Dr. Toyin Ajayi has an ambitious mission to make health care accessible to all.
Ajay is the founder and CEO of Cityblock Health, a primary care provider focused on supporting America’s underserved communities.
She is undaunted by the enormity of her goal.
“Everything we enjoy and take for granted today didn’t exist before. Someone dreamed it into existence,” she says.
Having “confidence and ownership” is key to tackling complex problems, Ajayi told CNBC’s Julia Boorstin on the latest episode of the “CNBC Changemakers and Power Players” podcast.
After receiving her medical degree from King’s College London Medical School in 2008, Ajayi moved to Sierra Leone with the goal of revitalizing a children’s hospital.
When Ajay arrived, he found that the hospital’s pipes were broken and there was no water.
Before you can focus on high-level improvements, you must first learn how to repair pipes. I started with a hand-drawn map of the building’s water supply.
In her view, “all problems are like that,” says Ajayi. Once you understand the steps you need to take, “diagnose and take action.”
A problem-solving mindset has always been “the way my brain likes to work,” Ajayi says.
“I think for people like us who are trying to do big things and complex things, understanding the context and getting as far upstream as possible and understanding how it all connects is a really important part of problem-solving,” Ajayi says.
Her view on leadership: “You have to be motivated and curious.”
According to Ajayi, one of the common characteristics of leaders and innovators is a “fundamental belief that things can actually be improved and made different” and that they don’t feel “constrained” by the status quo.
It’s equally important for leaders to have “humility and curiosity,” she says.
While working in Sierra Leone, Ajayi noticed that local families were reluctant to take their children to the hospital.
After talking to people in the community, she realized the problem was a lack of trust. Many health care workers “didn’t bother to explain” how the hospital system worked.
“We weren’t taking the time to go to people and explain what we were doing and give them agency and choice,” she says.
This was a big lesson for Ajay. “In health care, it’s not enough to just build care and expect people to come. You have to go to them.”
“You have to meet them on their terms and you have to solve what they are trying to solve,” she continues.
That knowledge will inform the way Ajay leads City Block Health. Her goal is to “meet people where they are.”
“You have to be willing to be curious and persistent and patient and humble to ask for collaboration so that you understand all the different steps along the way,” she says.
Join us for a Q&A with CNBC’s Julia Boorstin. Request to join our LinkedIn group and chat with Julia, host of the CNBC Changemakers and Power Players Podcast, on Monday, November 24th at 12pm ET.
Have a question for Julia? Post it in the comments section of this LinkedIn post (you’ll need to join the private group first; you can join here). Or, send an email in advance to askmakeit@cnbc.com with the subject line “Ask Julia Boorstin.”
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Lessons from highly successful leaders in technology, media, startups, and more Advice, career paths, and stories from highly successful women in leadership The annual CNBC Changemakers list featuring women who are leading and transforming the business world within the largest companies, startups, and philanthropic organizations
