by Thomas Dahlborg

Often we hear that collaboration and collaborative leadership is crucial to bringing adaptive change to our profoundly broken health care system.

And yet, to truly be successful in improving our health care system, a health care organization must first create a foundation for such change.

When each voice is heard and accountability is shared, the Mission, Vision, Values and Guiding Principles of a successful health care organization are not only words on paper, but principals that are lived and honored.

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This is how a successful health care organization creates and embraces a culture committed to initiating adaptive change. Characteristics of this type of culture include such things as:

>>Sharing leadership and responsibility
>>Creating an environment of compassion and caring
>>Creating an environment of trust and respect
>>Practicing reverent participatory relationship
>>Expecting, encouraging and managing conflict as we learn and grow
>>Striving to be an emotionally intelligent organization
>>Being discerning without being judgmental
>>Asking for what we need and giving what we can
>>Honoring all of our commitments
>>Positioning one another for success
>>Maintaining integrity in all we do
>>Honoring one another as individuals and as a group
>>Exceeding the expectations of those we serve
>>Supporting innovation when it supports the healing encounter
>>Aligning passions, roles and responsibilities
>>Ensuring optimal value is delivered at every phase of the healing encounter
>>Recognizing there are many paths to healing
>>Supporting healing through expert research and outcomes scrutiny
>>Viewing each patient as an individual with complex evolving needs
>>Understanding our role as co-participants in the healing process

The Daniel Hanley Center for Health Leadership creates such a culture in its efforts to bring health care leaders together from throughout the state of Maine. "To catalyze a sustainable culture of collaboration, innovation and values-driven leadership across the broad health community in Maine and beyond."

My organization, the Hygeia Foundation d/b/a True North Health Center, uses a relationship-focused collaborative leadership process known as the Circle Process to foster a culture for adaptive change. Circle process limits hierarchy and shares responsibility and accountability throughout the organization (very much in line with Christina Baldwin and Ann Linnea's new book The Circle Way: A Leader in Every Chair).

To best position your health care organization for the difficult, challenging and risky discussions required to implement adaptive change, be sure to first build a strong foundation and a strong and adaptive culture.

Thomas H. Dahlborg, M.S.M., is executive director of the physician practice True North Health Center, where he focuses on improving growth while ensuring access for the uninsured and the elderly. He has 21 years of experience creating competitive advantages, analyzing customer expectations, and developing and implementing focused and aligned strategic deployment plans. Formerly he served as the chief business strategy officer at Network Health, a comprehensive Medicaid health plan based in Cambridge, Mass.; and was COO of the U.S. Family Health Plan at Martin's Point Health Care in Portland, Maine.