Speaker 1: So what has management science got to do with public health? Well it might be more than you expect, so stay tuned and find out. So in this video I'm going to give you a quick overview of aspects of management science that I think are important in public health and are often overlooked. And I'm going to be talking a little bit about the tools and models that over the years I've found particularly useful. Welcome back to this Global Health YouTube channel. This is a place for people who are passionate about making the world a better, safer healthier place. If this is your first time here then please consider subscribing to this channel and becoming part of this community. My name is Greg Martin. I'm coming to you from the lovely city of Dublin in Ireland. I'm going to give you a somewhat unorthodox definition of public health. And at first you're going to find this definition to be either outright objectionable or at the very least a little bit obscure. But stay with me, I'll explain myself and hopefully win you over to my way of thinking. So my definition of public health, and it's really for the purposes of this video, but my definition of public health is this. It is the intersection of epidemiology and management science. Now I know what some of you are thinking. You're thinking, Greg that's too narrow. You've left out health economics and demography and human rights and advocacy etc etc. Now hang on, hold the phone, don't panic, let me explain. Firstly, epidemiology is all about understanding the distribution of disease and other states of health, either geographically or over time. And understanding the relationship between risk factors and interventions and disease in these various states of health. Now that's the Greg Martin definition of epidemiology. It's not something that you're going to find in any textbook. So epidemiology, done well, should take into account the social determinants of health, things like gender, equity, human rights, and take into account the drivers of health and disease, things like demography and economics. Essentially, to my mind, all of these other disciplines all contribute to our understanding of the underlying epidemiological questions, which are what is the burden of disease, what risk factors are contributing to that burden of disease, what population groups are at risk, and what interventions are making a difference in terms of changing or mitigating that risk or that burden of disease. So epidemiology answers the question what. Management science, by contrast, answers the question how. How do we get things done? How do we operationalize our plans? How do we mobilize our resources? How do we implement? How do we lead? And how do we govern? Now I know that management science is extremely broad. A few years ago I did an MBA and so I'm acutely aware of the fact that it's not the sort of thing that I can quickly cover in one short video. But I really believe that there are aspects of management science which, if done well, will make you an extremely effective public health practitioner. And they are, wait for it, drumroll, managing people, managing processes, and managing budgets. Okay, let me illustrate my point with a little example. Let's imagine that there's a little village or town somewhere in Africa, there are people with HIV, but they're not getting their drugs because the local clinic has run out of drugs, there's a stockout. Epidemiologically, we know exactly what's going on here. We know and understand that lack of access to medicines affects the outcome of disease and the burden of disease in the community. The solution to this problem, however, lies in management science, in that we need to make sure that we've got a whole lot of things in place before these people get their drugs. Things like quantification and demand forecasting, procurement, financing, shipping, warehousing, distribution, inventory management, these are all things that have to be in place before those people can get their drugs. And believe it or not, getting all of those things in place really boils down to managing people, managing processes, and managing budgets. I'm going to share with you a couple of tools and models that I found useful in my career as I've worked in different roles in public health, and I'll tell you a little bit about what those roles have been. I worked as a technical officer at the World Health Organization, and that's where I got experience in the area of project management and process management. I worked as the head of science and research at the World Cancer Research Fund, and that's where I got experience leading a team and line managing staff. I worked as the director of EMTCT at the Clinton Health Access Initiative, and that was a great place to get experience in terms of overseeing multiple projects, complicated projects across multiple different countries, and understanding complex budgets. And I'm currently on the board of trustees of a number of NGOs and nonprofits, and that's really all about governance and leadership, and I'm going to talk about that in another video. And in these various roles, I applied what I learned in my MBA, and I'm going to share with you the things that I found most useful. But before I carry on, I want to give a big shout out and a thank you to Northwestern University. Thank you for sponsoring this video. Northwestern University offer a fantastic Master's in Global Health, and given that we're talking about the importance of management and global health, I must tell you that the Northwestern University's Master's in Global Health is one of the only programs that I've seen that has an option for studying management and strategy as part of their course. It's a world-class program at a world-class university, so