Meet Bruce Gottlieb, Chief Operating Officer at Flatiron Health

“As the company's chief operating officer, I’m focused on making sure we create a sustainable business model. Like any senior leader at the company, I’m responsible for making sure we are building a culture that supports our mission and ideals. Mandala helps us do both.

The biggest blocker to both problem solving and innovation is being able to work together. Our capacity to work together is shaped significantly by how well we understand each other and our lived experiences. Mandala has helped me better connect with and understand people on my team, many of whom have very different perspectives and lived experiences.

What makes Mandala special is that it’s given us very practical, easy-to-integrate tools that are informed by values that we hold. It has helped make us a stronger and better community that attracts and retains talent, and in doing so, it helps us create stronger and better business outcomes.” – Bruce Gottlieb, Chief Operating Officer

‍Tell me more about where you’re from. Where did you grow up?

I’m half Jewish, from my dad, and half Chinese, from my mom. My parents left Europe and China at the beginning of the 20th century and  the tail end of World War II respectively—both finding refuge in America. I think that perspective of what America offers is foundational to my view of this country.

We left places where we really weren't welcome and we found in the United States, on both sides, a place of refuge. That is certainly a perspective that has had a big impact on my life. I actually have seen how in subsequent generations my family has been lucky enough to take advantage of many of the things that the United States has to offer.

Could you tell me more?

Well, it's interesting. From my mother, I think, what she always emphasized that meant so much to her about the United States is that she had the opportunity to decide who she wanted to be, what kind of life she wanted, and to make it possible. She is a scientist and a doctor, and she felt that in traditional Chinese culture that the life path she took was something that would not have been available to her. So in certain ways, actually being in the United States allowed her to step out of roles and expectations that might have been placed on her had she stayed in China, and she was part of a generation where she was one of the first female doctors to practice, certainly in St. Louis, Missouri, where we grew up. I think for her, the sense that she was able to have that life and the career that's meant so much to her was something that she really treasured about the United States.

How do you think that, and being part of two different cultures, shaped you?

It's a great question. I think part of being a product of two very different cultures does mean that there's no one culture or one kind of way of being that is expected of you or what seems kind of foreordained or natural. When I talked about my mother's experience in being able to pick certain elements of American culture and of course certain elements of the culture she came from, in certain ways I was probably talking about my own experience, too, and having the opportunity to be part of very different cultures that I've come from. Also, it is about choosing what is most important to me and, in certain ways, creating my own mix of cultures in my life and also in terms of how my wife and I have built our family and the lives of our children.

What does your role look like at Flatiron?

So I'm the company's chief operating officer. I'm actually the first person to be in that role for the business. I think we were about 11 years old when the CEO decided to create that role. The things that I do specifically and the parts of the business that report directly to me include our finance, legal, compliance, privacy, and corporate strategic operations teams. What I think I'm also very, very focused on is working closely with my colleagues at the company to make sure that we are building a sustainable business model and also, like any senior leader at the company, to make sure that we are building a culture that supports our mission and ideals, as well as a culture that supports our ability to be a successful business.

I think one thing I would say is important in what newer businesses like Flatiron need to do is to bring perspectives under a single roof that have not typically been brought together. At Flatiron, we need people with clinical expertise, with life sciences and pharma expertise, with engineering expertise, with business expertise, who understand many different parts of the healthcare landscape. We need to understand what the existing business models are, how they work, and why they work. We also need people who can question what exists today and come up with new models that improve upon what exists already.

One thing I've found is there is no single person or likely even small group of people, who have all of that necessary expertise. So what I've learned, and many of the other businesses I've worked in you could say some of the same things about, is that you have to build teams of people that collectively have that expertise. And then you need to work together in a way that one plus one equals three, and each person brings to the table the thing that they know and you put that together in a way to really solve these complicated problems rather than, I think, devolve, as sometimes happens in a situation where you're arguing about whose perspective is better or right. That can't be the way to solve these problems, it is going to take understanding these different perspectives and putting them together in a way that they haven't been put together before in order to succeed.

