AboutWorkEcology

WEInsight Note 033010 - Meaningful Use - Triple Bottom Line for Health Practice

 

The President's signature on the bill for Health Care Reform has not put a stop to the criticism, anguish and negativity that surrounds change in this country.  It appears in this country we have to have a push that is top-down from the Presidential Office Suite to legislate change in this country.  It is becoming a barrier to change that most people want. The kind of people who take responsibility for their actions and want to work in jobs they love providing competent work.  Ordinary people who want jobs they love and want to support quality patient care and know how.

This is the profile of most people who put any form of digital media to work as part of their work practice, so they can build capacity to serve their clients with a view for quality performance.  It is not the profile of a government bureaucrat operating to push EMR into "meaningful use" so people can take benefit of funds allocated from the America's Recovery Act.

It seems that in this country we cannot get away from mandating laws that perpetuate fear.  We rely on  politicians and lobbying group and corporations to make change. These economic decision makers end up  spending billions of dollars per year on media, advertising and debate that perpetuates fear instead of leading change for health, environment and law.

The day Health Care Reform passed, I was still unable to put my frustration aside about health. It had nothing to do with the heated debate and force that surrounded Health Care Reform for years.  My mental anguish had nothing to do with the long history traced back to Teddy Roosevelt, a Republican Activist, who first proposed US Health Care Reform.

The staff at Justmeans.com did an incredible job or coverage from all points of view, Sara Libby provided a history of the bill tracing it back to 1912 when Teddy Roosevelt was in office.  Alisa Ulferts wrote about how the voices of hate, threat and ill will related to HCR made her feel ill, and Ano Lobo asked some tough question, e.g. will 50 states each interpret their way of implementing hcr and will the health of Americans' overall improve.

I found these events that coincided with the passing of the bill far more telling on what the challenge is ahead of us for health, environment and education in this country.

Jamie Oliver's First Episode of Food Revolution portrayed a reality in American culture where adults are so critical of change it stops it dead in its tracks. Then we have to own how our  children are not raised to have good food manners and eat with proper utensils. Oliver has met with a layer of challenge he did not anticipate when he decided to create a revolution to change the diet of citizens of America's most obese town. He has to induce fear in people to gain their cooperation.  Is this the American way?  He had to take a family to the doctor's office who never go and have them hear from a doctor what they had done to their son's health by letting him eat whatever he wants.

The fight and battle to obstruct good nutrition in the schools after the health care reform bill was signed began this week. Politicians have begun to lobby to block  Michelle Obama's School Lunch Campaign designed to give a message to families and school son the importance of passing a new bill authored by the Obama administration to allocate $10B on school lunches over 10 years to feed children with healthier food.  Michelle's partner for this bill is Disney, who is assisting with building a public media to teach good nutrition to kids and their families. Disney is producing Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution.

We are now looking at more media and more government and more mandates ahead of us to put into action a series of laws that have mandated use of health care information technology.

 

At almost every home page today of any EMR company they are promoting a $44,000 rebate from this stimulus package for clinical practices to adopt "meaningful use" of electronic medical record pages into their practice. To embed images from the website of  HIT companies promoting the purchase of EMR systems that display the stimulus package as motivation for purchase would position me as a person attacking a specific company. That is not my intention. 

In my opinion there seems to be a  systemic flaw in the marketing and promotion of EMR and HIT.  The media does not instill any understanding of how health information technology can be adopted in to use to

1. improve the delivery of care to consumers;

2. simplify the task of processing medications, insurance claims and information requests;

3. create a system of tracking and formatting a record of  patient health that will weave into a larger knowledge base of research and practice relevant information associated with a specific patients health needs can be accessed;

4. build a translational and evidence based practice of medicine so that clinicians and patients can find the best in practice research, clinical trials and new diagnostic procedures.

For many years, I have had a passion about the possibility of Health Care IT and found a dynamic that surrounds it similar to health care reform.

The Department of Defense, the Veterans Administration and Health and Human Services  have spent billions of dollars through the years to develop and put into use thousands of health care information technology pilots that have failed to result in improvements of quality of care and access for patients.  Last summer, Obama and Congress scrutinized numerous projects that associated with  a price tag of $3M for each project to find out if the purchase and adoption of these technologies resulted in patient outcomes.  By the end of the summer, the Obama administration stopped 48 VA HIT projects mid stream.

We can now speculate on the billions of dollars in projected expenses and the cost of ongoing operation for initiatives led by Dr. David Blumenthal, from the Office of National Coordination of Health Information Technology.   These initiatives are generating scazillions of bits and bytes of information on how to format electronic medical records for meaningful use.

To date, I have not yet found any information or knowledge shared with the people this initiative effects and apply a sustainability management practice of Triple Bottom Line to  Meaningful Use. The Triple Bottom Line is a term that was coined by John Elkington in 1994.  The application of this financial leadership approach to integrating ethical and sustainable practice to industry finances has not yet come into common use within all sectors of health care.  Some BioPharm companies have adopted its use into practice because of the growing interest to comply with Corporate Sustainable Reporting Practices that are being adopted into use by the 7700 compnaies associated with the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC). 

UNGC has authored a set of principles and leadership practices that are inspiring the business associated with the UNGC to learn from the span of practices authored and facilitated by global non profit organizations and investment indexes on how companies integrate practices into company strategies that are responsive to the environment, health and social justice topical challenges of today. Sandra Waddock, the Galligan Chair of Strategy at Boston College's Carroll School of Management has authored a paper, Building the Infrastructure for Corporate Responsibility, that summarizes the thought leadership and provides tables and listing for all the monitoring organizations globally that can guide groups in achieving a system and ethic of reporting for the environment, health and social justice that could add benefit to the growing through related to "meaningful use."

To integrate this system of thought we would begin to see images in health care that report metrics of change that "meaningful use" to a Triple Botton Line practice reflected in these images.

Health Care Reform and the adoption of use of HIT has been motivated by the view that we can as a nation create a health care that

It seems to me that the vision of HIT and the values associated with the importance, do not have the power that can be derived from a message enclosed in a vision of Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability.  I know that this method of thought, inquiry and learning could change the posture of conversation to generate change rather than re-enforce fear, debate and threat, hence paralyzing members of the legislature, government agencies and health care institutions and players from authoring a new leadership to lead change.

Health Care is so much more than health care. Health comes from the air we breath, the food we eat, the way we work and live in balance with our family and communities. Health grows out of a sense of belonging and learning a capacity to deal with the growing uncertainty of these times.

Maybe it is time for the experts in government, technology and science to alter their view  a bit.  To do this it will require convening groups of stakeholders that represent all groups who live in the strategic geography that any change initiative reaches out to. This would mean putting various people who  represent the diversity of expertise and diversity of people in need of response that includes  patients and advocacy groups, clinicians the the institutions where care is provided, employers, insurance companies,  think tanks, professional associations.

In gathering these people, the convening teams will need to identify and draw on perspectives from "natural leaders" who work within these groups and have the energy to lead change and examine all that change implies from a strategy perspective that is translated into action with plans for resources, budget and engagement to deploy these plans of action.

Last week as I combed through my research, conversations with my colleagues in the world of Corporate Social Responsibility and listened to the reports in the media on health care reform, I began to conceive my own picture of what is meant by Meaningful Use.

As I have repeatedly written here, health is so much more than health care.

So I have decided to launch a new blog The Story of Meaningful Use and launch a new Twitter Address @wemeaningfuluse and launch a new fan page at The Story of Meaningful Use on FaceBook

Please be patient with me while I set up shop.

I apologize Dr. Blumenthal for raining on your parade.  For me, "meaningful use, and the current buzz that surrounds it. It all gives me the experience of finding myself in  an "electrical storm" that is raining pellets you have to add to your list of what to do, before you can leave the office.  On Friday evening a office manager in a Harvard Medical Area, forwarded me an email instructing her on how she would have to collect more demographic patient data so her office can qualify for the first $18K payment from the Federal Government. My first reaction to this email was to ask, "Why is she still in the office on Friday night at 7 PM, when I know the doctor she worked with that day, left work at 4 PM?"

I believe if "meaningful use is to become more relevant to health professionals and their patients, we need to expand our vision of building health technology that supports people at work, home and in the doctor's office. In the world of  social media this can become a never ending story that inspires people who want to live life sustainably to chose access to the best technology, science, and lifestyles that give give us the best shot at a quality of living, no matter our health status from cradle to death.

Perhaps with the appointment of Dr. Don Berwick to Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), we now will see a more educational approach to what we need in health care.  Berwick like me is a Larry Weed, M.D. fan. For years, Larry Weed was the voice on the power of digital health and how it can enable quality decision making and support evidence based practice of medicine.  Dr. Weed like any practical physician and health informatics specialist had vision and imagination that for some reason the politicians and medical bureaucrats want to obstruct.  Sometime in the 90's the Rockefeller Foundation gave Dr. Weed a grant and in his early 80's he established PKC, which has the architecture for this work to expand into practice and provide an outreach that is viral with quality capacity.

Both Berwick and Weed's work is focused on supporting the physician to provide quality care and assure the best practice to any patient possible.  That is quite different than coming into a practice and starting off your contact with a clinician proposing he can get $44K in the bank for adopting use of an EMR. 

Please join me here to read more About the Story of Meaninfgul Use

Cheers,

Lavinia Weissman

WEAnnotation -Two CSR Leadership Primers - Making Sense of Brilliant Minds in CSR with a Sweet Heart!

 

A personal note from Lavinia Weissman:

AboutWorkecology is a place for me to record reflections on the extensive research I performed and organized to inspire a culture of change for CSR and Sustainable Management Education.

My plan with my community is make this knowledge and learning practice accessible  to communities of people who convene to design, fund and resource projects of their own that address the topical workforce issues  in CSR and Sustainability related to

1. professional development and education;

2. occupation and personal health

3. compensation that rewards people for working wisely to live well to resource their health, learning and personal life cycle needs.

This blog post is WorkEcology.com's first reflective annotation that will be integrated into a new updated curriculum for leaders and their communities to "up the ante for CSR and Sustainability" in how they work and live. Our first curriculum, The Foundations of Portfolio Work - Core Group Theory and Related Practices, will continue to be available @ WorkEcology.com, until our new portal and blog activity emerges from our current stage of learning.

I have formed an initial advisory group to learn with me with the hope to build this activity to be community and member responsive. I have been retained by our first leadership beta client and after a years worth of research, writing and work made it to board and chairperson review by two professional associations  to build a system of learning that can shape this curriculum to be relevant to the practice of personal health and health care through the adoption of social media, web based learning tools and the design and structuring of learning communities drawn from our future members.

Please join in the discussion here if what we share with you inspires your thinking. Share your thoughts with our readership that has doubled in size over the past 3 months to more than 10 readers per day.

Today's post begins now.

Nancy Baron, a team member at Seventh Generation, sent me a copy of

Nancy is a communication specialist with a background in clean energy and climate change recently joined the team at Seventh Generation along with Jeffrey Hollender's co-author,m Bill Breen.  People with Nancy and Bill's background in my opinion are a welcome resource in CSR and have lots of value to contribute to CSR education by joining a company that values CSR.  Nancy Baron like most knowledge workers today has an eclectic portfolio of background that includes being a communication specialist in clean energy & climate change while running her own bed and breakfast in Vermont.  Bill Breen, a former Fast Company Editor was named Editorial Director for Seventh Generation January 2008.

Within an hour of receipt of this book, I was reading this book from the point of view of learning and inquiry. When I completed my first read through, I was clear this book should be position as a quality primer for CSR and Sustainable Management Leadership Education.

The Responsibility Revolution should be given to anyone being mentored in a CSR leadership program with authored by Chris Laszlo. Chris is Founder and CEO of Sustainable Value Partners and Sustainable Business Faculty to Case Western's Weatherhead School of Management.  All these men have been dedicating time and resource to creating a new format for education in CSR and Sustainability.

All these authors through their direct work and writing have taken  the "greenwash out of CSR and provided a concrete view;"--Hollender as a CEO, Breen as a Inspiring Protagonist and Laszlo as a Strategist, Economist and Global Thought Leader.

The stories and case studies contained within these  books put an end to the myth and fallacy that CSR is only a marketing or public relations venue. Both these books push leaders to think otherwise and actually learn what the impact is when CSR is put into practice by integrating CSR values and principles into strategy and action plans.

I chose to annotate both books in the same annotation by evaluating my experience of reading them, the value of the learning they provide and the hidden assets within each book that can help me define the next generation of opportunity, where so many are asking the question, "What will it take to build CSR practices into a more widespread adoption?"

The authors of both books, make it clear that CSR is not simply a responsibility of economic decision makers, who answer to investors; CSR works best when organizations are led to inspire their entire workforce, supply chain and all other stakeholders to learn and translate CSR into practice.  The case studies demonstrate that CSR can led into an high performance outcome.

Questions and Dialogue to Reflect On

While I thought about what I wanted to leave the readers of this annotation with through what I wrote, I read a book review by Madeline Ravich
@ Justmeans.com titled, "Can Seventh Generation's CSR lessons influence the mainstream?"  While the review was excellent food for thought, the word, "mainstream" captured my attention. In my opinion there is no such thing as a mainstream anymore; there is such diversity in the market that CSR adoption has to factor significant cultural spans in practice and every company or organization that adopts this thought leadership into practice needs to find a beginning from which to begin and find a method of monitoring that works to guide a group of people learning into a sustainable future.

This fits closely with a dialogue I have through social media bits and bytes with  Christine Arena  and Elaine Cohen.  Christine and Elaine are two women leading the revolution of thought on how to monitor CSR. Christine is an eco-strategist and author of 

The Higher Purpose Company.  With numerous of her peers and colleagues, including Elaine and myself, Christina is currently examining the question, "Are corporate social responsibility rankings irresponsible?" Elaine 
is Founder and Co-Leader a consulting firm, Beyond Business, Ltd. specialising in CSR strategy, processes and social accounting, reporting and assurance. Elaine is a contributor to Corporate Register, a hub that tracks CSR Reporting across 6238 companies and is adding great value and experience to this conversation.

