Solving Healthcare's Biggest Challenges Through Cohesive Value Transformation™ with Jared Stanger, CEO and Founder of The Magnified Group™ and President of Magnified Learning™

[00:00:01] This podcast is produced by Outcomes Rocket, your healthcare exclusive digital marketing agency. Outcomes Rocket exists to help healthcare organizations like yours to maximize their impact and accelerate growth. Visit outcomesrocket.com or text us at 312-224-9945.

[00:00:25] Hey everyone, welcome back to the Outcomes Rocket podcast. I am so excited to be hosting another amazing guest. Today I have the privilege of having Jared Stanger on the podcast. He is the CEO and founder of the Magnified Group and also President of Magnified Learning.

[00:00:50] Jared has nearly two decades of experience working in and improving the healthcare industry. With over a billion dollars in value transformation savings across his portfolio, Jared now spends his time driving innovation for healthcare organizations by sharing his knowledge and expertise in healthcare transformation. Jared, thanks so much for joining us. Yeah, thanks Saul. Thanks for the opportunity and it's a pleasure to connect with the Outcomes Rocket community.

[00:01:19] It's very exciting. Thank you. Thank you, Jared. Yeah, no, it's a pleasure to have you on. And look, let's just dive right in. You know, talk to us a little bit about what inspires your work in healthcare. Yeah, I got my start in healthcare on the clinical side in emergency medicine. I was a student in the paramedic program and we worked really hard with collaborating with the ED and the fire department and local community.

[00:01:50] And I was pretty young. I was still in high school when they put me through the program. And that really got my eyes open to how amazing it is to work in this industry and how much fun it can be. Not to mention the joy of being able to save a life, but also see the heartache of a life ended and a family and sometimes in ruin. And being there to try to nurture, try to support individuals through that.

[00:02:18] But so I fell in love with healthcare before I really got into any kind of formal degree. And I knew that's the space that I wanted to operate in. And when I went to college, I got exposed to the healthcare administration and the business side while I was in pre-med. And I really loved that more. I fell in love with connecting to people. I fell in love with just being there and supporting individuals as they tried to deliver care.

[00:02:47] And I felt like, well, if I go and specialize in a certain area, I'm limited to that one area. But if I get into this field, I can have a farther reach. And I can really spread some of my talents across the nation in a lot of different ways. So I finished a couple of internships. And at the time I was going through this training healthcare. This is the early 2000s.

[00:03:12] And healthcare is starting to embrace what we call Lean Six Sigma and that whole transformation journey. And I saw it fail miserably in several organizations. It wasn't pretty. In some areas, it was adopted well. In other areas, it created a lot of problems. And it was really heartbreaking. And that was kind of my first experience in the awareness of healthcare isn't perfect. We've got a lot of problems. We've got a lot of incredibly talented people that are really struggling to work together.

[00:03:42] And also, we've got a lot of complexity that we have to allow in the healthcare industry that other industries don't really need to account for. Because the human body is incredibly complex. Far more complex than manufacturing a car or manufacturing really any kind of service. And so, when I got into my administrative fellowship program, I was working with some of the world leading experts in the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

[00:04:11] And I realized that no one nowhere was exempt from failing to drive innovation and getting everyone aligned behind that innovation. And so, in my career, I started to develop this just niche of Jared's the guy that we're going to send in to help when things get really tough. Or we need to change, whether that's culture.

[00:04:39] Or we need to drive some kind of innovative solution. Or we need to fix what's been broken and what was always working before. So, my love for healthcare, really, that's my resume. That's where I'm at. That's how I work. I've really built my knowledge around doing something good for the healthcare industry and where I'm at today. That's great, Jared. And, and yeah, you know, I love how you kind of gravitated to your sweet spot of solving problems. And there's a lot of problems to be solved.

[00:05:08] So, talk to us about Magnified Learning and also the Magnified Group. What do you guys do and how are you different? So, that's a really good question. Let me share a little bit about the journey and how I fell into this. And let me start with, I didn't want to do this. It really was hard for me to move into this side and become that business owner for this reason. I want to solve problems. I want to get into the organization. I want to be the one helping people.

[00:05:39] But, about 10 years ago, I realized individuals kept coming to me saying, Jared, can you, like, where do I go to learn what you've learned? Where do I go to understand how you do what you do? And I really didn't have a good place to send people. I found at one point I was sending people to, like, several different organizations or institutions or down several different career paths to try to consolidate some of what I do.

[00:06:06] And I realized a lot of what I've learned is on the job. And there wasn't really anything out there. And I felt like this is a way for me to give back to healthcare. And so, I felt impressed about five years ago to wrap up or start to wrap up an independent study I'd performed, which is really focused on an approach we call cohesive value transformation or CVT.

[00:06:30] And in this approach, what I hypothesized was, if we take the current state of how we solve problems today and the value it adds, and then make some changes that I felt needed to be made under the CVT model, what's the impact going to be? And the impact was astronomically different. It's not to say Lean Six Sigma wasn't successful, but it's to say that we can do more. We can be better.

[00:06:58] So, I started this company in this school, and I started training the rising generation, believe it or not. So, we have partnerships with universities that are really focused on skill-based learning. And they want the workforce to be prepared, especially in healthcare, to solve some of these complicated problems. And, like, when we reach out to the nursing programs and partner with our future nurses, the one thing I hear across the nation is we tend to eat our young.

[00:07:27] We graduate them, we put them in that environment, right? And then we say, you're either going to sink or swim right now. You're either in or you're out. And it's very difficult, and there's a lot of turnover. And so, part of what the CVT approach is recognizing emotional intelligence in problem solving and incorporating a lot of the skills you need to come up with a solution.

