Jamie Wood works to enhance Rogers’ culture, develop teammates
04/14/23 02:30:pm
“The idea behind putting all that in one function is it allows us to think more cohesively about the development of people and our culture,” Jamie says. “Where we might have thought of Talent Development as doing all the ‘people’ stuff and Continuous Improvement as doing all the ‘process’ stuff, based on my experience, it’s an opportunity to use all the different pieces to focus on three things: improving the One Rogers culture, developing our people, and aligning the organization."
“When I say alignment, I mean identifying Rogers’ highest objectives in terms of what it means for us to fulfill our Mission on behalf of our patients. How do we break that into little chunks, so everyone feels connected to it and makes the right decisions on a day-to-day basis?”
Since joining Rogers in January 2023, Jamie has enjoyed getting to know his team and has visited many outpatient clinics and all three inpatient sites.
“I’ve talked with a lot of people, and everybody has positive and constructive feedback about what it’s like to work here,” he says. “It’s incredibly important that the channels of communication about what’s working and what isn’t stay open. That’s a function of transformation: to route feedback to the people in the organization who can act on it most effectively. That’s a big part of what we’re trying to do as well.”
Jamie has nearly nine years of healthcare experience leading continuous improvement and leadership development functions. He most recently served as a senior consultant with Acumen Learning, where he worked with Fortune 50 clients from all industries with a focus on healthcare clients, including CVS, J&J, Cigna, and Humana, to define gaps in skills and customize training solutions. Previously, he served as an operations manager with Amazon Logistics and held several positions, including continuous improvement senior consultant with Sutter Health.
Additionally, he has deep expertise in designing and implementing organization-wide strategies for developing leaders and a culture of continuous improvement. For example, at Sutter Health he led the development of a regular cadence of breakthrough improvement for a region of acute care hospitals, including an inpatient psychiatric hospital.
President and CEO John Boyd was CEO for Sutter Health’s Mental Health & Addiction Care Services while Jaime worked for Sutter Health. They kept in touch and John eventually talked with Jamie about Rogers.
“John is a big part of why I decided to join Rogers,” he says. “I was attracted by Rogers’ Mission and John’s vision.”
Shaping Rogers’ culture
Jamie says the sum of all our behaviors demonstrates what our culture is. And although culture exists whether you try to put a framework around it or not, at Rogers, there’s intentionality and purpose behind it.
“While we are working to continually enhance the culture at Rogers, we want to honor and build on the 115±year history,” he says. “It’s a continuation of that journey, in addition to recognizing that we’ve grown nationwide. We’re entering the phase of developing a new strategic plan and it’s a natural moment for us to be really reflective about culture and to think about what we want next.”
Jamie says we can’t improve what it’s like to work at Rogers or develop the culture we want unless we know the result we’re trying to achieve.
“Culture has to point to something, and at Rogers, it’s our Mission statement, which is helping people reach their full potential,” he says. “While that includes working with patients, culture is also all the things in between including what happens when there’s no standard work or workflow. That’s when culture fills in the blanks.”
Jamie says experiences can improve culture, like training from Talent Development and sharing information through activities like daily huddles and Take 30 with John Boyd.
“We are trying to purposefully define the culture and enlisting everyone’s thoughts about what that means,” he says. “I want everyone to know we’re here to help and to serve. If you have thoughts about culture, people development, or alignment, I want to hear from you. We have some things we really want to accomplish that we’re guiding the organization toward, but it’s our intention not to get so busy with our own responsibilities that we’re not able to respond to what teammates are saying and respond in real time.”
Getting to know Jamie
Jamie and Nicole are looking forward to their rescheduled 10th anniversary trip from 2020. In August, the kids will be staying with Grandma and Grandpa while they enjoy the Tour du Mont Blanc, which is a 105-mile hike over 10 days through France, Italy, and Switzerland, circumnavigating Western Europe’s highest mountain, Mont Blanc.