Breen and Hollender provide some input at Huffington Post this past weekend on the Six Obstacles to CSR.  This post outlines crucial areas to watch and addresses a larger complaint I hear re: CSR, which is CSR is too broad and hard to address in a focused way. Build on the quality work that Cohen and Arena provide, any company can organize a monitoring scheme that focused on a good beginning and then work with me to set up a company wide education program using inquiry and social media, so no one in a network can opt out and say, I am confused, I don't understand CSR. 

This activity factored into my thinking as I ascertained the value of  Sustainable Value and The Responsibility Revolution.

Getting to the Heart of a CSR that Matters

Breen, Hollender and Laszlo have all worked to inspire a level of innovation and practice in the initial cycle of establishing the thought leadership of Sustainable Value and CSR into practice as leaders who shareholders, economic decision makers and early stage investors are willing to go to the bank for to invest in what is perceived risky business initiatives.

These authors provide a depth of imagination that is not common practice within a majority of companies today.  From a perspective of the Fortune 2000 or the more entrepreneurial view of social venture, these books capture the valuable story of what was learned in the first phase of early adoption and how a culture of change inspired the results.

Part of the culture of change reflected in both books is the impact of a woman's perspective. Both these leaders value that point of view by describing scenarios that are the "dream" of many women; many women who have left working in the Fortune 2000 and started their own companies or found a social venture culture in which they can express themselves more authentically.

Laszlo starts this way in Chapter 1; He  introduces his readers to Deena Marsteng, Age 32, General Manager for a global company that manufactures light weight plastics and she is responsible for factories in 3 continents.  reates a method of drawing her "no-nonsense team and colleagues into a cycle of education and building of new strategy to move from a rank of 23 on a CSR monitoring list out of 25 companies.

This first chapter draws the reader into an experience of what it takes to have a group of people who work together find the imagination and participate in learning events of impact. Laszlo introduces his reader to the idea that CSR is not a practice of  "business as usual;" his positioning of this fictitious scenario inspires any traditionally trained MBA or Fortune 2000 business leader to realize the investment and work it takes to go CSR. 

Within this scenario, Chris authored a character competent to lead a large organization of people into a system of relevant learning that impacted performance metrics important to that company and while increasing their environmental impact.

Hollender and Breen on the other hand describe a real-life scenario at Seventh Generation inspired by the performance of Susan Johnson, former director of western sales and now Director of Education with a plan to succeed as Seventh Generations Chief Knowledge Officer.  Susan who came to Seventh Generation from Tom's of Maine with an excellent track record for managing accounts in 5,000 stores and coops West of the Mississippi.

Susan had a proven  success as a coach to wholesale brokers of product and began her career with Seventh Generation showing she could lead an entire retail chain, e.g. Whole Foods, into a path of learning that increased sales for both Seventh Generation and Whole Foods.  From my perspective, Susan cultivated through relationship and talent a method of education that resulted in sales, which is in my experience the way women "make sense" of their talent in the company they keep to create a high performance impact.

In the companies where I have worked as a consultant and within my own performance as an internal organization leader, I know that  most companies or organizations are so focused on a sales outcome. Often because of this silo based focus of a sales force, leaders  miss out on the hidden gold behind that outcome by allocating resources to organize consumer, sales channel that defines company brand and products role in a CSR strategy. 

When you can assess and monitor a sales activity built on credible and ethical education, it translates into adoption of the best practices of all the companies segments of operation and final delivery through a channel to a customer. All the case studies portrayed in these books describe an ethic and provide an educational experience of what it takes to scale CSR initiative.

CSR and Sustainability as a Practice

CSR and Sustainability is not a simple practice because it can only succeed in cultures of organizations that recognize that learning is a constant, there is a technical and scientific expertise that can be an seen by some as an "acquired taste." The level of detail and attention required can only come alive in a environment of leadership that is willing to create in action a "viral consciousness," that creates a triple bottom line.  In fact, Hollender, et al at one point hired a consultant, Carol Sanford, to facilitate the building of that consciousness.

Every conversation you have must count and inspire values and productivity.   As these authors from different perspectives share that leading a CSR company for sustainable value is something that integrates in your life with a very up close and personal personal examination of how you relate to people and lead change.  You have to be prepared for failure, being public with your mistakes and learning from  market driven  to define and take advantage of the opportunity.

Laszlo, Hollender and Breen  have created a library and case study format for a broad selection of companies and industries, e.g. WalMart, LaFarge, Dupont, Nike and Medtronics; and companies more boutique in style by nature of market and company founders,e.g. Nature Works, Timberland, Patagonia, Organic Valley, Esty.com. While Laszlo's social network is primarily comprised of Board of Directors and Chairman of the Fortune 2000 who seek to make a social and environmental impact, Hollender and Breen circulate in a network of companies that created the Business for Social Responsibility Revolution, who retain Peter Senge in their advice network and formed the Social Venture Network and a new non profit activity called B-Labs.

