Grit, Gratitude, and Grace

 

Dr. Adrienne Boissy on how she pivoted and persisted to find her place in healthcare and in the world, and on how she sees empathy, grace, intention, and reflection as key prescriptions for living in today's world.

 

Episode Notes

From practicing, teaching and leading at The Cleveland Clinic to her new tenure as the Chief Medical Officer at Qualtrics, Dr. Adrienne Boissy has been one of the healthcare industry’s greatest champions for imbuing empathy into the patient experience.

In her talk with guest host Susan Haufe, she describes her journey as a builder: from navigating a childhood that often felt unsteady and unsafe, to becoming a neurologist, to finding her ultimate calling as an experience-minded executive working to transform healthcare. Throughout the episode she shares profound ideas about how to give yourself grace and overcome obstacles. And she leaves us with a look at the future of the healthcare industry, offering poignant ideas about how we can leverage technology to make the patient experience more humane and compassionate.

(05:07) Adrienne at 12: Who’s the person we would’ve met?

(08:28) Her healthcare journey, from researcher to chief experience officer

(14:53) How to take a ‘Failure Bow’ and move on

(19:01) Why everyone should think more about how they spend their time

(23:13) On the importance of gratitude

(32:14) Using technology to facilitate human connection and empathy in healthcare

(34:33) Post-interview conversation with Jesse and guest host Susan Haufe

Guest Bio

Dr. Adrienne Boissy

Adrienne Boissy, MD, MA, is the Chief Medical Officer at Qualtrics, where she shapes the strategic direction of patient and employee experience in the healthcare industry, including technology design, research, consulting and innovation in experience management. She is the former Chief Experience Officer of the Cleveland Clinic Health System and a current staff neurologist at the Cleveland Clinic Mellen Center for Multiple Sclerosis. A compelling speaker and thought leader, Dr. Boissy has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, NPR, The Washington Post, Forbes, and The Atlantic, among others.

Susan Haufe (Guest Host)

With 20 years of experience combining the tools, discipline, expertise, and passion to design and drive a customer-centric culture, Susan Haufe is known for organizational transformation built on brand promise, purpose, and values. She currently serves as the Chief Industry Advisor for Healthcare at Qualtrics. Prior to joining Qualtrics, Susan served as the inaugural Chief Experience Officer for Yale New Haven Health, developing the vision and roadmap to support the execution of critical initiatives, including centralizing patient experience functions across the health system.

Helpful Links

+ Episode Transcript

[00:00:00] Adrienne Boissy: Heartbreak, we've all navigated that to some extent. I never knew my dad growing up. He died when I was three. And again, years later, I tried to navigate that by giving gratitude. There was a woman at NIH who had hired him. He was a statistician, and he had interviewed no less than 40 times for 40 different jobs. He was transparent about his preexisting illness, and nobody hired him and she hired him and I found her name and I wrote her a letter. And again, showing up on the random doorstep, "Hi, I'm Adrienne, my dad was Allen, and you gave him a chance when no one else would. And now, as a physician in healthcare, I want you to know that it meant something to me and my family and I'll never forget."

[00:01:06] Jesse Purewal: From Qualtrics Studios, this is Breakthrough Builders, a series of conversations with people whose passions, perspectives, instincts, and ideas fuel some of the world's most amazing products, brands, and experiences. Hey, it's Jesse. On this at episode of Breakthrough Builders, your guest host is my colleague and friend, Susan Haufe, Qualtrics' chief industry advisor for healthcare. The guest on today's show is Dr. Adrienne Boissy. Dr. Boissy is the former chief experience officer at the Cleveland Clinic, a practicing neurologist, and the new chief medical officer at Qualtrics, where she's leading up the effort to deliver exceptional patient and employee experiences in healthcare. Dr. Boissy is, and has been, one of the healthcare industry's greatest champions for imbuing empathy into the patient experience. Her thought leadership has been featured in the likes of The Atlantic and The Washington Post. She's got profound ideas on giving yourself grace and overcoming obstacles. And as you'll hear in her conversation with Susan, her journey as a builder is one that's filled with grit and gratitude, from navigating a childhood that often felt uncertain and unsafe to finding her way to her career as a physician and an experienced-minded executive. Without further ado, here's today's guest host, Susan Haufe with Breakthrough Builder, Dr. Adrienne Boissy.

