Developing an Implementation Plan
Method of Obtaining Necessary Approval(s) and Securing Support from Organization’s Leadership and Staff
The obtaining of the required approval or approvals and the securing of the support from the leadership and staff will be of great significance because it portrays the viability and the validity of the information being presented in the implementation plan. The healthcare industry is sensitive and critical and requires the ample attention for the addressing of the issues affecting the sector, such as the nursing leadership challenges. In addition, the importance of the healthcare industry to the health and the wellbeing of the patients and the population are elemental in various operational aspects (Weston et al., 2008).
As such, the necessary approvals will be conducted and sought from the IRB, which assesses the projects or solutions and studies to ensure the complete protection of the participants or the population of the project. Support from the leadership of the organization will also be of great significance and will encompass the seeking of assistance from the leaders of various departments of the setting or organization in terms of their opinions, perspectives, and contribution. Support from the fellow members of staff will encompass the approaching of these individuals and seeking their contribution as well by outlining the significance of the implementation of the plan (Weston et al., 2008).
Description of Current Issue
The current issue is the deficit and the challenge in the effective nursing leadership. That is, the real deficit in the nursing or the healthcare system is the leadership challenges. Currently, across all the sectors and industries, approximately 70% of the strategic changes and initiatives fail in the delivery of the outcomes anticipated (Goldberg & Page, 2006). The bottom line for the aspect is that it is easy relatively to evaluate the situations and make recommendations on the measures that require implementation to annihilate the issue. It is becoming more challenging in the healthcare and nursing industry to take the leadership to create the momentum for the actions needed, especially implementation.
Most of the healthcare and nursing leaders lack the ability to go farther and be faster in the innovation and the implementation of the actual plans for the different issues affecting the sector. About 40% of the leaders in various new roles leave these roles annually (Goldberg & Page, 2006). The fear of the leaders to have wrong or unsuccessful leadership structures and measures has outweighed their individual accountability, which increases the leadership gap in the healthcare or nursing sectors. As such, many leaders are constantly looking for effective ways of implementing plans.
Detailed Explanation of Proposed Solution
The elemental requirement to enhance and motivate individuals to change is the shift in the style of leadership. Fostering collaborative leadership is among the proposed solution for the issue. Collaborative leadership involves the ‘engage and enable’ style of leadership that includes the stakeholders and the employees in the active creation and implementation of the visions they own. These individuals and groups of individuals have to be listened to and given a chance to contribute variously when the systemic and environmental barriers are in the avenues for success (Goldberg & Page, 2006). In addition, the employees, including the medical professionals and the stakeholders including organizations, healthcare leaders, and the patients have to be guided effectively through the challenges and the barriers to their thinking (Weston et al., 2008).
Effective leadership means the engagement of the right or appropriate individuals to develop the vision, the workable strategies, and the practical and concrete action plans. Moreover, good and efficient leaders have the capacity to work with all the individuals in their administrations in terms of the implementation of leadership strategies and plans (Weston et al., 2008). The leaders in the healthcare institutions have to change the healthcare environments to enable the managers, leaders or professionals to achieve the anticipated outcomes.
Rationale for Selecting Proposed Solutions
First, the bureaucratic inertia that is likely to ensue in the financial, managerial, and operational outcomes is associated with poor leadership (Goldberg & Page, 2006). As such, since these likely outcomes are in diversified areas, leaders require the support of other individuals in the institutions. As such, this element brings in the aspect of collaborative leadership. The collaborative leadership is required because the leaders should be willing to gain understanding of the technical details as well as the rationale for the proposed solution, and they have learn about the leading of strategic processes that require the adaptation to working with different groups in the stages of proposed changes.
The top-down direction, the delegation, and the decision-making followed by the expectations, which will likely happen without the appropriate processes, the environment, the development, and the coaching of people or groups of individuals would be unrealistic (Goldberg & Page, 2006). For this reason, it is elemental to cultivate a micro-management, which typically allows the collaborative efforts of the people, which in this case includes the medical professionals, the hospital leaders, and the health organizations among other stakeholders. For these reasons, the selection of the proposed solution was based off these aspects. It is essential to understand the role of the collaborative leadership in the promotion of patient-focused processes and plans (Weston et al., 2008).
