Imagine being at the helm of a massive project, managing hundreds of people, and dealing with high-stress situations - all while keeping a composed poker face.
On this episode of The Vurge, Rebecca is joined by two of the best Divurgent road warriors, Nicole Boose and Nikita Brown to discuss the significance of thorough pre-planning, robust documentation, and the use of communication tools to help keep teams on track. But it's not all serious work - we also share our experiences of the fun and relaxation that comes with work travel. From sampling local cuisine to visiting must-see attractions, we highlight how these experiences offer a necessary respite from the demanding nature of our work.
Thanks for listening! Like what you hear? Follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and be sure to subscribe to The Vurge for the latest episodes and more!
Interested in being a guest on the show? Click here to learn more.
Imagine being at the helm of a massive project, managing hundreds of people, and dealing with high-stress situations - all while keeping a composed poker face.
On this episode of The Vurge, Rebecca is joined by two of the best Divurgent road warriors, Nicole Boose and Nikita Brown to discuss the significance of thorough pre-planning, robust documentation, and the use of communication tools to help keep teams on track. But it's not all serious work - we also share our experiences of the fun and relaxation that comes with work travel. From sampling local cuisine to visiting must-see attractions, we highlight how these experiences offer a necessary respite from the demanding nature of our work.
Thanks for listening! Like what you hear? Follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and be sure to subscribe to The Vurge for the latest episodes and more!
Interested in being a guest on the show? Click here to learn more.
Hi everyone, and welcome to another episode of the Verge. Today we have two of Divergent's own, ms Nicole and Ms Nikita. Welcome, ladies, to the podcast. Thank you, ms Nikita. Thank you, rebecca, I'm gonna no problem, I'm gonna let you both introduce yourself. So, nikita, can you introduce yourself and give us a little bit of your background and how you ended up at Divergent?
Speaker 2:Absolutely so. As Rebecca mentioned, my name is Nikita Brown. I am a principal with Divergent on the delivery side. My background starts in about 2002 as an application coordinator with Kaiser Permanente, a large HMO on the West Coast, who I was with for about seven years before I started consulting. And I consulted for a number of years prior to settling down at Divergent because I just loved the culture first project, that I worked with them and decided that that's where I wanted to make my home. So I started as a consultant, then went to senior consultant and now I am a principal.
Speaker 1:Awesome.
Speaker 3:Nicole over to you. Sure, my name is Nicole Boos and I actually started out through a health care agency called Athena Health out of Ohio and I was doing some actually just a unit registration for them and got introduced into the consultant world and that was probably about seven years ago and have been doing that ever since. So I've been a consultant at the elbow training and I've done some leework, and I started with Divergent as a consultant as well in 2017. And now I have transitioned through a couple of different positions within the organization and now I'm landed as a manager for the delivery side and I've actually had the privilege of being one of the best mentees of Nikita Brown. So been a great experience and I love it so far. More to come.
Speaker 1:Yay, let's dive in, because you guys here at Divergent are known as two of the badass go live people within the epic world and being able to handle some of the biggest go lives that I've ever heard of and been a part of. And so what are some of the lessons learned that you come out of after all these years, all these go lives? You beat me in go live count. I think I've done 20, but you guys far exceed that. And so what are one or two lessons learned that you know? Know that you're not going to do each time now moving forward.
Speaker 2:That is a great question, rebecca, and I think that. So what's helpful for both Nicole and myself is that we have gone through a number of roles and positions, even within the electronic medical record space. So we've both been at the elbow, we have both been project managers, so we've had the opportunity to rinse and repeat a number of times. I think one of the a couple of the must do's that I would take away from each engagement would be ensuring the quality of the resources. So whatever that requires whether that is individual interviewing, more recorded services, having our recruiting team screen candidates, going through multi-level of screening for those candidates, whether it's recruiting the engagement manager and executive level screen just to really get a feel of that consultant, whether they know the information, how they are emotionally going to be able to connect with someone that's struggling, whether they'll be empathetic just being able to go into a project with a level of certainty that we know what this individual is going to provide definitely can make or break the outcome of that engagement. Nicole, what are you? What do?
Speaker 3:you think I would definitely to piggyback off of that, I think. Two is just to know that not one engagement will be the same. It's a good lesson to learn. We go through several different scenarios, situations, so having the understanding that anything can happen and you need to be prepared for anything. And then the last thing I would say is to what I've learned over definitely the last couple of years, is to not take things personal and to remain at an even level and understand that there are so many different dynamics in this space.
Speaker 1:I love that you two are the. We've spoken a lot, we've done an RFP for a large organization and Nikita stood up in front of them and did her presentation. I think that you two are the calmest cucumbers at the organization, knowing how many laptops have probably been thrown at you or, you know, pissed off people have come. You guys maintain like your cool cucumber I don't know how, how you're able to do that. I just I envy you both, knowing how much you've gone through also coming up through the ranks and doing go lives.
Speaker 2:I think that Nicole and I have very similar personality types where, like someone just wouldn't know how, like externally, I don't show it. It's like the ultimate poker face, because even right now I am just like deathly afraid. Public speaking is not my thing, but I think that the skill in that that I do have is being able to remain composed. So, regardless of my nerves, like I do a lot of things that I'm afraid of, just because I can't let that fear control how I perform, what I say, how I behave I like I have to. I tell myself, like you have to get control of yourself, get a handle of this. But I am often nervous.
Speaker 1:I do the same thing. I sort of jump and figure it out on the way down and the whole time my stomach's like I want to throw up and I'm thinking what the hell and why did I just make this jump? But then you figure it out and you have to maintain that like coolness, like I've got this you know type of mentality, nicole. How about?
Speaker 3:you Absolutely, absolutely. I think that the poker face is real, because there are definitely some challenging times and you just can't show it. So I'm sure Nikita would agree that there are times at the end of the day and we're back in our rooms.
Speaker 1:We're like punching the wall, or so yes, yeah, isn't it good that you guys have each other though, right, especially when you're doing some go lives together. Maybe when you're not, you do have that you know that cucumber outside look but you're able to go back, have dinner with each other in you know the closed locker room and be able to, you know, sort of be each other's psychologist. You know back and forth and let it out and then rest for the next day, resent, absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 2:Back to the next day. We've both done every role, so neither of us are expecting the other to do something that we haven't performed. We know what the other is experiencing. We know whether or not we can lend a hand or where we can offer legitimate support. It's not a oh how can I help you. No, can I specifically do this for you, Because I know that this is a requirement? So to have someone that you work with, that you met at work, that has the same work ethic as you and very similar personality type, it's like a match made in heaven.
Speaker 1:It is. There's a duo. Okay, there's lots of traveling, right With Goalives. I used to be a road warrior for three years, back and forth from Tennessee to California for three years. So what are your travel like? Pet peeves, and what is like? Where do you sit on the plane? Are you a middle-seater, an edge, a window-seater?
Speaker 3:Window seat all day. I am very specific in not only just my seats, but the type of plane that I will fly in, so I look up the type of plane, I get the seating map and I am a window seat all day, even to this day. I get upgrades sometimes and I'm like, no, if it's not a window seat, I don't want it, you don't want it.
Speaker 1:Wow, even when you're upgraded, and so are you married to a airline company Like I'm, only Delta, delta, me all day.
Speaker 2:Yeah, same, and I'll do window or aisle, I just won't do a middle. So yeah, I wouldn't take a, because a first class that has a middle seat isn't like a true first class. Anyway, I want a pod. So yeah, I'm very specific about my airline. It's gotta be Delta or JetBlue, because they both have the best kind of lay flat for reasonable prices in my opinion. And then I'm a Marriott. I'm very loyal to Marriott as well. You're national, actually national as well.
Speaker 1:I think they have, yeah, rental car.
Speaker 2:Yeah, rental car.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I still use national rental car and I may or may not use a company I used to work for in their code to get my discount, which is still really good.
Speaker 3:So, yes, it's good, we didn't really get back good.
Speaker 1:Okay, I wanna know are you the first person to board the plane when they call, like your grouping, or do you wait back? So I'm one that like waits back and lets everybody board and then they're like last call for anybody and I'm the one entering the plane. No, what do you mean? No, Right.
Speaker 2:I have a very expensive carry-on and I would never check my luggage, so I've gotta be like near the beginning. I'm always sky priority because I need the cabin space. I would take another flight if I had to check my carry-on.
Speaker 1:Really? Yeah, I've always checked. I always check I have too many shoes. I haven't had my bag lost yet, knock on wood.
Speaker 3:I haven't either knock on wood? I haven't, but I'm definitely a first, I get on first. Yeah, I definitely. I don't want to wait, and even though the biggest thing that I have about getting boarding or off boarding is the fact that people will take their sweet little time walking down that little aisle, it's like, come on, let's keep up the pace here. So yeah.
Speaker 1:So, since I'm like the last boarder, I recently flew with my grandma, who's about to be 92. And she heard like first of all, I don't go sit in the area of that gate, I like to sit like where there's no people. And then so she wanted to be over in that area. I was like no, me mom, we're fine here. Then she heard that she was getting called, that you could board early, and she's like you want to board? We got a board and I'm like no, that's like when the old people board, she's like I am not old. And she sat right back down.
Speaker 2:I made her wait with me, oh no, you've got to take advantage of traveling.
Speaker 1:Those that need extra time no she walks the route by three miles every day. She has a oh, wow, yeah, but I don't want to be on that plane any longer than I have to.
Speaker 3:I definitely get that, because at the end that irritates me too. When everybody stands up it's like where are you going?
Speaker 1:Like you have 60 people in front of you relax, all right, switching back to go live. Sometimes you have, you know, 10 people to manage. The last one you just did was it like 300? Or we've had up to, I think, 500 people to manage all at one time. How do you manage all these people going to different locations at different times, working 24 seven so that we can cover the night shift? What do you do? How do you sleep at night?
Speaker 2:I think at this point we just think and go live, because regardless of the size of the project, every process is the same. We're still plugging a resource into a location that needs support. So good documentation is number one being able to manage the project where we're at, what's done, what needs to be done, what's outstanding, who's working on it, who's responsible, who do we report to those types of things, kind of standard project management. So solid requirements. If I know what's going on, no matter how many, even all the departments are the same. You know every client is special, Every client's billed is special.
Speaker 2:Every situation and project will be different and unique in some way, but ultimately there's a primary care, there's a PEDS, Sometimes there is or is not a women's care, there's emergency services, there's surgery. Everything fits into a bucket. So I think that we kind of settled on a number of around 120. If a project exceeds that amount, then we need an additional project manager and we still would work together, break down those requirements and then we start plugging those resources into those locations. For me it doesn't get any more complex when the number grows a little bit and I think our final number for one of our largest activations was around 900 with the different work streams that we had going on at one time. So having a dedicated management resource is key. Having good communication amongst the team is key, Nicole, what would you add Overall, I would add just the pre-planning to that.
Speaker 3:So just having access to whatever information that we need prior to you know, go live Like so we're for the most part, we're an advantage where we do have a lot of information, you know, a month, two months prior to start date, and that's really key with preparation to making sure that once it starts we can manage it efficiently. So I think that's definitely very important to point out.
Speaker 1:How do you communicate to all? You know 900 people. You know boots on the ground, things change. You know swing over to a different location. You know because something is, you know flaring up, or you know what do you do to communicate to all of these people so quickly?
Speaker 2:We use a couple of different tools. So prior to the start of the project, we're using our Microsoft tool, so outlook, sending from a project specific address and why. That's important so that our inboxes don't get inundated with communication, simple questions and also everyone can kind of have their hands in that shared communication mailbox Once the project starts. We've also tried a couple of different communication tools so we will, amongst the team use like a WhatsApp or some sort of text group group me. We've also used Slack, where we can break the teams up into different folders and disseminate, send files out that are held there and links, constantly push the information out and have a way for the conversation to be two ways. If there's a question, the resource can also ask us. So it just depends on the size of the project, what the leads are comfortable with using. We're really flexible with that and our scheduling application shift board that we're currently using is an online scheduling tool which allows us to push communication out as well.
Speaker 1:Awesome. Anything you want to add to that, I know she covered all of them. Yes, thank you. What do you do when you are at GoLives? To maybe have a little bit of fun. So let me preface it with I know that we're there for work, right, but we have to have a little bit of fun.
Speaker 1:So when I was traveling, my GoLives in Puerto Rico were three hours from the airport like the longest one, mainly because the roads are bad, but three hours. That was one of them. I always made sure when I was flying out of Puerto Rico because they were winter GoLives I would park at a hotel, jump on the ocean, drive off and board the plane. So when I was in California, I would, appropriately timed, hit a winery and do a wine tasting or something like that. But I even one time stayed the weekend and instead flew to Arizona and I hiked up and down the Grand Canyon with my parents who have flown out. So do you try to make it fun and involve things in the local area that you're, you know, get to enjoy a little bit during your go live times, even though I know you don't get to sleep a lot during those.
Speaker 3:I would say that I typically don't. However, if I am privileged to have a project where we share and we're there together, we do. We try to do a little bit more, but for the most part my ideal of a good time or just enjoying myself when I am on projects would be just to find some good food, Like I like to venture out and just find a restaurant that you know sometimes is not so franchisey, but that's they're known for, or something like that, and just try to enjoy a good meal with cocktail. That's my getaway.
Speaker 2:So and I would definitely say I'm a I'm a foodie also, so that's high priority shopping also. But because I live in Vegas, I have access to a lot of the same thing that other states would have. But I am an attraction person. So if I'm somewhere depending on the season like I'll go to a football game, a basketball game or see something that's happening, like what is the major attraction? Like when we were just supporting Alberta, I went to Banff because I had to see. Like I will go to everything that's popular or even that I've seen tagged on social media. But yes, I definitely even like I do like spas or Nicole I think you're being a little bit modest because she's quite a shopper also and I don't want to just tell all her business but I love it.
Speaker 1:Okay, where's the best place that you've gotten to travel to for work? Now, nikita, I have another question for you after, but for work, where's your favorite place you've traveled?
Speaker 2:It's New York for me.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I would agree actually.
Speaker 1:Yeah, new York, or New York City.
Speaker 2:You know I've been as far up as Cooperstown and that afforded me the luxury of going to the baseball hall of fame. So I've had generally good experiences all up and down New York. I'm looking forward to something upstate that'll get me close to Niagara Falls. So I would say New York as a whole. Yeah, new York City is my favorite city, though. Yeah, I would agree.
Speaker 1:You too. Okay, so where's your favorite place? You've been not for work.
Speaker 3:Okay, yeah, I mean for me when Nikita's probably been to I don't know. There's so many, what's your list of countries? She's been so many places, so it's going to be tough for her. For me, I definitely would say Dubai. I had the absolute best time there. Yeah, the people, good energy, the experiences were very nice. So I would say Dubai as of right now. So we'll see.
Speaker 2:Indiebuy is very high on my list and I think that's because of the trip itself. I had a lot of fun with who I went with. But my favorite place on earth right now is Amsterdam and that's just because I just like the vibe there. I like that in the Netherlands in general like bicycles take over the entire road, people are just friendly, but still not in your business. It's like a blend of New York and California combined for me and because I grew up in California, I'm used to that pleasantness but still kind of mind your own business and allow me to do whatever I can imagine. And that's how it is there. And just staying on the canals. I love how it feels and I've been like four or five times.
Speaker 1:I've done my list. I'm coming with you. Yeah, okay, we're both. We're both coming with you next time. Other than work and travel, what else do you do to relax, have fun, whether it be with family or friends, or do you go running or yoga, or what do you guys like to do to Zen out?
Speaker 2:The most Zen thing I do probably is beacrum yoga, so my daughter and I are fans. I've tried to pull Nicole into that but I don't think that was very relaxing in her opinion. But outside of an activity like that, I love to scuba dive. It's like the most serene, quiet, peaceful, individual experience that you can have, I think.
Speaker 1:You are like cucumber that part With your scuba diving, knowing a shark can come like around the corner at any time, but this is the most Zen place for you.
Speaker 2:It is. It's so quiet. You can hear things sometimes, but it's like if you pressed pause on everything because you are this very small entity or thing somewhere outside of where you belong, so you're just taking in the entire environment. They don't really bother you. Luckily, I haven't been in any areas where we've had predators come close, where we couldn't hop out of the water and, yeah, I think that is eerily peaceful, I love it?
Speaker 3:How about you? I am not adventurous at all, so you will not hear anything of the sorts coming from me, but I'm actually pretty boring and, to be honest with you, the most relaxing thing is to relax, literally to just lay and not have to think and worry and do anything. And I really enjoy when I have those moments because they are very far and in between, so that is really what I like to do when I don't have anything else to do. So, which is not normal, but yeah.
Speaker 1:I love it. Okay, other than your superpower being a cucumber. I ask everybody on the podcast what their superpower is. So, other than that, what would you perceive as your superpower? That you're sort of giving back to the world?
Speaker 2:I think that that is actually what I would have said if that was something that you had acknowledged. I think it's the ability to remain calm, but also to articulate an issue in resolution to someone in a heated situation or in any type of environment, so being able to take control of it and turn things around. I think, just to add to that myself, remaining cool, usually able to deescalate something if the party is willing. But I think that that is my nonchalantness, is my superpower.
Speaker 3:I love it. I love it. How about you, paul? I definitely agree with you and what your superpower is, because, yes, you have this very zen and just poker face, like okay, it's very nonchalant, I'm not, I have it and I know you, so I know internally you're like, okay, this is, this is a bit much, but I can't show it right now. So I would agree. But for me, I would say honestly that I feel like I can learn anything Like. I feel like a superpower is just basically being able to adapt and figure out whatever it is that I need to figure out, and I like it because I, you can jump and figure it out on the way down.
Speaker 3:And that is really my life. That is my life. Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 1:I mean, not everybody can do that right.
Speaker 3:Yeah. And even though it drives me crazy while I'm doing it, so I'm not calm at all in, you know, while I'm doing it, but it gets done.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah, I love it. I love it. We'll see. So that wasn't so bad right being on my podcast. No, it wasn't.
Speaker 3:Will you come again? Yes, I would I would.
Speaker 1:I would also Awesome Well ladies, thank you so much for being on the Verge. It was a pleasure chatting with you and I will talk to you soon.
Speaker 2:Thank you for having me. Thank you for having me.
Speaker 4:Thanks for tuning into the Verge podcast brought to you by Divergent, a leading healthcare IT consulting firm. We hope you enjoyed this episode. Be sure to hit the follow button to stay up to date with the latest IT developments and the exciting ways tech is transforming healthcare today.