Leadership and Patient Safety
May 7, 2010 by Beverley Simpson
We often hear about the need for leadership in health care practice. Yet for many, the word leader is just another buzzword. We often think leaders are born not made, and leadership is for others with important titles, nice offices and assistants at the door.
Our experiences with the Dorothy Wylie Nursing and Health Leaders Institute, now in its 10th year with over 2300 alumni, provide us with a different mental model. We believe that building leadership skills and developing leadership competence and confidence is important for every health professional. We believe leadership makes a profound difference in the quality of care patients receive. We believe that health professionals who see themselves as leaders will make a difference in every patient and family interaction. Read more
Leadership at the Movies: Invictus and 5 Leadership Practices
December 20, 2009 by Beverley Simpson
Morgan Freeman and Clint Eastwood have created another very special movie now playing across North America. Invictus is the story of Nelson Mandela’s early days as President of South Africa, and particularly how he viewed the country’s Rugby team, the Springboks, and an upcoming World Cup event to be held in South Africa, as an opportunity to bring the country together.
The year is 1995. Mandela (Freeman) is in his first term as President. He recognizes the tremendous challenges facing his government in a land torn apart by apartheid. Racial tensions are at an all time high, people are struggling with the effects of crippling unemployment, and a new black government has shifted the balance of political power. Read more
Developing Leaders
November 11, 2009 by Beverley Simpson
The challenging work of leaders is to attract and engage talented people, invest in and coach their development, and support them to enable change, innovate and solve problems.
This is the path to sustainable growth and success in any industry – no less in healthcare – as well as personal satisfaction and engagement. Read more
Leading in Complex Systems
November 10, 2009 by Beverley Simpson
Health care leaders have begun to adapt to the complexities, ambiguities and paradoxes that are now the norm in healthcare.
It is more and more apparent that the emerging field of complexity science offers important strategies for leading in chaotic, complex healthcare environments. A 2001 survey by Burns found that healthcare leaders intuitively support principles of complexity science and understand the value of complex adaptive systems as a model for leading and managing in healthcare environments.
Leadership that uses complexity principles offers opportunities to focus less on prediction and control and more on fostering relationships and creating conditions in which complex adaptive systems can evolve and produce creative outcomes.
Read more