LDI and Dr. Kim Alyn

Dr Kim Alyn was the keynote speaker at the LDI (Leadership Development Institute) yesterday. I was very fortunate to attend and was thrilled that she was the speaker. Here are the notes I took:

There are six points or ways to improve ourselves, they come in the form of her six ups:

1.Turn up the leadership
Great leadership takes care of everything else.
She illustrated this by showing two videos of community leaders (people most in the community would consider to be leaders) and how they made a blunder:

First, is a video of a police officer in Dearborn, MI who was baking “special” brownies and then thought he was dying: (you won't need to watch the whole video)

Second, is a video of firefighters putting out a fire that had pot growing in the garage:
Both videos are pretty funny…and sad, because these are people we have designated as leaders.

Leadership is the ability to influence others. In other words, Leadership equals influence.
Good leaders know some fundamental truths:
~Build a relationship with those you intend to lead.
~You cannot influence if you don’t know the people you are meant to lead.
~Be consistent; demonstrate your values, passions and beliefs. Not just saying the words.

2.Take Up some Mentoring
Mentor people
Mentor the next generation – they need the mentoring.
The next generation is the Triple E Generation:
Electronics
Entertainment (want to be entertained)
Entitlement
A study was released earlier this year that shows that the next generation expects to make $70,000 in an entry level job! They need to learn the value of money.
Mentoring people requires patience because many coming into the workforce haven’t had to “think for themselves” and might be perceived as lacking in education:
One video she showed is one I’ve seen before of a girl who goes into the library and begins to order food:


The next video she showed is a 911 audio file of a man who cannot spell the name of his street:

She reiterated, that these are the kind of people we'll be mentoring, so patience will be required.

Part of mentoring include clarifying their values; not the values of their parents or church, necessarily.

3.Step Up and Take Responsibility
Personal responsibility is becoming more and more of a problem.
Consider these ridiculous warning labels:
Thermometer:
Stroller:
Hair dryer:
Chainsaw:

Admit when you’ve made a mistake. We all make them.
It’s really easy to let people off the hook, but they’ll never learn responsibility that way. Stick to the consequences.
If you take away the struggle of a butterfly, you cripple it for life! The same applies to people. We all have to struggle or we will be crippled and dependent on others to the level of a burden.

4.Change it Up
When initiating change, do it for improvement and not for the sake of making changes.
It is said that we all resist change, but do we really resist all change?
We don’t all resist change; but we will resist for four reasons. Consider the change of taking on more responsibility at work, or changing jobs.
1.We resist when we don’t perceive the change as beneficial
No raise? More responsibility for the same amount of pay?
2.The sacrifice is bigger than the benefit
Maybe you’d get a raise, but you’d be expected to work 60 hours or 80 hours and never see your family.
3.We resist change when we aren’t asked to help create the change; we want a say.
4.We resist change when we don’t trust the architects of that change (manager, supervisor)
This goes back to cultivating trust by getting to know the people you are to influence.

5.Face Up to Your Fears
Fear is debilitating.
Most of us are afraid of failure and the embarrassment.
Maybe we’ve tried it before and weren’t successful. Why try again?
Why does an adult elephant only need a small rope to a small peg to hold it in place? Elephants are conditioned from a baby; a chain is used to keep it in place until it learns to stop trying to escape. It’s called: Learned Helplessness.
Another example is piranhas who share a fish tank with their prey. A glass sheet separates the two types of fish. They swim into the glass and bump their heads and eventually learn to give up. Later, the glass sheet is removed and the two fish swim side by side to the point that the piranhas STARVE TO DEATH!
Mark Twain: Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear.

