75. Susan Keane Baker: Best Intentions and the Patient Experience

Summary

Leading Organizations That Matter: Episode 75 Summary

Guest: Susan Keen Baker
Release Date: July 8, 2025

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Introduction to Susan Keen Baker

In Episode 75 of Leading Organizations That Matter, host Ray Spadoni welcomes Susan Keen Baker, a seasoned healthcare leader and author, to discuss enhancing patient experiences through kindness and effective leadership. Susan brings a wealth of experience, including former roles as a hospital Vice President and Fellow of both the American Society for Healthcare Risk Management and the American College of Healthcare Executives.

The Power of Kindness in Healthcare

Susan opens the conversation by sharing a personal anecdote that underscores the lasting impact of early lessons in kindness. She emphasizes that "we never want to be too busy to do the right thing" (02:47), highlighting the crucial role kindness plays in patient happiness. Her book, Split Second Kindness: Making a Difference When Time Is Limited, compiles simple, actionable techniques that healthcare professionals can implement even in the busiest moments.

The Madupe Fable: A Lesson in Prioritizing Care

Susan recounts the story of Madupe, a healer whose timely act of setting his house on fire to signal impending disaster exemplifies the importance of not being too busy to take meaningful action (07:05). This fable serves as a metaphor for healthcare professionals to prioritize patient well-being over perpetual busyness.

Practical Techniques for Demonstrating Kindness

Susan provides tangible examples of how healthcare workers can show kindness, even with limited time. For instance, if a patient misses a practitioner’s name, simply displaying the badge allows the patient to see and read the name, fostering a sense of comfort and connection in just 10 seconds (08:06). Such small gestures can significantly enhance patient satisfaction and streamline interactions.

Recognition: Tailoring Appreciation to Individuals

The discussion shifts to the importance of authentic and personalized recognition. Susan explains that recognition is most impactful when it aligns with individual preferences. She describes a method where team members rank their preferred forms of recognition, ensuring that appreciation is meaningful and memorable (12:47). This approach helps leaders effectively motivate and retain their staff by acknowledging their unique contributions.

Leadership’s Role in Setting the Example

Susan highlights key traits of exceptional leaders, such as willingness to help, setting a positive example, and focusing on positive stories. She shares inspiring examples of leaders like Dan Hett and Bill Degman, who actively engage with their teams and prioritize patient experience through their actions (16:04). These leaders demonstrate that being present and involved can profoundly influence organizational culture and patient happiness.

Accountability in Leadership

Addressing the critical aspect of accountability, Susan offers strategies for leaders to hold themselves and their teams accountable positively. She advocates for clear standards, regular feedback surveys, and constructive performance evaluations that emphasize growth and improvement (21:43). These practices help maintain high performance and foster a culture of continuous development.

Trends and Challenges in Healthcare

Susan discusses current trends impacting patient experience, including amplified emotions, increased stress levels, and the ongoing effects of the pandemic. She notes that while technology has improved certain aspects of care, it has also introduced new challenges. Emphasizing the importance of empathy, Susan underscores the need for healthcare professionals to manage stress and maintain positive interactions despite external pressures (31:39).

Future Endeavors and Closing Thoughts

Looking ahead, Susan is working on her next book, Split Second Choices: Staying Calm, Kind, and in Control When Patients Push Your Limits. She invites listeners to contribute ideas for the book's cover design and offers advanced copies for review. Susan also shares her "caring minute" initiative, a weekly focus on enhancing patient and team member experiences through single, actionable ideas (34:42).

Final Inspirational Quote

Susan leaves listeners with a heartfelt quote by Leo Biscaglia:
"Do you know the wonder of walking into a room and having people happy because you are there? That's the greatest thing." (37:59)
She underscores that healthcare professionals have the unique privilege of bringing joy to numerous individuals, highlighting the profound impact of their presence and kindness.

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Connect with Susan Keen Baker

• Website: susanbaker.com

About Ray Spadoni

Ray Spadoni is dedicated to empowering mission-driven organizations through coaching, mentoring, and consulting. Learn more at rayspadoni.com.

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For more insights on leadership and patient experience, subscribe to Leading Organizations That Matter on your preferred podcast platform.

Transcript

[Susan Keen Baker]

Foreign.

