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MUSC Excellence at the College of Medicine/UMA Dear Colleagues, I am pleased to report that last week (Dec. 7) we held the fourth Leadership Development Institute. Three hundred fifteen people attended what may have been our most successful meeting yet. The topic for the meeting was Performance.    In our journey to MUSC Excellence, performance is a main focus. To be excellent we have to perform at a very high level, not just the leaders but everyone in our organization in all the many different mission areas in which we work, generally considered to be education, research, service and administration.    We hosted two guest speakers from Vanderbilt, Jeff Balser, M.D., Ph.D., vice-chancellor for research, and Jerry Hickson, M.D., associate dean for clinical affairs.   Dr. Balser showed just how important the Vanderbilt “Elevate” Program (akin to our MUSC Excellence) has been in measuring the performance of those who are responsible for research excellence at Vanderbilt Medical Center.    To see how well the research cores and the various research offices serve the scientific faculty, they survey the faculty. The leaders of those entities are rewarded for good performance and the feedback also facilitates programmatic improve-ment. It is clear that the process of holding people accountable for performance has paid off exceedingly well by improving the function of all the cores and research offices.  This was proven by surveys of the faculty and the climb of Vanderbilt from 24th in 2000 to 12th in 2006 in NIH funding.   Dr. Hickson walked us through a number of scenarios where we were asked to evaluate individual perfor-mance and decide how best to deal with it.  It is well known that low performers and disruptive individuals wreak havoc in any organization and if the behavior is permitted, it is in essence promoted.  For anyone committed to excellence allowing individuals or even groups of individuals to lower the overall performance of others is obviously the wrong way to function.    Dr. Hickson also shared tips on how to conduct “cup of coffee meetings” where a leader sits down to discuss the unacceptable performance or behavior with an individual. Prior to meeting with an individual the leader must observe four principles:  1) justice, 2) certainty, 3) insight and 4) redemption. In a nutshell, all individuals must be treated justly and there must be absolute certainty about the performance/behavior (not just one other person’s observation). Furthermore, the “why” for the low performance should be sought—are there issues in the personal life, etc. Any early intervention should always be approached with compassion and with the goal of redeeming the individual.  The objective is to improve the performance (redemption), but if it does not improve, then a pattern of unacceptable performance has been documented and will be dealt with ultimately by separating the individual from the organization. Dr. Hickson’s paper on dealing with disruptive behavior can be found at http://www.musc.edu/muscexcellence/ldi4.htm. For any academic institution to be really great, there must be consequences for disruptive behavior and poor performance.    Interventions cascade upwards in severity if behavior does not improve ranging from informal coffee conversation to severe disciplinary action.   Dr. Elliott reinforced the focus on performance, charging us with the creation of MUSC excellence boards to communicate our goals and achieve-ments, continuing the use of AIDET, utilizing the Leadership Evaluation Manager Tool, continuing rounding and writing notes signaling our recognition of the outstanding things being done here.    I end by wishing everyone a happy holiday season.  Jerry Reves, MD Dean, College of Medicine     Friday, Dec. 21, 2007 Catalyst Online is published weekly, updated as needed and improved from time to time by the MUSC Office of Public Relations for the faculty, employees and students of the Medical University of South Carolina. Catalyst Online editor, Kim Draughn, can be reached at 792-4107 or by email, catalyst@musc.edu. Editorial copy can be submitted to Catalyst Online and to The Catalyst in print by fax, 792-6723, or by email to catalyst@musc.edu. To place an ad in The Catalyst hardcopy, call Island Publications at 849-1778, ext. 201.