Chapter 14: Associate Vice President for Clinical Programs: Challenges and Views on Communication
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Description
In this Chapter, Dr. Summers sketches her three-year role as Associate Vice President for Clinical Programs. She explains that the role intrigued her because it focused on high-level organizational issues. She talks about working with Physician-in-Chief, Dr. David Callendar and comments on the matrix organization of MD Anderson.
Dr. Summers next reflects on leadership and tells stories of leadership lessons she learned. She explains that MD Anderson is different from other organizations because of its clinical leaders. She also revisits the issue of the matrix structure in the organization, stressing that there is no infrastructure to engage physician leaders as well as the rank and file.
Dr. Summers recalls leadership feedback she received from Dr. David Callendar.
Identifier
SummersB_02_20140401_C14
Publication Date
4-1-2014
Publisher
The Making Cancer History® Voices Oral History Collection, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
City
Houston, Texas
Interview Session
Barbara Summers, PhD, Oral History Interview, April 01, 2014
Topics Covered
The Interview Subject's Story - The AdministratorOn Leadership Leadership Understanding the Institution The Leader Mentoring Character, Values, Beliefs, Talents Women and Diverse Populations in Healthcare and Institutions
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
Disciplines
History of Science, Technology, and Medicine | Oncology | Oral History
Transcript
Barbara Summers, PhD:
So I was very busy my first three years doing all of those things, and I started here in the administrative director position in September of 1997, and then around July of 2000, I was promoted to a position of associate vice president for clinical programs, working with Dr. David Callendar, who at that time was the executive vice president and physician-in-chief. And that was another one of these opportunities that presented itself. I was not looking for it, but I was in a meeting with David Callendar about some other issue—I don’t even remember what—and in the meeting, he encouraged me to apply for the position. He made it clear that there were a number of other individuals also applying for the position. So he encouraged me to apply for it, and I investigated more what the position was about, because it would be entirely different from the work that I had been doing. It was really essentially serving as the chief of staff for the physician-in-chief, and I would have some direct reports, but I would not be administratively responsible for clinical operations. As I learned more about it, I became very intrigued because it would have been extremely challenging, because the focus of this position would be in an area that I had no prior experience. I really would be very much focused on initiatives at the level of the organization, initiatives focused on faculty recruitment, retention, etc., working at a high level with senior faculty leaders in addressing challenges that they had. And I was also very intrigued at the opportunity to work with David. He’s a phenomenal leader, and I liked him and I respected him. So there was a very long process of interviewing, and it was a highly competitive group who came through the interview process, but in the end, I got the job offer, and I was just delighted when I got the call from David. So it was about July or August of 2000, I started in that position. And it was interesting, because my first week I was once again brought back down to the novice position where I had been three years previously. I had come into an organization, I was reduced to novice; I didn’t even know where the restrooms were; there was no structures and systems; I had no network; I had no relationships. Now I came into a new position. I had never functioned in a role like that before. I at least did know where the restrooms were and I did have some relationships with people, but those relationships were not going to be the relationships that I would eventually call upon to be effective in my role. So my very first week, I remember David came to my office and sat down and gave me an assignment to work with the laboratory medicine division on helping them to resolve some challenges that they were having regarding—I don’t even remember what the specifics were. So I listened very intently and I wrote some things down, and he said, “So, are you okay with that?” And I said, “Sure.” I said, “I’ll come to you if I have some questions.” And he said, “Okay,” and he got up and left. And I just sat there, and I thought, “What have I gotten myself into?” Because I really didn’t know where to begin with it, other than pick up the phone and call some people that you know. So I did that, and I eventually ended up talking to people who had information that was beneficial and could allow me to be effective in assisting this division with the resolution of the challenges that they were having, that they were not able to do it on their own, because there was some external forces that were involved. So it was, you know, kind of crawling and then toddling along, and then I got up and I was running pretty quickly.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
What did you learn? Because you said this was operating in a leadership role at a whole other level of the institution. What was the learning curve in terms of leadership there and what you were learning about yourself?
Barbara Summers, PhD:
Well, there were a couple of things. One is that I was reminded again of the potential for a title to carry weight with every comment that a person makes. So with a title like associate vice president and the knowledge that I was working as the associate vice president for the physician-in-chief, anything that I would say could be taken and interpreted as speaking on behalf of the physician-in-chief or sharing private information or confidential information or giving insight or leads or even being perceived as using my title to accomplish work, rather than accomplishing work through collaboration and partnership with people. I had learned that previously in some of my first managerial roles, and it had really kind of faded to the back of my mind, but it came forward very loud and clear as I moved into this position, that just because of the title, people would pay unique attention to the things that I said as if they were, you know, profound edicts, and I was just really very impressed and reminded of the power of words and the context of the words. The other thing, though, that I really learned about was forging effective partnerships with physician leaders and the fact that that was critically important in this organization, because this is an organization that is—I mean, we say “faculty-led.” I would say it is, yes, the people who are in official leadership positions, many of them are physicians, but it is certainly physician-focused. And that’s just the way that it is, and so if you’re going to be able to be effective and accomplish your work, you have to be effective at forging partnerships with physicians, and it’s in a very different way than you see in other healthcare institutions.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
How so?
Barbara Summers, PhD:
In other healthcare institutions, the administrative hierarchy really—they may bring physicians to the table and have them join in conversations, but the decision-making isn’t contingent upon whether the physicians are happy with or buy into a decision. So it’s just a different way of getting work done.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
What difference does that make here, having it more directly physician- or clinician-led?
Barbara Summers, PhD:
I think it makes it more challenging to get the work done, because we don’t have the structures and systems to meaningfully engage the faculty physician leaders and the rank and file in a way that results in durable decisions. So we have a great deal of difficulty still in disciplined decision-making and then evaluating the impact of the decisions and then going back and revisiting any aspect of the decisions based upon the evaluation. I also at this time—you know, I was not focused on nursing at all. This was not a nursing-related position. And what I did learn was to become—I’m pretty sure I learned to become a more effective listening, because I remember getting feedback from my boss, David Callendar, that he had observed in meetings when he and I would be meeting with individuals who could be particularly challenging, that my tendency was, instead of listening intently to what they were saying and trying to understand the underlying message, I was immediately formulating my response to what they were saying, and so it interfered with my ability to truly understand what was at the root of it. And once he pointed that out to me, that opportunity for me to become more self-aware, his holding that mirror up to me was invaluable, because then I really began to practice actively listening and taking that part of my mind that wants to have an immediate response and letting that rest. So I benefited from that.
Recommended Citation
Summers, Barbara PhD and Rosolowski, Tacey A. PhD, "Chapter 14: Associate Vice President for Clinical Programs: Challenges and Views on Communication" (2014). Interview Chapters. 1251.
https://openworks.mdanderson.org/mchv_interviewchapters/1251
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