The level of transparency is enormous. When a company announces itself to the public that they practice CSR, that means that company, leader or workforce are in for some very tough lessons regarding leadership, authenticity and response to a larger social network most CSR Venture enthusiasts learn on their feet.  These leaders learn to live with a constant flow of feedback - good and bad and recognize if they are doing their job they cannot hide.

Authenticity is the Key

The people who question you, teach you and challenge you come from a horizontal world and map of connection that is not in any shape or form a hierarchy. It is a spider's web. This brings me to an admission of my own short comings, an apology and description of my own lessons learned.

Over the past few months, I have been working hard to develop a voice for my writing that is more authentic and driven from my value for education that reflects my mission and impacts people and assures that I do not shut down the energy I was unable to use as a woman over the past decade in industry and health care. 

I had short conversations with Jeffrey Hollender and Chris Laszlo directly about my own experience as a woman that was about the obstacles I encountered packaging my message for people who did not understand CSR or Sustainability and its relevance to health.  In taking this time to grapple, I discovered that too often my authentic voice and perspective were shut down in places where most women no longer want to work.  I wanted to find a way to show up to work in these instances and not back off from what I had to offer and find the clients that want to take CSR and Sustainability out of the leadership room and translate it into practice with a wider reach.

The change in my own voice at the present time has required some focus in  a new stage of learning, self-reflection and courage to face  my own capacity as a professional and personal experience that affirmed that a growing impact of environment and health is possibly becoming one of the most costly issues to the workforce and people around the world and the may be the greatest enforcer of leaving people stuck in poverty. While Jeffrey and Chris  conduct their lives with a different voice and professional focus than mine, I know Jeffrey and Chris have learned with a similar depth of reflection and discipline drawing the shared learning of their networks of practice.

Jeffrey's learning cycle as CEO of Seventh Genertion was shared with colleagues through networks that include the Social Venture Network,  Society for Organizational Learning and the American Sustainable Business Council. Like many of our shared generation, Jeffrey has come up through the ranks learning on a very steep fire walk. His commitment to creating a culture of consciousness is exceptional and in fact, he built it into the learning conversation as away to ignite others to perform out of the traditional view of managers by hiring Carol Sanford and working with the B-Lab.

Chris Laszlo  was mentored from his youth in a cultural communities of Club of Budapest  and  Club of Rome to seek the expert education that included learning the disciplines and practices of  traditional business, gaining an sharp coherent capacity to exercise systems thinking in large scale organization practice and to define the ecology that surrounds the operation of a global company, which operates as its own private economy cross geographical boundaries.

These are two very different experiences which legitimized their work, which can serve as examples to other leaders and people selecting a leader's path. The key to each path is the authenticity each man integrates into his practice and willingness to learn by acting and empowering others to act.  CSR and Sustainable Management is a leader's game for which there is no "how to manual."

To some people who watch Laszlo and Hollender in their travels, these men travel in elite circles of very different cultures and methods of learning. Chris was born within educational circles of culture, prestige and thought leadership that birthed the Age of Heretics.  Jeffrey's focus and determination brought him into a culture of consciousness that is exceptional.  I think the description of "elite" perpetuates a myth of the risk and heretical quality that surrounds CSR, which from my practical view and understanding of innovation, leaders need to stop perpetuating. It has added to the reputation that CSR is a cult or a passing craze.

When someone asks for my experience and what qualifies me to coach leaders and create outreach through education and media to workforce groups of scale, I often describe myself as a person was mentored in a culture by education, life experience and talent that gave me an opportunity to perform with a strong value for cooperation and respect for diversity of expertise and cultural heritage. Key to how I think is the reality of learning to integrate technology and service practices into a thought leadership that is focused on doing no harm that causes damage to people's  health and the environment in which they live.

The leaders within our parent's generation that introduced the authors and myself to a value for sustainability  wrote the prequel for business for social responsibility that Jeffrey and Chris have professionalized this value because we engaged in dialogue that understood our work had to insure the future for children not yet born.  The value for "Seven Generations."

So while I find myself engaging a practice from a different perspective and experience from the men I respect currently and who mentored me in the past,  I wish to thank all of them for what I have learned in the dialogue I share with them. They also have shown me respect for my personal need  to express myself differently, in particular as a woman.

Once upon a time, I found myself empowered to believe that women can lead and be successful in the man's world.  That is not what any women I believe should look to do now.  I believe we need to express ourselves and work for the discovery of our own success that is natural to us and take the lead in this second generation of CSR and Sustainable Management to do what we do really well, empower the masses of young people who are described as  Generation X, Y and Millennials, into a format of learning that values cooperation by learning individual mastery and discipline of a practice they can share and teach others.