[Ray Spadoni]

Welcome to Leading Organizations that Matter, a podcast about leadership and how we find impact, meaning and joy in our work. I'm your host, Ray Spadoni, and today's topic is Best Intentions and the Patient Experience. An interview with Susan Keen Baker. I often discuss issues related to the healthcare industry and the delivery of care here on this podcast, and so it's high time that I looked at this through the lens of the patient experience, which is clearly and quite directly impacted by the caregivers themselves. Today we dig a bit deeper on this topic with Susan Keen Baker. Susan works with healthcare organizations that want higher patient experience scores and ready for this, those who want happier patients. We often talk about better or more satisfied patients in healthcare, but rarely do we use the language of happier ones. A former hospital Vice president, Susan attained the designations of Fellow of the American Society for Healthcare Risk Management and Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives. She has served as a member of the Board of Examiners for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award and is currently a commissioner on the Connecticut State Commission on Medical Legal Investigations. Her first book, Managing Patient Expectations, was published by Josie Bass, the healthcare division of John Wiley and Sons. Her most recent book, Split Second Kindness Making a Difference When Time Is Limited, is a pocket sized manual of kindnesses that can be extended even when someone has just a few minutes or a minute, or 30 seconds, or even just 10 seconds. Susan is joining me today for a conversation about how leaders can help their team members act on their best intentions and how we can, as a result, end up with happier patients. Hello Susan. Welcome to the podcast. Great to have you here. Thank you.

[Susan Keen Baker]

Ray. I'm so excited to chat with you today.

[Ray Spadoni]

Awesome. I would love to start with the notion of kindness and its impact on patient experience and maybe more specifically on patient happiness. You wrote a book on this topic. Can you talk a little bit about that just to start us off here?

[Susan Keen Baker]

Sure, I'd be happy to do that. I was very blessed that my first job as a teenager was working for a man who ended every conversation, whether it was a one to one conversation or a team conversation, with the same words. He would say, ladies and gentlemen, or if he was one to one, he would address you by your last name. So I was Ms. Keene. He are never sorry you were kind. And even to this day I'm back in my hometown and I run into someone who worked for the same organization. We laugh and in unison say, you're never sorry you were kind. And that has, you know, the lessons that we learn when we're first employed are so powerful. And I think whether they're good or bad lessons, they stay with us. One of the things about healthcare is that it's a busy place. And it was Horace Greeley who said, the illusion that times that were are better than times that are has probably pervaded all ages. And certainly when I was hospital vice president, I loved how busy I was. I took so much pride in being busier than you, or you, or certainly you. Being busy was just became part of my identity. And then one evening, I was happy and blessed to learn the story of Madupe. Madupe, a healer in west Africa, where people made their living by farming. So at the center of this village were their homes. And then on the outskirts of the homes were the crop fields. And on the other side of the crop fields was this large river that they called baba, which means father. And the river was wonderful for people. They. They fished in it, washed their clothes in it, the children played in it. And most importantly, it irrigated their crops. Well, Madupe, the healer in the village had always been a shy, retiring kind of person. And when his wife had died and his children were grown, he decided to leave the village. He moved to a mountaintop high overlooking it. And as he grew older, he became more infirm. And the time came when he never traveled to the valley any longer. But each day, he would step out of his small house and he would look down and watch what was happening in the community below. During one busy harvest season, the river had gotten so strong that cracks were forming in the dam. And medube, standing at the top of the mountain, looked across, saw these wide cracks. He could see them even at a long distance. And he panicked. He realized the dam was going to break and that the people were so busy harvesting, they didn't know it. And in panic, he thought, what am I to do? I have to rescue them. I'll never get down the mountain in time. What can I do? And after a few moments of panic, he had a moment of inspiration, and he raced back. And he set his own small house on fire. And when the people in the valley saw the smoke, they said, our friend Madupe, the healer, he must be in trouble. Let's go. And to a person. They started up the mountain. And as they were nearing the top, before they had even reached the summit, before they could even ask madube, what's happened here? They heard this huge crash behind them. And they turned, and they saw that the dam had broken. Their homes, their crops Their temple, everything was submerged underwater. And so of course they were inconsolable for a bit. But Madupe comforted them and he said, don't worry, we can rebuild the village. We can share my crops. And they realized that in not being too busy to do the right thing, they had actually saved themselves. The message of health care is a busy place. It has always been a busy place and it always will be a busy place. But we never want to be too busy to do the right thing. And so I collect these techniques, whether I observe them or people share them with me. And I put a series of them into a book that's called Split Second Kindness. Making a Difference when time is limited. And each page is simply techniques that take 2 minutes, 1 minute, 30 seconds or even 10 seconds. And that's what the book is about and how it came about.

