Trust Is The New Currency Of The CIO

The annual HIMSS 2013 conference kicked off today with the CHIME CIO Forum, a day-long program geared to aid healthcare CIOs stay ahead of the curve.

In order to successfully lead in the right direction, healthcare payer and provider CIOs must build a level of trust within their organizations. Stephen M.R. Covey, the bestselling author and former CEO of Covey Leadership Center, took the stage to speak about the palpability and importance of trust as IT leaders.

“This trust is so foundational. It is at the heart of everything, but because it’s so simple, we often look past it,” Covey said. “CIOs can take any initiative that they are trying to implement and put them into two different environments—one with high trust and one with low trust—and there is a big difference. In a high-trust environment, you get higher collaboration, greater results, faster results and lower costs,” he continued.

The vast majority of the CIOs in the audience agreed with Covey’s proclamation. “Whether it’s with the IT team, other leaders within the organization or within clinicians and patients, it all comes down to the same thing: presence. If you’re not there, you’re not trusted. You have to encourage, cheer on and really support everyone, and I believe that’s how you really gain trust as a CIO,” said Timothy Stettheimer, who serves as the regional CIO of Ascension Health Information Services and senior vice president and CIO of Saint Vincent’s Health System.

Covey shared three of his “big ideas” on trust in the healthcare industry. The first is that trust is an economic driver, not merely a social virtue. The second is that trust is the No. 1 competency of leadership needed in healthcare today. And, the third is that trust is the new currency of CIO both as collaborators and leaders within their organizations. 

“CIOs understand that speed is an important facet to trust. Any time you increase trust, you increase speed and reduce costs. Furthermore, the economics of trust explain that when trust goes up, the speed of processes go up and costs goes down,” commented Covey.

Nothing engages people like being trusted, and nothing disengages people like not being trusted. Covey said that according to recent surveys, 94 percent of patients selected a healthcare provider because of their level of trust with that organization. And, it’s the job of the CIO to build trust in the IT systems that are customer, employee and patient facing.

“A healthcare organization built on trust creates a ‘competitive moat’ in your market. Indeed, there is compelling data to suggest the healthcare organization that owns trust, owns the market,” said Dr. David Shore, director of project management in healthcare programs for Harvard School of Public Health.

So, as a healthcare CIO, how do you build trust among your colleagues, IT team and partners? Well, according to Covey, trust is a function of credibility and behavior. He shared four cores to credibility to help CIOs gain trust: integrity, intent, capabilities, and results.

“Talk straight, create transparency, clarify expectations, practice accountability and extend trust to others,” concluded Covey.