“Hey buddy, you and Jeremy did a great job this morning,” I told Shafiq Rab, MD, VP/CIO at Hackensack University Medical Center, after listening to a presentation the duo delivered on interoperability at the CHIME Fall Forum. “I’ve seen you two present before, and he’s getting better and better at it.”
“Thanks, man,” said Rab. “Well, that’s my job, right?”
“Yeah, I guess it is,” I said.
“And someday I’m going to help him get a CIO job as well. Maybe he’ll wind up taking my job,” he laughed. Jeremy Marut is director of enterprise architecture at the health system.
The funniest thing is that, even if this actually happened, I think Rab would be the first to celebrate his mentee’s success, a success that you can literally see him being a large part of. For example, after doing an introduction and laying the groundwork, Rab passed the presentation duties over to Marut. At least twice during the talk, Marut tried to return the baton to Rab. “Keep going man. You’re doing great,” Rab said.
The presentation about their work with FHIR was a big hit, and helped win Rab the CHIME Innovator of the Year award earlier in the day.
Later on, I was speaking with Carina Edwards, SVP of customer experience at Imprivata, about the unique and vibrant culture that organization has cultivated. The discussion turned toward the topic of employee development, and Edwards said a focus was on getting lower-level employees to not only develop and present their ideas to the leadership team, but be prepared for the tough questions that come when they are finished (and in some cases before), especially if a concept isn’t fully baked.
In both the cases of Rab and Edwards, the focus was on developing potential stars, about getting the most out of your folks. Of course, this is achieved by giving them the most — the most time, the most instruction, the most feedback and continuing education. Then they must be given the most responsibility they can handle, followed, when necessary, by the most tough love.
It makes me think of how we’re raising our children at home. I’ve been in many discussions with parents about their approaches, especially regarding their risk tolerance to different sports. And a fundamental difference is: do you believe the job of a parent is to protect their children or to prepare their children? Personally, I’m going with the latter, for, at some point, the protection must inevitably stop, and when that happens, those who have not been prepared will fare quite ill. The best way to teach a child how to ride a bike is to first teach them how to fall.
And so I can’t help but think that if CIOs and other leaders take more of a parental feeling with their key folks, and come to believe that the career path of those subordinates reflects directly on them, perhaps they’ll focus a bit more on development, on preparing rather than protecting or, far worse, ignoring.
Rab was right — after all, it’s our job.
James Wellman says
Good article about two of my favorite people in Healthcare IT or anywhere for that matter.