Addiction, Treatment and Recovery

Note:  Content in this article may be dated and include staffing and program information that is no longer current.

Michael S. Neatherton
President, Betty Ford Recovery Hospital

When I agreed to write this article, it seemed like a good idea…at the time. As the deadline grew closer and ‘NAATP Article’ kept surfacing on my task list, it no longer seemed like a good idea. Instead, I felt I was trudging along a road – but not one of happy destiny.  This task became an intrusion on an already busy schedule, and once again, I asked myself why I thought this was a good idea.

Well, I do know why, but I’m not crawling into that quagmire in this article. When I asked what I should write about Ron Hunsicker told me the topic and content were wide open. With that thought in mind, I looked at the past 12 months, determined to write about what has been most significant and worth sharing from a professional perspective.

My thoughts kept taking me to the importance of communication. George Bernard Shaw once said, “The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.” I get that. Three of the greatest teachers I’ve had in my life have been my daughters. When they became teenagers, I immediately became an idiot. Up to that point, the jury was still out.  Here is a typical exchange with one of my daughters:

Me: Didn’t we just talk about that?
She: No.
End of conversation.

As Shaw said, I had only the illusion we had communicated. Shortly after one of my famous, emotionally-charged discussions with my oldest daughter, she stated, “Dad, your parenting skills suck.” Guilty as charged!  As I think back over my years of delusional confidence in my skills as a communicator, I reluctantly have to say she was right.  But what was more of a challenge was accepting that verdict and then figuring out how to communicate effectively with my daughters.  I’m still learning, and that brings me to the point of this article.

One of the corporate values we espouse at the Betty Ford Center is the importance of staff communication and working within a spirit of commitment and collaboration. During this period of unprecedented economic challenges, we’ve seen that communication, commitment, and collaboration have taken on even greater significance. When the phones are ringing and the census is solid, when more cash is flowing in than out, when admissions outpace discharges, and when there is a sense of economic stability and job security, it’s easy to be an effective leader and manager.

In our current reality, we’re seeing a reverse of all the above scenarios, resulting in a critical need for even more effective leadership.

The economic down-turn has impacted BFC on three separate, but obviously, interrelated fronts: operations, fundraising, and the strength of our endowment. Think in terms of a three-legged stool. If just one leg is out of whack (not to mention all three), there is a distinct possibility you’ll end up on the floor. This is a position way too familiar to me.

In early 2008, we had a sense that we would not be immune from the country’s looming economic turmoil and laid the groundwork for how the organization would respond. Leadership began to think in terms of mission-critical versus value-added and necessity versus expendable.  As a result, we adopted the guiding principle that we would protect quality, and – to the best of our ability – full-time jobs. Everything else was placed under the microscope.

To meet this guiding principle, and to do what had to be done, we first and foremost needed buy-in from all staff members and support from the board of directors. We got both. Years ago a good friend gave me a book by Max De Pree titled Leadership is an Art. In the book, De Pree states, “Good corporate communication allows us to respond to the demands placed on us and to carry out our responsibilities.” Over the past year, the demands and responsibilities seemed to have increased exponentially. In reality, this may not be the case, but it sure seems that way. On we go.

One of the things we have fostered effectively over the years is the mind-set of open-book management. At our quarterly All Staff Meetings, leadership normally does most of the talking from a set agenda. Part of the agenda is for our CFO to present a snapshot of year-to-date performance specific to statistics, bottom line performance, fundraising, and investments (our savings account.)  This is an okay format during normal times, but these times are anything but normal. Business-as-usual staff meetings would not be sufficient; we wanted and needed a forum that would promote more effective communication, allowing us to suspend assumptions, exchange opinions, and elicit staff input. When you’re going to announce across-the-board salary reductions, changes in the corporate match component of the 401K program, freezing merit increases and open positions, and implementing hundreds of thousands of dollars of cost-containment measures (with the majority of ideas coming from staff), you better have your communication strategy well thought out. We did.

Leadership agreed that a ‘Town Hall In The Round’-style format would be most conducive to what needed to be accomplished: namely, candidly sharing the economic realities and asking for staff help in moving through a difficult time. To promote interaction, the number of participants in each session was limited. Precise minutes were taken at each meeting and were posted the next day on the Center’s internal web site. Staff appreciated having ready access to everything that was discussed. It was determined, and ultimately proved to be true, that the Town Hall strategy was an effective tool. But we also needed to think about how we were going to continue to communicate with the staff and keep them apprised as to future developments and changing conditions, both positive and not so positive.  It meant we had to think about the appropriate use of email as one small component of an overall ongoing communication strategy, but not at the expense of getting in front of the staff as necessary and talking about difficult issues. It meant that those of us occupying leadership positions had to be more available to staff. Most important, it meant that those of us in leadership positions had to truly lead; not give the illusion of leading. Remember Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom? Marlin Perkins would say something like this to his colleague, Jim Fowler: “Jim, hop out of the boat and tag that moose while I wait here”…as the moose was swimming away (I didn’t even know moose could swim). If Jim was anything like me, I imagine his response would be something along the lines of “Hey Marlin, why don’t you just kiss my @#*.” Some days you just have to get out of the boat and tag your own damn moose! So it is with leadership.

As challenging as these times are, they have given us an excellent opportunity to bring a portion of our values statement to life, and “walk like we talk.” Leadership is about making “courage” statements. It’s about delivering unpleasant realities face-to-face so messages won’t be misconstrued. It’s about committing to and telling the truth, and returning to Shaw’s quotation, it’s about avoiding “the illusion that communication has taken place.”

As a result of the aforementioned actions, staff has told us they feel listened to, respected and included.  This doesn’t mean they like the necessary actions that have been taken. None of us do. It’s like building consensus. I may not totally agree with it, but I can support it. Over the past year I have been forced to enhance my listening skills, and as a result, I’m hearing better and understanding to a larger degree. I like that. What I don’t like are the circumstances that brought about the change. Even though my parenting skills sucked “back in the day,” hopefully my leadership and communications skills won’t…at least not as much. Thank God for progress not perfection.

I am convinced that – as the result of these tough times and difficult decisions – the Betty Ford Center will be a stronger and more efficient organization. I also know that we’ll go through tough times in the future, and that lessons learned in this go-around will once again prove valuable. As many of us have come to realize… we will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it.

We work in an industry that teaches patients and clients the importance of sharing and communicating.  I find it very ironic that – many times – we fall short of the communication ideal within our individual facilities as well as within the broader industry. We cannot solve the economic crisis that is affecting every element of our society. What we can do is manage the impact within our own organizations, and what we must do is sustain open, honest communication. Remember…this too shall pass.

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