June 26 was a day to be remembered for one of New Brunswick’s foremost and successful business leaders, Jim Irving, was honored at a funeral at Saunders-Irving Chapel in Sussex. His 4 children gave articulate and moving commentary on the impact of this great man not only on the business community but on the family, the province and beyond. Robert, Mary Jean, Judith, and Jim all described the qualities of Mr. Irving that contributed to the huge impact that he has had in business, the province, local society and so much more. Robert Irving, who directs significant businesses as part of the family business empire, described much of the business style that Mr. Irving demonstrated, emphasizing that central to his successful leadership was his commitment to Management by Walking Around! He described the level of his commitment to speaking with employees and consumers. He observed that it has been a commitment to that process that has kept new ideas and directions flowing for years. Those who have known the Irving Family, personally or as employees or customers, know that to be true. I have heard stories told by employees in various positions who experienced Mr. Irving’s walk-abouts as he often would arrive, unannounced, pulling up a chair and asking for opinions and insights. Listening to those who have known him and worked with him over the years, I regret that I was not able to get to communicate with him more. It sounds like his leadership and management style would be a really good fit for those who would manage in the health sector and lead hospitals!
Robert Irving emphasized his father’s commitment to and practice of Management-By-Walking-Around, or MBWA as it has become fashionably referred to in executive circles. Read any good book on successful companies or great hospitals and MBWA is the common thread. Why is that? Businesses, to be consistently successful, are totally reliant on attracting and retaining great people. The Irving Company was not one person; KC and his four sons get the recognition but their results were achieved by sticking to serious proven business principles described in many popular textbooks, not the least of which is Good to Great and its sequel, Great by Choice authored by Jim Collins. Facts don’t lie! Organizational excellence requires a disciplined approach with clear vision, strong executive leadership, and a business model for success. Another illustration is Costco! The world of retail has been turned on its ear by the phenomenon of Costco. And listening the its founder, Jim Sinegal, he sounds for all the world what Robert Irving described as his father’s quality: leadership, vision, business plan, meticulous listening to customers, making employees and their welfare priority. Sinegal was well known for dropping into a store that was, perhaps, half a continent away without the prior knowledge of employees. They loved him for it. In 1969 I graduated from the University of Toronto program in hospital administration. It was a program, then directed mostly to health professionals who had already practiced nursing, medicine, pharmacy and who were captivated by the challenge of serving in leadership in hospitals. I was one of the youngest in a class of only 18 students. On graduation I set out on a career that has been blessed by wonderful mentors and opportunities and challenges that, in many cases, were daunting. But the health system was growing rapidly and needed persons with that training. Thankfully, one of my first and strongest mentors was CEO of a large hospital that was on the leading edge of organizational excellence. Articulate, well-educated, solid leader he taught me about Management by Walking Around without the label. He spent as little time in the office as possible, choosing to invest the time with managers, physicians, government officials, local influencers, and taking every possible opportunity to find new, workable ideas that we could use! He kept all of his managers on their toes but in a wholesome, productive way. By 1984, I was still youthful and by then in a CEO role in one of Canada’s major teaching hospitals feeling that I needed to take every opportunity to strengthen my knowledge and skills. Then came “What They Don’t Teach You at Harvard Business School” by Mark McCormack. That book details an entire set of skills that are typically not taught in MBA programs and the author describes how essential are those skills to complement the theoretical knowledge learned in the classroom. MBWA became the hallmark of my executive practice whether I was CEO of a large teaching hospital, small rural hospital, nursing home, or church staff person. McCormack emphasizes how vital it is to the company’s success, or to the hospital or to the civil service department, for those in various levels of leadership to get to know people at many levels, to listen to them and their ideas, seek their advice, display genuine interest in their opinions. Volumes have been written by many great authors since that time. True enough, the employee has not had the challenge of sitting where the CEO sits with all the difficulties that entails, but by the same token the information being shared up through the organizational hierarchy may not always include the practical perspective of those actually doing the work. In New Brunswick, for instance, nurses have been expressing serious concerns about a number of very important issues for nearly two decades. The concerns of workplace issues, safety, burnout, inability to get full-time hours, and more have been advanced by the unions in which there might be a tendency to regard those issues as negotiating posturing. But then when you “walk around” and listen to the people, either still on the job, retired, or off to alternate careers, many of those same issues emerge. Similarly with quality-of-service issues. If the CEO (or Board or Minister) simply takes the reports that come through the normal administrative channels, often much is missed. That is not because there is any attempt to mislead but simply the frailty of the multiple levels of communication that exist in large organizations. In health care, various advocates hear the same themes repeatedly, including this writer. If the same themes from the same workplace continue to repeat and re-emerge, that is a sure sign of a flaw in the communication and managerial process. By persistently adhering to MBWA, the executive is able to identify the “disconnects” that exist in every organization. Throughout my career, I have been blessed to work with some great executives, all of whom wanted the organization to be successful. But we needed to continue to hear from people, employees, physicians, patients, or families, who perhaps do not see the world through the same lens as we do. As our highly-respected Medical Chief of Staff observed one day when we were experiencing some challenges: “we all see the world from where we are". Sage advice. Consultants have told me of studies for which they have been paid good money to simply take what the employees have to offer, re-package it into a report with recommendations, then send their invoice for consulting fees! MBWA, as a discipline, is critical to creating and maintaining a great culture. Workplace culture is not typically taught as a discipline in formalized programs. It is for that reason, the world owes a debt of gratitude to my mentor, Peter Carruthers, Jim Collins, Mark McCormack, and Jim Irving. Ken McGeorge,BS,DHA,CHE is a retired career health care CEO, part time consultant, and columnist with Brunswick News; he is the author of Health Care Reform in New Brunswick and may be reached at [email protected] or www.kenmcgeorge.com
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AuthorKen McGeorge, BS,DHA,CHE is a career health care executive based in Fredericton, NB, Canada. Archives
May 2023
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