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Darwin, the environment, diversity and the leadership of organisations in troubled times

Darwin, the environment, diversity and the leadership of organisations in troubled times. Paul Corrigan. Darwin, the environment, diversity and the leadership of organisations in troubled times. Why Darwin? Being adaptable (rather than adapting to the environment) and diversity

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Darwin, the environment, diversity and the leadership of organisations in troubled times

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  1. Darwin, the environment, diversity and the leadership of organisations in troubled times Paul Corrigan

  2. Darwin, the environment, diversity and the leadership of organisations in troubled times • Why Darwin? • Being adaptable (rather than adapting to the environment) and diversity • What does that mean for a hospital 1) the whole institution needs to notice changes and talk about and report them LEARN • 2) These changes need to be noted, understood and sifted by the leadership of the institution that is listening hard THINK • 3) The leadership needs to then help different parts of the organisation to act differently all the time and learn from those actions iteratively ACT/EVALUATE • Not just learn, think, act and evaluate but all four linked together • Herds will all fail together/ Diversity will ensure that some organisations succeed. • Just what will successful hospitals be doing in 10 years time

  3. Why Darwin? • Organisations, industries and services survive thrive or fail over historical periods • Environments interact with them and ensure that some survive and thrive and others fail. • (The institutions that are always doomed are those that believe they can buck the environment) • Survival of the fittest is the survival of the ones that learn and learn

  4. Being adaptable (rather than adapting to the environment) and diversity • Organisms survive that adapt to the environment • Species gets furrier as it gets colder therefore survives • BUT sudden hot spell kills it off • Some little issues become very big issues and some just become little things • Species survive that have diversity within the species and pick up not just the big constant signals but the little signals • Diverse species are as a species adaptable to big and little changes

  5. What does that mean for a hospital 1) the whole institution needs to notice changes and talk about and report them • There is a species in 2009 called hospitals. How do they survive and thrive in this environment. • (Last month average profit in US for profit sector hospitals was 0%) • They have lots of opportunities, staff and service interactions to pick up large and small environmental changes. • When people notice these they need to talk through whether they are big or little idiosyncratic or thematic and report then upwards? What IS happening out there? • (DoF will notice next years income. Most people will have friend sin the private sector losing their jobs (and homes?) today) • (Medical director will be driving length of stay down. What are the beds going to be for?) • (Oncologists will know that chemotherapy can be carried out at home in 10 years time) • These are all signals that need to be thought through

  6. These changes need to be noted, understood and sifted by the leadership of the institution that is listening hard • That is interesting but is it important • (If in a given month 20% of staff report friends losing jobs, something is happening. Should we be planning next years budget the way in which we are) • If it is important do we need a little change or a big change • What do we do and how do we use what we do to learn more?

  7. The leadership needs to help different parts of the organisation to act differently all the time and learn from those actions iteratively • IF the environment is uncertain, its best to try a number of little changes from the things you pick up which will interact with different small aspects • You can then learn from each of them and find which ones interact well and which fail • Evaluate all the time what you are doing and learning • (And as you do this the environment is changing again)

  8. Not juts learn, think, act, evaluate but all four all the time • Each of these are interesting activities BUT in terms of thriving institutions each one of these is useless without the others • You MUST pick up small changes in the environment. • You MUST think hard about all of these • You MUST act on these in small ways • You MUST evaluate and do all these things all the time

  9. Herds will all fail together/Diversity will ensure that some survive • There is a tendency for everyone to look at everyone else and follow their action. If the first one is wrong, they all die. • Differentiation coupled with learning and fast little actions will mean that everyone is different at any one time. • The species is then at any one time slightly facing in different directions and doing different things

  10. Just what will successful hospitals be doing in 10 years time • I don’t know, but probably in the relationships that you have in this room is the answer • (Hospital in the home?) • How do you ensure your institution learns from those relationships thinks about them and acts on them • My tip is that the health service and the part of the health service that significantly changes the value chain of health and health service will really thrive

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