So in reflecting on these most valuable primers about CSR and Sustainable Management, I would suggest this lesson is something people can personalize for themselves by learning from
Bill Breen, Jeffrey Hollender and Chris Laszlo and taking their thinking to heart by intelligently learning with others. Make these principles your own and translate them in ways that are authentic for you.  Jeffrey thank you for opening this gate for me to this personal lesson and Chris for letting me learn along your side while I also learned through experiences both professional and personal.

For a taste of what I am talking about you can read Chapter 1 of Sustainable Value  and an excerpt from The Responsibility Revolution @ Strategy + Business.com.

WorkEcology Insight Note 031620 -Wake UP CSR Community - Health is not Sustainable

I am working toward not getting trapped by the behavior of Social Media and work toward having my communications influence and lead change. Over the last month, I have someone gotten lost in the sea of media that is fueled daily on Twitter within these groups, #csr, #justmeans, #sustainability, #diversity, #hit, #emr, #whitehouse, #healthcarereform, #omb, #philanthropy, #NHIN, #meaningfuluse and more. It has been a rare a event that I identify a link to a concrete  and rarely see anything in the media that correlates with assuring citizens health from cradle to death.

I am thinking of cutting back my time on Social Media and simply watching, Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution and Extreme Makeover where I can learn more about how to influence an entire city or town to change their eating habits or I can learn what it takes to  construct a home that protects children and adults from environmental exposures and assures their health. Extreme Makeover teaches us how a community can provide a quality of life for families who have been adversely effected by military service or lose a love one who gives his life in service of the country or their community.

Overall I have been enjoying watching how Disney and ABC have impacted change in society since John Pepper, former Chairman of Procter and Gamble, who became Chairman of Disney's Board. I have observed since Pepper came into his role at Disney/ABC that this company has moved beyond the heroic selfish acts of Michael Eisner.

I met Pepper in the late 80's when he gave a key note for a conference I helped to organize that was a followup to a research study I staffed on downsizing. In the short time I had, I was invited by Pepper to join him at his table for lunch and in 3 minutes or less, gained something from this experience that was a real lesson in leadership.

I have come to find out that Pepper in 2007, published
What Really Matters.   It was from John Pepper that I learned that you cannot judge a company entirely by it's leader.  Quality leadership does not mean that all people perform well, and bad leadership is simply reflected in a bad company performance.

The transparency that surrounds Pepper is exceptional. Where he works is never about Pepper, it is about the company, people and values.

In the mid 90's I was invited by my health care network to learn about a private Workman's Comp program that Pepper resourced Pepper with my friend, Jim Palmer designed and implemented a system of WC at P&G that could only be organized in a company of that size. It was a total quality system by comparison the Federal Government private system for postal workers that did not deliver and insure a quality process for people and organization.  This model was grew into a model of reputation that Palmer talked about on the lecture circuit for years. The applause and attention Palmer received was never matched by intention for others to learn and apply.

 

In fact, Pepper and Palmer formed a non profit in Ohio, that was unable to  construct a model of adoption that did not success.  In my opinion, the system this group put together required a national agenda to insure it's outcome and guide the system on paper into design. it was a product of the times where by most leaders did not grasp or understand the implications of "embedding a change" as a culture of change.

I know this struggle pervades today. I have learned this by monitoring the HHS Media promoted on on #EHR and #HIT lists that follow David Blumenthal, M.D., National Health Information Technology Coordinator for HHS.  Like Blumentahl's predecessor, Dr. David Brailer, I do not see the systems defined or progress we need.  The culture and activity as organized by government, insurance and HHS is simply not empowering a culture of change based on convening a community that learns together and derives from that learning how to lead change.

Like Dr. Brailer, I do not see that Blumenthal can stand a chance to empower change until US Citizens and all that implies recognize that changing our health care system is not a matter of technology. Technology has to become a tool for carrying out new initiatives that are economically and patient centric driven in a new format of conversation that embraces creates a culture of innovation.

I have tried to follow Blumenthal's activity as best I can and I find most of it disempowering. me  Blumenthal like his predecessor has convened a community of  people drawn from health insurance, delivery systems and government are lost in conversations that are so mechanical the jargon they speak has no meaning and the public reports get lost in the anacronyms they create. 

The discussion I monitor shows no recognition for for leadership values and patient centric care. The people in this world are living in a condition, I describe as "how to & tell me what to do." They are not leading change into practice that convenes conversation that matter with people who can lead change and build new practices based on an imagination they construct with each other because they believe they can.

I continue to believe that health for every citizen can be sustainable. I also believe that  Health continues to be the most ignored issue by business and ordinary citizens who simply may feel disempowered to do anything.

People have great difficulty wrapping around the idea of health and how to track improvements because health measurements cut across every sector, industry and may require a new economic thought leadership that has not found its way in the ordinary speak of people today.

And if you don't have your health, what does that mean to your capacity to live and sustain in any society or economy today?

