BMJ: Leading organisational learning in healthcare (March 2002)

Summary

As healthcare organisations seek to enhance safety and quality in a changing environment, organisational learning practices can help to improve existing skills and knowledge and provide opportunities to discover better ways of working together. Leadership at executive, middle management, and local levels is needed to create a sense of shared purpose. This shared vision should help to build effective relationships, facilitate connections between action and reflection, and strengthen the desirable elements of the healthcare culture while modifying outdated assumptions, procedures, and structures.

Content

The authors of this paper, published by BMJ Quality & Safety, believe that although there are deep anxieties and many sources of resistance to change in health care, there are also individuals and organisations which are exhibiting creativity and leadership. To support these efforts, they offer concepts and practical examples drawn from several industries including healthcare. Three ideas underlie their argument:

• Healthcare organisations can improve quality and other outcomes by enhancing their capabilities for organisational learning.
• Organisational learning requires leadership from executives, line (middle) managers, and informal network leaders throughout organisations.
• Leaders are more effective when they take a broad view of the interdependencies among individuals, teams, task flows, systems, and cultural meanings.