From Wicked Problems to World-Class Healthcare: Why America Needs a Leadership REVOLUTION
A new brand of leadership and a systems approach is required to fix the unsustainable “wicked” or chronic nature—complex, unsafe, unreliable, costly, wasteful, unsustainable, and frustrating—of the US health system. It is time to transform the ailing US health system into the most reliable and innovative health system with the healthiest nation in the world, now. Picture a complex web, where each strand represents a unique “wicked problem”:
Costs Skyrocket: The rising expense of healthcare is eating away at our national wealth at an alarming rate, leaving millions of people without health insurance or with inadequate coverage.
Without the smooth, coordinated care they need, patients are left to navigate a maze of unrelated institutions and specialists.
The Role of Societal Factors in Health: More so than any medication or operation, poverty, food insecurity, inadequate education, and unsafe housing cast long shadows and affect health outcomes.
Workers in the healthcare industry are burnt out because they are unable to provide the high-quality treatment that patients deserve due to excessive bureaucracy and constant pressure.
These issues are complex, mutually reinforcing, and difficult to resolve. These “wicked problems” will not go away no matter how much money is poured into technology or how many policy levers are manipulated; what is required is a complete change in leadership and management of healthcare.
Ditch the Industrial-Era Playbook: Building AGILE Leaders for a Dizzying, Dynamic Healthcare Landscape
Thousands of publications on strategic, transformational, collaborative, and complex leadership exist, but few focus on the environment of healthcare and its leaders. Comprehensive studies of strategic-level health leadership and cohorts of senior health leaders do not exist. A bottleneck is leader development practices. Numerous studies cite health leader development gaps associated with individual performance at higher levels of progression and complexity. The root cause is the application of industrial-era leadership theories in an era of a dynamic, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (DUCA) environment and transforming the health systems to create better health, wellness, and resilience. It’s about building leaders who:
- Think Systematically: They are able to see the big picture, ignoring boundaries and specializations, and grasping the myriad ways in which different things affect people’s health.
- Agility: They gracefully adapt to the ever-changing healthcare landscape, navigating uncertainty and change.
- Equity: Supporters of equity work to eliminate inequalities and promote access to high-quality healthcare for all people.
- Inspiring and Collaborative: They create a safe space for others to share ideas and work together, establishing partnerships both inside and outside of companies.
Create: Build Systems That Can Resist Healthcare’s Unpredictable Challenges by Emphasizing - Resilience: They Work to Improve Their Own and Their Teams’ Health and Wellness.
Stop Training COGS, Start Minting MINDS: The SHELDR Series – Your Roadmap to Transformational Healthcare Leadership
Better prepared leaders, especially those at the strategic health or complex health system or interagency levels–adept at systems, agile, and adaptive thinking and transformational or change leadership–who can stimulate, motivate, and influence others within and across organization boundaries is critical. They are in short supply. A start would be to study successful health leaders—their impacts, experiences, insights, and preparation and share them with aspiring strategic-level leaders who want to be more strategic-minded.
From Aspiring Leader to Healthcare CHAMPION: Learn from the BEST, Become the CHANGE – Join the SHELDR Movement
The Strategic Health Leadership (SHELDR) Thought Leadership Series –blogs, articles, whitepapers, publications—will share why and how to apply SHELDR competencies to create better health such as leveraging and integrating the social determinants of health. The goals are to develop more strategic-minded leaders and make current leaders more effective. Content will center on the environment, trends, most prominent competencies, barriers, lessons, and successes associated with SHELDR development.
SHELDR is accessible to everyone, not only hospital administrators and CEOs. Everyone who has an impact on the future of healthcare, including legislators, social workers, and nurses, should read it. The SHELDR movement is all about empowering yourself to make a difference by acquiring the necessary knowledge, skills, and mindset.
From Social Determinants to System-Wide Solutions: Building EQUITY and Resilience through SHELDR – Join the REVOLUTION
The SHELDR revolution is not for spectators. Leaders at every level are passionate and committed to this grassroots movement. Join us in building an affordable, accessible, and equitable healthcare system for a great nation. Strategic leadership, equity, and a relentless pursuit of a healthier future can unravel healthcare’s problems. This dream is a revolution waiting to happen. Are you in?
Change begins with you. Every leader, voice, and action counts. Let’s make SHELDR the new standard for healthcare leadership and weave a legacy of excellence for future generations.
Let’s fix healthcare and heal America
Many would argue HEALTH, not healthcare is a national strategic imperative. THEY ARE RIGHT! Advancing an understanding of strategic health leadership in the context of today’s challenges will result in better-prepared leaders. Transferable insights for all healthcare sectors will be derived: strategic-minded leader development, selection of future leaders, and leader education.
More articles in the SHELDR Thought Leadership Series will explore specific competencies, challenges, and solutions for building a world-class healthcare system with SHELDR.
Questions to spark your SHELDR adventure
- In healthcare, what is the one “wicked problem” that really gets under your skin?
- How can you approach the problems in your area of influence with a more systemic mindset?
- What can you do to make your community and workplace more welcoming and equitable for all people?
- How can you and your team members strengthen your ability to adapt to change and uncertainty?
- In SHELDR, who are the leaders you can look up to and work with as an example?
Are you in? Comments?
About the Author: I am passionate about making health a national strategic imperative, transforming and integrating health and human services sectors to be more responsive, and leveraging the social drivers and determinants of health (SDOH) to create healthier, wealthier, and resilient individuals, families, and communities. I specialize in coaching managers and leaders on initial development, continuously improving, or sustaining their Strategic Health Leadership (SHELDR) competencies to thrive in an era to solve wicked health problems and artificial intelligence (AI). Visit https://SHELDR.COM or contact me for more BLIP-ZIP SHELDR advice, coaching, and consulting. Check out my publication: Health Systems Thinking: A Primer You can follow his thoughts on X Twitter: @Doug_Anderson57 and Flipboard E-Mag: Strategic Health Leadership (SHELDR)
