Healthy Organizations

In today’s world, it seems like healthcare organizations are becoming increasingly interested in what the data says-performance scores, employee satisfaction, employee retention rates, patient satisfaction scores. While these things have their time and place, I think to improve the health of any organization, the human part must first be addressed. Humans are relational beings. In order to perform at their best, people need to feel a sense of belonging, they need to trust who they’re working for and with, and they need to have genuine relationships with the people around them. Essentially, what it all comes down to is that healthy organizations and teams have strong senses of vulnerability, empathy, trust, and adaptability-all of which are themes that I’ve explored to at least some extent over the past 5 weeks. As a leader, it’s my responsibility to set the tone and model these things for my team. Before I can do that, I must become more self-aware and capable of managing my own thoughts, behaviors, and responses to others.

For any organization to become healthier, the theme of trust must be at the center of everything. Patrick Lencioni noted that “the first dysfunction of a team is the absence of trust. Trust is critical on a team, it’s the foundation of teamwork and what it requires is that people get vulnerable with one another” (Hansen Bay, 2018, 0:16). As a leader, I recognize that it’s my responsibility to foster an environment in which I trust my team and my team trusts me, as well as each other. I need to role model openness and vulnerability for my team by admitting when I don’t have the answer, owning up when I’ve made a mistake, and reaching out when I need help. By modeling these things, my team will come to trust me all the more and will feel safe to display those same things themselves. I also recognize that the theme of trust comes into play when working with people I don’t necessarily see eye-to-eye with, or with people who are being overly negative or critical. How I respond to people in these types of situations plays a key role in whether trust is gained or a rift is formed, in whether a conflict is resolved effectively or not, and in whether my relationship with that person becomes strengthened or weakened. 

Leak (2025) remarked “I don’t match the energy. I set the standard” (0:52). This thought struck me as a young healthcare leader. It can be easy to fall into the trap of allowing the behaviors and actions of the people around me to affect how I respond, especially in chaotic environments such as the emergency department. It can be exceptionally more difficult to not fall into that trap when it comes to working with people that you just don’t “click” with. Ryan Leak emphasized the idea that “the ability to collaborate with people who challenge you, annoy you, or just plain don’t get you at first isn’t just a skill, it’s a competitive edge” (Maxwell Leadership, 2025, 2:27). While it’s easy to be vulnerable with people that “get” you, it can sometimes be quite difficult when working with people that you may view as “complicated.” What I think is crucial for me to understand is that to someone else, I’m likely the complicated one. By exercising my trait of empathy by putting myself in the other person’s shoes and thinking about what the other person is gathering from the way in which I’m behaving, I will become better equipped to manage conflict with them more effectively and to foster a healthier, more trusting relationship with them. Ultimately, if I can learn how to engage with people who have vastly differing thoughts and opinions from me in a respectful and understanding manner, I will have unlocked the key to truly effective, influential, and impactful leadership. 

Taking a look at my anger profile greatly assisted me in increasing my level of self-awareness as it relates to working with others and managing conflict. My results identified me as a “stuffer,” essentially meaning that I tend to shove anger down and refrain from expressing it. These results were of no surprise to me, as I was taught to suppress my emotions a long time ago. I’ve always gravitated towards neglecting my own thoughts and emotions in order to cater to the emotions of others, to do whatever makes them happy. What I’ve come to learn, however, is that anger on my part isn’t necessarily a bad thing. While “stuffing” may prevent a potentially explosive and negative interaction from happening in any given moment or conflict, shoving it down with the goal of never expressing can cause that anger to build overtime and end up affecting the way in which I communicate and work with the person in the future. With that, my goal shouldn’t be to suppress anger indefinitely; rather, I should learn how to recognize when I'm experiencing it and then reflect on it to discover what's beneath the surface of it. By doing these things, I can learn to manage it effectively and come to view it as an emotion that is just as important as the emotions that the people around me are experiencing. Ultimately, if I want to create an environment in which my team feels safe to express their thoughts and feelings openly and honestly, I have to be willing to express those things myself. 

Another aspect of a healthy organization is its ability to adapt to change. The discussion on clockware versus swarmware came to mind here, particularly the bit on swarmware. Danielle Young (2017) noted that “swarmware is non-linear, evolving, adaptable, [and] open” (2:42). The other day, my emergency department faced something that it never had before. A fighter jet went down within the city limits and 33 first responders were exposed to its toxic fumes that contained a substance known as hydrazine. Each and every one of those 33 first responders proceeded to flood into our emergency department to get decontaminated and treated for respiratory distress. Seeing as that was an event we had never really trained or prepared for, our approach to handling it was marked by continuous evolvement and adaptation. We had to communicate with one another and with other departments, assess what was happening, and tweak our process as new patients and information flooded in. Although every healthcare organization needs to have structure, rules, and standardized processes, the type of leadership required of my fellow leaders and I in that situation was characterized by “thinking outside the box” and a nonlinear approach to our tasks at hand. Taking this discussion a bit further, as a leader on that day, I had to recognize that my team was experiencing strong emotions in the midst of the constant change. Thinking about this, I’m reminded of the Rider and the Elephant analogy. 4-H iGrow Video Resources (2014) noted that as a leader, “you’ve got to: one, direct the rider, a person’s rational side; two, motivate the elephant, a person’s emotional side; and three, shape the path, the situation or environment a person is in” (0:46). Applying this to the experience my team and I had the other day, I can see how all three aspects of the analogy apply to my role as a leader. “Directing the rider” meant that I had to give my team clear instructions, roles, and responsibilities. “Motivating the elephant” meant that I had to recognize that each and every one of my team members was experiencing strong emotions regarding the event we found ourselves in the midst of. Simply directing people wasn’t enough-I had to provide my team with reassurance and convey to them that we were going to get through the situation as a team. Lastly, “shaping the environment” meant that I had to continually adapt our process for patient decontamination/treatment to make it easier for my team to provide more seamless and effective care. This is just one example, but each and every day healthcare organizations are confronted with situations in which they need to adapt. 

Note: This image was generated by AI

Maybe one of the greatest reasons why healthcare organizations need to remain adaptable is the rapid development and expansion of AI that we’ve seen these past few years. When I think about how AI is going to affect healthcare in the coming years, I feel both a sense of excitement and fear. What excites me are things like the idea of AI being able to potentially discover more effective treatments for things like cancer, and the idea of nurses and providers being able to spend more time at the bedside as AI assists in the documentation side of things. I think what I’m most excited for, however, is the prospect of AI playing a role in preventative care through an ability to recognize smaller issues (illnesses, injuries, etc.) before they become major issues so that people can get the care they need long before it gets to the point of having to set foot in a hospital. At the same time, there are many things that scare me about what the future of AI in healthcare might look like. Will healthcare professionals come to rely so heavily on AI that they lose their ability to think critically? What will happen when AI undoubtedly makes a mistake that causes harm to a patient? Ultimately, I think what I fear the most is that the truly human elements, the vulnerable and intimate experiences that we have the privilege of being a part of as healthcare professionals, will eventually fade away as AI takes over more and more of healthcare. Here, I’m reminded of something Fred Lee mentioned when talking about patient experience, which was that “a hospital without compassion that meets the needs of those in pain would be like a trip to Disney that was no fun” (TEDx Talks, 2011, 6:15). No matter where AI takes us, I hope compassion and human connection will remain at the center of healthcare. I don’t think AI should ever become more than a tool, a resource that healthcare professionals can use to care for their patients more effectively. I don’t ever want the human aspect to be taken away, as having that privilege to provide compassionate care for patients and their families in their most vulnerable moments is what makes being a healthcare worker so special. 

Overall, I truly enjoyed this blog experience. Being able to take time every week to reflect on the course material and look at how it applies to my role as a healthcare leader was an eye-opening experience. Through these weekly reflections, I feel that I have become much more aware of my own strengths and weaknesses, my behaviors, and how these things impact the people I lead. While this is my final blog post, I hope to continue journaling and reflecting as I work to grow as a leader in healthcare.  If there is one lesson that I will carry with me from these reflections, it’s that a healthy organization starts with healthy relationships amongst its team members. As healthcare continues to evolve, being an effective leader will require me to remain focused on fostering an environment characterized by trust, vulnerability, and strong relationships. 

References

Danielle Young. (2017, July 16). Clockware vs swarmware [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5wnR5HwHjI&t=1s 

4-H iGrow Video Resources. (2014, September 25). The elephant & the rider [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XYxudAQk5w 

Hansen Bay. (2018, January 20). Five dysfunctions of a team by Patrick Lencioni [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCxct4CR-To 

Leak, R. (2025, July 16). Don’t match the energy. Set the standard [Video]. YouTube. https://youtube.com/shorts/qhP8t1wbXWg?si=K7QLwbz7O7YmoKlR 

Maxwell Leadership. (2025, May 17). How to work with complicated people / MWM [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67Y_zuOqiDs 

Tedx Talks. (2011, April 6). TEDxMaastricht - Fred Lee - “Patient satisfaction or patient experience?” [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tylvc9dY400