The MedMan Podcast_Brad Turpen_Part 2: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix

The MedMan Podcast_Brad Turpen_Part 2: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.

Jesse Arnoldson:
Welcome to the MedMan podcast. A podcast focused on helping you level up your practice. I'm Jesse Arnoldson.

Jay Holmes:
And I'm Jay Holmes. Through interviews with some of the most successful leaders in the industry, we help uncover resources, tools, and ideas to help you level up.

Jesse Arnoldson:
Thanks for tuning in and we hope you enjoy today's program.

Jesse Arnoldson:
Hello and welcome to the MedMan podcast, I'm your host, Jesse Arnoldson. We're returning with Brad Turpen, CEO of Valor Health. Welcome back, Brad.

Brad Turpen:
Thanks, Jesse.

Jesse Arnoldson:
Last episode, we talked a lot about physicians in leadership and how to engage them, and how to provide them the tools and training to become the great leaders that our organizations need them to be. This time, this episode, we're going to talk a little bit about how to get the most out of yourself and the limited time that you have. Brad, give me an example of a time in your career where you've just reached the point of overload, too much on your plate, being overwhelmed, burnout, whatever it may be. Do you have a point in your life where you've experienced that?

Brad Turpen:
Yeah, Jesse, I have. I think the obvious answer is March of 2020 and the covid-19 situation, and dealing with that. I'll talk about a different situation, though, simply because that I think that was just so extraordinary and hopefully we'll never have to experience that again.

Jesse Arnoldson:
Yeah.

Brad Turpen:
But the experience that comes to mind when you mention that has to do when I first started at Valor Health and I've talked with a couple of executives that I've hired since then and described my situation and kind of a warning to them. And I think the listeners will probably relate to this when they start new positions. So I don't have data on it. But it seems like there's a time period when you first start in an organization that you can say yes to everyone and everything. You have completely unlimited bandwidth then you get really, really good at saying yes, taking action, following up and achieving results. And at some point, the pipe gets stuck. You have said yes to so many things and been able to do that, at some point the wheel just slows down and you can't, you can say yes, but you can't deliver the way you did in the first 30, 60, 90 days. Right. So for me, that happened at Valor Health when I first started there, I think I gained a reputation for getting things done, got a lot of input from folks. Hey you, can you help me with this project? Absolutely. Let's get that taken care of. And then it stuck. And that was a point where I had to step back and really think about what am I focused on? What are the priorities? What can I say yes to now, and what do I need to say not yet to, and that was a really tough one because it impacted some relationships where people were looking at me saying, but wait, you're the guy that always gets the things done. And I just said, I'm full now. So now I have to be really judicious about how I'm using my time and energy and start to make some difficult decisions around priorities and what to do and what not to do yet.

Jesse Arnoldson:
How did you know you're stuck? Like we were a couple of the indicators, that, the red lights flashing that told you, hey, you've reached a breaking point.

Brad Turpen:
It's probably just a gut feel. And I think we've all been there where we have made a commitment to someone and we didn't meet that commitment and it just feels terrible. It happened enough where I realized I need to take a step back because and I'm letting people down. And that's one of the worst feelings that we can have, especially I think if if you have adopted a servant leader mentality, if you start letting people down, then you feel like you're failing as a leader, right? So it was enough occurrences of, oh, shoot, I didn't get that done. I'm sorry. I'll work on that over and over. That caused me to realize, OK, but something's got to change here because that feels terrible. I got to, I got to make an adjustment.

Jesse Arnoldson:
We have, we have weekly meetings, Brad, where our to-do's are reviewed from the last meeting. And I've noticed that if I'm, if my plate's over, overfull, those to do stay on there for longer than a week, they're there for three, four or five, six weeks. And all of a sudden I'm like, OK, yeah, I've, I've messed up somewhere. I'm stuck, like what you said.

Brad Turpen:
Right.

Jesse Arnoldson:
Yeah. And I catch myself apologizing too much. And that's usually my kind of canary in the coal mine is how many times in my apologizing for not getting something done right. I hate that.

Brad Turpen:
Yeah. Yeah.

Jesse Arnoldson:
Let's dive a little bit deeper into this example. When you started at Valor, how did it begin to affect kind of your life overall, the people you work with, your family, you and your mental, physical, emotional wellbeing?

Brad Turpen:
Yeah, that's the that's a good one because it doesn't, there's no hard walls. You don't get to just shut your mind off when you drive home. You know, that feeling of not being successful, particularly if you're someone who prides yourself on being successful and have to have had a successful career. Just that sort of negative feeling kind of carries with you. And you start to feel it in your interactions with your spouse and your kids. And you're thinking about work when you shouldn't be thinking about work and all those things. And maybe you talk about what are the indicators. Maybe that's one of the indicators when you feel like those things are weights, extra weights in your backpack, when you're walking around just in your normal life and you're thinking, what the heck is going on here?

Jesse Arnoldson:
Yeah.

Brad Turpen:
So, yeah, it's impacted me enough to kind of take a step back. And the interesting thing is I felt like I had a pretty good system at the time, I had been organized and getting things done and all that and I started to question that, maybe I was only playing on an eight-foot hoop before. Right. And now I need to revamp my system and understand how to be successful in this new world.

Jesse Arnoldson:
That makes sense. Brad, is there anything else that you would say towards why it's important that we properly manage what's on our plate?

Brad Turpen:
Yeah. For me, it always goes back to that. I think it's an Abraham Lincoln quote that talks about if you're going to chop wood for six hours, you should spend four hours sharpening your saw. I mean, especially if you're in a leadership role. If we just keep pounding, what we're expected to do is not only get things done but help others get things done, be available to answer questions, think creatively, think strategically, ask those questions that maybe no one else is asking, have those conversations that no one else is willing to have. And if we're just continuing to overload ourselves and not create that space to be able to do those things, then that part of our job is really falling behind.

Jesse Arnoldson:
Right. Brad, let's talk about our locus of control or what's in our power versus what's in the hands of others. As far as what they influence on our plate or our environment, that keeps us busy. Tell me a little bit about how our personal locus of control impacts our plate management.

Brad Turpen:
It's an interesting question, Jesse. We spend so much time trying to control those outcomes and the work and the outcomes of our team, the performance of our team, to realize that we're not in control of everything I think is a healthy perspective to get. It's often very difficult to accept that there are elements out there that we don't get to drive and we have to respond. I think being a really successful leader, you start to learn what those things are that you can control, right, you can control how you show up each day, what attitude you have, are you a positive, optimistic person? What perspective are you portraying to those that work in your organization? Are you walking the halls doom and gloom, or are you walking the halls saying things like, yes, maybe things are difficult right now. However, we're strong as a team. We can figure this out and we can get through this. I think people could probably really relate to this in just our experience getting through covid and.

Jesse Arnoldson:
Yeah.

Brad Turpen:
The challenges that we faced. I think there were a lot of personality traits that kind of came up in that situation. And as leaders, we probably had to address those and have those conversations about, OK, you're right, this is crazy. This is very difficult. However, the things that are important to us and we, even as an organization, almost went back to our mission, vision and values to say, OK, let's just let's start from there. What's really, really important and whatever we decide to do here, let's be grounded in what we feel is really important.

Jesse Arnoldson:
Right.

Brad Turpen:
And then that locus of control idea just know that there's going to be a lot of noise around us. There's going to be a lot of distractions. There's going to be a lot of factors that come into play that we don't control. We have to, but we have to be really focused on what's important to us and just kind of keep trucking forward.

Jesse Arnoldson:
It makes sense. Brad, I want you to challenge me on a statement. I think that what I've seen in myself and in and in colleagues of mine when we're really stuck, I find myself talking more about the environment and more about what other people keep putting on my, of what the organization is demanding of me. And that's why my plate is so full. And finally, somebody will, will jockey me out of it and say, you know what, you've got to take the reins, but you've got to take a stand somewhere and start to pull stuff off of your plate, engage others, delegate, elevate. I think that we have a lot of locus of control. I think that a lot of it's in our court to get unstuck. So challenge me on that. Help me, help me know how I balance between being accountable for myself and getting myself out of that situation versus acknowledging that there's environmental stuff that's out of my control. Where do you go from there? How do you, what do you do with that, that conflict?

Brad Turpen:
That's a tough one. I think we all probably do a version of that as leaders and just as human beings to think, oh, my gosh, this is the, this is the deck of cards that I got dealt here or the hand of cards I got dealt. And what am I going to do with this? One of the best things that I was ever told by our chair of the board of trustees looked at me and just said, Brad, you are the CEO. Everyone around you is looking at you, how you choose to behave, how you choose to respond. And this was specific to covid-19.

Jesse Arnoldson:
Right.