[00:02:27] Susan Haufe: I am so honored to be the guest host today on Breakthrough Builders and welcome my dear friend and colleague, Dr. Adrienne Boissy. Adrienne, welcome.

[00:02:37] Adrienne Boissy: Thanks. Happy to be here.

[00:02:39] Susan Haufe: Adrienne, I'm thrilled that you have recently joined our team as Qualtrics first ever chief medical officer. Can you tell us a little bit about that transition for you?

[00:02:49] Adrienne Boissy: Sure. Transitions are hard. That's an understatement of the century. I remain a practicing neurologist. Taking care of patients is really important to my joy that I continue to stay anchored in people that I want to serve. I've been working very hard within healthcare to try to shape and transform. I think the future looks different than it does today. I think Qualtrics is a place where we have the greatest opportunity and the greatest talent to really move in that direction and change the landscape. So that is really exciting to me. Lots of jobs are exciting to people, and so it's important to call out that I think what cinched the deal for me was people, not to mention the least of which is you. You were so intentional in showing up for me as I was navigating this really difficult decision, and that has been consistent across to different depths. Every human that I've met at Qualtrics, big, big brands, huge, huge hearts, people texting, Slacking in your world offline about how important this work is to them, either because it touches them personally or they are a nurse or this work matters to people and we have the opportunity to make a huge difference. I want to be a part of that, and that's why I'm here.

[00:04:10] Susan Haufe: We are so, so glad you're here. And I think people and purpose create a good reason to get up every day. Can you tell us how do you frame who you are and what your place is in this world?

[00:04:25] Adrienne Boissy: I'll give it my best shot now. I am a normal person or trying to be normal person. I'm a mom and a wife. I'm a washed up ballerina and bartender, practicing neurologist taking care of patients with multiple sclerosis, occasional ethicist, master's trained, and empathy amplifier. Most days just trying to get my socks to match and occasionally comb my hair.

[00:04:54] Susan Haufe: I love that. Every time I get to hear you introduce yourself, I learn something new and love that. All right, so if I met you at as a 12-year-old, who's the person that I would've met?

[00:05:07] Adrienne Boissy: Well, my grade school was right across the street from my house, so it depends whether I went to school or not. On some days, I would actually play hooky and sit on my window sill and watch all the kids go to school and then come home from school. If I did go to school, I would stay after class. It's an interesting blend to my personality. I would stay after class, wash the chalkboards for my teachers. Then, I would walk home. I would get myself a Twinkie or two and I would finish all my homework. So I would sit at the dining room table, finish all my homework, and then, occasionally, I would go and watch some soap operas. Sometimes my parents were home, sometimes not. And then I would run myself down to the ballet studio... At that time, I was dancing probably two or three hours a day... and then walk myself home and call it a day. I would also offer that you would meet a girl who was calling the police to her house on a regular basis, fearing for my mom and my family. So that was the girl you would've met.

[00:06:13] Susan Haufe: Complex, for sure, and I can see you washing chalkboards and taking care of the people in your world.

[00:06:21] Adrienne Boissy: I can't say I was a good chalkboard washer, but I would say what was important at the time as even now as I sit here and reflect on it was some of those teachers saved me. They were a safe space that I could be. They modeled what it was to care for other human beings, and I think created safety and love in a place that I didn't have.

[00:06:45] Susan Haufe: Have you stayed in touch with any of them? Do they know this impact?

[00:06:49] Adrienne Boissy: Yeah, it's so funny you say that. I think that's a thread, actually, in my story is going back and giving gratitude. I don't live in the town I grew up in. I grew up in Frederick, Maryland. My brother still lives there. So one time when I went back, I actually tracked down my fourth grade teacher and knocked on her door, and she was probably like, "Who are you?" And she came to the door and I said, "Look, you were my teacher decades ago. And I just want to let you know that you had an impact on me that has really shaped the rest of my life and I'm so grateful." And I mean, we're all standing there in the doorway crying and hugging and off I went.