[Ray Spadoni]

Fabulous. Thank you. Thank you. Where does the Madupe story come from? Is that it sounds like a folklore sort of, you know, fable, almost like an Aesop fable. But it, but it has to have come from somewhere.

[Susan Keen Baker]

In my area of Connecticut, we have a robust storytellers consortium and they meet at different libraries, different months. And I enjoy going and hearing storytellers. And it was quite a while ago that I went to a storytelling conference and somebody shared the story of Madupe. And it has stayed in my heart ever since.

[Ray Spadoni]

Fantastic. Thank you. In terms of your book and the notion of being able to demonstrate kindness no matter how much time you have, is there a for instance you could give us, you know, for someone who might be very limited in time in a patient care moment?

[Susan Keen Baker]

Sure.

[Ray Spadoni]

What are they to do?

[Susan Keen Baker]

So a very simple 10 second technique is if a patient doesn't catch the name of the practitioner, that person can just pull their badge out and show it. So the person can read it as well as hear it. And that helps people feel comfortable about using the person's name. So very simple things like that. Listening for a caller's name at the start of a phone call takes literally 10 seconds. But when you use the name early in the conversation, the caller thinks, oh, they got my name. They also heard what I said, I don't need to repeat the message. So you'll shorten the length of the phone call while increasing the caller's satisfaction with the call by that very simple no cost, no time. Well, 10 second time technique.

[Ray Spadoni]

Fabulous. So it's it, it's an attempt to make a connection in an industry that is ever busier and busier, when sometimes the greatest loss is the Loss of connection. So. So that's great. Thank you for that example and for setting up our conversation. You know, I know in your work you talk about clinicians, folks who are involved in patient care and their best intentions. Can you describe what that is? And then what's the implication for leaders who are trying to help their team members to be able to get in touch with and act on them?

[Susan Keen Baker]

Sure. So, Ray, I believe that the vast majority of folks go to work in the morning and they want to do a good job. They want to help people. In healthcare, there are two types of value that we bring to people. And the first type is the rational value. Does the person get the appointment, the procedure, the prescription for medication? And emotional value is how the person feels about having been in someone's care, whether that care is clinical or administrative. Now, when people don't feel emotional value, they become so demanding about the rational value, they will ask for, want more time, more tests, more prescriptions, more something, because they want to be able to say to themselves, I was right in choosing this practitioner, or I was right in choosing this healthcare organization. Emotional value is linked to discretionary effort. Discretionary effort is what people choose to do, not what they have to do. And discretionary effort is influenced by three factors. The first is a mix of incentives. Usually we think of money, fear, recognition. The second is a willingness of leaders to be involved and to set the example. And the third is what's expected and routine in the organization. What does everyone else do?

[Ray Spadoni]

Okay, can you say a little bit more about the first factor that you mentioned?

[Susan Keen Baker]

Sure. So the mix of incentives. Money is truly a motivator. I won't deny that for a second, but there was research done at Harvard that demonstrated that in this research study that leaders tend to ascribe to others a greater motivation by money than they themselves feel. For example, I'm in it to make a difference, but my colleague is doing this to just for the dental plan. Right. So we believe in our hearts that we chose healthcare because we want to make a difference. But sometimes it's easy to think that other people are in it just for the money. Now, fear has been called the lazy leaders strategy. It's impossible to feel a sense of dignity when we're acting out of fear. There is an exception. I believe that we see things in emergencies, like a weather emergency. You see people do things that you would never expect them to do on a regular day. And Covid is probably the best illustration of that. We saw people step up and be heroes, and they're still heroes. So money, fear. And the third one, recognition, is simply the easiest, fastest, and I believe the key to consistent high performance.

[Ray Spadoni]

Great. You know, those are motivators. You know, there are their ways of interacting and you know, in terms of this notion of recognition, there are particular type or form that is more impactful than others.

[Susan Keen Baker]

Yes. So I think that recognition, when it's authentic and deserved, has a great impact. And the greatest impact is when recognition is in a form that matters to the individual receiving it. So I created a template form of recognition opportunity opportunities. And usually what happens is my clients will. I will ask them, so what are all the options that you have to recognize someone? I'll give them the template and then say, tell me specific awards or other things that you can do to recognize. And people are given the form. I'm just. They're given the form and they're asked to rank the choices. One being what matters would matter to them the most in terms of recognition. And 10, if there are 10 choices for an organization would be the least. And the question that the person is asked is, when you have done something that merits recognition, what type of recognition do you like to receive? Some of the choices might be in person. Verbal acknowledgement, submission of my name for an award, a thank you note sent to me at my home, receiving a favorite snack, which is then the person fills in what the favorite snack is, a note sent to my manager's director so that they are also aware of my contribution and so on. And if I'm doing a leadership retreat, what we often do is we'll ask people to send these recognition preference sheets to their direct reports in advance with the request that the direct report fill it out, rank the choices, then seal it in envelope and return it back to the leader. And at the retreat itself, leaders will receive the recognition preferences form blank with their names of their direct reports on each one. And they'll choose one person that they think they know super well. And they'll go through and say, well, how would Agnes have rated this? What would Agnes have wanted as her number one choice for recognition? And then they open Agnes's own what how Agnes has actually scored it. And it's so much fun to see the surprise on people's faces when they realize, when they realize that for Agnes, maybe the number one thing was to be offered some additional responsibility or different work experience when they were sure it was going to be that her favorite snacks was black and white cookies. Right. So the other thing that I've observed is that we often get into a Mindset that what we value for recognition, probably other people value as well. And sometimes that gets leaders into a rut. So I think finding out what people's preferences are for recognition makes it meaningful and probably more memorable for the person as well.

[Ray Spadoni]

Okay, so recognition is in the eye of the beholder, perhaps that, yes, good leaders will, you know, be attuned to that and to other elements of the folks that they manage. Let's talk a little bit about leadership and their willingness to be involved and to set the example and so forth. Can you talk a little bit about where leadership fits in and maybe what you've seen among the leaders who you consider to be most successful, most excellent, if you will.

[Susan Keen Baker]

So for me, Ray, exceptional people do three things. Number one, exceptional people don't hesitate to help. Exceptional people are always looking to help people act on their best intentions, often by setting a good example. And exceptional people are always looking for the positive stories. And it's the positive stories that they choose to share and to remember. And so when I see an example of a leader who not only is making rounds with environmental services, but helps somebody in environmental services actually clean the room and gets that firsthand experience of what it takes to please the patients in the room and how hard that position actually is, I think that's a great way to be involved and to set the example. When I think of so many exceptional leaders that I've had the privilege of working for, I guess I could share so that I'm not playing favorites. I'll just share two that have happened to me in the past few days, if that's all right.

[Ray Spadoni]

Please. Yeah.

[Susan Keen Baker]

These people don't know this, but I don't think that they'll mind. I hope not. Dan Hett is the administrator of Pediatric Associates in Lewiston, Maine, and he just excels at recognition and motivating his staff. And just the other day on Monday, he forwarded to me a Monday morning message that one of his supervisors sent to her direct reports. And after reading her message, which was just. It was just so inspiring, she reflected on the goals that her team members had submitted for this next performance development. I like to call it performance appreciation period. And then she was just so encouraging. And she said, each of these goals ties beautifully into what we do every day as patient care coordinators. And it. I'll tell you that by the time when I finished reading this, I just felt inspired to give my very best that day. And I've gotten so. Dan had enrolled his team in an online course that I have called Telephone Rapport. And I got to know many of the staff members at Pediatric Associates because they were in the course. And although I have not met any of them in person, the praise that those associates expressed for Dan and their direct supervisors, they were praising them most often for how those leaders supported and encouraged everyone. If you had the opportunity to read those notes that those team members sent me, it would knock your socks off. Second person leader that really impressed me around setting an example this week was Bill Degman, who I'd never met before. He's the chief financial officer at Greenwich Hospital in Connecticut, where I teach a three hour patient experience workshop there every month. And Bill was in the class that I just taught. He was 100% present throughout. He engaged in every activity. He sat in the front of the room. He even agreed to do a role play. He had no idea what was going to happen in the roleplay. But when I needed a volunteer, he volunteered to role play it with me in front of the class. And so he was setting the example that helping patients have positive, happy experiences is important enough for him to give it his focus and his undivided attention for 3. 3 hours. 3 hours is a long time in someone's busy day, but it's powerful for frontline and clinical staff when they see an organization's values and standards demonstrated by someone on the executive team. So those are just two recent examples. I could do a whole hour with you on people that I've met and observed who I just have undying respect for.

[Ray Spadoni]

Well, that's great. Those are very tangible. And on your second example, I took some interest in your comment that he was 100% present. And it's interesting to me because it's every leader's job to be 100% present. Otherwise, what are you doing there with those who report to you or have come to depend on you? But people are busy. We live in an age of screens and distractions and notifications, and we may struggle with being 100% present. I just, I think it's great that you point out that one of his most important attributes was his presence.

[Susan Keen Baker]

Yes, yes. He even stayed for a group photograph that the patient experience team wanted to take for a photo that they were going to use in an exhibit. And so we all lined up together and he came right along. I mean, he was really there 100% of the time. It was really something great.

[Ray Spadoni]

You know, another maybe common theme when it comes to leadership is accountability. And I, in my own work, I do a lot of strategic planning and turnaround work. And you know, leadership development programs and the word accountability might be the number one word that comes up in terms of the needs of an organization or even in a strategic plan when you would think they'd be reaching for the stars. Many have become a little bit more inward focused and realizing they need to fortify their own performance. And again, the word accountability comes up a lot. It's on the wish list of many leaders. What do you recommend for leaders in terms of accountability?

[Susan Keen Baker]

So I believe that leaders can. Well, first of all, I like leaders to test out anything that any standard that they want to hold their team to. So for example, in that telephone rapport class, there's specific tools for leaders in terms of supporting their team. But I say before you choose any of these for your quick minute lesson of the day, try it out for a week and make sure that you can sustain it in terms of accountability for their staff. I like the phrase observation not judgment. So I think that when standards are very clear, you did it or you didn't do it, it's easy to say to somebody, you know, I've observed that you aren't doing X, how can I help? So it's not, this is not a personal judgment that I'm making because you're not my favorite. It's I haven't observed this and it is easily observable. I also like internal feedback surveys that ask colleagues for feedback. And what I suggest to people is that they create the survey with their team and that the questions are ranked according to the HCAHPS or CAHPS survey questions. So for example, does this person refrain from and or discourage negative gossip? Is it always, usually, sometimes or never? Does this person help others find their way, escorting them to their destination? Always, usually, sometimes, never, always is a high standard to reach. But that's the standard that we're being held to by the CAPS performance measures. So getting people feeling comfortable with that and what I suggest to leaders who customize the form for their own team, then I say to them, so the way that you might approach this, maybe you're going to do this once a quarter. You say, I'm going to send you three of these to people of my choosing and I would like you to have three completed by people of your choosing. And what do we do now about the person who doesn't want any internal feedback? The answer is, well, I can't possibly give you as high a rating during the next performance development period if you don't do it. So it could be voluntary. I'm going to send my Three, but it could be voluntary for you. But if you don't do it. And then what I like to do, what I like to do, suggest to leaders that they do in terms of performance development. I think many of us have been in a situation where let's say that the rating system is 1 to 5 and with 5 being highest and you have somebody who comes in and you. And they're always just waiting for the score race. So we should just give the rating and then give the rationale for it. But okay, so the leader says, agnes, Your score is 4. 4? Are you kidding me? I have worked here for 23 years and I have been a 5 every quarter and no one has ever told me that I am a four. How dare you. And now during now we're already thinking forward to the next one thing. Can I stretch it to a 5? Because I don't know where this is going to escalate to. Well, the answer simply is, Agnes, as a person, you are a five. You are absolutely a five. But this was not a five period for you. And if you want it to be a five period for you next time, this is what I would need to see. I would need to see some always scores on some of these, these performance measures. The other favorite tool that I have around accountability is something that any leader listening to. This does not need a committee, they don't need a software change. It's a simple pie chart. And each pie chart has a slice. And the slices have questions such as, this month, when did you do something for a special for a patient or a visitor? Another slice of the pie might be this month, when did you demonstrate a positive attitude about the hospital? So if month after month I am writing down what I'm doing and then submitting it to my leader. My leader now has some really interesting techniques, some positive stories. They're seeing a larger picture than they can see just by observing me because they can't be everywhere at once. The other piece of this is, for example, I'm looking at a client specific one right now. And one of theirs was show teamwork even when you don't agree with the final decision. That was something that was important, that mattered to that client, that hospital, that, that quarter. And if I were to monthly be handing one of these in and I could never come up with an example, that's an opportunity now for the leader to coach me with other examples that other people have submitted or to want to help me be better by giving me some coaching about how to make happen. So those are some of my favorite accountability tools. I like them to be as positive as possible.

