Harvesting Knowledge In Your Career

Building a career as a health practitioner should be a structured process. As I outline in “The Health Practitioners' Journey,” structuring your career in stages of development can lead to a satisfying and financially rewarding path. I outline four stages and see the journey taking a linear approach where you move from one stage to the next. This approach may not suit everyone, but most of us will seek to harvest knowledge on the journey, whichever direction it takes us.

Harvesting knowledge involves approaching your career and experiences as opportunities to learn, experiment, and expand your understanding. If you embrace your journey this way, you'll be well-equipped to take advantage of any opportunities that may arise during your career. This is the key to success, opportunity, and fulfillment across all stages of your career. It ensures not only commercial and professional success but also personal growth and satisfaction.

Many practitioners who have ‘harvested’ well have seized or created amazing opportunities. These include positions in corporate healthcare companies, developing courses to teach their unique skills, or using their harvested skills to embark on new directions, such as speaking at events or becoming facilitators or consultants for similar businesses. As the industry constantly evolves, new innovations arise. For example, AI is becoming more widely adopted, enhancing operational efficiency in our practices.

The above may sound reasonable and achievable, but there are examples where practitioners have taken on too much and pursued opportunities they weren't fully equipped to handle. This happened to me early in my career when I was thrust into managing a sports medicine business without the necessary knowledge, training, or experience. Fortunately, with support from mentors, I learned as I went along. I continued with my clinical practice while harvesting more knowledge, attending courses, reading widely, and listening intently to those with greater expertise. This path eventually improved my competence.

Throughout your career, continue to apply your skills to various opportunities, putting the concept of harvesting knowledge into practice. Here are some key takeaways to ensure you make the most of the knowledge you’ve harvested:

• Develop a Continuous Plan: Ensure you have a plan that involves developing your clinical skills throughout your career.

• Understand Commercial Success: Gain an understanding of what is involved in achieving commercial success.

• Network: Build connections with colleagues in your profession and those in related fields.

• Seek Mentors: Find mentors to guide you through different stages of your career.

• Enrol in Courses: Start with courses in your area of interest, then progressively take courses that broaden your knowledge and challenge you.

• Be Present to Opportunity: Always be aware of opportunities. Luck is often just the awareness of an opportunity and the willingness to act on it.

Too often, people miss out on important opportunities due to a lack of awareness. For example, I once shared a room at a conference with someone I didn’t know. That chance encounter led to the establishment of a sports medicine clinic and a move from Adelaide to Melbourne a few months later.

By following these guidelines, your career will become dynamic and fulfilling. Embrace the harvesting process: seeds sown in autumn will sprout in spring, but you must be aware enough to plant the seeds at the right time!

My Speaking Journey

In my journey within the healthcare industry, I've had the privilege of engaging with practitioners through various communication channels. Whether it's been mentoring sessions, discussions with business partners, delivering lectures, presenting at conferences, or simply sitting down with business owners, each interaction has been invaluable in sharing knowledge and insights.

In today's interconnected world, the avenues for communication seem limitless. With the release of my book, 'The Health Practitioner’s Journey,' my focus has shifted towards sharing the model outlined in it and my experience through speaking engagements. Speaking has been an incredibly rewarding way to connect with audiences, and I'm passionate about sharing my learnings gained over the years to benefit others in my field.

Let me take you through some recent examples of how I've been able to educate and inspire through speaking:

Productivity Videos

I developed a series of comprehensive videos aimed at helping practitioners and businesses enhance their productivity. These videos, delving into time management, activity planning, and overall efficiency, were well-received by various healthcare associations, providing practical insights for those seeking to optimise their work processes.

Webinars

Hosting webinars allowed me to delve into the intricacies of practice and business operations within the healthcare sector. These sessions attracted a diverse audience, and I had the opportunity to further collaborate with attendees through my consulting services, offering tailored guidance based on their specific needs.

Multidisciplinary Conferences

Speaking at conferences covering a range of topics, from business operations to career advancement in healthcare, provided a platform to share expertise and engage with professionals from all backgrounds.

Workshops

Hosting interactive workshops provides a more informal setting for exchanging ideas and feedback on various aspects of business operations, fostering a collaborative learning environment.

Podcast Appearances

Participating in podcasts allowed for engaging conversations about my professional journey and the insights shared in my book, this interactive platform provides a unique opportunity for dialogue and knowledge exchange between professionals.

Each of these speaking opportunities has not only enabled me to connect with audiences but has also served as a source of inspiration and fresh ideas. As I approach the later stages of my career, I'm excited about the prospect of tailoring my speaking engagements to address specific themes from the model in my book, catering to the needs of different audience segments with the different phases of the Health Practitioner’s Journey.

