Abstract
Background: For 15 years, the Collaborative Change Leadership (CCL) Program has developed people to lead health system transformation and enable socially accountable change. The need for co-creation, sensing, adaptation, and highly effective implementation rooted in compassion and inclusion has never been more critical for integrated and sustainable care across contexts.
Approach: CCL has been specifically designed for our present time and the future that is emerging. The Program has been developed iteratively based on developmental evaluations with all 275 alumni. This novel evaluation and engagement approach in healthcare has involved pre-session check-ins, in-depth interviews, post-session surveys, and both quantitative and qualitative elements. Alumni span diverse geographies, roles, genders and healthcare sectors, inclusive of providers, patient partners, academics and policy makers.
Core to the CCL program is how learners engage with appreciative or strengths-based inquiry, such as how to discover, create and sustain change within teams, organizations and systems. The content is grounded in leadership, change and health equity theories, processes and practices; and the learning process enables participants to deepen their self-awareness through reflection, leading to personal and professional transformation.
In the context of growing health inequities, a global pandemic, geopolitics and climate change, CCL has shifted in response to these emerging priorities. The Program purpose has moved beyond social accountability to enabling a more just world for all. The faculty has been expanded to include a co-production advisor and a learning trajectory for diversity, inclusion and equity has been integrated into the CCL model.
While the introduction of diversity, inclusion and equity into leadership development is not new, what is unique is the thoughtful integration that ensures these concepts are not add-ons, but part of how one leads and works in day-to-day life. It positions faculty as learners alongside participants in the learning community.
Results: Over 275 alumni have completed the CCL Program across Canada and abroad, representing 109 initiatives and 56 organizations. Utilization-focused developmental evaluation has been employed at multiple points in time to surface Program impacts at individual, team and organizational levels. Key to impact is the alignment of CCL content, design, delivery and facilitation.
In addition, participants have noted the “being and doing” of leadership: who we are impacts what we do. CCL alumni are embodying the leadership that is needed for these challenging times. They are courageously navigating the paradoxes that challenge society to remain possibilities-oriented, even in the context of ambiguity, uncertainty, and complexity. They are successfully engaging patients, providers, teams and communities in compassionate and meaningful ways to co-create and sustain integrative approaches to system change, while achieving rapid, efficient and unprecedented results.
Implications: Audience members will be able to identify and consider how they can apply CCL concepts and approaches to build leadership capabilities and collaborative capacity within and across their systems, regardless of context. Next steps for the CCL Program include continually stretching towards greater inclusion and diversity of learners, as well as studying longer-term Program impacts at micro, meso and macro levels.