I have seen first hand the transformative power that technology has to change lives. I wake up every day passionate about discovering new ways to express that opportunity.Innovation is driven by a commitment to thrive and leverage knowledge in new ways. As an industry leader, Jared Mabry reflects on how to question the norm, harness your assets, and provoke disruptive innovation.
The fusion of AI with an idea-driven culture doesn’t just enhance efficiency; it accelerates innovation, democratizes decision-making, and fosters a more engaged and forward-thinking workforce. Organizations that implement this successfully will be those that rethink their approach to AI adoption, ensuring it enhances employees' ability to generate, test, and implement ideas at scale.
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Growing up, I had a front-row seat to an amazing leadership masterclass, courtesy of my Dad. Now, don’t get me wrong—he wasn’t perfect by any stretch of the imagination. But when it came to taking care of his people, taking pride in his work, and showing what leadership really looks like day in and day out, he set an example that has stuck with me ever since. I hope that sharing a few of the lessons I learned from him can inspire anyone looking to grow as a leader, or just as a human being.
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Last year, I started listening to a podcast called “The History of Rome” by Mike Duncan. It takes listeners on a journey from the origins of the Roman Empire to its ultimate collapse. One of my goals this year has been to finish the podcast, and in doing so, I came across an interesting episode arc regarding the Roman Emperor Diocletian. Without spoiling too much, Diocletian created a unique system of government (for the time) where rule of the empire was spread evenly across four leaders, each sharing equally in the empire's success. As leaders, we have an opportunity to do this every single day through proper delegation. Using our organizational authority and influence to empower our teams is one of the greatest gifts and opportunities a leader has. That said, delegation can be challenging and counterproductive if not done correctly. I thought I would share a bit of Roman history, alongside some of the principles I have found most helpful in effectively delegating to my teams.
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In my previous post, I discussed the importance of navigating the hype surrounding Generative AI with a critical and discerning eye using some of the principles from Yuvai Harari’s book, Nexus. Focusing that lens just a bit, but staying within the context of the book, how can we build organizations that are truly adaptable, resilient, and capable of thriving in an era of constant change? The answer, in part, lies in cultivating self-correcting mechanisms within our teams and organizational culture. This is how the idea of a self-correcting organization is born.
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For years, one of my favorite interview questions for leadership roles has been, what’s the difference between a leader and a manager? Depending on the response, I like to follow it up with two additional questions. Are all managers leaders and are all leaders, managers? The goal of this series of questions is to try and extract the individual’s views on leadership, their leadership ethos, and get a glimpse into not only their own individual management style but the kind of leaders they may bring into their teams. I have always found it to be such a revealing question and therefore, as part of my “Thoughts on Leadership from ChatGPT” series, I wanted to see what kind of response I would get from the OpenAI platform.
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Like many, when the OpenAI project released it’s third iteration of the ChatGPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer) tool, I quickly created an account and started asking it all kinds of questions. The more conversation I had with the tool, however, the more I realized this wasn’t just another smart assistant like Alexa, Siri, or Google Assistant. ChatGPT was able to form thoughtful, well founded responses to everything from love to the value of human interaction to the rise and fall of the Roman empire. From these genuinely interesting perspectives, delivered in mere moments, I thought it might be fun to start a new blog series exploring OpenAI’s thoughts on leadership. Each week for at least the next month or so, I’ll share some of the more interesting responses I get from ChatGPT and the prompts that resulted in the given response.
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In the December 1960 issue of The Atlantic, Benjamin E. Mays, an American Baptist minister and civil rights leader, wrote an incredible article titled, “A Plea for Straight Talk Between the Races.” Within this beautifully written piece, Mays clearly articulates that even with the backdrop of set backs to race relations in the United States, it is open, honest, and sincere communication that is key to progress for the civil rights movement and to bridge the divides of the national discourse at that time. Simply put, “Honest communication is built on truth and integrity and upon respect of the one for the other.”
