INDUSTRY INFORMATION


Managing supply chain unity through crisis amid fl exible


working environment Here’s how to blend in-house, hybrid, work-


from-home options successfully by Kate Polczynski


G


eisinger Health is an integrated delivery network in northeastern Pennsylvania. I began my career


there almost two decades ago and have been fortunate to be surrounded by amaz- ing colleagues, coaches, and mentors along the way.


When I joined the Supply Chain depart- ment in the early 2000s, everyone knew everyone. If I didn’t know how to do a task, I stuck my head over the cubicle wall and asked for help. You learned by listening to others and jumped in to help if you overheard the challenges of the day. You knew who to contact to help move things forward—who will bring what dish during the celebration potlucks—and how to manage people’s personalities and work styles. DISC (Dominance, Infl uence, Steadiness, Conscientiousness – an acronym for personality profi ling to help improve com- munication, productivity, and teamwork) assessments were posted on the cubicle wall so as you engaged with a colleague, you knew what to expect. We spent more time together with our work family than we did at home—with people from the community you lived in.


It wasn’t often that I left the corporate


offi ce prior to my management roles. On an exciting day, you could walk down the hall to talk with Accounts Payable about an invoice mismatch. Or better yet, you receive a call from the mystery voice in Receiving about an overshipment. Visiting customers in the hospital or attending a meeting “on campus” felt like a big day out, and donating $1 to support the Children’s Miracle Network allowed you to dress down on Fridays, which felt like a treat from the traditional business attire. Most of my career has been spent in the Strategic Sourcing and Procurement pillars of Supply Chain. As I ventured to a manager, and then up, my focus and


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strategy were centric to my area. I focused on savings targets, contract compliance and RFPs. My team had distinct KPIs and performance measurements which were reported independent of others. No one worked remotely outside of managing email while traveling. Somehow across the many teams within Supply Chain we got it all done, and during challenges, you could walk down the hall to the corner offices and together we would fi gure things out.


Screeching halt to normalcy And then 2020 happened. We received notice that we had to move everyone home within 48 hours for “two weeks.” The team banded together and did IT assess- ments, checked connection speeds, worked through questions about phones, desks, and chairs, but we did it. Every morning we would check in—How are you doing? What’s new your way? “Stay safe” was the tagline at the end of every meeting. Two weeks became a month … then two … then more …. and the team began to adapt to their new working environ- ment. As each day passed, making this hybrid work, a REAL thing started to fi ll people’s minds.


During the pandemic, our team’s depen- dence upon each other was felt more than ever before. Everyone chipped in to help, regardless of title, role, or responsibility. Our mindset was: do what was necessary, and do what needed to be done for the patient and the community. Every critical order was treated with the utmost care. Receiving knew “full tracking” and “time of arrival” for each package containing PPE. We crossed each other’s lanes A LOT in a way we never had before. To stay con- nected we established daily huddles—both within our teams, but also within leader- ship. There was increased communication


across all areas—the teams felt as though they were fighting the same fight, and doing whatever was needed to solve the problem of the day.


Just getting it done


As professionals in this sector, we know healthcare thrives on protocols and Supply Chain thrives on predictability. During the pandemic, we left behind any feeling of this. This experience we were having wasn’t an unthought-of thing. In 2015, Gen. Stanley McChrystal stated in Stanley McChrystal, Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World, “Today’s rapidly changing world, marked by increased speed … means that organiza- tions everywhere are now facing dizzying challenges, […]. These issues can be solved only by creating sustained organizational adaptability through the establishment of a team of teams.”


This concept never felt truer than dur-


ing those initial response months and it remains true today.


The physical distance between team members has only increased as the pan- demic served as a catalyst in transforming where and how we work. Many organiza- tions have successfully transitioned staff


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