HIGHLIGHTS OF SHSMD CONFERENCE 

Stories of Leadership and Inspiration Fuel Successful SHSMD Connections 2022 Conference  

Health care strategy professionals shared insights on “what’s next” and leadership strategies for the future during the Society for Health Care Strategy & Market Development (SHSMD) Connections 2022 conference, held in-person as well as via a virtual conference and on-demand viewing in September. 

As a professional membership group of the American Hospital Association, SHSMD hosts the nation’s premier conference for health care strategy professionals in roles specific to marketing, digital engagement, communications, public relations, strategic planning, business development and more. 

The SHSMD Connections 2022 conference was held Sept. 11-14, in National Harbor, Md., and was complemented by the SHSMD 2022 Annual Virtual Conference, which took place on Oct. 12, and included new sessions plus access to recorded symposia from the in-person event through the end of the year. 

“This isn’t just a conference,” says Dan Miers, the conference co-chair and chief strategy officer of SPM Group. “The society is truly a professional association of leaders in the field, and we wanted the conference to not just be educational, but be a celebration of that, and a way for people to experience that in person.” 

The End of Overworking 

In one of the conference’s keynote addresses—titled “Overwhelmed: How to Work, Love & Play When No One Has the Time”—Brigid Schulte, a writer, podcast host and director of the Better Life Lab at New America, in Washington, D.C., noted that the culture of overworking, in which personal “busy-ness” is seen as a badge of honor, has resulted in high rates of burnout, stress, sickness and disengagement from work, particularly in health care. 

These issues have only gotten worse during the COVID-19 pandemic, she adds. 

“We have made being busy a cultural value,” Schulte says. Yet, she asks, how do we—as individuals, organizations and a society—address these trends, and turn toward a more complete, functional future? 
According to Schulte, the solution involves rebalancing the three great arenas of life: work, love and play.  

“The basis of human happiness comes from our connection with people—friends, family and community,” Schulte explains. Structuring these components into healthier balances entails redesigning how we approach work, and such behaviors must be modeled by leaders, she adds. 

“When you are rested and have time for other arenas of life, you become more productive,” Schulte notes. “Work‒life balance starts with picturing what you want to achieve—start at the end.” 

Become More ‘Backable’ 
 
In a separate keynote session titled “Backable: The Future of Health Care in the Post-COVID Era,” author and entrepreneur Suneel Gupta emphasized that while all great leaders have had to learn how to sell their ideas, some fail because they struggle to convince their team members. 

“Being ‘backable’ means coming up with a great idea, but also having the skills to convince others to be interested,” he says. Organizations that aren’t ensuring each individual is backable fail to fire on all cylinders and can struggle to achieve goals, he adds. 

As a leader, getting people to buy in to your ideas means converting “outsiders” to “insiders.” A core step in this process, Gupta explains, is building a sense of ownership—a process that creates energy to get ideas across the finish line. A key to this process can be building relationships and trusting in the insights offered by team members.  

“While courage doesn’t necessarily lead to action, action always leads to courage,” Gupta says. “Sometimes the biggest opportunity you can give someone is to take a chance on them.” 

Additionally, Gupta highlights the importance of learning to accept failure and the embarrassment it may bring. “The pain that we receive from making a bad decision is twice as powerful as the pleasure we get from making a good decision,” he explains. “Long-term success comes from short-term embarrassment, if you can learn something from it.”  

Change How You Live, Work and Lead 

During a luncheon session on the third day of the conference, Shola Richards, an author and a founder and the CEO at Go Together Global, discussed how to foster an increasingly civil, engaged and productive work culture. 

“Be a kindness extremist,” Richards advises. “Being nice and being kind are not the same thing; nice is surface level, kind is much deeper.” 

In achieving this goal, Richards notes, there are three key questions leaders must ask themselves: “Is it kind? Is it true? And is it necessary?” 

Thinking in this way eases the process for individuals to become the type of leader whom people would follow even if they didn’t have to—a core concept for inspiring people and staying committed to the ongoing work of achieving equity, diversity and belonging.  

These highlights barely scratch the surface of insights delivered during the conference, and participants will have the ability to dig deeply into these and other key discussions. 

The SHSMD virtual conference includes over 55 sessions in total, with more than 45 symposia and five keynote addresses from the in-person SHSMD Connections conference as well as six new live webinars unique to the virtual event. Keynote sessions are archived and available for viewing through Dec. 15, and all other sessions are available on demand through the end of the year. Purchase the recording archive and watch the presentations with your team at shsmd.org. 

In addition to engaging sessions and keynotes, the conference also saw SHSMD recognize the winners of its Leadership Excellence awards—Rose Glenn, chief marketing and communications officer at Michigan Medicine, and Ruth Portacci, vice president of strategy at Ascension Saint Thomas. The conference also named its “Rising Stars”—Lexy Eggert, chief development and strategy officer at Horizon Health Care; Julie Akers, marketing coordinator at Madison Health; Lauren Poe, chief of staff to president and CEO and vice president of strategy at JPS Health Network; Alison Pondo, assistant director of marketing and consumerism for Tampa General Hospital; Tiffany Conover, director of marketing and public relations at Good Samaritan; Emily MacMillan, manager of marketing and creative services at Renown Health; Shannon Swiger, a director of internal communications at Novant Health; Danielle Torbet, director of marketing at Saint Francis Healthcare System; Sarah Gebhart, director of strategy management at WellSpan Health; and Megan Stinchcomb a senior marketing manager at the Mayo Clinic. 

Finally, save the date for next year’s SHSMD Connections conference, which will be held in Chicago on Sept. 10-12, 2023.