Check out this podcast, “Episode 125: Applications of Polarity Thinking™,” by Diverse Leaders with Dr. Barry Johnson. This episode is particularly valuable, “for people who want to make a positive difference by overcoming obstacles such as resistance to change and polarization.” Listen at https://bit.ly/3upg56M
Polarity Thinking
Applying Polarity Thinking to Increase Healthcare Leadership Capacity AND: Volume TWO Applications
Joy Goldman RN, MS, PCC; Petra Platzer PhD, NBC-HWC, PCC; Cliff Kayser MSHR, MSOD, PCC
Background:
“Applying Polarity Thinking to Increase Healthcare Leadership Capacity” (HRD Press,2021) highlights three uses of the polarity thinking framework to increase individual, team, and systemic leadership capacity in a community-based, multi-hospital health system. We illustrate how we helped the system shift from conducting a traditional “succession planning” process to one of improving overall “system-thinking capacity” so that the leaders would be more agile in responding to complex and unpredictable change.
The context of this work took place in an eight hospital, 1500 provider integrated health system. The initial request and planning, which was spearheaded by the outgoing CEO and the system board, was to prepare seven emerging leaders to become possible successors to the CEO who was planning on retiring within the next five years.
CLIENT RESULTS
Strategy: Aligning with SixSEED Partners’ goal of providing integrated solutions to heal healthcare, we worked with our C-level stakeholders to expand the vision of preparing the leaders for the CEO position to preparing the leaders to better lead within complex, ambiguous and unpredictable change. With this understanding, development work consisted of individual, team, and systemic level interventions, all integrating polarity thinking to increase overall capacity.
Solution: SixSEED Partners integrated polarity thinking and mapping as part of individual leader 360 -degree feedback development planning; we cascaded the framework to each leader’s team to scale the work and impact; and finally, to the entire system via identifying and measuring system-level tensions. Four polarities that were measured during our work included common tensions experienced within healthcare: Centralization and Decentralization; Continuity and Transformation; Mission and Margin, and Tactical and Strategic. Given the impact of this work, SixSEED Partners was asked to deliver polarity thinking training as part of a curriculum for a combined nursing and physician leadership academy.
Impact: Through delivering polarity thinking to over 100 nursing and physician leaders and over 130 additional staff, WSPH leadership shared this thinking competency was instrumental in supporting the systems’ response to COVID-19. The polarity framework was also integral to a strategic simulation wherein the high potential leaders assessed actual strategic challenges for WSPH and presented their solutions to a mock board of WSPH’s C-Suite. Under a new CEO, polarity assessments are being used to measure effectiveness within regionalization efforts in the system. Four of the seven leaders have been promoted to Senior Vice President roles.
What Now?
To learn more details about our work with this organization or other examples of how our clients have successfully applied Polarity Thinking to their healthcare “problems” –
contact SixSEED Partners at: info@sixseedpartners.com
We are proud contributors of multiple application chapters in the book: “And: Making a Difference by Leveraging Polarity, Paradox or Dilemma. Vol. 2. Applications” (2021).
Celebrating Publication of “Polarity Practitioners AND: Making a Difference by Leveraging Polarity, Paradox or Dilemma: Volume Two Applications”
Joy W. Goldman RN, MS PCC: CEO SixSEED Partners
Background:
We want to congratulate our strategic partners: Polarity Partnerships for publishing Barry Johnson’s sequel to his first book: “And, Volume One: Foundations.” SixSEED Partners is proud to have several chapters published in his second volume as quoted above and found here. Our collective nod to the other published practitioners included in Volume Two: you help bring this essential way of thinking to others to help make the world a healthier and more peaceful place to live and we thank you.
Both/And different from Problem-Solving
It is our vision that polarity thinking: both/and thinking will spread throughout healthcare as has Lean Thinking for process improvement. One of the major and important distinctions in this structured and evidence-based methodology is that as we increase the capacity of our teams to think in this way, immediate behavior change follows as they begin to see interactions and systems differently. We may find that we have less of a need for diversity, equity and inclusion programs, because our teams are integrating diversity, equity and inclusion in ALL that they do. We don’t need as many procedures as form follows function: behavior follows how we think.
Applications to our current work
SixSEED Partners has integrated both/and thinking in our individual coaching as part of the 360 feedback and development process; in our culture work with Information Technology and Healthcare organizations and medical groups; and in developing and strengthening nurse and physician leader partnerships. Outcomes have included:
- Less blaming and improved team cohesion and accountability
- Time freed up for executive level leaders as their teams are better able to manage complexity and numerous stakeholder interests
- Reduced expense and greater well-being as less time is spent on reactive cycles and frustration
You can see some of our case studies by going here.
