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Canton Pulse E2 | Verneda Bachus, CEO of Friend Health
125 Plays3 years ago
Host Don McDaniel sits down with Verneda Bachus, Chief Executive Officer for Friend Health, a federally qualified health center in Chicago, Illinois, to discuss the challenges and importance of strategic planning. For more than 20 years, Verneda has led FQHCs and other organizations through challenging start-up, turn-around, and change environments. As CEO of Friend Health, Verneda has led the organization through transformative growth for improved clinical performance and increased access to care.
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Transcript
Introduction with Don McDaniel
00:00:00
Speaker
Hi, I'm Don McDaniel, CEO of Canton & Company. Welcome to this episode of Canton Pulse.
00:00:09
Speaker
I'm very excited to introduce my guest today, Vernita Bacchus.
Vernita Bacchus on Leadership in FQHCs
00:00:12
Speaker
Vernita serves as the Chief Executive Officer for Friend Health, a federally qualified health center in Chicago, Illinois. For more than 20 years, Vernita has led FQHCs and other organizations through challenging startup turnaround and change environments. Vernita, I'm thrilled to speak with you today. Thanks so much for joining us.
00:00:33
Speaker
First of all, I am honored to be here with you today, so thank you for having me. Fredia, so let's start.
Journey to Leading Friend Health
00:00:40
Speaker
Would you give us a little bit of your background and go a little bit deeper, and I'd love to hear a little bit about Friend Health, because you've had an extraordinary experience there, it sounds like.
00:00:49
Speaker
Sure. So I'm Bernita Backes. I am the CEO of Friend Family Health Center doing business as friend to help. And I'll talk with you about that journey. I have been here since July of 2013. So next month, 10 years, 10 years. We're at 10 years. Time has flown. So, you know, when you're having fun, it's live by. Yeah.
00:01:15
Speaker
When I came to Friend Health, I came, moved to Chicago from Kansas City, Missouri. I previously was CEO of Swope Health Services, which is an FQHC that's been around since 1969. So one of the first in the country. And I moved here to the Friend Family Health Center.
00:01:38
Speaker
And at the time, Frank Family Health Center was a small FQHC. We had approximately 25,000 patients, unique patients, about 110 employees, and we were about a $12 million a year annual budget.
00:02:01
Speaker
And I saw that in speaking with the board that there were so many opportunities for this organization sitting in the heart of the South Side of Chicago. And, you know, it was really excited to be a part of the organization. And over the years, we have grown an organization of 26,000 patients to about 47,000.
00:02:24
Speaker
Yeah, no.
Strategic Growth and Leadership Team
00:02:25
Speaker
And so, and I was going to comment because the story is really a fantastic story, you know, 10 years and really exponential growth in 10 years and talk a little bit about how did you really drive that? And, you know, as an example, I know you've got a really fantastic team and what did team mean to that? And how did you recruit
00:02:45
Speaker
The kinds of leaders that you needed to recruit and you know We i'd love to talk a little bit about strategy on this obviously You did some pretty interesting strategic things for nita when I think it's fair to say it's changing now a little bit but This was not conventional wisdom in the fqhc world. It wasn't like fq's were running around You know putting pieces together so that they could do more for their communities, but you did
00:03:09
Speaker
So first of all, I have to give credit to the board of directors of a friend help. The board has been very supportive. And I often say that they do a really good job of balancing
00:03:27
Speaker
the challenge and the support. So they are not by any means a rubber stamp board. They challenged, challenged, challenged, questioned, but they support at the same time. So that was a big piece because they also had to approve a merger that they had never done. They hadn't been through that process. And with regard to recruiting the team, as a CEO, I often say that
00:03:58
Speaker
We do a lot as CEOs. However, there are very few things that we actually do. We have to get it done through our teams. We have to get it done through our executive team, which ultimately, and this will tie into strategic planning, of course, has to flow through the organization.
Aligning Team with Vision and Culture
00:04:23
Speaker
And I learned, it is reinforced with me every day that the executive leadership team is so critical to what we do. For experienced CEOs, I would imagine they can relate to having a vision or having a message or having a philosophy or supporting a culture
00:04:51
Speaker
And when you talk to the front line, they look at you as though you're talking a foreign language. But this should be flowed through the organization. How do we do that? So what I have learned, and again, has been reinforced over the years, is how critical it is to bring on folks who can catch the vision, can be supportive of the culture that you
00:05:18
Speaker
are wanting to establish and create within the organization. So recruiting folks who first of all had the skills and then had the ability to catch the vision and help carry that forward is very, very critical and has been very critical in the success of the organization. I love what you said. And I think you have,
00:05:47
Speaker
In your background, you had a lot of experience in the human capital discipline, right? So that was, I hear you like a people-centered sort of approach to how you think about this. I also loved what you said about, you know, catching the vision and pushing it down because I think that
00:06:08
Speaker
sometimes like I think organizations don't feel like you know staff level people can you know can understand or whatever and it's just the reverse you know the reality is people are craving they want to get behind a shared vision or you know that kind of thing I think that's really
00:06:26
Speaker
Wonderful. It's interesting that you say this too, because what prompted really, we love talking about strategy and strategy development and planning. At the same time, it's sort of funny because when you talk to leaders about strategic planning, or you just talk in general, some people look at you a little bit like, Oh, yeah, I got to do that. I hate having to do it or
00:06:49
Speaker
Or, yeah, we're required to do it. Or my board makes me do it. And there is often what people call the strategy execution gap. Like, OK, so you work on stuff. Or you get together with your board once a year, and you come out spitting bullets and ready to go. But not a whole lot really happens.
00:07:12
Speaker
We wrote some stuff recently and we've been calling it the strategic planning paradox. And the notion of the paradox is, hey, it's probably the number one tool in the bag of a leader is strategic
Strategic Planning: Necessity and Failures
00:07:24
Speaker
planning. A lot of organizations do it, but they fail a lot. There's not a follow through. And we call that the plan do gap. You talk about stuff or I like to say, a lot of sawdust and new furniture. But talk a little bit about because
00:07:42
Speaker
And and of course, teams, a big part of it, the vision, the socializing, the crowdsourcing. But how do you how do you make that, you know, what you all vision to do and put the organization ahead? How do you make sure it happens and you create accountability and you track it? You know, talk a little bit about that, if you wouldn't mind. Now, that is so critical. And you're right. I do have an undergrad in a county
00:08:08
Speaker
And then late in my career, or mid-career, I guess, I went into human resources. And so I have that balance, I believe, a good balance of the financial and the human. And what I have learned and seen and observed is the majority of the folks we work with really want to be held accountable.
00:08:36
Speaker
They also want to know what the expectations are. And to be able to articulate what the expectations are, how do we do that without a plan?
Importance of Clear Plans and Accountability
00:08:46
Speaker
How do we bring folks together so that we can
00:08:52
Speaker
ensure that we are all rolling in the same direction without a plan that is so difficult to do. So I believe it is really important to, one,
00:09:07
Speaker
to develop the plan so that you're not all over the place. And I can tell you from experience, I've had the luxury of having a plan, but I've also had the challenge of working either with a plan that is not so well established or a plan that is just, you know,
00:09:29
Speaker
that really you almost really have to set aside so that you can deal with what is happening. One of the other things that I've learned is everyone may not agree. However, if they understand the why, then there's a decision point.
00:09:50
Speaker
you know, understanding the why, even if I don't agree, then I at least have an idea as to why we're moving in this direction. That's a great point. I mean, look, that's, I think it feels a little bit like we've gotten somewhat away from personal responsibility, but the person has to create the value to, you know, that person that's in the center of that. So talk a little bit about how you all as a team, as a leadership team or otherwise, how do you start thinking about, okay,
00:10:18
Speaker
And I've heard people describe the strategy as sort of the stuff that we don't do it every day, we're running the business every day. So if we don't document the big things that can really change the game for our patients, okay, or whatever, then we're not going to do it, right? So we're sort of like, okay, let's really, how do we advance the ball? How does your team think about, you know,
00:10:41
Speaker
We could really do a lot more. That is a common thing, by the way, I hear in health centers, a lot of this, hey, how we get ahead is tied to how we can help more people, how we can do more work, how we can serve more folks. So how do you guys plan for that as a team? What we have done most recently is
00:11:02
Speaker
we've attempted to, and I believe we're successful, to identify what is for lack of a better term,
00:11:11
Speaker
the North Star, what is, what's the it?
Central Goals in Strategic Decisions
00:11:15
Speaker
What is it that we are all rallying around? And we identify that. And then as we are looking at, because as you know, there are people calling every day, all day, can you do this? Can you do this? Will you partner on this? Will you partner on that? Well, and what we have attempted to do is basically have a set of questions.
00:11:41
Speaker
does this move us forward in accomplishing that goal? Can we hit our target if we do this? Is this distracting to us? And there are some tough decisions that have to be made often where we say it just doesn't fit. Sometimes we have to say that internally to some of the team.
00:12:08
Speaker
Sometimes we have to say that to board members. Sometimes we have to say that to funders. If it is too distracting and it takes away from us moving forward strategically, then we have to say no. So we attempt to ask
00:12:29
Speaker
the hard questions, establishing the why, having the data to support how you're moving forward, and then taking the time to have that robust dialogue and
00:12:44
Speaker
and be willing to be disruptive. We really, I believe, have created an environment where we can challenge each other and then come to some point of agreement and move forward to support that overarching goal.
00:13:05
Speaker
I really liked what you said about asking why and sometimes why not, like sometimes the answer is to not do things, you know, to do less or, you know, eliminate something that you're doing. So again, a lot of awareness. It sounds like also your North Star comment, you know, fidelity to your mission, like why are we here? What are we really trying to do here?
00:13:28
Speaker
What would you say, Bernina, you've had a really dynamic and still have a dynamic career. You're not past the hill, right? But you've done a lot. But when you talk to young leaders and this topic comes up about strategy and alignment and accomplishing things, what are you telling people?
Advice for Young Leaders
00:13:49
Speaker
What kind of advice do you give other leaders? You know, one, I
00:13:56
Speaker
encourage them to, first of all, don't be timid. Sometimes you may be out there alone. You can't be afraid to do that. But the other thing is to grow every day. Growth and development every single day. I have this saying that I often say,
00:14:23
Speaker
If you keep your eyes and ears open, you will learn something new every single day. And sometimes I have to remind our staff and others that we have, as a fairly qualified health center, we have a target population. I have to remind the board of that when we do a strategic plan. Because sometimes it's like, oh, we should be doing this. We're here for a purpose. You're serving a group, yeah.
00:14:51
Speaker
We do. And so keeping that focus is a discipline. And, you know, it goes back to growth and development, continuing to develop oneself and the organization. It's a discipline. And I believe the more
00:15:13
Speaker
we educate ourselves, the more experiences that we have, then that discipline, I believe, is a part of that process. Well, that's a great way to end our time. We're stalking you. We can't wait to see what happens next. Really enjoyed this time together. It was an absolute pleasure. Thank you, Vernita. Same here. Thank you so much for having me.
Conclusion and Resources
00:15:39
Speaker
And to our listeners, thank you for joining us for this episode of Canton Pulse. Canton Pulse is brought to you by Canton & Company, the leading strategy performance and growth optimization firm focused exclusively on the healthcare industry. We'd love to continue the conversation with you. For more episodes and resources, visit us online at cantoncompany.com. Thank you. And I look forward to sharing our next episode of Canton Pulse.