6.Get Fired Up
Love what you do and have fun with it.
Life is too short to do something you don’t even love.
It’s okay to not love every aspect of what you do, or everybody you work with.
People want to be around people who love what they do. (this is so true based on the feedback and responses I get from people who have completed any training I have done. Months and years later, they remember me and thank me)
People want to follow leaders who love what they do (again: so true! My mentor loved what he did and it made him a wonderful mentor).
Humor builds morale. We don’t have to be so serious! It’s okay to watch a funny (clean) video or tell funny (clean) jokes.
Humor builds relationship – a common thread among couples who are still happily married after 50 and 60 years is that they can laugh together. They let go of the little things.
People who are more energized are more productive.
We have the highest stress levels than any other country; humor reduces stress to the proper perspective. Laughing is physically good for you and it cures boredom.
There’s an anti-boredom campaign. (the video she used is found in the final video segment at the end of this entry)

We need to lighten up; she showed this video from the Jamie Kennedy experiment of the lifeguard who needs a bathroom break: (the video she used is found in the final video segment at the end of this entry)

7. Stand Up and Do the Right Thing
Even if nobody else is doing it. Even if nobody else is watching you.
You give people something to believe in.
If you can’t trust your mom, dad, cops, teachers and other leaders as a child, how can a child ever learn to trust anybody? You learn to distrust everybody.
There are people in this world who have lost all hope because of their negative experiences with their perceived leaders. They need to learn to trust again. Everybody is looking for something & someone to believe in; to trust to do the right thing. Be the person/leader people can believe in.
You can commit to be that person.
One person can truly change the world; one person can change everything.
What kind of person are you?
One that Makes things happen
Watches things happen
Or Wonders, what just happened?

Here is a clip from her keynote speech (this clip is not from our group, but the speech is the same)
I have to say that we, here in Utah, are a LOT more uptight than the group this was video taped with.

finally I wanted to show the Up Time segment she ended with:

Dr Allyn’s site

LDI Video/Slide Show

I wasn't given a lot of time but thought the challenge sounded fun and ... well, challenging.

When I worked on the pictures, I had a moment of frustration with one of the managers (who I have been less than impressed with in the past) who told me she was fine with me coming to take pictures but she couldn't see how "photographs will tell the story." She was very resistant through the entire conversation on the phone as well as while doing the photo shoot! I finally told her, "this is what I do; tell stories through pictures, so let me do what I do best." She left me alone after that. :)

All the other managers, though, were fantastic and immediately caught the vision and were asking me to try this shot and that angle and this room and that employee. Many had their staff "be the patient" so that we could get pictures of patient interaction. It was really fun.

When I put the pictures to the music that was written and sung by Jake Hendriksen (of Jake of the Web) , I was moved by the emotion of the song and the pictures I had collected and I really think it tells the story I wanted it to tell.

It was presented on Thursday by Hospital Administration to the hospital leaders through the LDI.
Here's the video/slide show:

University of Utah Hospital Photoshoots

I was honored to be asked to put together a slide show for the Leadership Development Institute (LDI)at the University of Utah Hospital. The LDI is an all day training and motivation for all directors, managers and supervisors at the University Hospital. I used to attend when it included other leaders (like trainers) but the size has been reduced to leaders in a management role. The LDI theme was based on making change for a continued better perception.

The slide show I was asked to create was to include pictures that may or may not already exist from the public affairs office. It would also need to include pictures I would take. The pictures were to be compiled to tell the story of the growth, both physical as well as in the caliber of employee, of the University Hospital since it opened it's door in the 1960s.

I met with the public affairs office (which is a job I want to have in the future) and given many amazing pictures. I tracked down pictures of the University before it opened and the various expansion projects.

I emailed managers who were identified as leading groups that are increasing their patient satisfaction scores. I was surprised at the low number of response by these managers to be recognized through pictures in this way. The ones that did respond, however, were amazing, and it was clear why their teams are doing so well in the eyes of our patients.

Here are some of my favorite pictures taken during the several days I met with various floors, units and departments.

From UNI, a couple of pictures:
From NAC unit at the main hospital:
More from UNI (housekeeping staff):
Huntsman Hospital: