Len Schlesinger: Intentionally Designing Patient and Caregiver Roles as Jobs

About this video

For Len Schlesinger, entrepreneurship is a lifestyle — one that’s integral to the success of every 21st-century leader. Formed from three decades of leadership expertise in industry and academia, this belief is a driving force of his work helping students and business professionals alike.

“Last time I spoke at the BIF Summit, I wrote a whole new story in the parking lot when I got to the Summit. That story had two main points: first, an apologia for large organizations and a deep and a profound desire to ensure that in the quest for a start-up oriented nation, we don’t throw away assets we have; and second, ranting about healthcare.

Since then, most of my intellectual time has gone into healthcare. In my last talk, I spoke about taking care of my mom as the hardest job of my life. And the job was made all the more difficult by the fact that no one in the healthcare system recognized it was a job or treated it like it was a job.

If we are ever going to improve outcomes in healthcare and dramatically increase the ability to take costs out positively from healthcare, we need to understand that patients and caregivers have jobs. Those jobs have to be intentionally designed, and designed so people can win.”

Words to live by? “I do believe that at the core, you should really recognize that your life is going to be extraordinarily difficult if you don’t get to spend at least part of your day doing what you love. If you get to be with people you love and do things that you love, life can be pretty easy.” – Len Schlesinger, BIF2017