3.4 million requests, according to a
