“There’s more in you than you know.”
Since the middle of the 20th century, this call for challenge & self-discovery has motivated Outward Bound students all over the world.
Despite the fear and difficulty caused by COVID-19, around the world, I’ve been struck by conversations with Outward Bound Professional clients and alumni witnessing transformative changes and acts of compassion within their teams. Carrie Arsenault, President of Northern Light Beacon Health, provided just such a breath of fresh air.
We first met Carrie by way of her participation in the Maine Development Foundation’s annual “Leadership Maine” program, which has graduated more than 1,200 participants over its 26-year history. Participants gain firsthand exposure to critical issues facing the State of Maine, while also uncovering and building upon personal leadership strengths accentuated during a multi-day Outward Bound Professional experience.
Inspired by her Leadership Maine program, Carrie sought Outward Bound Professional’s assistance, this spring, in facilitating an offsite experience for a group of Northern Light Beacon Health leaders. That was before COVID-19 threw us all this curveball.
It would be understandable to encounter healthcare clinicians and administrators exhausted with stress during this unprecedented time. Not Carrie. She came to our recent call anything but flustered. Instead, she exuded tremendous pride in her team’s resilience and professionalism, expressing optimism that Northern Light would apply lessons learned, today, well beyond the current crisis.
“The ingenuity coming from the front lines has been unbelievable! Employees are dealing with their own fears and family challenges, but you wouldn’t know it,” Carrie says. “They are meeting patients’ needs and going above and beyond to minimize their risk and exposure to COVID-19.”
Northern Light Health’s ten hospitals, home care, hospice and their “population health” colleagues at Beacon Health are shifting on the fly to benefit the communities they serve: a rural primary care practice is offering drive by/curbside well-childcare visits so that parents can keep their babies & children up to date on immunizations without going into a provider practice, and in a very short period, Northern Light Health started offering telehealth visits, providing more than 20,000 patient visits during the first three weeks of April.
“From the technology platform, training providers, staff & patients – this is a significant accomplishment that required unbelievable ingenuity and collaboration!!”
“Communication is vitally important. Review. Repeat. Reinforce,” Carrie advises. During daily meetings and team huddles “we share facts about the current situation and also take time to check in, share stories and encourage each other.” In addition to group gatherings, Carrie and other leaders are conducting “spontaneous virtual rounding” to check in with employees individually. “Do they feel they have everything they need? Are they feeling informed?”
Jan Kearce — Program Director for Carrie’s Leadership Maine class with MDF – tells me, “Carrie Arsenault certainly embodied these traits – loyal, optimistic and respectful – during our time together. No doubt that her team is benefiting from all three as they pull together to weather the COVID-19 storm.”
Jan is correct: Lanie Abbott, Director of Communications and Patient Experience at Northern Light Beacon Health, says, “Carrie’s accessible, accountable, and aspirational –the trifecta when it comes to leading.” And Dr. Ed Gilkey, Vice President & Senior Physician Executive, says, “Carrie has demonstrated on numerous occasions, a calmness, centered in pragmatism, while maintaining a balanced humanity. She listens, she hears, she acknowledges, and she helps me walk away with something more.”
Outward Bound Professional looks forward to working with Northern Light Beacon Health and Carrie when it is safe to do so. And when we do, we’ll make sure our programming is responsive to the changes and growth they have already seen thanks to their resilient approach to this pandemic.
I know there are others of you out there, like Northern Light Health and Carrie, who have risen to this challenge. What new strengths and opportunities have you discovered? How are you leading through challenge? How is someone you know leading through challenge?