Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Welcome. You're listening to the McKinsey on Healthcare podcast. If you're looking for insights into the issues that matter most in healthcare right now, you're in the right place. Explore wide-ranging conversations with leaders, problem solvers, innovators, and professionals who are at the heart of healthcare today. I'm Dr. Pooja Kumar. Let's get started.
Today's guest is perhaps, on the surface, a less obvious one for a podcast about health. Sekou Andrews is an actor, writer, producer, and someone often referred to as a changemaker thanks to his creation of poetic voice, a style of public speaking that infuses inspirational speaking with spoken word poetry to make moving and memorable messages.
Most of us are familiar with the rhythms of the medical space, the regular beeps of a heart monitor, the rise and fall of the chest, the circular wheel of life that ebbs and flows to constant beat. Poetry similarly allows us to use cadence to create human connections.
My colleagues at McKinsey spoke with Sekou earlier this year, and I was delighted to be able to listen in on a recording of the conversation. Sekou regularly speaks about this idea and the importance of putting human connection at the heart of all caregiving. I'm delighted to share some of the highlights of Sekou's conversation with us.
First, I wanted you to hear about his work in healthcare before we move into his creation of the poetic voice. Much of Sekou's work is focused on health. Here, he outlines why he chose the industry as his focus, what he's seeing in the industry, and why it matters so much to him.
I got engaged by healthcare and inspired to inspire folks in healthcare very early in my career. And I'm a very purpose-driven person. So one of my biggest fears when I was thinking about creating this public speaking category, I was very concerned that am I just going to become the corporate guy? Am I just going to be, in a sense, selling out for the highest bidder, right?
So I was very conscious of wanting to make sure that I pick and choose where it is I want to use my voice. And I started to realize very early on some of the paths that I would always stay committed to. One of them was education because my last job was a fifth grade teacher and both of my parents are educators. And so I maintain a commitment to education.
But then I began to encounter some healthcare clients at some of these events. And I found myself going, I really enjoy using my voice for this audience. It feels meaningful. It feels purposeful. When it's nurses, when it's
researchers and scientists, when it's physicians and surgeons, when it's community health organization, when it's any of these types of hospital systems themselves, I feel the impact is so much more direct.
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Chapter 2: Who is Sekou Andrews and what is his contribution to healthcare?
And I feel like the ripple effect that it's making in the world is so much more direct. And so that's really why I began to push my voice into health care and ultimately Over many years, I would say probably 40, 50% of my clients have been healthcare in some way.
I completely understand what Sekou means about being driven by a sense of purpose. For me, my interest in health stemmed originally from working in refugee issues and medical humanitarian relief. This morphed into a love of medicine, a career as a physician, and a desire at a broader level to help address both global and domestic health needs.
I think many of my fellow doctors, nurses, and caregivers are also purpose-driven in this same way. And what's interesting is that Sekou highlights some of the challenges of this approach, while still acknowledging that inspiration is beneficial under the circumstances.
It's the people that care that are constantly plagued with, am I doing enough? So I say healthcare folks are riddled with that double-edged sword. You're in the most impactful work, but you're only in it because you're the kind of person that would commit your life to that.
And that means that when you wear your heart on your sleeve or on your scrubs, in a sense, that means that you also carry that burden.
As we all know, the COVID-19 pandemic had a grueling impact on the healthcare industry. And as people have left healthcare post-pandemic, this has created a looming shortage of frontline healthcare workers.
You know, you're talking to an ex-teacher. So I know what it is to be on the front lines of the thing that the world is saying. The most important thing is the most important thing in the world. And you're like, funny, because my paycheck doesn't seem to reflect that, you know. So I know what that's like, that kind of service is like.
And health care workers, they have known what that's like for a long time. But this pandemic threw flags. you know, what is it, threw grease on the fire in a sense. So the fire has always been there. But suddenly this pandemic is pouring that grease on and everything that was there began to rise to the surface.
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Chapter 3: How does Sekou Andrews define 'Poetic Voice'?
Everything that was unhealthy about the health care industry rose to the surface and like a volcano erupted. And health care workers
who maybe had always been able to find a balance between this is, you know, there are times that this is brutal and this is unhealthy and there are times that I'm questioning and there are times that I'm frustrated about this and I'm angry about this particular policy or I'm feeling handcuffed about that.
But the balance is I took care of this person and I experienced this joy and I saved this life. that balance was thrown off by the pandemic. And there wasn't a, you couldn't keep up.
You couldn't, there wasn't enough of the joy because so many fatalities, so many casualties, so little PPE, so little support, so many people, the whole world angry, the whole world going through mental health problems, the whole world going through despair and anxiety and darkness and distance. I think that the healthcare industry is experiencing the aftermath of it, right?
All of that takes a toll. And I think the industry is experiencing that more than ever, which is why I think inspiration is needed now more than ever.
When asked what advice he has for leaders in the healthcare system, giving people recognition, connecting with them, inspiring them, and trying to reconnect them to their sense of purpose were key themes drawn out in the conversation.
Listen, I'm not the clinician. I'm not the licensed therapist. I'm not, you know, I am. I can only answer that question from an inspirational speaking storyteller type of place. And I think that what people need most now is connection. I think that what we have lost most in this pandemic was all of the ways that we took connection for granted.
And I think that that's what healthcare workers are ultimately needing most. However that shows up, right? It's reconnecting back to their sense of balance. It's reconnecting back to their sense of purpose. It's reconnecting back to the, to the power that their work has and the importance that they're doing.
It's reconnecting back to the value and the worth that they feel from the people that they're serving. It's reconnecting back to the resources that they need. And I think that's why when I performed my outbreak of care poem, I had a concern that maybe, you know, maybe this poem is not relevant. anymore.
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