[00:07:31] Susan Haufe: I'm not crying, you are. If I picked a teacher, I would also go to my fourth grade teacher. That's a great connection. How did you discover and explore your passion for what you do?

[00:07:42] Adrienne Boissy: When I was in college, I wasn't sure what I wanted to do. I held three jobs through college. I was managing a sporting good store, teaching ballet, and bartending at night. And that meant I assembled all my classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and the rest of the time was working. And in each of those jobs, it took advantage of a certain part of my personality. And I quickly realized that management is very difficult. It wasn't quite as difficult as teaching preschoolers ballet, and bartending, the idea that you could talk to all walks of life in any environment, watching human behavior in a setting like a bar was just fascinating.

[00:08:25] Susan Haufe: Front row seat-

[00:08:26] Adrienne Boissy: Yeah. And then-

[00:08:27] Susan Haufe: ...to humanity.

[00:08:28] Adrienne Boissy: But I didn't know what I wanted to do. And I was so busy putting myself through college that I hadn't spent much time thinking about what I wanted to do until I realized I actually had to declare a major. And so I declared biology, and I started doing neuro biological research later at Brigham and Women's and then at Boston University, because I figured that's what you do with biology. You teach, you do research, or you go back to school. And I thought, "Oh, I've never done research. I'll give it a try." And so I was doing knockout mice projects and sequencing genomes and realized, after three years, I never wanted to do that again, even though it was incredibly hard work.

And then, during residency, I found myself being the person who always stayed after. I wanted to talk to families and try to understand what they had heard or how they felt, listening to my colleagues about what was going on in their lives. I was much more interested in that than I was some of the neurology. And so I followed that. I got a master's in bioethics during my fellowship, because I felt like I didn't squarely fit in becoming a research scientist, which was the standard path. And then after that, I realized that was very cerebral, and I wanted something more to do in operational. And right at that time, the clinic had appointed the first chief experience officer in the country and so I just made an appointment and said, "I don't know who you are. You don't know who I am, and I know I'm supposed to be doing this work. This is my passion." And they said, "Who are you?" No. They said, "That's wonderful. Happy to figure it out with you." And so got really warmly welcomed into that work.

So I think I kept trying and pivoting and trying and pivoting but willing to try new things to see how it felt and fit and also, following places that felt really sticky and good to me. And persistence, right? When I later applied to become the chief experience officer, at first, I was just planning on letting the process unfold. And then I got great advice from someone who said, "If you really want this, you need to write a letter about why you're the right person to do it." And I thought, "Well, that's not part of the process." And so I wrote a letter because I just thought, "You know what, I'm going to put a strong foot forward, and I know I'm supposed to be doing this work, and I think it made a difference." But trying pivoting, persisting feel like common threads in how I found my place.

[00:11:00] Susan Haufe: I love that. And I can appreciate that moment where you just said, "I should be doing this work," even though we didn't really know what this experience work was at the time.

[00:11:08] Adrienne Boissy: Yeah. It just felt it had... It was a feeling. It was amorphous and fuzzy and no one really knew what it was. It wasn't even defined at that time, but it tugged at me.

[00:11:19] Susan Haufe: Well, you certainly have been incredibly influential as a partner in this work as the industry has defined that. And we continue to define it, so grateful to be doing that work with you. What kinds of people and events and experiences influenced you when you were young?

[00:11:37] Adrienne Boissy: In my formative years, the ground felt very shaky. To me, it was constantly shifting. It would be different every day when I came home. One day I came home, and my stepfather at the time had moved out all the furniture and thrown all of our things into quarters and left notes for each of us. That was a different type of Thursday than the next day, and everything felt unsafe and uncertain. I think that taught me a couple different things. One was around the concept of suffering, that we will all suffer in this life. My suffering is no more special or different or heavier than anyone else's, especially as we look around the world in these times. And it was mine. It was my experience with it. And for me, the living through some of that created a desire to want to ease it in others. That's woven into the fabric of who I am.