In talking about health, the conversations dribble into categories e.g. health care systems, health care finance, health information technology, electronic medical records, patient care, cancer, public health and more.

In talking about CSR and or sustainability, we talk CSR, SRI, GRI, Reporting, Workplace Issues, Corporate Responsibility, Climate Change, Green Technology, Green Jobs, Corporate Governance, Monitoring, and more.

Yesterday, I downloaded reports from  creating a new Road Map in thought leadership for CSR and Sustainability.  I have begun a detailed review of these resources that include:

From CERES

A Race Toward Sustainability – and Profits: New Report Delivers Powerful Message and Roadmap for Companies.

Mindy Lubber, President of this investment coalition writes, "We need accelerated performance improvements from companies that reflect the true scientific and economic impacts of unchecked carbon pollution, growing water scarcity and billions of people still living and working in poverty."

From WORLD BUSINESS COUNCIL for SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

 Exploring the World of Business through Vision 2050

This report provides, "  a study lays out a pathway leading to a global population of some 9 billion people living well, within the resource limits of the planet by 2050."

While I do not want to distract from the responsive missions that both these groups have authored into action; I was struck by how each of these groups mapped out reports that did not  concretely address health and value health separately from the category of "social" responses for society.  Each report speaks to the needs of people to live well or for corporations to respond to social needs of society.  What these reports do not recognize is that a strong component of how health is provided and influenced comes out of industries that effect the economics of health- insurance, medical devices, biopharm, technology and more.

Neither of these reports/activities  directly speak to how health can be assured all global citizens and what that means to the role of business and hence corporate performance and systems by which to monitor the impact of business on health as it factors into investment and the global market place.

Yesterday, I received Hazel Henderson's periodic update to her colleagues and friends, which pointed to these articles that are a composite of Hazel's current campaigns to shift focus on the economy to build more ecological  initiatives to author a recovery. Hazel's life long view of the economy and building a new set of indicators for GDP and Investors had been to create economic methods and practices globally that build a new sustainable economy and stop the band aid quick fixes. Here are the articles that summarize her latest views and initiatives tied to those views:

A Win-Win Plan For Iceland Britain and the Netherlands  IPS, March 8, 2010

 

Is GDP an Obsolete Measure of Progress?  Time Magazine, January 30, 2010

 

Supreme Court's Shocker Makes CSR Key Buttress of Democracy  CSRWire Talkback, January 29, 2010

Within these articles Hazel speak as she always has about the power corporations, investors and people have to remedy the growing country debts, define metrics of well being and assure that government is not used to lobby for profits and schemes that do not respond to the needs of people.

While all these articles are intellectually right on and report on initiatives none of them address the issues that are so critical to people to sustain their health by reducing

 

1. The impact and harm that bad out of date public and private  infrastructure (energy, fuel, heat and electricity) have on people's health;

2. Influencing a change to the structure of how health care is accessed globally through a costly infrastructure of institutions and geo-strategy of real estate property that does not provide a patient centric care centric to home.

3. Redefine in all countries with regard for culture, tradition, life cycle rituals who people are born and where they can that assures a quality of life and human respect that is not poverty or technically driven;

3. Addressing compensation structures in corporations, e.g. CEO pay, bonus programs and cash incentive programs that are paid out before members of the workforce can be guaranteed health insurance and responsive occupational health programs that do not compromise their capacity to earn a living and sustain their families;

4. Assuring a set of workforce practice that assure for the care and health of the future generation so parents (married and single) who need to work can assure the attention their children need for their nutrition, health and safety to counteract violence, obesity and lack of learning that does not encourage these kids to believe they have a future.

5. Organizing communities to champion changes in the health insurance industry in the US that is least aggressive with learning how to lead with a triple bottom line practice.

When it comes to matters of health I wish to read blogs and social media from health care experts that do not focus on changes in technology, clean tech, green jobs and begin to define a role for the practice of medicine that is inclusive and defines an understanding of where quality of life, change in business practices regarding energy, clean tech and green can impact quality of life indicators in terms of conditions for housing, education and work environments that assure people and their children health.

The kind of effort that I am asking for here, is beyond anything that one person can conceive of or act on.  It is a horizontal response that cuts across industry, government, education and non profit organizations where the focus on leading this change requires education and inquiry.

This week, I finally began the annotation of literature, organization of a project plan and identified a small group of people who can have input in this process to prepare health service leaders and business stewards to begin to define and design the kind of inquiry that is required to align a thought leadership between leaders from which they can act to create the design, funding and organization of hybrid projects to influence this change.

This small scale initiative now has a network of people who listen and act and may get to know each other. It is small scale and it requires a certain kind of attention and response, most people do not know how to give. It requires a type of attention where anyone no matter how successful they have been in the past is willing to step up as described by Jay Coen Gilbert in today's Inspired Protagonist

Jay's insight as co-founder of Seventh Generation is this:

"Ambiguity is not an option. For any company that seriously intends to harness the power of the marketplace to crack society's biggest challenges, authenticity -- the capacity to do what you say you'll do -- is a core, non-negotiable attribute."