[00:07:49] But more important, the skills you need to be able to read people and understand how you can align what you know is right or you feel is right with what everybody else wants. And that is the approach in a high-level overview.

[00:08:04] What separates us from the other companies, the other approaches, the other desires, is that we have something that is unique and scientifically proven that says there's a way to get people of various backgrounds, various interests, sometimes competing interests, to work together and solve problems. And we can do it without damaging culture, but rather improving culture.

[00:08:32] We can do it without forcing turnover, but rather improving retention. And we can drive significantly more savings value in this approach. So, it's really exciting to see it come together. And I've been really grateful with all the partnerships we have in training the rising generation and also having former students come back to say, hey, work with me on this. We want to do something creative.

[00:09:01] And now we started Magnified Consulting this last year and have several large transformation engagements going on. We also recognize that we train and certify some of the world's best entrepreneurs and innovators. And so, we started several other opportunities to help healthcare, such as Magnified Technology and Magnified Ventures. And we want to be that empowering body to help people drive change.

[00:09:31] Well, that's great, Jared. And this cohesive value transformation, it sounds like you wrote a book on it. We'll definitely make sure to link that up here for folks to be aware of it. But also, the opportunity is there for you to have a discussion with Jared if it's interesting, if the approach sounds like it's something that could be different and maybe take care of a challenge that you're currently faced with.

[00:10:01] Jared, Jared, as you've built the business, talk to us about challenges. Right? What's your biggest setback that you've dealt with and what key learning came out of that? Yeah. In healthcare, we're really busy. How do you handle or control? If you're an individual out there listening right now and you're thinking, how do I control the things I can't control?

[00:10:26] How do I take a different approach when the things I can't control are really working against me? In a lot of our executives and with a lot of middle management and front lines, we find that you're in either one of two scenarios. And there are two famous cartoons that really summarize it. You're either this, imagine you're a caveman and there's a group of cavemen that are pushing a wheelbarrow with square wheels.

[00:10:53] And you have this idea of, hey, let's use these circle wheels so we can go faster. And they look back at you and they say, sorry, we're too busy to listen to you. And that's one scenario that we're in right now. I mean, how many of us have felt like, gosh, if we would just do it this way, it would be so much better. Why aren't we thinking more aligned with this? The second scenario is you're completely numb to the problem around you.

[00:11:20] And there's a really funny cartoon of this dog that's sipping, I imagine it's a cup of coffee. And they say, oh, this is fine. Focused on the coffee when surrounding them, the building's on fire. And so you have a scenario where you are only focused on what you care about because everything else around you just doesn't seem to work ever. And if you're in that scenario, things have become very toxic for you.

[00:11:46] And you're probably very dissatisfied with your life, your job, things going on at work or at home. And you just feel incredibly defeated. And we take those two scenarios and we bring hope back to those individuals. And what we found in the healthcare field is it's felt very strongly. You're in one or the other. How do we empower people to see that innovation? But also, how do we get people to snap out of the routine, the challenges, the struggles?

[00:12:16] Especially with our physician community. I think they are very tired of this administration versus physician or clinical drive. They're exhausted from just the constant debate of what needs to happen for patient care. And we're seeing more and more unions actually pop up because our community of professionals have just lost faith in administration. And there's a lot to unpack there.

[00:12:44] But it is felt very strongly in healthcare. And it impacts us as a business as well because we're coming out with, here's proven solutions. Here's a proven approach. Here's the science behind it. Here's the education that you need. And here's a model that is very affordable for you that is going to work at risk to get you what you need. And they still look at us in either one of those scenarios like, everything's fine.

[00:13:10] Or I am so frustrated with everyone else around me. I don't know if they're going to listen to you. Right. Yeah. I think you called out the key obstacles to really getting through. And it sounds like the approach, you've pegged it, right? Like you've pegged the two key scenarios. And you guys have a framework and a process and a method to really ease obstacles.

[00:13:39] If people want to learn more about what you do and maybe they're considering this could be a good fit for them, what's the best place they could learn about this? Yeah. Follow us on LinkedIn. We're always publishing things on LinkedIn, new certain key topics. We have various sources online that you can connect with us on. Our website. There are multiple ways in which you can connect with us, either from a student's perspective or a transformation perspective.

[00:14:08] Or maybe you're an individual out there that has a really good idea, but you're struggling to get that into the market. If you need change and you want improvement, we have something for you. And so connecting with us can be very advantageous. Even if there's not a synergy or a partnership, being able to point you in the right direction is something we really pride ourselves in. So LinkedIn is a wonderful way to connect with us and stay connected on a regular basis of the latest and greatest things that are coming out.

[00:14:38] Online. There are ways in which you can call me directly or call somebody in the organization or inquire through our website at magnified-learning.com. And we have a team of people who are there and ready to answer your questions or connect you with the right resources. I love it, Jared. Nice and easy. LinkedIn, the website, maybe even a couple ways to get in touch with you via email.

[00:15:04] Folks, we'll make sure to include all those and ways to get in touch with Jared Stanger. He is the CEO and founder of the Magnified Group and president of Magnified Learning. You don't have to put up with not liking the way things are anymore because there's some good options through Jared and his team. So take them up on the invitation. You know, reach out, learn more. There's no commitment there.

[00:15:31] And Jared, I just want to say thank you very much for coming on our podcast and sharing this unique approach. Yeah, thanks, Saul. I appreciate it.