The Lunch With Leaders series has evolved from a pandemic-driven coping tool to a venue for connection across the Health System.
Necessity is the mother of invention, and Penn Medicine has a perfect example of this maxim: the Lunch With Leaders program.
Held every other Thursday through most months of the year, the livestream, conducted via the BlueJeans videoconference platform, brings leaders and staff together to be inspired by speakers, share their own tips for leading, and support one another for working and living in a world still shaped by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The idea, borne out of the unprecedented challenges of the pandemic in spring 2020, was to be “the antidote to the isolation” so many Health System managers and staff were experiencing, explains Cindy Morgan, vice president of Organizational Development and Learning. Between grappling with new-to-many virtual meeting technology, managing teams from home or in hybrid work situations, and worrying about the unknowns of a brand-new disease, she recalls, “We knew that if leaders could talk openly and vulnerably about what they were doing during this time, it could set the tone that everyone was going through similar types of feelings.”
With Young Un Cho, a senior consultant for Talent Management and Leadership Development, and Gretchen Kolb, director of Learning Innovation, Morgan brainstormed a talk show–type format for interviewing leaders, with a vibrant chat component to foster feedback and connection among viewers. The team also decided to record the sessions for people to watch whenever it is convenient, or even to listen to as a podcast.
The first episode, broadcast in May 2020, focused on leading virtual teams and garnered significant interest. But the second session, a dialogue about diversity and racism immediately following the murder of George Floyd, is when Lunch With Leaders really started drawing attention – and a fanbase; according to Morgan, 925 people tuned in, threatening to overwhelm the 1,000 licenses then available for Penn Medicine’s BlueJeans account.
Since then, Lunch With Leaders has produced 53 episodes, ranging from one-on-one interviews with leaders like UPHS CEO Kevin Mahoney, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania CEO Regina S. Cunningham, PhD, RN, AOCN, FAAN, and Abramson Cancer Center Director Robert H. Vonderheide, MD, DPhil, to panel discussions on topics as varied as patient experience, talent management, community health, emotional intelligence, and clinical research. The series, originally aimed exclusively at managers and leaders, was opened up to any employee who wants to participate in January 2022.
The perpetually insightful and upbeat Morgan acts as host – Cho jokes that she’s “our Oprah,” with a knack for making people feel comfortable opening up and sharing. Morgan and Cho, who serves as producer, provide plenty of engaging back-and-forth to keep viewers’ attention. Kolb works behind the scenes, managing the busy chat feature.
The show currently draws an average of nearly 600 live viewers, marking another of Lunch With Leaders’ strengths – its accessibility to people throughout Penn Medicine, no matter their role or location. The ability to log in to a discussion without taking extra time to drive to (and park at) a downtown Philadelphia venue means that more viewers are able to access this forum for connection. “I think sometimes, we lose sight of the fact that we are health system with people spread across hundreds of miles,” points out Kolb. “And so this gives an opportunity for everyone to participate, to have that sense of ‘systemness’ without feeling like something is too downtown-focused.”
The secret sauce of the sessions is the chance for leaders – both in front of the camera, and in the audience – to be vulnerable and human. One thoughtful moment occurred during Mahoney’s discussion, when he paused at the whirring of a helicopter outside the hospital. As Vondeheide put it in the live chat, “Inside every med helicopter is a patient in need and a worried family. The first thought of our CEO. #PennProud.”
In addition to showcasing the leaders’ authentic selves, the shows also impart plenty of wisdom about leading that managers and staff can emulate. Frequent Lunch With Leaders viewer Lester Lledo, DNP, RN, CRNP, director of the Clinical Trials Unit at the Center for Cellular Immunotherapies, said he has gleaned some important lessons from the series:
- “Vulnerability is a sign of courage, not cowardice – learning to take risks creates an avenue for achieving success.”
- “Authenticity is a good leadership quality – start and finish with good intentions.”
- “More success can be achieved in an organization from team work.”
- “Empower yourself with the knowledge and expertise available to you at Penn.”
Another selling point that keeps people coming back to Lunch With Leaders is the chance to connect with colleagues, both about the topic at hand, as well as on a personal and professional level. “It’s been amazing how people feel a sense of community, especially in the chat function,” reports Cho. “They feel like they’re able to share their emotions and really connect with people and they are networking behind the scenes. You know, afterwards, I heard you said that or I heard you’re doing this job. Can I get an informational interview?”
Though the live discussion is dynamic, people who can’t tune in live can still learn from Lunch With Leaders. All of the episodes are archived and accessible to the Penn Medicine community at Penn Medicine Academy’s LeadStrong SharePoint site, along with related slides and chat logs as well as team discussion guides. So far, the site has logged more than 17,000 hits, making it the second-most popular internal Penn Medicine website after the Nursing portal, according to Morgan.
While Lunch With Leaders attracts many casual viewers, it has also created a cohort of superfans who tune in every time and help propel the discussions. Each show begins with a “mailbag” sampling of feedback from the previous week’s episode, as well as the popular Word Cloud: Morgan asks viewers how they’re feeling, and their answers via text message are graphically turned into a “word cloud” showing the most popular responses in real time.
The viewer comments also include extended feedback from a “Fan of the Week.” For example, Blessy George, MSN, RN, CCDS, corporate clinical documentation integrity manager at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, remarked, “Lunch with Leaders is a great opportunity to meet with different leaders across the health system which would have been impossible otherwise.” She particularly enjoyed the Masterclass on Leading: “It was amazing to hear from Kevin Mahoney about the experiences that led him to be the leader that he is today. [A] few things that Kevin said stuck with me and I try to put that into practice each day is to be empathetic to others, to be a humble and resilient leader, to be curious and continue to learn, and lastly to never compromise with your personal integrity.”
Grace Lynam, an experience advisor at Lancaster General Health, also enjoys the Lunch With Leaders series. “Colleagues from all walks of life can come together and share experiences and learnings through storytelling,” she wrote. “Seeing a side of leaders that we may not see every day allows for human connection to organically occur – and that’s where the magic truly happens.”
The show may seem freewheeling and spontaneous, but a great deal of work goes into it, according to Morgan. In addition to Cho and Kolb, the production team also includes Talent Management Specialist Casey O’Neill and Director of Learning Solutions Jen Rader, with technical support from Raymond Rollins, associate director for classroom and space technology in Corporate Information Services. Ideas for shows can come from anywhere, and Morgan plumbs her extensive roster of Health System contacts to find insightful and engaging guests to discuss the ideas they receive.
Season 4 of Lunch with Leaders returned in September with an interview with Erika James, PhD, dean of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School; and a discussion about positioning Penn Medicine with Tanya Andreadis, Penn Medicine’s VP of Business Development and chief marketing officer, and Aaron Johnson, AVP of Patient and Consumer Engagement. On October 6, they’re talking to UPHS EVP and CFO Keith Kasper.
Despite the fact that Lunch With Leaders has been a 2.5-year labor of love in addition to its team’s regular duties, Morgan and her colleagues still feel a zeal for keeping it going, in large part due to the impact it has on audience members. “The fact that people write and say, ‘Hey, I’m struggling, I’m burned out, I’m exhausted. I have compassion fatigue, and your show inspires me to keep going, keep leading in a good way,’ how can we stop?” she says. “We’re just in this with our community right now. We want to help. And this is one way that that allows us to really be supportive of everyone doing amazing work for us and our patients.”