Courage, Confidence and Capacity: Report from the LeaderShift Conference, 2019

Kavita Mehta (CEO of AFHTO), Deborah Simon (CEO of OCSA), Hon. Christine Elliott (Deputy Premier and Minister of Health) and Adrienne Spafford (CEO of AMHO)

​On July 11, 2019, approximately 200 senior health leaders from around the province gathered to connect and collaborate with their peers at the one-day LeaderShift Conference, held at the BMO Institute for Learning in Toronto. The atmosphere was electric, with connections, learning, and sharing lighting up both the conference room and the Twitterverse, where #shapetheshift was trending by mid-morning.   

The day kicked off with addresses from Deborah Simon, CEO, Ontario Community Support Association and the Honourable Christine Elliott, Deputy Premier and Minister of Health.

Over the rest of this high-energy, highly interactive day, sector leaders reflected on what it’s like to lead in these changing times, moving from feeling excited and invigorated but also uncertain, scared, and chaotic to seeing strength and possibility, and feeling curious and energized. 

Shifting perspectives required tuning into the strengths of the community and primary care sector, thinking through what needs to shift, considering what we need to embrace and let go of to move forward, and hearing stories of inspiring collaborations and LeaderShift partnerships. 

Christina Jabalee (Centre for Innovation in Peer Support), Janis Cramp (AMHO), Betty-Lou Kristy (Centre for Innovation in Peer Support)

​Conference delegates were quick to highlight the tremendous strengths of the people and organizations in community and primary care, including:

• Emotional intelligence, value based services, and client-centered commitment 
• Existing relationships and collaborative initiatives
• Systems thinking and intersectoral thinking
• Adaptable leadership and resiliency
• Outcomes: data, critical thinking, accountability, use of tools, continuous improvement
• The ability to leverage resources
• Existing experience and expertise
• Diversity and breadth of services
• LEADS framework
• Innovation
• Readiness for change

Recognizing that the roll out of the government’s new Ontario Health Teams will fundamentally transform the health care system and will demand new ways of thinking, working with, and relating to one another, delegates reflected on what needs to shift to move forward from where we are. They identified the following as things that need to shift to make this system transformation possible:

• Funding: levels, timelines, flow
• Information and data: access and sharing, digitizing
• More transparency
• Shared accountability and outcome measurement
• Finding and then closing the gap
• Sharing failures and taking risks
• Focus on keeping people in communities
• More client engagement and focus
• Building a common language/understanding between sectors
• Focus on equity
• Leave the past behind us
• Maintain momentum of change

Kathleen Paterson (LEADS Canada), Nadine Whelan (LEADS Canada), Bruce McLeod (LEADS Canada), Ellen Melis (LEADS Canada), Brenda Lammi (CCHL) and Bruce Swan (LEADS Canada)

​In these times of transformation, it’s clearly up to current and emerging leaders to break down silos, re-frame old dynamics, reinvent themselves and their organizations, and reshape the landscape. To do that, delegates encouraged each other to let go of:

• Attachment to “tried and true”
• Competitiveness/ego/territorialism 
• Narrowing thinking
• Historical norms
• Fear and distrust
• The power and comfort of the silos
• Negativity
• What we don’t do well

And instead embrace:

• Innovation and creativity
• ​Instability (for a while...) and flexibility
• Change and risk—embrace mistakes!
• ​Trust and transparency 
• Opportunity and collaboration
• ​Feedback (including from our clients)
• Expertise of others
• ​​Embrace what is working well and then replicate
• Vulnerability 
• Richness of difference
• Systems based on equity
• The best interests of the client/patient
• Courage to explore the unknown
• Holistic/social determinants of health

Among the many takeaways from the day, a key one was that the health care transformation we’ve been preparing for is here. And that we’re ready. 
Across the sector, current and emerging leaders are developing and demonstrating the courage to transform, the confidence to lead, and the capacity to collaborate through LeaderShift’s various initiatives, from the LEADS Learning Series to on-demand health system webinars and applied online learning opportunities. 

All in all, the future looks bright!

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