[Ray Spadoni]

That's great. Very positive and, and very practical. And in your first example, you know, the. I've always been a five, why am I a four? You know, that's a good case study in the fact that the framing matters and you know, the way you wrap your message is vitally important. Susan, you offer a video course entitled Respect and the Older Patient Experience. I guess two questions. The first is tell me a little bit about what that video course entails, what it is, and then secondly, why respect? Is that a, is that a core value that you tend to focus in on?

[Susan Keen Baker]

Well, Dan, aside, at Pediatric Associates, most healthcare organizations have a large number of older patients. And so one of the things that younger people typically don't go through on a regular basis, thankfully, is losses in their life. So this video program, although it's only 32 minutes long, talk about respect. Respect just as a general. My core belief is that the best relationships we have in our life are those in which we're treated with respect and the other person is as well. So that's the core principle of the program. I teach people how to draw in the program. And then we go through the losses, but they're experiencing the losses themselves. They create a grid that's provided in the course. They create a grid of things that matter to them. And then we go through what it's going to be like when 60s, 70s, 80s, and they're going to lose those things. Of course, at the end they put little post it notes over the things that they have lost. But then at the end they get to peel them back and we talk about appreciation and gratitude for the strengths and the gifts that we still have. I think respect also means fighting against stereotypes. So one of the points that I make is, you know, when you describe or you hear older people being described with words such as all, always, never, or them, you recognize that assumptions are being made that aren't true for all older people, certainly and may not be true for the individual you're caring for. And so we talk a bit about how to be discerning. Respect is demonstrated when we let people know that they matter and that what is important to them is also important to us. So that's, that's sort of in a nutshell, what that course is about and why it was so important for me to create it.

[Ray Spadoni]

Gotcha. You know, I'm not sure this is your intention, but I'll just tell you what I, what I'm hearing is that it Sounds as though there's a, an element of building respect through empathy. Is that, is that a fair read on what you're doing?

[Susan Keen Baker]

Absolutely. Because in that course, which is a video course that hospitals or healthcare organizations, long term care organizations can have to use for, they have it forever and they can use it for new employee orientation in services, they can use it for anything. But the experience that people have during it is going through the losses of things that really matter to them. And I think that when we experience something, we understand it more personally.

[Ray Spadoni]

Yeah, for sure. Just going back a little bit to this notion of busyness and the impact that that can have and the story you told up front, given your work with the Baldrige organization, given the fact that clients come to you when they're hoping to elevate the patient experience and, you know, you talk about things like patient happiness and so forth. I wonder if you could comment, Susan, on what you've seen in terms of trends over time. You know, we sometimes hear about all of the, the stress that took place during the pandemic. But even coming out of the pandemic, there are issues of staffing shortages, insurance and regulatory friction that translates all the way down into the caregiver level. There's been a tremendous amount of evidence of burnout and the impact that that's having not only on caregivers, but also on the administrative side. There's a lot of C suite churn that's taking place in the industry. So from afar, someone observing this on sort the objective measures would say feels like there's a lot of stress in the system. Is there always stress in the system and this is just, we're getting better at noticing it or in the time you've been trying to elevate the patient experience. What's different now than years back when you first got into this?

[Susan Keen Baker]

