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Healthcare Leadership in Uncertain Times

Written by: Ralph Jacob

Article Overview: Many healthcare leaders have sat out the year waiting for new legislation from Washington. They believe this gives them certainty and comfort. But healthcare leaders face daunting challenges and great uncertainty. This article provides initial advice how to proceed.

Healthcare Leadership in Uncertain Times

Although by a tortuous route, Congress will soon pass new healthcare legislation. The leaders of many healthcare institutions will feel somewhat relieved believing the landscape before them has been better defined. They will have a sense that now they can take the appropriate steps to move their organizations forward. In my work with a number of healthcare institutions I observed that in the face of economic downturn and an unclear national healthcare agenda, most leaders have sat this year out preferring instead to place their organizations in a holding pattern. At one level there is clear understanding why one would take this route. With an uncertain future, committing resources seems at its face unadvisable. I have also observed that many healthcare institutions have not developed the capacity to quickly adjust to changing circumstances. They have not established the leadership and followership at the necessary organization levels. In other words, they have not prepared themselves to address the external change, whatever that may be. It is like being ready to build new houses without having first developed the water, sewer, roads, schools, and utilities infrastructure. No can do. Senior healthcare leaders need to develop the capacity within their organizations to effectively respond to what looks like a rapidly changing situation…whatever that may be. Everyone realizes the frailties of the current healthcare system…everyone acknowledges it must change. No one wants to lose their current status, so everyone fights to maintain for at least what they have. Unfortunately, most organizations have lost precious time and are no better off today than they were a year ago to address what is likely to happen…whatever that may be. My belief is that the winners will be those organizations that are armed and ready for change. What does that mean? 1. The upcoming legislation will provide some of the answers, but not all of them. There will be movement, but not finite action and many of the most difficult decisions will not be made. In other words, certainty will not be assured. 2. Healthcare organizations should undertake a planning process not for the purpose of predicting the future, but to discover what they might do under different circumstances. This scenario planning exercise provides insight, learning, and creates preparedness for different circumstances. 3. Whatever the future portends, organizations need to determine how they can become more agile. How they can improve internal communications. How they build a stronger sense of internal community to improve quality, efficiency, and morale. This suggests that healthcare organizations not seek specific answers, but instead learn how to deal with uncertainty. It means looking at new internal and external relationships and looking for possibilities. Decisions are seen not in the context of a specific external reality, but in the longer term context of greater. It means learning how to think about and deal with risk. Effectively executed, it means more power rests with those organizations that take a proactive stance.

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Article Tags: belief, circumstances, current status, economic downturn, frailties, healthcare institutions, healthcare leaders, healthcare legislation, healthcare system, infrastructure, landscape, leadership and followership, national healthcare, necessary organization, new houses, organization levels, precious time, tortuous route, uncertain future, water sewer



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