Let’s hear from you
We’d love to hear how you are helping your leaders see the both/and to better manage complexity in a life-giving and sustainable way. If this work seems like it could help you and your teams, we’d love to talk with you to explore how this approach might help your clinical leaders. Please post your responses on our LinkedIn page or send us an email here.
Both/And Thinking Requisite for Post-Pandemic Leadership
Joy W. Goldman RN, MS PCC: CEO SixSEED Partners
Background: Three strategists from PwC published in April’s Harvard Business Review: “6 Leadership Paradoxes for the Post- Pandemic Era”. As we await the publishing of Barry Johnson’s:” AND: Making a Difference by Leveraging Polarity, Paradox and Dilemma: Volume 2 Applications,” in which we have contributed numerous chapters, we feel affirmed in focusing on this essential capacity for post-pandemic leaders. We’re also pleased to see that SixSEED Partners has worked with several individual and system clients to measure these exact tensions.
Both/And different from Problem-Solving
As a reminder, (see prior posts) both/and – polarity thinking supplements traditional either/or problem-solving thinking in order to best manage complex, ambiguous, volatile and uncertain situations- all of which are part of healthcare’s NOW. It’s an advanced thinking capacity as it requires a leader to be able to see (the first step of the SMALL polarity process: seeing-mapping-assessing learning-leveraging) what seems like opposing perspectives. Leinwand, Mani, and Sheppard highlight six of these interdependent tensions. Below we’ve highlighted their six and translated them into language we’ve used and measured with our clients:
We take HBR’s leader-focused tensions and expand into individual, team and systemic tensions. We’ve adopted the ethos behind the quote from a GE leader: “you don’t put a changed leader into an unchanged system.” As we partner with clients, we focus on individual, team and systemic tensions to ensure sustainable results.
Applications to our current work
SixSEED Partners has integrated these tensions in our individual coaching as part of the 360 feedback and development process; in our culture work with Information Technology and Healthcare organizations and medical groups; and in developing and strengthening nurse and physician leader partnerships. Pasted below you can see the results of measuring the tension of Centralization and Decentralization. At a glance, you can see the opportunity to better leverage centralization in this heart and vascular institute. The White infinity loop represents their actual scores as compared with the ideal grey loop. Through dialogue, it was eye-opening for this group of physicians to objectively see how often they fall into feeling victim to the needs of the larger organization instead of noticing their opportunity to better consider system factors as they plan their decentralized program efforts. In being able to consider and measure the both/and, they save time, energy and resources that go into over focusing on their division needs alone.
Let’s hear from you
We’d love to hear how you are helping your leaders see the both/and of these six paradoxes and others. If this work seems like it could help you and your teams, we’d love to talk with you to explore how this approach might help your clinical leaders. Please post your responses on our LinkedIn page or send us an email here.
Caring for the Organization & Caring for the Workforce
Joy W. Goldman RN, MS PCC: CEO SixSEED Partners
Introduction: Case for Change
- “Joy: (as told by a hospital CEO) “I am having a spiritual crisis. I have dedicated my life to this work and I am exhausted. I am getting emails from our system CEO at all hours of the night and weekends. And when are our senior meetings? Mondays.. so if we want to take a long weekend, we have to wrestle with missing those meetings or attending them on our time off.”
- From a dear friend: “My son (nurse in ICU) called me yesterday and told me he lost another patient. He commented that this is a daily occurrence and he sent me this very poignant video illustrating the journey of his fellow nurses and care-providers. He doesn’t feel that he can talk to anyone for fear they will think him “fragile” and unsafe.
- From a senior leader whose position was eliminated: “I was informed via a 10- minute zoom call that my position was eliminated and that I would be cut off from all communications as of that moment. I could only go to my office to clean out my belongings with an escort. I’ve worked for the organization for over twenty years and this is how I’m treated. I understand the need to re-organize but why wouldn’t they allow me to transition my projects to others?”
The stories above are direct quotes from clients and/or friends. As we reach the one- year mark for Covid-19 lockdowns and the now 500,000 deaths in the United States, more and more of these stories are surfacing. SixSEED Partners is committed to providing integrated solutions to heal healthcare and there is no greater time of need than right now.
