Wednesday, April 25, 2018

Public Speaking


In class today, we discussed the topic of Public Speaking. While many people think public speaking is standing up in front of an audience it is also speaking in conversation. For class we were asked to watch a Ted Talk about the seven deadly sins of speaking. Which are; Don’t gossip, avoid judgement, ditch the negativity, quit complaining, stop making excuses, don’t exaggerate and ditch the dogma. Often times these sins come up in everyday conversations and when we notice how often others use them we find ourselves doing the same. All sins build on one another and need to be avoid if you want someone to listen to you. For me personally I find myself struggling with public speaking in new situations but found a Forbes Article, “12 Tips for Public Speaking”, that I found helpful to become a better public speaker.

The 12 tips are;

1.     Speak with an intent to move people to action
2.     Start with a “grabber”
3.     Structure your material in three sections
4.     Practice. Practice
5.     Know the audience
6.     Know the setup
7.     Relax
8.     Visualize yourself successful
9.     Pauses.
10.  Don’t apologize
11.  Smile
12.  Get experience

These tips are all something we have heard before but can be beneficial when used correctly. Having an effective grabber can be as simple as a statistic or story that people can relate to. Using an effective grabber draws the attention of the audience and moves the topic to the forefront of their mind. Structing material into a grabber, middle, and close helps to ensure that information is retained. The middle is where majority of the information is, you don’t want to introduce a new topic at the end of a presentation because it can leave the audience on edge. Pauses are an important aspect because it helps to give the information in a way the audience can understand. If you rush through information key points can get lost and audience will have a hard time following.

This article and also presenting in class have helped me to work on my presentation skills and public speaking. Being a good public speaking can often times establish a good reputation for oneself and also help you to be remembered. Giving a presentation to a group of executives at a company can be stressful but if done successfully can go a long way.

Monday, April 23, 2018

Crisis Management

In class today we discussed Crisis Management. Before class we were asked to read an article from Forbes titled "7 Ways Leaders Maintain Their Composure in Difficult Times." The article describe seven key tips to deal with crisis situations as a leader of a organization, department, or group. When dealing with these type of situations it is important to stay calm and positive. Often times when a situation arises people start to panic and run around and cause more commotion. Last semester I wrote 3 blogs from my management class that focused on crisis situations and how they were dealt with.

The first was a blog on Hurricane Harvey's Impact on Hospitals. In early September Houston Texas had record breaking rainfall forcing neighborhoods, schools, and hospitals to be evacuated. Because of the vast impact this event had Public Health officials had to take steps to stop the spread of the affect that water had on the areas. Drinking water was contaminated and so disease could spread quickly if preventive steps were not put in place. Houses were ruined by water damage and could also help to spread disease. Officials had to make shelters with clean water to shower and clothes to wear for those getting back up on their feet.

The second blog was from early October and the Las Vegas Shooting. The article I found was from the New York Times about a Las Vegas Trauma Center having crowds of people flood in to be treated. New workflows had to be created to help control the number of patients seeking treatment, patients were ranked 1 to 5 depending on their injury. Those that were given a 1 received treatment first and were rushed into a room immediately, those that were a 5 were treated in waiting rooms and hallways. This workflow helped give the best care they were able to give to the most people possible.

The final blog was from middle of October and the Northern California wildfires. Similar to the Hurricane Harvey situation neighborhoods and hospitals had to be evacuated. Patients needed to be transported to other hospitals before the wildfires reached. Patients were evacuated via ambulances and city buses to other hospitals near by. Hospital officials had to reach out to ambulance companies and the city bus company in order to move the patients. Not only was a workflow created to move the patients but also to treat the burn victims which needed skin grafts and surgery to treat burns.

All three events were nothing that could be planned for but officials needed to think on their feet to help give the greatest quality of care for a large quantity of people. These events helped other hospitals and states to think about emergency preparedness. While these events are unfortunate they can help to open the eyes to officials about the needs to be ready to act if a situation does occur.