In the context of that, how do you see Mandala?

Well, as the company's chief operating officer I’m focused on making sure we create a sustainable business model. And like any senior leader at the company, I’m responsible for making sure we are building a culture that supports our mission and ideals. Mandala helps us do both.

The biggest blocker to both problem solving and innovation is being able to work together. Our capacity to work together is shaped significantly by how well we understand each other and our lived experiences. Mandala has helped me better connect with and understand people on my team, many of whom have very different perspectives and lived experiences.

Flatiron is deeply committed to diversity and inclusion. Mandala has helped us step beyond just a commitment to certain beliefs and ideals, but to help us understand how we put those into practice in our business in a way that helps us attract and retain talented people that make a huge impact on what we do as a business. For each of us as leaders, by understanding each other better and understanding the different perspectives of the many, many members of the Flatiron community, we take that understanding to build ourselves into a more tight-knit and effective community. It's a way of putting in practice values that we strongly believe in, but also a way to make us a stronger organization and a stronger business.

Can you share more?

One way Mandala served me is in some of the small group sessions we've done. I've spent time with colleagues whom I work with but whose personal stories I didn't always know. Through the process of working together through some of the scenarios that you've presented us, I've actually learned a great deal more about my colleagues as people, and I hope that they've learned a bit more about me as a person and what makes me tick.

I would say the second thing that I've really taken away from my work with Mandala is to have a deeper appreciation for the way in which all the things that somebody brings with them into the workplace affect how they interpret and understand what's being asked of them, what they're asking of others, and how we all work together. Some of the examples we've worked through have had to do with things like, how do you deal with a really difficult situation when you have an unhappy client, which unfortunately is part of business, or when you're trying to work through a situation where a manager and someone who reports to them really aren't on the same page about how well things are going and what each of them need to do for each other.

I think the examples you've given us and the conversations that you've inspired us to have really done a great job in bringing home something that I think we know, but which everyone needs to be reminded of, which is the different experiences that people bring have a huge impact on how they understand and interpret what's going on in the workplace.

How would you talk about the ROI of a program like this, particularly to other operating or people leaders who are trying to ensure value for programming? 

What we've worked through with Mandala are ways to solve business problems. Now, some business problems are maybe not necessarily connected to people's experiences outside the workforce or different perspectives that people bring, but many business problems are, and even things that I think to me have a hybrid character, which is, what are we going to do because a client is unhappy? Or what are we going to do when there seems to be an imperfect fit between a manager and an independent contributor? I think we need to appreciate the extent to which issues around diversity and inclusion can be a big part of those situations. What you've helped us do is understand them and give us a vocabulary to use when we try and solve business problems every day—including, how do we take a group of people that bring different skill-sets and experiences and knit ourselves together in a team that can solve problems that none of us could solve individually.

What makes Mandala different?

To me, it's an emphasis on being practical, on how do you take ideas that are often talked about in terms of policy or philosophical approaches or commitments or issues of ethics, all of which are important, but how do you take those ideas and how do you apply them practically in the workforce to solve the kinds of problems that I think we try to spend each day solving?

What makes Mandala special is that it’s given us very practical, easy-to-integrate tools that are informed by values that we hold. It has helped make us a stronger and better community that attracts and retains talent, and in doing so, it helps us create stronger and better business outcomes.

To me, the most exciting part of my day is when I've learned something new that I can actually apply going forward to make me better at my job. I feel so fortunate to have worked in businesses that have allowed me to have that experience again and again. 

What I've gotten from Mandala is a different perspective on why people might not see the same set of facts the same way, but also a series of tools, very practical tools, informed by values that I think everyone at Flatiron holds. But what we've learned is, in a very practical way, how do you take those values and allow them to make you a stronger and better community and a stronger and better business.

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