The Power of Shared Perspective

by Rod Wilkes, SVP, Client Solutions

Recently, we hosted a Peer to Peer Conference for Morehead clients. Without a doubt, this conference was our best yet. Attendance was up more than 50% over the 2010 conference, but more importantly, the content was outstanding. Our Peer to Peer Conference, held every 18 months, is designed to give clients a forum to share best practices and network with other healthcare organizations facing similar challenges. Current Morehead clients presented topics selected and approved by a client advisory board, whose support and guidance made this conference a success.

David Fox, president of Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital delivered the keynote presentation. He described their organization’s journey to becoming a 2010 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award recipient. Other speakers described how they used their survey data strategically to achieve their organizational objectives. One healthcare professional detailed how her organization positioned Human Resources as a catalyst for change, enabling the organization to move from the 76th to 93rd percentile in employee engagement in 12 months. The last presentation of the conference was delivered by a speaker at a large healthcare system who talked about ways his organization keeps the focus on employee engagement front and center in the months after the results are delivered—making their employee engagement efforts an ongoing process rather than an event.

Aside from these excellent presentations, what made the conference successful was its theme: the power of shared perspective. In testament to the power of peer to peer networking, one conference attendee said, “It was so helpful to get information from real users, not just theory.” Another said, “Hearing all the stories of how far some organizations had come gave me hope for improving our [employee engagement survey] results.”

While whitepapers and webinars have their place in professional education, there is something powerful about peers meeting, connecting, sharing ideas, and maintaining contact across the miles. Much of the sharing and education happened informally between sessions, when leaders from different health systems and hospitals of varying sizes, structures, and locations opened up about challenges and shared solutions.

In today’s world of online social networks and on-demand Continuing Education credits, it’s rewarding to see a crowd energized by a thirst for knowledge and shared experience. Much like the mastermind groups that were introduced by Napoleon Hill in his classic book, "Think and Grow Rich," the conference attendees were united by a “coordination of knowledge and effort” as they worked “toward a definite purpose, in the spirit of harmony."

When is the last time you were part of a mastermind group? Are you tapping into the power of shared perspective in your professional life? You interact with your employees to build camaraderie and engagement, but are you depriving yourself of the energy of peer-to-peer contact? We’d like to hear about the ways you’re experiencing the power of shared perspective in your work life. Let us know what’s working for you.