Leadership, the Military, and Alberta Health Services?

Leadership lessons from the military was the focus of the November 2010 issue of the Harvard Business Review.

Interestingly enough the article by Groysberg et al (view article) made me reflect on the massive merger in Alberta's health care system.

The idea in brief was this.  The military develops many leaders who become successful CEO's in the corporate world.  The type of organizations they become successful in, however, appears to be greatly related to which branch of the military they come from, and the leadership competencies required to be successful within that branch.

Veterans from the Navy and Air Force tend to become very successful in highly regulated industries where strict adherence to process is necessary.  Army and Marine Corps Veterans, on the other hand,  succeed as CEO's in smaller industries where flexibility predominates.  Give a general objective, then allow staff the autonomy to take whatever actions are necessary in order to achieve that objective.

Why? 

The Navy and Air Force environments require strict processes to ensure safety and precision in execution.  Personnel from these branches are often highly specialized and performance in one area is closely tied to all others.  In these types of environments controlled process are imperative.

Army and Marine Corps do their business through on the ground interactions.  They work in environments that are constantly changing.  Those "on the ground" need to have a defined mission, but need to make changes to a plan based on what's happening in front of them.

So what does this have to do with the health care merger in Alberta Health Services?

If you think about the difference in leadership competencies required between the Navy/Air Force and the Army/Marine Corps, and then consider the difference in leadership competencies required between urban and rural/community health care you can begin to draw some parallels.

Urban care is often provided in tertiary care centres.  These are centres where there are specialists working to provide specialized services and treatments.  These centres are often tightly coupled and very interdependent to other services.  In these systems process is imperative to ensure safety and maximize quality.

Rural and community care often requires a different approach.  In these areas, although safety and quality are equally important, the diversity of each community requires managers to adapt service delivery to the unique needs of their community.  What success looks like in one community is not overly dependent on any other community.  In this environment a general mission must be articulated for the whole, but each local context will define their unique solutions.

Bring in the merger of Alberta Health Services and you bring together leaders and systems that come from two unique environments.  The Urban leaders bring with them a history of importance of right process and tight control.  The Rural leaders bring with them a history of flexibility and adaptability to general vision.

These differing approaches to leadership may partially explain some of the growing pains that Alberta Health Services is going through as they work to bring together staff and leaders from rural, community and urban settings.

From an organizational perspective, it would likely serve senior leaders to consider which approach is required for which service delivery model, and then recruit leaders with the competencies to match that approach.

From a staff's perspective, it would serve them to consider which type of system or leadership style do they do their best work in, and align themselves in an area that fits with their own personal style.

What type of leadership style best matches you?  What type of an environment do you work best in?

with Metta.