Brad Turpen:
Is going to have ripple effects throughout the organization. And it was I don't know about you, Jesse, but I just kind of think of myself as a person. Right, I'm a dad. I'm a son. I'm a brother. I'm a husband. I just do my thing, I happen to be in health care and I like it, but sometimes we forget that organizations, especially if we're in a leadership role, there are others around us looking at us. We're on stage all the time and they're judging how we're conducting ourselves. And so maybe it's that external pressure.

Jesse Arnoldson:
Yeah.

Brad Turpen:
Now, when you talk about what's the impact of me feeling like my plate's full and I can't get things done because of that. And I'll think about what you're teaching, the folks in your organization that you're expected to lead. So anyways, that quote from or where that instruction from the board of trustees chair was really, really helpful for me to understand that I may not see it the way others see it. I see it through my eyes but it was a kind of reminder of all of the eyes that are around me and the impact that my choices and my behavior have on them and, and then the decisions they make and how they behave.

Jesse Arnoldson:
Yeah, awesome. Brad, when I came in the MedMan, you had been out of the organization, I can't remember how many years, but you still had left behind a reputation for the GTD guy, the getting things done guy. And that's why I like I've come back to you to, to speak at Idaho MGMA and a couple of other times and I've seen you doing your weekly reviews. Tell me whether it's getting things done or any other best practices, what, where is a good place to start to develop, because I think it's a skill, I think there's a skill in managing your plate effectively. Where should somebody start to develop those skills of managing their plates better?

Brad Turpen:
I think it starts first with desire to do that, desire for an answer. And I hope that it doesn't come up because someone runs into an event that really affects them if they're if they're ahead of it and they realize I probably need to figure out a system as I go through my career to make sure that I can be effective. And it's not out of a crisis. I think having to deal with it out of a crisis would be really difficult. I'm still a strong proponent for David Allen's getting things done methodology. I still teach that. I still, I have executives that I teach it to come to the organization and they're saying, teach me what you do. And it's not necessarily you have to do A, B, C, there are some real fundamentals to be successful. And I think the great thing about it is if there's a system out there that works for folks, that's great. But to me, the ultimate outcome is you can have the mental capacity or mental space to, again, think creatively, think strategically, all those things, you know, you're not sucked into just getting these tasks done all the time. And then and I've talked a lot about this in presentations that I've made. And I think it really resonates with folks just that that headspace to be able to say, when I'm with my family, I'm thinking about my family. And when I'm coaching my kids sports, I'm thinking about that. When I'm on vacation with my family, I'm there and present in the moment and I'm not thinking about work and getting things done methodology really helps to compartmentalize all that, get it in paper, get it out of your head so that you can. I think in my mind it makes me a significantly better husband, dad, etc. when I can do that. And it's not all clogged up in there. So I'm still passionate about it. I have over time, as I think anybody probably would do with systems that they're using, you know, adapted it in certain ways that work for me, kind of really emphasized one component of it and then maybe less another component. And David Allen talks about that. It's kind of like you're, here are the skills, here are the components of your work that you need to get done, now make it yours, own it and find a way to be effective with it. So.

Jesse Arnoldson:
Right.

Brad Turpen:
I'm still a big believer and I think it really, really helps me stay sharp. Like we talked about keeping sharp if that's the way to do it. If you can feel organized and focused on the right things just from an energy standpoint, I think that really helps.

Jesse Arnoldson:
Humor me on this, Brad, maybe you and I can go back and forth in each share to either specific tools they use from GTD or any other organizational thing. Like if there was anything from getting things done, if you could only keep two things, what would they be? Share one. I'll share one We'll, we'll just go back and forth for a couple, just to give people a taste of what, these systems maybe entail.

Brad Turpen:
All right. I'd say the first one is, is the mine sweep or getting things out of my head.

Jesse Arnoldson:
And what does that entail?

Brad Turpen:
So that's anything that's happening I write it down. I don't feel committed to actually having to do something about it. I avoid that static because I know later I'm going to come back and really take a look at it and say, is that actionable or not actionable? But I get it all out of my head. I'm always writing things down, dictating things. I'm taking notes and then I process it later. But I'm trying to constantly clear my head and that, so that's probably the one habit that I think really, really helps.

Jesse Arnoldson:
I love that, that I use my I have a little Moleskine notebook that I write things down in, my iPhone reminders. I emailed myself, it's just you got to have a clear mind, right, you cannot put the stress on your mind to try and set that, put that in some pocket or folder in your brain to bring up later. That's just too, it's not how the brain works.

Brad Turpen:
Yeah, to try to retain it.

Jesse Arnoldson:
Yeah, yeah.

Brad Turpen:
Right.