Well, I think one of the differences right now is something that I learned from Carol Ward, who is a therapist in New York City and she's a confidence coach. I've never met her personally, but I've gotten to know her through her postings on LinkedIn. And one of the things that resonated for me was one day when she wrote that we're living in a time of amplified emotions. And so, for example, for that three hour workshop, the first part is about creating rapport even when time is limited. But then the second part is specifically how to respond respectfully to challenging to please or difficult to please patients so that situations don't escalate. Escalation can be one of the easiest things to do, but it's no fun. And so I like to teach people, you know, techniques so that they don't lose control of the situation or worse, that they don't escalate it to a point where they have to go home and bring that difficult situation home to their family. And they have to worry that they're going to be called to the CEO's office the next day or they're going to go viral in some social media post. Who knows, right? So the second piece is about that because it seems that more people are willing to express their, express their frustration, their irritation about things. Expectations are higher. I think we've been helped by technology in some respects and harmed by it in other respects. And the third piece of that one is all about the person and what to do to have less stress and more positive days in their life. So there was a time where I might, you know, give me, you know, I always, that was always part of what I was teaching, but it might have only been 10%. Now it's a third because it is so important. I had the opportunity two years ago to work with an academic medical center helping leaders retain staff. And we were looking at national data and some of the things that stuck out to me were, number one, people were more likely to leave within two years of employment. And that really speaks, of course, to things that you do so well when you do your solo podcast. You know, the onboarding experience and helping people feel that sense of belonging and micro affirmations. If people are not listening or not familiar with micro affirmations, that is really something worth spending a little bit of time on so that you give people that sense of belonging. But interestingly, the number one factor for many of the leaders that, that I was responsible for coaching was for their specific teams based on the team engagement survey was feeling that my work really mattered and that tied very closely to recognition.

[Ray Spadoni]

So there's that link. Great. Well, given everything you've been working on, the credentials that you've obtained, the types of projects you work on with your clients, what's up the road for you? Where, where are you headed next in, in terms of your work?

[Susan Keen Baker]

Ah, well, I'm going to continue listening to your podcast because I just, I just, I, I think you've seen at least one of my posts about one of your episodes on LinkedIn. I'm just, I listen mostly in the car and I just always writing down notes frantically as I listen. The response to Split second Kindness, Making a difference when Time and limited has been Humble. It's been humbling. It's been overwhelmingly positive. And when I see the difference it's made for busy teams, I said, you know, I need to do more with this. And so I'm working on my next book, which is going to the working title, but not the final title, is Split second choices, Staying calm, kind and in control when patients push your limits. And if any of your listeners would enjoy providing input on things like which cover design should I choose, I would be honored to provide a free advanced copy to read and possibly post an honest review about it. I would love to hear from them. My email's very easy. It's SusanusAnBaker.com SusanusAnBaker.com that's great.

[Ray Spadoni]

Well, thank you for the kind words about my podcast. Really appreciate you being here, Susan. I appreciate the work you're doing because, you know, busyness does have a tendency to frustrate our workers and that can frustrate our patients. And human connection is vitally important as our, as we all and the people we know and the people we are entrusted to are struggling and suffering and experiencing great challenge. You know, I love the idea of the split second kindness and then choices. You know, we live in an age of short attention spans and so short bursts of wisdom that's, that's actionable seems to be what is called for most of all. It sounds as though you're, you're aiming right at that.

[Susan Keen Baker]

I see it in your podcast, Ray, because when you, when you do, when you express ideas like the one question you love to ask people about, you know, what would you change? What within our control is something that you would change when, when you give us just one idea to reflect deeply on, we really can think about how it applies to us. And I have something that's a little bit similar. Not as polished, but once a week I, I send out a caring minute, which is again, focused on a single idea to enhance patient and team member experiences. And if anyone's interested, you can sign up at my website or just shoot me an email and I'll sign you up. I would love to, if it's okay. I would love to leave our listeners with one final favorite quotation, if that's all right.

[Ray Spadoni]

I would love, I would love you to end that way, Susan. That's a perfect way to close out. But first, maybe just mention your, your website and for folks who want to get that, that weekly, you know, beyond your distribution and to find out more about you, how can they, how best to find you?

[Susan Keen Baker]

Susanusanbaker.com is great and my website is susanbaker. S u s a n b a.

[Ray Spadoni]

K-E r.com okay, very simple, very easy. And I'll make sure I include that in the show notes as well. Okay, why don't you take us out with a quote and I'll just say again, thank you so much for being on my podcast, Susan.

[Susan Keen Baker]

Have made it so easy to do this. Thank you. My one of my favorite quotations by the late Leo Biscaglia who said, do you know the wonder of walking into a room and having people happy because you are there? That's the greatest thing. And for people working in healthcare, they have more people happy to see them in a week than some of some other people have perhaps in a year. It's really, it really is the greatest thing. Thank you so much for inviting me to be here today.

[Ray Spadoni]

Thanks for listening. Leaving a positive review and letting others know about this podcast will help a great deal. My mission is to help empower organizations that matter by supporting those who lead them. I offer coaching, mentoring and consulting services. You can learn more about [e-mail].