"Find the disruptive people in your organization. They have the ideas that will drive change," said Nancy Schlichting, CEO of the Henry Ford Health System, a $4 billion healthcare organization with 23,000 employees.
Speaking at the BIF8 innovation conference last week in Providence, RI, Nancy shared what has helped her transform an ailing health care system and create innovations in health care such as a new $360 million health and wellness facility that feels more like a luxury hotel than a hospital.
Transforming healthcare is all about leadership, she said. Her leadership approach focuses on creating an "incredible" environment for every person to reach their full potential. How she has created such an environment:
- Making a large organization feel small. When the board approached her about being CEO of the health care system she was reluctant to take it because she likes being involved with people and creating working environments that are positive, personal and open-minded. The board assured her that being CEO of a health care would not preclude how she like to lead.
- Saying yes to unusual ideas, like an employee who wanted to be able to creating fun drawings on the disposable gowns worn by the kidney dialysis staff. "This woman creates this amazing designs on her own time on the weekends. On Monday mornings the staff can't wait to see what she has that week for them."
- Helping people who are disruptors. These, she says, are the people with the ideas that can help you change and transform. One example she shared: a surgeon who wanted to put health kiosks in churches in the Detroit community. Doing so has been a hugely successful way to help people learn about health and wellness.
- Hiring people in with non-traditional backgrounds to help you see things in new and different ways. "This is essential," Nancy stressed. One example: she hired Gerard van Grinsven, a long time Ritz Carlton executive to be CEO of the new Henry Ford West Bloomfield Hospital, even though Bernard had no health care experience. His "otherness" has been a significant reason the new hospital has been so successful in its ambitious goals. (Here's a link to a video of Gerard sharing his story about going from high-end hotels to opening a hospital.
- Bringing together different thinkers. Creative ideas happen at the intersections, said Nancy. Bringing different thinkers together across silos creates better ideas faster.
Hearing her talk I was reminding of the wonderful poem by Kaylin Haught, "God Says Yes To Me." Imagine if CEOs said yes, yes, yes to more of their employees, especially the disruptive corporate rebels?
Not only would organizations be able to innovate and change more quickly, a wonderful sense of joy would permeate the workplace -- even in high-stress environments in struggling urban areas, like the Henry Ford Health System in Detroit.
Here's a video of Nancy's talk: