Raising Up Leaders

First instruction:
A green sign with these words: "Select a picture that reflect's your organization's leadership intentions."

Folding tables are covered by hundreds of glossy 8x10" pictures, reflecting a diversity of styles and subject matter. A close up of Fruit Loops swimming in milk; divers feeding a manatee; Impressionist lanscapes; a vista of Machu Picchu; blurred whisps of cyclists flying across the French landscape; a blurry black and white of a naked woman on a horse; a placid sea turtle backlit into silhouette by the sun  a grainy sepia-tone group of miners, huddled against the cold, grizzled and worn, eyes boring into the camera.

Each attendee selects a picture to answer the opening question. No two pictures are alike. We'll find out later what the pictures are for.

Gillette Children's Specialty Healthcare in Minnesota has established their Leadership Academy on a combination of externally and internally developed curricular elements to encourage leadership growth at all levels of the organization. The program is open to all employees, regardless of title.

Gilette is a over 100 years old as an organization, but in the last decade, has gone from 450 to 1,100 employees, making intentional leadership growth a priorty for health growth. Even in the midst of expansion, Gilette is a very flat organization without director positions -- managers are the highest level for the leadership academy.

The program is based on engaging learners in three ways:

1. Allow participants to choose what they take and when (courses are not in lockstep; learners can choose what is most pertinent to them and take it when it fits their schedule)
2. Engage learners through intentional, relevant work;  courses must have prework, homework and follow up activities. Sustaining learning is both a goal and a challenge.
3. Continuing evaluation of the progress of the leadership program through a 360 process.

The training in the Annual Leadership Conference session is based around a "World Cafe" model, modified for the time and logistic constraints of the room. Attendees took sticky notes and pasted answers on the wall to the following six questions:

1. What about your organization's culture program development informs your leadership?
2. How might you assess your leaders' needs for formal skill and knowledge development?
3. What constraints unique to your organization would influence your planning process?
4. Are there rhythms or initiatives present in your organization that would dictate your program implementation?
5. What evaluation perameters and methods would provide feedback to enhance future programming?
6. What short and long term goals/outcomes might you examine as part of your leadership program success?

Attendee responses and other wrap-up from the session will be available soon on the NACHRI Web site in the notes and overviews for Monday sessions.

The pictures, it turns out, are meant to help people visualize how they internally think about their organizations. Last instruction: As you reflect on picture, think about these four questions:

• Does it reflect your organization's historic place in the health care community?
• Does it reflect your organization's present leadership stance?
• Does it reflect your organization's clear direction for the future?
• Does it reflect your organization in the midst of change?

What kind of image would you use to think about your organization's leadership? How does that image reflect how you think about what direction your organization is going?