Evidence from the Review of Literature
Given that collaborative leadership is proposed as the solution to the challenges crippling leadership in nursing, it is important to look at the evidence based theoretical framework from the literature review. According to Goldberg & Page (2006), the positive attributes of collaborative leadership and the applicability of the models of collaborative leadership make it suitable for dealing with the bottlenecks of nursing leadership. The authors suggest that collaborative leadership encourages the participation of all stakeholders when it comes to solving institutional problems and reaching final decisions in any health institutions. In most cases, it is common to find many leaders imposing their views and recommendations on the other stakeholders of the institutions regardless of the consideration of common good.
During the implementation phase of collaborative leadership, the framework laid down for the new form leadership insists that it is not the job of the leader in question to make a particular decision. Moreover, he or does not have the obligation to tell all the other stakeholders about a particular decision if they do not find it important enough to trigger deliberations. According to Cohen & Institute of Medicine (U.S.). (2008), the primary objective of the leader is to help the group focus on its mandate and ensure that all stakeholders have an equal opportunity to take [art in the process of decision making at the institution.
According to Weston, Falter, Lamb, Mahon, Malloch, Provan, Werbylo, (2008), the basic advantage for collaborative leadership is the presence of an open process. The essence is to make all healthcare leaders have an open mind when it comes orientation towards the goals of the organization. For instance, it is important for them to be flexible enough to allow a complete shift in the organizational objectives especially if their successful achievement is for the greater good of the institution. For instance, if one of the challenges is poor services to the patients and the leader’s primary objective is the reduction of costs, he or she must be able to adjust organizational goals based on the most urgent needs of the institution.
Walshe & Smith (2011) assert that the final basis of collaborative leadership is the treatment of leadership as process and not as an individual institution or group. The objective of leadership is to help processes such as democracy and consultations work rather than one individual or group taking the responsibility and insisting that the organization has to take a particular standpoint or direction.
Description of Implementation Logistics
The implementation of the change will begin with an evaluation of the current shortcomings of the leadership process. In order to understand these shortcomings and air them without bias, nonpartisan parties will carry out the evaluation. The organization will outsource the service to a team of skilled staffing and management professionals. The team, outsourced from another organization will be tasked with educating the employees and making them aware of the need to implement and accept the proposed change to increase the efficiency of the organization’s leadership.
The change will take place within a period of 3 months after which an assessment will be carried out to examine the progress made after the change. Within that period, the employees and the other stakeholders will be informed of the need to take part in the leadership of the organization. Initially, the organizational culture encourages the top to bottom flow information in which commands flow from the top-level management to those in the junior positions. Following the implementation of the change, the channels of communication and the flow of information will change into a horizontal type in which people are free to share information and knowledge regardless of their positions.
As such, they will use this position to influence decision-making and leadership strategies in the organization. The board of governors will oversee the transition from an autocratic system to one in which all the opinions of the stakeholders count. Moreover, the external auditor from the outsourced staffing team will evaluate the developments in the organization and give a verdict based on the level of change experienced.
Resources Required
The outsourced team will issue pamphlets to the employees and the other stakeholders of the organization. The pamphlets will contain the proposal of the changes and the manner in which the process of making decisions will be altered to suit the current needs of the organization. moreover, it will also explain the new organizational structure citing increased participation in leadership and a better platform for the improvement of healthcare services. The organization will also install Enterprise resource planning systems to help in the management of resources and allocation to the important needs. questionnaires issued to all stakeholders will be received and evaluated to assess the progress.
References
Cohen, J. A., & Institute of Medicine (U.S.). (2008). Challenges and successes in reducing health disparities: Workshop summary. Washington, DC: National Academies Press.
Goldberg, R., & Page, E. (2006). Opinions: The Leadership Gap in Healthcare - The True Deficit. Healthcare Quarterly, 9(1). doi:10.12927/hcq.2006.20364
Walshe, K., & Smith, J. (2011). Healthcare management. Maidenhead, Berkshire: McGraw Hill/Open University Press.
Weston, M. J., Falter, B., Lamb, G. S., Mahon, G., Malloch, K., Provan, K. G., . . . Werbylo, L. (2008). Health Care Leadership Academy: A Statewide Collaboration to Enhance Nursing Leadership Competencies. The Journal of Continuing Education in Nursing. doi:10.3928/00220124-20081001-09