Wednesday, April 18, 2018

Reflection on Presentation Skills


After completing my last presentation for Health Management class, I felt it would be good to reflect on takeaways I have. Over the course of the semester my team worked together to build a presentation to teach about Personal Resilience, Conflict Resolution, and Team Engagement. After completing these three presentations I have learned helpful tips about presenting and also more about my strengths and weaknesses while presenting.

Tips about presenting I learned were;
·      You never know how the audience will interact and it is often important to ask questions to reinforce key takeaways.
·      Over the course of the semester we tried different tactics to help prompt discussion such as throwing a ball around the room, incentive with candy, playing music in the background, and using videos and diagrams to communicate information.
·      When creating slides and presentations it is important to have a good mix between readable information and then information that is presented through speaking. Reading right from slides is repetitive and can be boring.

From presenting I learned some of my strengths when;
·      Being able to offer personal examples that helped to relate to topic and helped to influence discussion.
·      When I spoke, it was clear, and I maintained good eye contact.
·      When working with a group I took a role of offering ideas that may have been different from the rest of the group and providing constructive criticism for ideas I didn’t think would work.

Going forward a few of my weaknesses that I need to work on are;
·      Being more enthusiastic about the topic, even it isn’t something I am passionate about having a “mask of enthusiasm.”
·      Moving more around the front of the room to engage the audience not standing still.  
·      To take a stronger leadership role and take on more responsibility when working with a group.

I have felt this class to be extremely beneficial to my young career and am glad I have the hands of experience to work on the skills as opposed to just learning about them. I would like to thank my group members for helping me to grow as a team member and offering constructive criticism to show me where my weaknesses are.

Team Engagement


In class today, we discussed the topic of Team Engagement, which is defined as, “the emotional commitment an employee has to their organization and its goals.” Team Engagement is a crucial part to the identity an organization has and can separate a good team from a mediocre team. In the presentation we discussed the difference of a team vs a high performing team. High performing teams use team engagement to get classified as a high performing group of individuals focused on common goals. Five tips to improve team engagement are;

~ Frequently discuss engagement
~ Put everyone in the right roles
~ Give them the training needed
~ Task meaningful work
~ Check in often



These tips help to hold everyone accountable and to work to common goals. Often times teams that have good engagement have higher employee retention and satisfaction. One idea that was brought up in class was why Google is always one of the most productive companies. We discussed the incentives the company offers such as the work space and personal free time but there are others. I found an article from Business Insider that gave more reasons for the ranking Google receives yearly.

High percentage of workers feel satisfied with their job, the environment and the team work provide reinforcement to this point. Google allows for their employees to adopt mentors and coaches to help keep them on track and build on their careers. Teams collaborate on projects and work in an open environment that helps develop new ideas.

Most workers think their work makes the world a better place, work is meaningful and helps to stay motivated. Often times if we find ourselves doing “busy work” or meaningless tasks we are often less motived and lose interest in our work. Google strives on giving employees tasks that help progress the company and often have workers present their work in front of respective company officials.

Compensation is the best, with one of the highest median salaries in the job market it helps attract motivated individuals. Employees feel a sense of recognition being paid higher than others in similar roles at different companies. One point that is brought up is that there is pay differences between two employees at the same role but this is due to the investment Google makes in their employees to not let them walk out the door.

More than one-quarter of workers telecommute, being able to work from home provides a sense of flexibility and allows workers to complete tasks even if they can’t be in the office. Working from home or remote work is a beneficial idea a lot of companies are using to help with office costs but also allow freedom to the workers.

Employees say their job is low-stress, incentives offered at the “Googleplex” help to relieve this stress. It has been showed a direct correlation to stress levels and job productivity. High stress is not good for ones help and can often take away from their productivity. By having a stress-free environment, it can boast productivity.

It will be interesting to see in the future how other companies adopt some of Google’s practices and how it impacts their productivity. It will be even more interesting to see if these practices can be used in healthcare settings where there is often high stress.

Work Cited