I'm eager to share insights that resonate with individuals at every stage of their professional journey. It could be guiding students and recent graduates on building a solid foundation for their practice. Or assisting established practitioners in maximising their commercial success, possibly moving into their own practice, or considering it may be time to take on a new challenge or look at options to exit their business

There's a wealth of topics I'm keen to explore further, and I look forward to the enriching experience of speaking to diverse audiences, each presenting a unique opportunity for learning and growth.

Michael A. Kenihan

Stage One for new Physiotherapy Graduates

When I was at Lifecare we established three levels of education for our practitioners. The initial stage was for graduates, 1 to 3 years into their careers. They were in the first stage of education which I call Clinical Excellence. 

It was important to have mentors who would teach these practitioners. I had guided Ross L through commencement of practice at Lifecare Prahran Sports Medicine Clinic and was fortunate to mentor him through stage one (with assistance from exceptional clinical mentors) and into Stage two commercial success. Just six years after graduation Ross was ready to fly!

I asked Ross if was interested in taking a new step, involving becoming a mentor and teacher of others. Despite his initial reluctance, Ross eventually agreed, thanks in part to some persuasive encouragement from me.

We were eager to commence level one mentoring with formal group sessions with the group of graduates from years 1 to 3 that were working at the Lifecare practices in Melbourne. In all we commenced with some eight graduates from six different practices. We named the sessions ‘manual handling and clinical reasoning’. 

I cover those aspects of learning in detail in my book 'The Health Practitioner's journey'. We identified that upon graduation these two aspects of practice need further teaching and by building up the skills in a group environment we believed we could facilitate greater clinical excellence in the graduate’s practices.

Learning in a supportive group of peers where you share what you know and learn together is a wonderful way to enhance your skills. Encouragement from both Ross and peers created an environment where the graduates rarely missed a session. 

The sessions also developed into an opportunity where participants could bring case studies to the session and collaboratively problem solve to find how to best treat or progress these patients in their recovery. A majority of those who participated found that their patient list grew quickly as they had acquired new skills that they applied to their practice. This also prepared them to enter Stage two, of Commercial success and they were well prepared with a solid base of clinical excellence.

Ross took to the challenge like a duck to water and contributed significantly to the development of these practitioners’ skill base. Equally importantly, Ross learnt valuable skills that he was able to apply to his own practice. Stephen Covery calls this approach three person teaching as I had assisted and trained Ross, he had trained his new grads and then encouraged them to share what they had leant to others at the businesses they were working in.

Structured learning needs to be interesting, relevant, and fit for purpose. By combining Ross’s acquired skills and engaging with a thoughtful, enthusiastic group of individuals who understood their position in their journey and the skills they needed to progress we created a very successful learning environment. We had cultivated a generation of new leaders in the Lifecare practices.

The Health Practitioners Journey Model

When I was planning  the structure for my book, “The Health Practitioners Journey” I thought about how a career in health practice usually unfolds. I thought it would be easier to explain by breaking it down into four stages.

Stage 1

The foundation of a successful career needs to be one of becoming as clinically excellent as possible.

Whomever I worked with, I reinforced that initial credibility as a practitioner comes from having a degree of mastery of the technical/clinical aspect of the craft. I also advise that years 1 and 2 from graduation are not about focussing on what you earn as the primary goal, but on building your clinical ability.

Stage two

Focus on commercial success where you start earning more and become busy.

The focus for stage two becomes more about developing referral relationships and gaining return patients. There needs to be some training from mentors and others for this stage. Maybe even some short courses that relate to commercial matters of customer service, finance and business development.

Stage three

Direct your career towards starting your own business to maximise equity.

This stage may not be for everyone. If you are comfortable with stage two and earning a satisfactory salary then you may choose to continue practicing where you are but if drawn to start something for yourself, commence a new challenge and apply the new knowledge then stage three maybe a natural progression for you.

Stage four

Leverage your asset by selling the business.

At some point you may want to realise the value of your asset by selling the business. You may continue working but with the business you started in the hands of someone with new energy. Stage four may mean retirement but may also be about new opportunities too.

If you have worked hard in the stages outlined above along the journey you will have harvested knowledge. Such knowledge will be invaluable as you move on to new challenges or want to grow the assets you have created

I use the metaphor of the “list “ as practice clinicians have a “list of patients/clients” that they see, particularly in private practice. In stage one you build the list, then in stage two you own your list, in stage three you lead your list, and finally in stage four you sell your list.

The notation at the base of the model indicates a timeline but this was never meant to be interpreted as tightly linear, many practitioners dip in and out of the stages or stop at a point in the journey where they find their satisfaction.

As I mused about the stages of the journey, I thought that perhaps the best way to convey the stages was by developing a model for the journey. That model is the essence of this book.