Dorrier Underwood

Frank, or “the King” as he was known behind his back, was drafted out of near retirement to lead a new initiative for the Southeast region.  Liza, who ruled the  Emergency Department, was drafted to be his partner . Together, they were commissioned with launching the new medical model for short term acute care.  Some called it the most important patient and value centered initiative of the year. Except that when I met them, they were battling each other on a daily basis. Both thought they were in charge, both knew they were right, and both wanted to have their way.  Besides, weren’t they hired for their ideas and expertise? Liza and Frank were attempting to work together, but neither had really partnered with another professional to build anything for most of their careers.   As a result, the doctors were angry at the nurses, the nurses blamed the doctors for the initial mistakes, and the executives were pulling their hair out, trying to get Frank and...

"I think I finally got it, McVadon," he said on his typical early morning call to me during what he calls "windshield time." What's that? "Getting it to come out of THEIR mouths, by shutting mine for long enough!" It had been a long time coming, this moving of Adam's understanding of the concept, which came quickly, into being able to produce the phenomenon in reality. It had sounded simple enough, something like "shut up for longer, don't overwhelm them with your facts and spreadsheets and irrefutable logic, and listen and ask strategic questions based on what you hear." But nothing was simple in the six-person partner group of the newly-merged accounting firm. Each person was easily threatened and vying to show their value, so their strengths frequently showed up in the extreme, and became their weaknesses. In Adam's case, his ability to synthesize a lot of material into a cogent argument supporting a clearly stated propo...

Hi Jane, I w anted to share this with you and thank you for the ability to inspire others. YOU are the one who made this possible for me and I will be forever be grateful.  Don Such was the note that arrived from Don Holzworth, Executive in Residence at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, earlier this week, sharing a message from a young woman who is committed to living a life that matters. Dear Don, I trust you are well and surviving the very cold winter you are having in NC. Perhaps you recall that we met about a month ago when you presented to my UNC DrPH cohort (9) on leadership. We spoke briefly after your dynamic session that left us all spinning (in a good way!), and then again at your home for the DrPH gathering. First of all, thank you for your investment of time that week to deliver what I felt to be timely wisdom. I was most intrigued by your focus on imagination and how to best cultivate this amid an often chaotic and demanding environmen...

Today, after connecting on many points with a fabulous candidate for our team, I asked him:  “Harry, what would take me a long time to find out about you, the good and the bad?” Without hesitation, he told me about his music career and his deep abiding love for his parents, his love of cooking and holding dinnertime sacred with his family, and the Friday night Seders where everyone comes, even the teenagers. When I said, “And the bad,” he said without hesitation: “I don’t write things down. In the moment, I am not thinking of the future moment when I will need the information, and that has gotten me in trouble. I’m also more afraid than I look like.  I am filled with fear.”  He said it with a little catch in his throat, being afraid as he said it.  It was totally authentic, and I got it. I shared that I too was afraid. And I shared that, as consultants, we know it’s universal; it’s not personal, and it is everywhere. And we pretend it is nowhere. “So write...

Love at work Not the kind like on Mad Men, which isn’t love, but sex and drinking on the ad men’s couches.  Back in the 1960s. Now 2013. Love like we are in this together. We are in this moment together and we can’t say it, can’t give it a name. Love like I WILL brief you generously and be transparent and tell you everything (vs. hide bad news from you, hide my contrary ideas from you, hide my input that I am afraid will get me in trouble). Love like I WILL hold you to account and correct you and raise my voice but never will lose respect and regard for you.  I respect you. I value your opinion, especially if it is different from mine. Love, like I WILL apologize. Love like, I love coming to work here. It is difficult and challenging and not a cake walk for sure, but it is where I belong, where I am listened to, where I can make a huge difference and have a great job. Love like I see you. Welcome, come here and lift your pencil, Or fix that machine Or sell ...

I have learned so much playing the World of Warcraft with my grandson, Davis, age 11. Davis wants to play with us, play with our work team, 3 of whom are in Australia, so we have to coordinate times when we are all awake at the same time, so we go back and forth on email until bingo we have a time we have all agreed to. It isn’t a time that we all wanted to play right now, right now like Davis wanted to at 8:30, now now now on a school night. Davis said as I tucked him in and he was pouting a little, could I help him get to Tenaris, the realm where we are playing the World of Warcraft and could I help him get to be at level 25 where we are so he would be ready to play with us and I said yes, yes, yes of course and we set up a time next Sunday when I will have landed at my desk after a week of work and play travel in Atlanta. We are asking his Dad, Stan to come to play too. He got quiet for a moment then promised that he would be able to play with the team, “I promise,” meaning that he ...

Dorrier Underwood: Traveling Adventure, by Jane Smith