And the other concept there is around growth, that you could be changed. And for much of my life I was, and for many, many times, I probably still have to actively combat what it took to survive those times is different than growing into who you're meant to be. And leaning into different growth and different coping has been an important part. I would say something that was born out of that... We talked about it a little bit with teachers, but even other families. It was really important for me to explore and seek out. I mean, I was probably more at my friends' houses than I was at my own just because it felt different and better to see what a model of love could look like. And I mean, another big piece of that was my mom as a person who really shaped who I was. She was 22, married someone who she knew was going to die of cancer, had no money, quit her job, moved to a different state, trying to raise two kids, and living out a cardboard box furniture, just a deep appreciation for parents who never stop in service of their family and their children.

And that's not always just a parent. Sometimes it's a teacher. Sometimes it's a friend's parent. We never know the impact that we can have. So I think that left on me this idea that every day you have the opportunity to influence, to touch, to lift, to give gratitude, to create joy in the smallest of ways. And because you have no idea the suffering that someone else is living through. It matters. Every single thing matters. So I try to show up like that in the world. Some days I nail it. Some days I don't, and I embrace the joy of the imbalance and messy and crazy and give myself grace when I can't be that perfectly. And I am perfectly imperfect.

[00:14:41] Susan Haufe: You taught me something about an apology bow when you don't get it right. Tell us about-

[00:14:45] Adrienne Boissy: Failure bow, yes.

[00:14:47] Susan Haufe: Failure bow, that when you don't get it right, let's be graceful in that acceptance of that and moving on.

[00:14:53] Adrienne Boissy: Yeah. Well, I mean, just even so often in our workplaces and in our home, we're hard on ourselves, as we have high expectations of ourselves in work and in life. And ironically, we're not different people in work than we are in life, I don't think. We don't value something different. Especially over the pandemic, giving yourself grace really emerged as a key concept for so many of us. So the failure bow I learned when we were training communication skills to clinicians who failure's also very difficult for. And the concept is simply to normalize it, this idea that you simply state your failure, you stand up, you take a beautiful bow with arms and curtsy and the whole nine yards, and your colleagues are preempted and asked to give a round of applause when you straighten yourself back up, with the idea that we can simply acknowledge it, validate it, move on, and maybe even be proud that you were trying hard enough that you failed. That's an aspiration, I think, in many of our workplaces.

[00:16:02] Susan Haufe: 100%. What would surprise people to know about what it takes to do what you do?

[00:16:10] Adrienne Boissy: Well, number one, I'm a massive introvert, which I know there's lots of conversation about introversion and what it means. It will take me three days to recover from this conversation.

[00:16:24] Susan Haufe: I'm so grateful.

[00:16:25] Adrienne Boissy: Just kidding. And how that shows up for me, I get a lot of... I'm very blessed. I get a lot of nice feedback that people think I'm pulled together and my socks do match and I give great talks or presentations. And I'm very touched by that. What would surprise people, however, is the amount of energy and anxiety and hiding I have to do after that to not only mount the energy to do it, but then also recover. I find it exposing. It makes me feel very vulnerable, which as we all know, we love as humans. And so I crave the quiet after things like that.

The other thing that might surprise people is I require empty brain space. I need it in my schedule. I am the most creative and clever when I can float in an ocean or walk in the woods. My best ideas are not scheduled. And when my idle mind has time to dream, that's really important. I carve that space out in my schedule or life so that I can continue to push hard for all of us to what experience can be, what can we dream it to be, what's possible, and push the limits around that.

[00:17:50] Susan Haufe: I don't think we as a society, as a workplace, as humans do that well, and the awareness that intentionally carving space to hold that creative space is a lesson that is helpful for the world we live in today.

[00:18:05] Adrienne Boissy: Yeah. My son is very similar. I heard it called forest bathing, this idea that you just immerse yourself in the experience of not having your fond or taking a picture or anything, just sitting on a branch while you become more aware of the sounds and the feelings and the sensations around you. I love that term, and I prescribe a dose of it for all of us. I heard they're prescribing, was it park visits, for patients in Canada? I mean, this is a beautiful concept, so they get it.

[00:18:40] Susan Haufe: And probably more effective than many things that are prescribed. Forest bathing, we're going to do a dose of that. What is the balance of serendipity and intention that brought you to your career?

[00:18:53] Adrienne Boissy: Well, you're bringing up the concept of balance, which I object to.

[00:18:59] Susan Haufe: Fair. Okay.

[00:19:02] Adrienne Boissy: I have no balance. There's never been a balance. It's always been messy. I think sometimes the idea that there's supposed to be some beautiful balance hurts us all, sets an expectation that we're never going to be able to achieve. So I would say accepting the joy of imbalance, that I have, as you know, recently tried to spend some time articulating a joy pie, as I call it, because as I was transitioning jobs, I kept thinking of like, "What job title do I want next? Am I a chief strategy officer or chief... Am I a chief customer?" I kept thinking about the title. And then I had this a-ha moment with myself where I thought it "This has nothing to do with the title. This is a moment for you to define who you are as you approach the next decade?" I won't say what decade, but in thinking about "How do you want to spend this precious time that you have, and how do you want to show up," because where we give our time is a measure of what we value, I think.

So I had never done that exercise, so I just sat down, scribbled on a piece of paper a circle and divided it up in quadrants and filled it up with what I thought drove joy. And that doesn't mean necessarily selfish joy like I like to eat chocolate chip cookie dough, and therefore, that's going to be a big piece of my pie, but what's important to me and what do I want to dedicate to it in terms of time? And a big chunk of that was family, showing up for my family differently, being present in moments, making memories, not being on my phone constantly. Another section was around work that has passion and purpose that's anchored in meaning and things I believe in: inclusivity, co-creation, design, and other pieces, even being a better friend. I found when I'm over scheduled and over committed, I'm missing birthdays and not showing up to events that are not as a shadow of who I want to be. I want to be the friend that remembers it's your birthday. I write you a card. I want to be there for an important moment. I would say that exercise helped visually and conceptually clarify with intention, as to your question, what's important to me, so that I'm clear on how I want to dedicate my attention units.

[00:21:24] Susan Haufe: I appreciate your hate of the word balance. I have struggled and say, "It's a balance every moment, and there's choices that are made, and it's never going to ever feel like it's thoughtfully balanced, but if you know your joy pie and you continue to go back to that joy pie and make sure that, over time, you're where you value and you're spending time in those spaces, that's probably a win."

[00:21:48] Adrienne Boissy: Yeah. I think I have this vision in my head of Jim Carrey in one of those movies where the sky parts and he's like, "Ahh." All the birds and pets land on him, I think, and-

[00:21:58] Susan Haufe: They do.

[00:21:59] Adrienne Boissy: ...none of us achieve... I haven't achieved that, where everything's a perfect balance and the sky is parted and it's beautiful and the music is playing. It's much sloppier than that, and that's totally okay.

[00:22:11] Susan Haufe: Of course, it is, and it's probably messy for Jim Carrey too. What are you most proud of and why?

[00:22:18] Adrienne Boissy: Well, my two boys, number one, 12 and 9. I'm in awe, really, of how they have shaped me and how children have the ability to shape us, in general, humble us. I'm proud most that they understand their job is to discover who it is that they want to be, not listening to what their mom thinks they should be, or anyone else thinks they should be, but being true to who they are and what they believe and recognizing that my job is to support them simply in that journey. I'm proud that they're able to walk that path without being thrown from it, despite a lot of other inputs and slightly proud of myself that I can back off, be selfless. It's not easy.

[00:23:03] Susan Haufe: It is not easy. What are some setbacks that you are proud of as well as you've been able to navigate through the rocky waters that we all go through?

[00:23:13] Adrienne Boissy: Well, I'm very blessed. Please know, I try to give gratitude every day, and I believe that at my core. I'm very blessed. Setbacks, we talked about one, coming from an abusive home, in my formative years, I mostly avoided that, ran from it, immersed myself in ballets, sought shelter other places. I think coming through that and recognizing you can grow... I used writing quite a bit to talk about that experience. I shared that in my medical school applications and have shared in other places that I know nobody read it because nobody asked me about it. And it was hard to write that and share it, and the one place that did was the one place I went because it mattered that they cared about vulnerability in my story.

The second one is heartbreak. We all navigated that to some extent. I never knew my dad growing up. He died when I was three. And again, years later, I tried to navigate that by giving gratitude. There was a woman at NIH who had hired him. He was a statistician, and he had interviewed no less than 40 times for 40 different jobs. He was transparent about his preexisting illness, and nobody hired him. And she hired him, and I found her name and I wrote her a letter. And again, showing up on the random doorstep, "Hi, I'm Adrienne, my dad was Allen, and you gave him a chance when no one else would. And now, as a physician in healthcare, I want you to know that it meant something to me and my family and I'll never forget." And she wrote me back probably the most beautiful letter I've ever read, and she sent this report that he had typed about some statistics project.

And her message, essentially, was "No, no, no, it's not me. It was him." He was this super cool human. And I remember thinking like, "Gosh, how lucky she is that she got to know him? I didn't even know him." And so we struck up a bit of a communication back and forth that only enriched my experience and, in fact, deepened my knowledge of this huge person in my life that wasn't actually in my life.

The last setback is a tough word, but the last thing I think we all navigate constantly is bias. For those of you who can't see me, I'm a blonde female in leadership. I've worked as a bartender for a long, long time. People make assumptions that you're dumb, and that I was willing to tolerate as a bartender and less able to tolerate as an executive in board rooms and in leadership. And I want to just be fair that much of that is unconscious. The human brain will make assumptions whether you want it to or not. And our job is to have increased awareness and curiosity about it. And for us sometimes on the receiving end, sometimes on the doing end, and sometimes on the end that has an opportunity to speak up for others, we need to use our voices respectfully in defense of ourselves or simply to call something out, as well as to make sure we're doing the same for our colleagues and those around us who aren't as effective or empowered to use their own voices. So those are some things I think we navigate in the world. Again, not unique to me. We'll navigate it all together.

[00:27:01] Susan Haufe: Thank you for sharing. I think pausing to think about the things that shape us makes us stronger, and I appreciate your willingness to share with me and everyone today. What are some words or phrases that those who are closest to you would use to describe you?

[00:27:22] Adrienne Boissy: What words would you use to describe me? Well, I think I'm going to put it in two categories and you can add your own color. What they would say and what I would actually want them to say. It's like a Johari window done on podcast. I think they would say I'm thoughtful, hardheaded, slightly neurotic... I added slightly... silly at times, and something I hear more and more about, which I totally don't understand, is they say I'm in my own head a lot. I think all these things, but don't always articulate them. What I would want them to say is that I'm loving, and I model the skills that we constantly espouse, like empathy and effective communication. What would you add?

[00:28:15] Susan Haufe: I would say yes to all of those things. You have used the word weird, and you have inspired others to be weird, and I honor and I see that word now and you come to mind because it's something we should all aspire to be.

[00:28:30] Adrienne Boissy: Yes. Well, let's talk about that just for a second, because it could easily be misinterpreted, and I want to be thoughtful. We all have our things iniquities, special gifts, idiosyncrasies, whatever. My husband likes to rearrange the spoons in the dishwasher. It's a thing, and we shouldn't add value to it as good or bad. It just is. And it's part of what makes us us. And that's in part what I mean, just embrace your crazy, embrace your different, embrace your awkwardness, the discomfort, and be at peace to the extent that you can and give yourself grace around who that is. And recognize these can be superpowers. Reading the emotion of a room is not a detractor. In fact, there's multiple articles written about how empathy and emotional intelligence are required in leadership. And we still continue to shy away from the word empathy, leadership skills. And yet, empathy is part of what I think makes me slightly weird and off center and also serves me very well in certain situations.

[00:29:42] Susan Haufe: That reframing is important, and I think giving people permission to think about what makes them unique and what are their superpowers reframing that is powerful.

[00:29:53] Adrienne Boissy: And don't be apologetic about it. I used to constantly put my head down and try to hide it, or it is a bit expected that the woman will bring the... And how can we spread that? How can we influence our environment, so it's not just us modeling those skills or that we can model it in such a way that someone else can then do it the next time with the next person that they encounter? We apologize way too often for who we are.

[00:30:20] Susan Haufe: All right. We've touched on this, I think, but I would love to hear you sum it up. What's Adrienne's secret sauce? What's that unique blend of stuff that allows you to do you?

