Lead. Change. Invest. Repeat.

Abstract

If one starts with the premise that in healthcare the only thing you can count on is change, and the pace of that change will probably continue to accelerate, then it is critical that healthcare leaders develop skills not just to manage change but, most importantly, to lead change. Leaders must become more comfortable with change than they are with the status quo. The industry has known this for a while and has (mainly in the area of quality improvement and cost reduction) embraced various methodologies, including CQI, lean, Six Sigma and others. Frequently, these are initiatives that start with the executive team committing to a target and then either methodically training a group that trains the rest of the staff or training everyone at once – often spending an entire year, or more, in training. Then the projects begin, with teams sequestered for hours or days, to design new processes. When all the work does not produce significant results, the organisation either declares victory anyway or moves on to another initiative. Either way, change is not developed as a skill, and leaders are often left feeling that another initiative has come and gone without much to show for the effort. At Henry Ford West Bloomfield Hospital (HFWBH), a different approach was taken, on the premise that an organisation’s ultimate success is built on leading and making change among the core skills of an entire leadership team. This paper discusses Henry Ford West Bloomfield Hospital’s aim to ‘be the change’, to be flexible in making changes in the areas of accountability, speed and implementation.