Recently as part of our Best Practices Interview Series, we had the privilege of interviewing Jan Finn, the CEO of Midwest Transplant Network, an organ procurement organization (OPO) based in Kansas City, KS. Jan and her team have been a great inspiration to us at RPG by not just being willing to hear feedback from their donation and transplantation partners, but also in utilizing those data to transform their interactions and style of communication to ensure that they provide the best possible experience. We were delighted to include Jan in this series!
Here are a few key takeaways from this interview:
Jan’s career in donation began with becoming an organ donation expert. Jan was invited to join Midwest Transplant Network (MTN) because she developed a passion for the donation process while she was working in a hospital. “I worked in the intensive care unit and I loved taking care of critically ill patients,” she says. “So if there was an organ donor, I’d be the one who’d volunteer to take care of that patient.”
Her experience allowed her to jump on an opportunity to join MTN in 1990. “They recruited me to open the first satellite office in Southwest Missouri,” she says. “It was a real jump because I loved what I was doing, and I loved being in the critical care environment.” But while she loved the hospital and her role there, MTN persuaded her to join, and it’s been a great fit ever since.
The team at Midwest Transplant Network is focused on maximizing donation and pays close attention to the metrics that are tied to that goal. Jan named MTN’s DCD authorization rate and first person authorization rate as two things she’s particularly proud of, though she also feels her OPO’s Family Services team is among the best in the industry, particularly in maximizing opportunities with DCD cases.
“We work closely to improve those all the time and we look at opportunities to make sure we are pushing first person, whether it’s an organ donor or a tissue donor,” she says. “Our quality team is really involved with us, and they’ve spurred us to learn more and look at how we can be innovative.”
Midwest Transplant Network’s focus on listening is part of its secret to building strong relationships with its partners. Over the last few years, MTN has fundamentally transformed the way it talks to its partners in hospitals using re-scripted language. But Jan explains this is part of the broader philosophy of how the organization operates.
“One of the things we hold dear is that we are relentlessly pleasant,” she says, adding that this is a value that comes straight from her own upbringing. “But also, we are ones that work on key relationships all the time. It doesn’t matter who the partner is – we want to make sure our relationship is really good. So, listening is really important to understand where they’re coming from and how we can work best with them.”
“We’re all in the life-saving business – we’re all working towards saving more lives, so how do we do that collectively, and what’s our role in being open to new ideas or making sure that we’re doing the right thing?”
The challenge of COVID-19 has taught Jan and her team how to find new ways to connect to others using virtual technology. While remote work was something Jan hadn’t envisioned as being the future of the organization, it’s something she’s more open to now.
“This communication that we do now,” she says,” you don’t have to show up at a hospital that’s five hours away from you to have an interaction and a meaningful interaction, a lot more video connections. It’s allowed me this year to connect with all of my board one on one much easier, because in the past, I would meet with them we’d have a lunch to really talk about their satisfaction levels. And now I can do it over Zoom.”
“I think it’s making the rules easier for our staff to participate and also for our board members, and then also we can put messages out to the community that we really never realized we could do so easily before.”
Jan’s key advice to future leaders is to, “do your best at your role now and think about how you can be a better contributor.” Jan advises against simply striving to be noticed – after all, she says, she never imagined her own trajectory would land her in the chief leadership role at MTN! Instead, she says, focus on making the best contributions you can no matter what your role is and seek to find ways to improve with every opportunity you’re afforded.
“Be involved and be aware of what’s going on,” she says. “Understand what the big picture is, and build strong relationships.” But during that time, she says, listen carefully to what’s needed and be ready for chances to shine.
“Do the very best at the job you have!”
We would like to than Jan Finn for participating in our interview series and for being willing to share her wisdom and insight with us. If you’d like to learn more about her organization, please visit https://www.mwtn.org.
Also, don’t miss our other interviews from this series (which we’ll be posting weekly until the end of this year) and feel free to review our other Best Practices videos!