Recovery Act funds for Public Health

It seems that some public health agencies have access to Recovery Act funds to do specific new things.

The challenge is to figure out how to spend that money in a way that makes a difference during the two years you have it, without losing those gains at the end of the time. One way to approach such an opportunity is to think in terms of start-up funding. Spend the money (time, effort) building something that can then go by itself.

Perhaps in two years you can build something that creates more community health and generates sufficient revenue on its own to support itself through user fees. Perhaps you can build something that generates sufficiently impressive results after two years that you can interest some other funder-- one that values the outcomes you are creating. Perhaps at the end of two years, you operationalize your exit plan: your agency steps back and the program is taken over by an external partner who cares about it and can run it sustainably, with the thanks and blessing of your busy staff!

From the Management Academy Director

Recently I read an interesting blog written by Dr. Louis Rowitz. Dr. Rowitz, has built a unique career in academia via public health practice issues and initiatives. He currently serves as the director of the University of Illinois Center for Public Health Practice. He has published two public health leadership books entitled Public Health Leadership: Putting Principles into Practice and Public Health for the 21st Century: The Prepared Leader.
The most recent blog focused on the Need to Learn.
Here is a short segment of the article:
Every time we read a book, take a course, attend a conference, work collaboratively with others, use our creativity skills, solve a problem, resolve a conflict, improve the quality of our organizations, or communicate with others, we increase the return on investment in our personal growth and on the organizations for which we work. Knowledge management is cost effective and increases cost efficiency.

The blog is thought provoking and he goes on to cover other subjects related to leadership. He offers a segment of Leadership Is An Art by Max DePree and lists the ideals of helping a leader to define reality. Here are just a few:

• No matter how good a job you do, you can still lose your job.
• Not all team members do the work.
• It is your good managers that make you like your job.
• Most leaders don’t change. The weaknesses remain. Play to the person’s strengths.
• Don’t expect politicians to value what you do. Their priorities are not your priorities.
• Resilience is the secret weapon of leadership.
• People don’t want change and they use budget considerations to justify their resistance.

For more on Rowitz, see
http://rowitzonleadership.wordpress.com/

Dr. Frieden on the implementation gap

The new director of CDC Tom Frieden spoke in Chapel Hill recently and said something I thought was interesting and provocative about managing in public health. (You can hear part of the talk on YouTube). Here's what he said:

We have an implementation gap. The gap between what we know and what we wish to know is huge. But the gap between what we know and what we do is even larger.

In other words, we need to pay more attention to execution. We know what's important, and for the most part we know what things would need to happen to make a difference in those important areas. So what would it take to change the "what we do" side of the equation? Effective plans that are doable.

--Steve Orton