polarity thinking Archives - Page 2 of 2

On July 25th, Dr. Larry McEvoy and I had the privilege of presenting the above topic to a room filled with leaders, recruiters, and consultants attending the American Hospital Association 2019 Leadership Summit in San Diego. We provided a case study that illustrated the application of a different paradigm in addressing succession planning. What the audience most appreciated were the five key shifts necessary to leverage systemic leadership capacity that drives results while fostering better engagement and well-being. They are as follows:

“Bet on the herd; not the horse.” Paradigm shift from heroic leader with development of a select few, to increasing the thinking capacity of many leaders. Focus on the collective rather than individual leadership.
Create deep thinkers who are comfortable with the unknown and who create developer leaders. These leaders see “scaling leadership” as a key accountability area for their role. Development is not a “nice to have.” It’s an intentional, systemic priority with frequent and varied feedback loops.
Cascading both/and—polarity thinking along with problem-oriented thinking (either/or): Leaders are often promoted for their problem-solving ability. Unfortunately, all the simple problems have been solved and healthcare is now dealing with complex issues that are interdependent. This requires the ability to see and effectively leverage the larger system of polarities: mission and margin; tactical and strategic; centralized and decentralized; continuity and transformation. Cascading a system’s capacity to manage paradox increases the system’s ability to compete in this complex world.
Providing strategic simulation experiences that intentionally take the leaders out of their comfort zones; pairs them with leaders with whom they share different perspectives and apply time constraints that simulate the pressures CEOs face in dealing with real environmental challenges. This exercise provided a real-world “heat” experience that included their presenting to a mock board with challenging questions a CEO would experience from the board.
Be a lens, not a filter: Shifting from silo’d selection and placement of CEO to an integrated process that proactively identifies development needs and structured methods to meet those needs post CEO hire. The goal of the succession/ development efforts being stabilization of the entire system during times of transition as compared with filling a given role.

Click here to download a copy of our presentation. We’d love to hear from you!

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References:

Anderson, Robert, and William Adams. Scaling Leadership: Building Organization Capability and Capacity to Create Outcomes that Matter Most. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley and Sons, Inc., 2019

Anderson, Robert, and William Adams. Mastering Leadership: an Integrated Framework for Breakthrough Performance and Extraordinary Business Results. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley and Sons, Inc., 2016

Johnson, Barry. Polarity Management: Identifying and Managing Unsolvable Problems. Amherst, MA: HRD Press, Inc. 1996

Petrie, Nick. The How To of Vertical Leadership Development Part II: 30 Experts; 3 Conditions and 15 approaches. Colorado Springs, CO: The Center for Creative Leadership, 2015 (http://tinyurl.com/jrxuvgx)

In April of 2019, WellSpan Physician and Nursing leaders were brought together for a transformative Day of Learning conducted by SixSeed Partners.

Dr. Larry McEvoy presenting the background of polarities.

For over a year SixSeed Partners worked with system senior leaders to increase the capacities for transformational change and leveraging polarities to create and measure sustainable performance. As the work of polarities had begun to permeate throughout the system, the was an expressed need to increase nursing and physician leadership knowledge about the power of polarities.

Educating Nursing Leadership AND Physician Leadership

Polarities are interdependent pairs of values or points of view that may appear as opposite, but when leveraged together can produce powerful outcomes. Prior to the workshop,

WellSpan choose four polarities to concentrate their work:Joy Goldman, RN, MS, PCC discusses the mindset shift to AND thinking.

Centralized and Decentralized- Focus on the independent business units needs AND systems opportunities;
Continuity and Transformation- Keeping the legacy and traditions of the past AND transforming for the future;
Tactical and Strategic- Increasing leadership capacity to think tactically AND strategically at the same time; and
Margin and Mission- Optimizing the financial health AND mission goals for individuals, systems and teams.

The physicians and nursing leaders learned that each polarity was not a problem to be solved, but a mindset to embrace, thus the “AND” mindset was put in motion for the group. Interactive practice tools were given to help mobilize teams toward forward movement when they experienced repeated cycles of interdependent tension.

Perhaps the most significant take-away was the provision of language for the leaders to hold and invite numerous perspectives, which support AND thinking and leading within complexity.

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Individual leaders start to map their own polarities.

“It was so helpful to hear what others have learned. I’m a new director, so to hear from other directors and doctors was so helpful for me in my new role.” — Nursing Director

“To mention the elephant in the room, it was pivotal to our success today to bring nursing and physician leaders into the same room, to encourage dialogue around our common polarities.” — Chief Medical Officer

“I am going to go back to my team tomorrow and integrate eight minutes of dialogue into our meetings instead of our usual one-way conversation and problem solving.” — Physician Leader

Next Generation Succession 2.0: Leveraging Succession to Accelerate Leadership Capacity

Leveraging Polarities to Create Sustainable High Performance: A Physician and Nurse Leadership Academy Day of Learning

Educating Nursing Leadership AND Physician Leadership

“It was so helpful to hear what others have learned. I’m a new director, so to hear from other directors and doctors was so helpful for me in my new role.” — Nursing Director

“To mention the elephant in the room, it was pivotal to our success today to bring nursing and physician leaders into the same room, to encourage dialogue around our common polarities.” — Chief Medical Officer

“I am going to go back to my team tomorrow and integrate eight minutes of dialogue into our meetings instead of our usual one-way conversation and problem solving.” — Physician Leader

polarity thinking

Educating Nursing Leadership AND Physician Leadership

“It was so helpful to hear what others have learned. I’m a new director, so to hear from other directors and doctors was so helpful for me in my new role.” — Nursing Director

“To mention the elephant in the room, it was pivotal to our success today to bring nursing and physician leaders into the same room, to encourage dialogue around our common polarities.” — Chief Medical Officer

“I am going to go back to my team tomorrow and integrate eight minutes of dialogue into our meetings instead of our usual one-way conversation and problem solving.” — Physician Leader

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