It’s been an amazing start to 2024, with ACHE’s Congress on Healthcare Leadership having record attendance of over 5,400 attendees. Our local ACHE chapter, California Association of Healthcare Leaders (CAHL), co-hosted the now annual California Networking Event at Congress and the event was moved to a larger venue to accommodate the demand from members. It was a great opportunity to catch up with old friends and make new connections.
As we head into summer and rapidly approach the midpoint of 2024 (how did that happen?), many leaders are focused on budget reviews and strategic plan check-ins to see if the team and organization are on track for 2024 goals. While this is important, the summer is also an important time to recharge so that you can bring the energy and focus needed for the remainder of the year. Here are a few thoughts from Shawn Achor and Michelle Gielan, from their article titled: “Resilience Is About How You Recharge, Not How You Endure” (Harvard Business Review):
A militaristic, tough approach to resilience and grit, without recovery, is holding us back: “We imagine a Marine slogging through the mud, a boxer going one more round, or a football player picking himself up off the turf for one more play. We believe that the longer we tough it out, the tougher we are, and therefore the more successful we will be. However, this entire conception is scientifically inaccurate. The very lack of a recovery period is dramatically holding back our collective ability to be resilient and successful.”
Start by strategically stopping: “Give yourself the resources to be tough by creating internal and external recovery periods. In her book The Future of Happiness, based on her work at Yale Business School, Amy Blankson describes how to strategically stop during the day… (for example) the average person turns on their phone 150 times every day. If every distraction took only 1 minute (which would be seriously optimistic), that would account for 2.5 hours of every day.”
Take a break, during the day and for longer recovery periods: “You can take a cognitive break every 90 minutes to recharge your batteries. Try to not have lunch at your desk, but instead spend time outside or with your friends — not talking about work. Take all of your paid time off, which not only gives you recovery periods, but raises your productivity and likelihood of promotion.”
Regent’s Awards
I am excited to kick-off the nomination process for the 2024-2025 Regent’s Awards for Northern and Central California. Regent’s Awards are an opportunity to recognize outstanding healthcare leaders who make significant contributions to advancement of healthcare management excellence and the achievement of ACHE’s goals.
Winners are presented their awards in person at the annual California Association of Healthcare Leaders (CAHL) member meeting, to be held Thursday, August 22, 2024.
The Regent’s Advisory Council (RAC) selects awardees for both Early Career and Senior Executive Regent’s Awards. Individuals who reside within Northern and Central California can be nominated by colleagues or self-nominate for the award.
ACHE Regent’s Awards Criteria:
Early Career Award: A current member of ACHE residing within the Regent, Northern and Central California geography (i.e., 50 of California’s 58 counties, as far South as Kern County and San Luis Obispo and North to the Oregon border)
Senior Executive Award: A current Fellow member of ACHE residing within the Regent, Northern and Central California geography, who holds a CEO, COO, or other senior-level executive title within their organization
We are excited also to continue the new award from last year, our Regent’s Award for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Leadership, into this award year. This award has the goal to highlight leaders who are creating and spreading DEI best practices in their healthcare organizations and in the broader community. This award was developed with the CAHL Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (JEDI) Committee. Award winners will be selected by the RAC with participation from the JEDI committee.
The nomination deadline for all three awards is Sunday, July 7, 2024, at 11:59PM.
All nominations should be submitted directly to me at NCALRegent@gmail.com. The nomination forms for all the awards will be posted no later than June 1, 2024 here: https://ache-cahl.org/regents-advisory-council/ or you can contact me for a copy of the forms at NCALRegent@gmail.com.
CAHL Congress – Save the Date – October 25
An exciting addition to the California Association of Healthcare Leaders event calendar is a new in-person one-day conference, CAHL Congress, to be held October 25 in Sacramento. The lineup of speakers will be incredible (more information to come soon)! The CAHL Board of Directors heard feedback from members about the challenges in getting in-person education credits and has designed CAHL Congress as a convenient and affordable option for all ACHE members in Northern and Central California.
Be sure to hold the date on your calendars for a day of fantastic education and networking with your peers from all over Northern California.
Kudos to the leadership of CAHL VP, Programming, Corina B. Clark, FACHE, and all of the CAHL Local Programming Council chairs (Antonette Shockey, Dureshehwar Swiger, Leslie Cerpa-Weinberg, Prital Patel, and McKenna K. Zoucha) for all of their work on what will be an amazing event!
Philip Chuang, PhD, FACHE, is Regent for California – Northern and Central. Reach out at NCALRegent@gmail.com