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Since last March, the UK has been either in nationwide lockdown or under more severe regional restrictions. It’s with this backdrop I have been reminded multiple times of a valuable lesson over the past year. Life can sometimes be overwhelming, work can sometimes be overwhelming, and that can sometimes be really hard to deal with. And that’s OK. I have learned to value the vulnerability in the conversations I have with my colleagues and team members above anything else.
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As a leader, saying no is one of the most challenging things about the job. As Peter Drucker said, “There is no perfect strategic decision. One always has to pay a price. One always has to balance conflicting objectives, conflicting opinions, and conflicting priorities. The best strategic decision is only an approximation.”
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Given the isolation of our global circumstances because of the pandemic, now more than ever our words have power as they are the only thing we see. Now more than ever, ask yourself what impact you want your words to have?
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Earlier in the year, I wrote about my team’s journey to build an Idea Driven Organization and the phenomenal success that we saw right out of the gate. I am happy to report that after roughly five months, my team has generated over 500 ideas and 3,000 conversations around those ideas. We have seen hundreds of small process improvements that have had a huge combined impact on the way we work as well as a number of large, more significant ideas that have the potential to change healthcare as we know it. There is something special about being a part of a team that wakes up each morning looking for ways to change the world. So what are the attributes that make up an idea driven culture and how can you embrace those principles in your own team or organization?
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I've written a number of blogs on the power of ideas, the keys to building an innovation culture, and what leaders need to do to drive these initiatives within their teams. Over the past eight months my team and I in the MidAmerica Division of HCA have embarked on a journey towards building an Idea-Driven Organization and I wanted to share the story of that journey so far.
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To move your organization toward competitive heights, you must be a Change Leader Triathlete. Before I describe what I believe to be the organizational triathlete's characteristics, I thought I'd share "The 10 Things Not to Say to a Triathlete", courtesy of www.IRONMAN.com
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The problem with many organizations is that they've lost sight of their customers. While companies may claim that they're customer-focused, their day-to-day thinking and behavioral patterns contradict basic customer relations and servicing tenets. Seriously, how many executives/senior leaders walk into their companies each and every day with one glaringly obvious and unrelenting mission emblazoned in their thoughts and actions...
Today I must do absolutely everything in my power to win my customers' hearts and minds!
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Let's be honest — how many of us have witnessed a select few heading to multi-day retreats and locking themselves into a think tank-like room for the sole purpose of devising silver bullet strategies that are chucked-full of ideas that will allegedly catapult their organizations to unbelievably new heights?
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We say we want to innovate, but do we truly have what it takes? Before we can even get out of the Innovation Starting Gate, we must intentionally fine-tune our active listening skills. If we don't pay close attention, we'll miss those idea gems that turn into productivity enhancers and market expanders. Now the bad news is...we've got to work at it, and I mean practice, practice and practice! Without practice, the odds are stacked against us.
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Now that you’ve developed your “First 18 Months” StrengthsFinder Scorecard (refer to Part V in this series), the next step is to identify your key objectives, objective-attainment owners plus target dates. A word about objective-attainment owners — their role is to ensure that the work gets accomplished by holding others accountable to the individual tasks that must be tackled in order to achieve each objective. Owners must clearly state this expectation up front otherwise team members may incorrectly assume that the owner is the sole responsible party — the “doer” of each task.
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The first step in developing any type of strategy is to define your end goal. The key question to ask yourself is “What do I hope to accomplish and what will success look like —what are my success criteria?” Specific to StrengthsFinder, your goal might be to create a high performing team. If that’s the case, your success criteria might take the shape of a scorecard similar to the one provided.
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Most organizations barely scratch the surface when it comes to effectively leveraging the StrengthsFinder tool to achieve optimum value. Typically employees are asked to take the assessment, after which the results are discussed in private or group settings. In some cases, the results may be referenced down the road, but more as fleeting comments versus beneficial data points that lead to action and results. That’s where tool usage generally concludes.
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Through Dr. Clifton’s extensive research, he and his colleagues identified 34 discrete talent themes, with talents being defined as people’s naturally recurring patterns of thoughts, feelings or behaviors that can be productively applied in the business environment. The theory is that the more dominant the theme, the greater the theme’s impact will be on that person’s behaviors and performance.
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