Crisis in the Making: Grief, Trauma and Vicarious Trauma:
McKinsey & Company, in a December 2020 publication: “Grief, loss burnout: Talking about complex feelings at work” discuss the unparalleled levels of exhaustion and loss that have become “routine” for healthcare workers. Provider burnout was a concern before the pandemic- it is only magnified now in the constantly “on stage” demands of taking care of patients and trying to recoup financial losses due to fewer elective surgeries. The authors of “Healthcare Coaching Through Crisis and Trauma” (February 2021), published through Harvard’s Institute of Coaching, describe the experiences as passing even “severe burnout,” into the realm of trauma, vicarious trauma, and moral injury.” How are we challenging ourselves to slow down enough to put resources to this significant need? In many ways, we are reminded of our nation’s tension of leveraging individualism (each person responsible for their status/ wellbeing) with communal good (how are we caring for each other).
The Leadership Ecosystem Capacity Approach to Resilience and Restoration:
SixSEED Partners asserts that we each have a role in better leveraging caring for the workforce as we strive to keep our organizations afloat. Without workers, we have no margin. What’s in our control to do?
Please see the polarity map pasted below for some ideas of action steps and early warning signs to address this tension.
SixSEED Partners recently partnered with an academic medical center to offer a polarity thinking workshop to sixteen internal medicine faculty. These physicians were learning about leading change in patient quality and safety and we chose to help them expand their thinking to support their leading in complex and unpredictable environments. They voiced appreciation for the safe space where they got to share with their colleagues and learn that the challenges they were dealing with were not unique to them. They were also able to acknowledge that they needed to assume individual responsibility for self -advocacy and health as they worked so hard at taking care of others- whether that was at work or at home.
Let’s hear from you;
We’d love to hear your perspective as you and your organizations better leverage caring for your workforce. Please post your responses on our LinkedIn page or send us an email here.
SEEDS for Success with New Year Resolutions
Introduction: Case for Change
Have you given up on New Year’s resolutions because of repeated failures to achieve your goals? Are you searching for the right way to get sustainable results? Has the scale betrayed you again in this new year as you struggled to manage your weight amidst a work from home or constant adrenaline rush lifestyle? You are not alone. As so many of us do, we look back to our learnings from the past to inform our changes for the future. We are taking a different spin to a prior post in the context of supporting your wellbeing in this new year.
The Challenges:
As we enter a new year and vow to make changes in our personal and professional lives, we struggle with how best to do that, particularly amidst what we may hear about the failure rate of New Year Resolutions. In our efforts to find an example that might be universal, 2020 found many of us struggling with weight maintenance given our moving less and staring into a computer screen for 8-10 hours/day. While there is great literature on successful habit cultivation, they often fail to take a systems’ and mindset perspective necessary in dealing with complex situations.
2020 has required us to create structures AND be flexible and adaptive; leverage what we know as we advance into what is not known; honor existing familiar traditions as we create new ways of being with each other. In revisiting our post from May of 2020 on taking ourselves seriously and taking ourselves lightly, we present this spin as it relates to improving personal health goals around weight management.
Leveraging taking ourselves seriously and taking ourselves lightly:
At SixSEED Partners, we help our clients integrate both/and thinking in addition to traditional problem-solving- either/or approaches. The elimination of perceptions of “good or bad,” “right or wrong,” helps our clients to take a more systems-oriented approach to complex challenges. In the polarity map pasted below, you will notice a common tension of a serious/structured weight management approach and a more playful and spontaneous approach to weight management and health. Effective and sustainable weight management requires leveraging both upper poles, and mitigating the risk of overdoing either, to the neglect of the other.
When we take ourselves too seriously to the neglect of a lighter approach, our inner judgers become active when we find that we’re not meeting our health goals and we’re not enjoying life. If we overfocus on a more spontaneous approach to weight management (as just one common health attribute), we’re having fun but not meeting our physical health goals. Using a polarity thinking frame helps us to see ourselves as a system that requires leveraging both poles.
What can you do? (action items and warning signs):
Even as I write this blog, I notice physical signs where my breathing becomes more shallow; there is a sense of tightness and heaviness and I notice my active judger interfering with my free flow of writing. As I notice my own warning signs of taking myself too seriously, I open my chest more to allow easier breathing; I laugh and put this blog in the context of other problems in our world today; and I take a time out to exercise and move my body which amazingly impacts my movement in thinking. I also access others more expert than I to help modify and edit, knowing I’m not alone in this work. See our sample map below for actions you might take for success in weight management and other similar thorny challenges.
Let’s hear from you:
What have you found helpful in leveraging taking yourself seriously and taking yourself lightly? In our next blog, we’ll be focusing on our leadership development seed as we discuss a common challenge of holding others accountable AND giving them freedom in doing their job. If you’re interested in learning more about how our team can help yours, contact us today!