click on the link in the description below if you want to find out more. I just want to preface what it is that I'm going to teach you today with two important things. Firstly, you need to be proactive about learning about management. Don't assume that just because you're a people person and you get on well with your colleagues and that you're relatively well organized that you'll automatically be a good manager. You have to be proactive. And secondly, don't wait until you're in a senior management position before you start learning about management. Start early, start now, and take it seriously. You wouldn't want to be on a flight and discover that the pilot is quickly doing a Google search on how to land a plane. You want to know that he's learned all of that stuff before he got the job to fly you. So here are a few ideas and resources and models that I found useful over the years. I'm going to start off by telling you about a web page called One2Manage. One2Manage.com is a fantastic resource. You can go there, you can do a search, and you can look up any of the models that I'm going to talk about in this video. I'll put a link in the description below. Next, Gantt charts. Gantt charts are an excellent way to visualize the various elements within a project, and you can give each element its respective start and end time within a timeline. And importantly, you can include dependencies, so one element can't start until another element is finished. And Gantt charts can be used firstly to plan projects, but also to monitor the progress of projects as they unfold. They're extremely easy to understand, so everybody involved for the project knows exactly what's going on, and they're easy to make. You simply make them in Microsoft Excel, for example. Next, business process model and notation. This is a way to visualize complex processes using standard icons that represent different kinds of elements within that process. And yes, it takes a little bit of time and effort to learn how to create these maps, but believe me, it is worth it. And once you know how to do it, you'll use them again and again and again. There's a terrific online resource that you can use to make these things. It's called Lucidchart. I'll put a link in the description below. It's free and very easy to use. You're going to love it. Next, balanced scorecards. This is a simple and easy to use performance management tool, and it uses a combination of financial and non-financial metrics. And again, I can't get into how to create a balanced scorecard in this video, but if you go to 12manage.com, you can look it up and find out more yourself. Next, value chain analysis. This is an important tool to help organizations understand and sometimes restructure how it is that they add value and meet their objectives. If you're a senior manager or a leader in an organization, then this is an absolute must. I really encourage you. Go look it up, learn more. Let's talk about budgets for a minute. No matter where you are, no matter what organization you're working for, and where you are within that organization, budgets are important to you. It's almost certainly the case that your organization or your department has put together a budget, and that budget is sitting in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. So it's really in your interest to be comfortable with Microsoft Excel. At the end of the day, in your area of work, what does and does not get done is going to come down to money, and you want to be part of that conversation. And if you're comfortable with spreadsheets, and you're comfortable with budgets, you're going to get a seat at the table. Right, let's try and tie all of this together. Now, I know I've only touched on a few of the management science models, but I'm hoping that this is going to get the ball rolling and get you thinking about management science. The next question is, at this point in your career, what should you be focusing on? If you are early or maybe mid-career, you probably should focus on project management and people management. Even if you're not line managing people right now, it's not going to be long before you are, so buckle down and learn about it as soon as you can. Learn how to use Gantt charts. Practice using business process model and notation. Even if it's on projects where you don't think it's really necessary, use those as opportunities to practice. And ask to see your organization's budget or your department's budget. Look at it, get to understand it, get familiar with it, ask questions, make suggestions, and start getting involved with thinking about how the money is spent. And if you are line managing people, start learning about how to give and receive feedback. Believe me, there's a right and a wrong way to do that. If you are already in a relatively senior management position and your career is now transitioning towards a leadership role, then you need to learn about organizational structure, stakeholder mapping, change management, and risk management, because these are the elements of organizational strategy. Once you start applying management science to organizational strategy and organizational vision, you start moving into the realm of leadership. And I'm going to create a video sometime that looks at strategy, leadership, and governance. Now, stay where you are, don't go anywhere, watch another public health video. And please do leave your thoughts and questions in the comment section below, I promise to read and respond to all of them. Remember to subscribe to this channel if you haven't already. And again, a big thank you to Northwest University, thank you for sponsoring this video. Click on the link in the description below if you want to find out more about their program.