Jesse Arnoldson:
That's stressful, OK, for me going outside of GTD and going to maybe the Jeno Wickman and his Tractions series I, one of the tools I use to get a little bit more focused on the right things is a delegate and elevate tool where it kind of has those four quadrants. And I just keep track of everything I'm doing in the you know, the first bucket is that I, thing I love to do and I'm great at it. And then the next one is like things that I'm kind of good at and I'm, I like to do, don't like to do, but still good at. And then finally I'm really bad at and I hate and I use that to keep track maybe once a quarter. I do this exercise to just keep the things that I'm not good at and I hate doing moving off my plate. Because what I realize is those are the things that get me stuck. I.T. support in a small clinic. That's a huge, big example. I hate it, gone. I can find a really good resource to help me there. But that's one of those tools that helps me keep the right things on my plate when they should.

Brad Turpen:
That's awesome, Jesse. It's, I'll have to check that out. And that could lend itself to a podcast in and of itself as a leader. How do you effectively delegate monitor, follow up, support, all of those things.

Jesse Arnoldson:
Yeah!

Brad Turpen:
That's a great one!

Jesse Arnoldson:
I'm going to hold you to that. Well, we'll have you come back as a recurring guest. What's another one for you, Brad?

Brad Turpen:
Read the weekly review. It's probably the next thing that comes to mind for me as a, as a GTD tool. And honestly, sometimes it's really challenging to do it. But it's also the most rewarding to really and I think David uses the terms, be the executive of yourself, kind of elevate yourself to the twenty thousand foot level and take a view of, take a look at the forest rather than staring at each of the individual trees like we do on a day to day basis. So I feel like when I do that weekly review and really take a step back, it helps me refocus, reprioritize. It definitely helps me plan my next two weeks and make sure that I'm being really effective with my time and not just getting things done, but getting the right things done.

Jesse Arnoldson:
I love it. The last one I'll share is related to the two you shared it and it's kind of a subpart of the weekly review. Zeroing out. So we talked about how you do this mind sweeper. You're collecting all these different little things, reminders and notes, and stuff. But inside that weekly review, I get the chance to just zero out my voice mail, all of my email inboxes, all my notes on my iPhone, reminders into one to-do list. And then I sit there and I figure I say yes or no and I kick things off or whatever, but it's all there. I don't work on any of them. But I have now effectively combined everything into one place and that easily alleviates a ton of stress for me, knowing that there aren't a million things sitting out there. It's all right in front of me in one place.

Brad Turpen:
That's awesome, Jesse. I like that one a lot. And I don't know when you do your weekly review, do you have a certain day that you try to do it?

Jesse Arnoldson:
Yeah, I try and schedule. I've tried different days. I've tried Fridays so that I can go into the weekend stress-free.

Brad Turpen:
Yeah.

Jesse Arnoldson:
But there have been other times in my life where I do it on Mondays just to get things started eight. I know it's almost like a strategic plan and many, many strategic plan for how I'm going to attack the week and just helps me get into the motion a little bit better. But I think, I think the most effective one for me has been Fridays, Friday afternoons.

Brad Turpen:
Yeah, that's funny that that is my designated time to do it as well. And very much what you're talking about, zeroing out and just having a fresh start, especially going into the weekend, spending time with the family, just kind of having that all cleared out of your head, knowing that it's waiting for you there on Monday morning has been really, really healthy.

Jesse Arnoldson:
There is zero red dot notifications on my phone and it just, oh, I love it.

Brad Turpen:
It's a strange, satisfying feeling.

Jesse Arnoldson:
It is. It is. Brad, thank you for sharing all of this. And for our listeners, I hope that this has sparked some interest in your guys's hearts and minds to get better organized. I think that there's something to having a system for keeping your goals and your to-do's and your priorities going. That just makes you a more effective leader. You could probably put in seventy or eighty disorganized hours and you'd probably rate yourself a C minus on all of them. But if you can just get a little bit better organized, you can probably put in less time and be more effective in all the work that you do. Brad, thanks again for being on the show.

Brad Turpen:
Thanks for having me. It was fun.

Jesse Arnoldson:
Everybody, before you go, make sure you subscribe to the MedMan podcast so you can stay up to date on all the latest information and episodes. We'll see you next time.

Jay Holmes:
Thanks for tuning in to the MedMan podcast. We hope you enjoyed today's featured guest.

Jesse Arnoldson:
For the show notes, transcripts, resources, and everything else MedMan does to help you level up, be sure to visit us at MedMan.com.

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