In my humble opinion, we have come to a time where the massive distributed change can only be authored and led from a heart of generosity and not the generosity or one person.

Cary Krosinsky, who I look to for advice for this project I am convening with others, asked a question on his FaceBook page this week?

" as we exit the generation of selfishness in America, what's next?"

Cary's question got me thinking and I re-framed it from the perspective of health?

"What would it mean if every person you knew in any country, place or culture could have the right to health?"

How would that change our practices in business, government, health care and with the panel of experts who are the keepers to that question?   and what would it take for them to come out of their "selfish silos."

And how would you bring global thought into this thinking.  Health is not a problem in the US alone, we have resources to solve it and I believe more than every it requires new thought leadership and methods of monitoring that grows out of a grassroots approach just like movements for SRI, CSR and Sustainability.

 

This is my food for thought today, I look forward to your comments.

Wishing all Health and Well Being,

Lavinia

 

 

 

WorkEcology Insight Note 030110 - By All Means Let's Up the Ante on CSR - Part 2

This week the leading innovators in thought leadership, who  guide people into practice provided their followers briefings that tie in well with my new focus, Up The Ante on CSR.

Early this morning, I viewed  Christine Arena's
live interview on 3BL Media with Gil Friend, . Christine's pointed question to Gil, "is it enough that companies are doing the bare the minimum for sustainability?"  Gil responded by stating that 70% of companies see they are inadequate in addressing the need and don't understand the business case.

Shortly after I viewed this broadcast, Christina launched a conversation on JustMeans.com's Live Feed summarizing her view of the broadcast. Christina liked," how Friend characterizes the multiple risks of not employing an intelligent strategy for sustainability: "lost profit," "market access," "license to operate," "recruitment and retention" and "lack of meaning....There's your business case right there."

In my experience of Christine, she always has a gracious way of getting to the point and I have been following her activity ever since I met her in a discussion on Justmeans.com about the harm caused by Royal Dutch Shell  in Nigeria  and her examination of looking at all sides of the coin with people from Shell and other Justmean's Members.

If you have not seen Gil's book, the cover provides on its own the most powerful message you can take into any workplace.

I have watched Gil's practice move out of his personal style of aggregating on his feet, while he creates what he learns in a format for his clients. While gil was my neighbor in the Bay Area, I first met him on listserv formed by the University of Colorado called the Future of Work.  This group gathering in the early days of social media gatherings via listservs comprised leading thought leaders, consultants and academics who were grappling ahead of schedule on the issues that were pointing to the potential of a recession with that reflected greater harm the Great Depression.

Subsequently through social gathering through the Tides Foundation in the Bay Area and other professional associations. Gil founded a company as CEO, Natlogic, and I followed his website and subscribed to the RSS feed to his blog. Gil is a man of a few words and I promised you they are always poignant and educational. I attended his workshop focused on strategy and sustainability and watched corporate and non profit participants (all sizes and budgets) leave stunned by what they learn.  I even got a chance as a participant to build my case for WeCareMetrics.

Today, in particular, Christina Arena's question of Gil Friend and his responses got my attention and pushed me to reflect on this input as I filled my day getting organized to write a new white paper. What they spoke to really pushed me to think how this relates to cultivating an educational format so sustainability is more widely understood from my view.  Sustainability had the most meaning for me in the context of the Precautionary Principle assuring practices that protect a future for our children.   It is the less attractive business case for corporations and parallels the spiral of exploration that surrounds creating CSR metrics that support the improvement of quality of life for women.

So while I was writing out my reflection, I got a twitter from Elaine Cohen which led me to listen to a broadcast of Elaine Cohen on 3BL Media on Women and CSR.  The title of this broadcast is CSRunscripted.  Elaine Cohen
does not need a script for anything she writes or thinks about.  She speaks it off the tip of her tongue with an intelligence and analytics that get to the bottom line.  Elaine in this video makes a case for my point of view that I have been saying in various froms, e.g. this February 11, 2010 insight note, "Moving Beyond Gender Buzz".

Elaine delivers a message to the point that says it for me, It is not about improving, training or developing women for advancement.  It is about a culture of change; and in my personal view a culture of change that impacts a new form of education.

I could not let day go buy without writing this post so integral to the white paper I have been researching on barriers to change and how to address those structurally beyond interpersonal dynamics. Changing people, changing women to fit in a defined structure that is not sustainable is simply not good CSR. 

Join me on @workecology and join this new list #CSRuptheante, if you have something to contribute to this line of thinking or want to follow my aggregation as it emerges, direct me to funding sources for my research or simply decide you want to learn how in your company to build the business case and hire me to join with you to make that happen.