[00:30:30] Adrienne Boissy: The easiest way to describe that is left and right brain, head and heart, polished and messy, data and emotion, fear and courage love and love. I am no singular mix of any. I think we're a potpourri of our weirdness and our experiences, recognizing how those have shaped you, being cognizant of where they help to serve you beautifully in certain situations and environments and where they might be holding you back and staying curious about who I am. "Wow, that really didn't feel good." Why? What is that poking for me? How can I show up differently? So curiosity is a big part of that too. I'm a work of art, constantly evolving, and I can't wait to see it when it's all done.

[00:31:18] Susan Haufe: Constantly evolving. Thank goodness, right?

[00:31:21] Adrienne Boissy: Yeah.

[00:31:21] Susan Haufe: What advice do you have for perspective builders, people thinking about their craft, their space, their mark they want to make on the world? What advice do you have for them?

[00:31:31] Adrienne Boissy: You have to know who you are. You have to be unapologetic about it. So know your joy pie, scribble it down right now. Just do the exercise to see what shows up for you so that you can make sure you're aligning your time, energy, attention units with what you say you value. Number two is embrace that weird. Lean into it. Use it. In a world today where so many are suffering in ways you know or don't know, certainly in healthcare, we're seeing a lot of suffering and it requires brains like yours coming to the table, thinking creatively.

[00:32:07] Susan Haufe: How do you think technology can be used to facilitate human connection and empathy in healthcare?

[00:32:14] Adrienne Boissy: Well, I think there's so much conversation, as we think about technology, from the healthcare lens about how to improve health outcomes and manage safety and chronic disease and get people to take their medicines. And all of that is well-intended and coming from a good place. That said, you and I both know that we are the visitors in people's lives as healthcare. They are trying to navigate all this mess that is their kids' soccer games or school or disability or different ability bias, things that go on in their life, caring for parents. And this whole life is going on that we know so little about when they touch the healthcare system. And the emotional journey of people is the unknown that should be known. We know emotions impact people's decision-making. We know emotions impact how they'll prioritize what they're willing to do or able to do. And I think there's this enormous opportunity to demonstrate deeper listening, deeper insights, and understanding as to what people value and the ability to act on what we see and hear. That is the very definition of compassion. And we have the opportunity through technology to make those touches feel warm, extensions of relationships humane, and deeply informed by the emotional journey that people are on. That will make people stick with us, engage more, and earn trust over time. That's game-changing in this industry today.

[00:33:56] Susan Haufe: I will just say, thank you. We value the opportunity to get to know you. And I know others are going to be thrilled to listen and think about how they're going to change the world, So thanks for spending time with me today.

[00:34:09] Adrienne Boissy: Yeah. That's my absolute privilege and honor to work beside you, so thank you.

[00:34:13] Susan Haufe: And we're stopping there. There's nothing else needed.

[00:34:17] Adrienne Boissy: It's good, because my headphones just wants to fall out of my head.

[00:34:19] Susan Haufe: Done, come fall out. All right. You rock.

[00:34:23] Adrienne Boissy: No, you rock.

[00:34:33] Jesse Purewal: Susan, it was so great to have you in the host chair again on Breakthrough Builders. Loved your conversation with Dr. Boissy. What was your biggest takeaway from it?

[00:34:41] Susan Haufe: Yeah. Thanks for the opportunity, Jesse. It is an honor to share this duty with you and an honor to be on Breakthrough Builders. Adrienne is a dear friend of mine I've known for a long time, and I think every time I talk to her, her authentic presence and the ability to connect as a human is her superpower. And I think we don't talk about out that enough in business, and I think it's really key and a motivator to keep focusing on the humans and the work that we're doing because that's where really amazing things can happen.

[00:35:11] Jesse Purewal: Yeah. I love it. To have somebody with the Nth degree of bedside manner as a physician, as a human being is just so great. She talked a lot about her path into patient experience, and as all of us know, in our lives as people and as patients, the system hasn't always put patient experience first. And Adrienne's part of a long-term movement to change that.

[00:35:33] Susan Haufe: I've been on that same journey alongside her. 20 years ago, we weren't talking about patient experience. Maybe there was a complaint department that hospitals had. And there was this really big transition when the government said, "Hey, we care about what your patients think. We're going to start to mandate that you listen and that we're going to put some stick behind it. We're going to impact reimbursement." And that really started a transformation in this space, where healthcare had to wrestle with this commitment to patient first and really, a lot of organizations, a lot of leaders like Adrienne led the charge with asking, "Are we really patient first?" And if we were honest with ourselves at the beginning of this movement, we weren't as an industry. And I think there's a lot of amazing people who have been warriors in this patient experience space the last 20 years that have really fought to be authentic and committed in that promise of patients first. And the roles have shifted and changed, and each organization is at a different point of the journey. And organizations who are really committed have people like Adrienne sitting in seats at the table with key executives, letting and driving experience to be a key focus of organizations, a key strategy, a differentiator. And I think we have a long way to go, but we're committed in that work.

[00:36:47] Jesse Purewal: Well, we clearly believe, at Qualtrics, that experience comes first. And it's an interesting move for us to have brought Adrienne on board as chief medical officer. Why did we do that, and what does it say about the opportunity for closing experience gaps and driving experience innovation in healthcare in particular?

[00:37:06] Susan Haufe: At Qualtrics, we are intentionally focused on human connections and how human connections help all industries keep and find customers. And healthcare is an industry that we obviously see and can value that human connections are at the core of that. So bringing Adrienne to join our team as the first ever chief medical officer was really a commitment in that, that we wanted to create a space where empathy was driving our strategy in healthcare. And we wanted to really elevate to experience in this way. She will have a commitment that helps us do that. Part of her role will be continuing to build our brand in this space as a partner that helps organizations in the healthcare industry think about experience as a key driver. She will help us engage with customers to build trust that we're at the table to really be their partner. She will help serve our customers. I think employee health today, after the last two years that we've had as a world, is key. She'll help play a role in serving our employees. And I think it demonstrates Qualtrics's commitment to really be dedicated to the human experience at its core.

[00:38:17] Jesse Purewal: Yeah. And you talked about empathy there, and I think one close cousin to empathy is authenticity, and that's something that she brings in spades. Her stories are distinctive and memorable and really genuine. She talks about empty brain space, and she talks about joy pie, a lot of memorable ways of thinking about the world that come from her stories. What do you think makes her special as a professional and as a person?

[00:38:41] Susan Haufe: I think her courage to be her, to use words like joy pie, to bring empathy into the boardroom of organizations she's been part of, to mandate that we listen and we actually do something different, inspires me, for sure, on a daily basis, but I think it has the power to inspire an industry to think differently about this. And she's not shy about it. She's provocative in nature. She asks hard questions but wants to roll up her sleeves and be part of the solution. And I think that's what makes her a rock star. Certainly proud that she's on our team here at Qualtrics, but more importantly, I'm proud that she's part of a conversation in the healthcare industry to really center on experience and ensure that we're living up to our promise to the humans that are part of the work we do.

[00:39:29] Jesse Purewal: So great. Well, thanks for making the time and taking the space to have the conversation with her and to share it with our audience. Hope you're well, Susan, and take care of yourself. We'll talk again soon.

[00:39:40] Susan Haufe: Thanks, Jesse. It's my honor.

[00:39:41] Jesse Purewal: Thanks for listening to Breakthrough Builders. If you're enjoying the show, please subscribe and leave a rating and a review and tell a friend. Breakthrough Builders is a Qualtrics Studios original hosted an executive produced by me, Jesse Purewal. An awesome team of people put this show together, including our show writer, Todd Bagnull, and our head of social media, Chelsea Hunersen. From StudioPod Media in San Francisco, our show coordinator is Nicole Genova. Editing and music are by producer Sterling Shore and executive producer Katie Sunku Wood, with sound engineering by Ryan Crowther. At Vayner Talent in New York, Samantha Heapps, Hannah Park and Yvonne Lynn provide publicity and promotional support. The shows designers are Baron Santiago and Vinsuka Chindavijak. Our website is by Gregory Hedon, photography by Christy Hemm Klok. Special thanks to the entire Breakthrough Builders crew at Qualtrics, including Ali Rohani, Ben Hawken, John Johnson, and Kylan Lundeen.

Season 5Jesse Purewalneurology, technology, empathy in healthcare, grace, dr. adrienne boissy, gratitude, customer experience, experience management, patient experience