The Service Desk has a new number!

I am so happy to announce that starting June 1st at 9:00 am, the UMHS Service Desk and MLearning will have a single phone number.  936-8000.  The MSIS Service Desk number 763-7770 which has served us well for so many years will forward over to 6-8000.  Additionally, the MLearning Help Desk line at 615-5146 will also be moved over to 6-8000 in a further move to reduce the number of places where our customers need to go for help.

What's changing for our customers?

• The old numbers will still continue to work but will forward over to 6-8000.  
• All customers will notice a new phone menu, which is detailed below:
• Welcome to the Service Desk.  Your call may be recorded for quality purposes.  As of June 1, our menu options have changed.
• If you are calling about MiChart, providers press 4 and other roles press 1.
• If you are calling about other clinical applications, press 2.
• If you are calling about non-clinical applications, passwords, or IT devices, press 3.
• After they press 3:
• If you are calling about account-related issues, including password resets and multi-factor authentication, press 1.
• For MLearning, press 2.
• For all other technology issues, please press 3.

What's not changing?

• Customers can still contact us through msishelp@umich.edu, or through mcitservicedesk@med.umich.edu (either one works)
• The hours of support for MSIS services are still 7am-7pm M-F.  Although someone is available on 6-8000 around the clock for Platinum and Gold supported services, the evening/weekend staff will submit a ticket to MSIS for resolution the next business day.

Although we expect this to be a slight disruption for our customers while they get used to the new phone menu, we believe in time this will improve the overall experience for our customers in need of help.  Our customers can now call a single number for help across a broad portfolio of clinical, research, education, and administrative services.

I am so proud of what this team has done in the last 18 months.  Our MCIT and MSIS Service Desk staff have been working so hard to learn from each other. Everyone on the team had to learn how to do two different jobs.  And they did without shutting down operations.  In fact, they did it while we were still growing and getting busier than ever.

I don't know what I did to deserve such a great team, but I'm truly proud to be a part of it.  

Establishing Habits to Increase Energy and Effectiveness

Posted by: Cindy Leavitt

I have been struggling to write my blog this month and I realized that by shifting my personal expectation from one to two weeks between blogs, I quickly fell out of the habit of writing. Then it became harder to restart writing the longer it went since my last blog.

CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=37670370

Writing this blog has been very important for me in helping me be the leader that I aspire to be. When I was doing it weekly, it was a lot of work, but energizing and grounding as well. This month as I have struggled to keep up the habit, it has been de-energizing. So while, I was not taking the time to do the blog, it didn’t feel like I got more done. I have been surprised at the number of people who have been following my blog and commenting about what they have learned from them. It has been gratifying to know that sharing my experiences is helpful to others. 

I have realized that I only have a limited set of energy and that it takes an extraordinary amount of energy to change. So when I am motivated enough to change, if I can do something consistently enough to create  a habit, it takes much less energy to keep it going. The real power is when I have established habits that generate more energy for me, which creates a positive reinforcing cycle that allows me to make other changes and have the energy and stamina to do meaningful work.

Recognizing where I have done this successfully in my life gives me the confidence to establish additional new habits, which include restarting when I fail to meet my original expectations.

Two areas where I have established successful habits are in my personal planning to make sure I focus on the most important things consistently and my exercise routines.

Every Monday morning, I take a few minutes to write down the most important things that I need to accomplish that week for my strategic initiatives at work, relationship building, and personal life. The lists for each area are not long, only 1-3 items. Than I look at my calendar and block times of when I can do the tasks. This simple habit has been incredibly effective and allowed me to advance important initiatives that are ambiguous. It is incredibly energizing to see the progress and the impact of focusing on these important items.

The second habit is exercise. I exercise every day and it is the basis for much of my vitality. The method of exercise has changed over many years, but it usually involves a social aspect as well as a physical aspect. It helps keep me going to know that others are expecting me to exercise with them. Whether it is being with my comrades at 6am at the gym, walking and talking with friends, biking with my buddies, or doing yoga when I want to be by myself. When I don’t exercise, I feel worse during the day.  My muscles actually hurt when I don’t move, so that is very motivating for me to keep up my exercise habits.

