By Rob Cooney (@EMEducation)
Great at Work By: Dr. Morten Hansen
Jim Collins pioneered the use of large datasets and mixed methods to evaluate the reasons for longevity, success, and failure in corporations. In his last work, Great by Choice, he partnered with management professor Morten Hansen. In Great at Work, Dr. Hansen returns with a focus on individual performance. Using the same mixed methods, he boils down the essential ingredients for workplace productivity and excellence into seven key practices that can help anyone perform at their peak. For busy medical educators seeking to maximize their academic output and teaching effectiveness, Hansen’s framework provides an invaluable roadmap.
The cornerstone of his approach is prioritizing work based on its importance and time sensitivity, while systematically culling less critical tasks (Eisenhauer Matrix anyone?). As Hansen notes, top performers are disciplined in spending the majority of their time on high-value activities that advance progress toward key goals, rather than getting perpetually sidetracked by the urgent. For us as educators, that could mean protecting time for developing impactful research and curriculum innovation instead of getting overwhelmed by the whirlwind, like emails and meetings.
Equally vital is practicing strategic collaboration with the right partners to harness complementary skills. Medical academics aiming to elevate their research, Hansen suggests, should purposefully cultivate connections both within and across disciplines to generate fresh insights and combine different areas of expertise. He provides compelling examples of unconventional collaborations that produced original, high-impact work unlikely to emerge from solo efforts.
The principles of producing work with iterative feedback loops and providing coaching networks for teams and mentees also have direct application. By prototyping teaching interventions, gathering student feedback, and refining accordingly, educators can accelerate progress in mastering their craft. Additionally, if they choose to help to train emerging faculty through purposeful mentorship and exchanges of wisdom, they can compound their influence.
Since medical education happens largely through interpersonal interactions, Hansen’s emphasis on the soft skills of inspiring others and “positive ignition” to stimulate progress are tremendously relevant for the field. Whether aiming to motivate students or teaching teams, leadership capabilities prove critical. Memorable stories and framing ideas persuasively are hallmark skills of gifted educators that Hansen would certainly endorse based on many anecdotes of high performers using those techniques skillfully to advance shared goals.
Finally, Hansen advocates artificially injecting constraints into workflows, whether time restrictions, budgets, or limited resources. Within reason, constraints unleash creativity and new solutions. Hansen also advises the intermittent utilization of extreme productivity sprints to make time for focused, immersive tasks requiring intensity. That could mean blocking off sections of certain days to concentrated writing efforts aimed at increasing research output (he’s not alone in this idea).
Here’s the link in case it doesn’t come through: (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19133847/) In total, Hansen synthesizes concrete methods top workers actually use to deliver superb results. The principles he reveals parallel those exceptional medical educators harness in managing overloaded schedules yet still spearheading progress daily. For faculty seeking to advance their career while avoiding burnout, Hansen’s insights can provide guidance. His book delivers a thoughtful framework for organizing work environments, habits, and systems to accomplish more high-value goals in the pursuit of excellence.
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