Try to take a few minutes over this long weekend to examine what you are doing that gives and drains your energy. What habit could you start to develop that would increase your energy and effectiveness?

I am recommitting to writing this blog weekly as a way to increase my energy and effectiveness.

Practicing Vulnerability and Developing Shame Resilience

Submitted by Cindy Leavitt

As a leader, you and your teams will make mistakes, experiments will fail, people will criticize, and blame will be assessed. This may lead you to feel unworthy, inadequate, and full of shame. Building shame resilience in yourself will allow you to confidently keep leading and continue to stay in the arena.

After my marriage of twenty-three years ended, it took me several years to be open to the idea of a new relationship. When I decided that I was ready to start dating again, I was filled with dread. This wasn’t helped by the reactions by most of my friends, who confirmed that it sounded truly awful. For me, the feelings of dating brought back the horror and shame of not being asked to dance in middle school.

However, I wanted to live more fully and share my life with someone, which meant that I was going to need to be vulnerable, knowing that rejection was going to be a natural and necessary part of dating.

It was during this time, that a friend introduced me to Brené Brown. Her TED video on “The Power of Vulnerability” and her book, Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead, helped me reframe the way that I thought about vulnerability and shame.

One of the most important concepts in Brown’s research is that shame, which is the fear of disconnection or not being enough, is a universal emotion. Shame can’t be avoided and has many common triggers. For women, the most common shame trigger is physical appearance, and for men, the most common shame trigger is appearing weak. If we can recognize when we are feeling shame and talk about it openly in a safe and supportive environment, we can build shame resilience.

The book was my guide as I threw my hat into the dating ring. I did all sorts of things that required vulnerability and developing shame resistance. I signed up for match.com. I met a lot of nice people, and some not so nice people. I tried English Country Line dancing, Contra dancing, and Swing dancing. I went on vacations by myself.

It wasn’t always easy, and I often battled shame and loneliness. I was lucky that I had lots of supportive family and friends to help me through. My vulnerability was rewarded because I met Mark. We read Daring Greatly together during our courtship and it helped us talk about shame openly so that each of us could do our own self-mastery work. Mark and I just celebrated our second anniversary.

This example in my personal life demonstrates that being vulnerable and learning shame resilience can have a huge payoff, but why does it matter at work?

As a leader at work, what you need most is information and ideas from everyone. This means that you need people to be vulnerable and open. Demonstrating vulnerability builds trust, and gives permission and a model for everyone in the organization to do the same. Believe me, everyone knows that you are not perfect, and when you openly admit it, their reactions can be surprising and refreshing.

Talking about shame builds “shame resistance.” Understanding when our actions and reactions are promoting shame as leaders is essential so we can change the behaviors in ourselves and our teams. Ignoring shame doesn’t make it go away, it makes it stronger.

A simple example at work occurred last week. One of the managers in our group asked if I was open to feedback. He relayed his concerns about how much stress another team was under because of the multiple simultaneous changes that I was asking them to make. He advocated for the reversal of some decisions that I had made. I thanked him very much for the feedback. He told me that he thought that I would be open because of our previous interactions and his director had encouraged him to bring his concerns directly to me. After confirming the information with the manager of the affected team, we altered a few things and the changes were received with much appreciation by the group.

A couple of years ago before I understood about shame resilience and moving away from fear,

●      I might have changed the decision but would have ruminated for days about making a mistake, or

●      I might have reacted defensively because of shame and not been willing to quickly respond to the concerns.

I have been questioned about why I am willing to be so open and vulnerable on my blog. It is because vulnerability and reducing shame are essential if we are going to have engaged employees and innovation in our workplaces:

“A sense of worthiness inspires us to be vulnerable, share openly, and persevere. Shame keeps us small, resentful, and afraid. In shame-prone cultures, where parents, leaders, and administrators consciously or unconsciously encourage people to connect their self-worth to what they produce, I see disengagement, blame, gossip, stagnation, favoritism, and a total dearth of creativity and innovation.” - Brené Brown, Daring Greatly

Being vulnerable and talking about shame requires tremendous courage and confidence. How willing are you to be vulnerable so that you create an environment where others are safe to be the same?