1.Healthcare policies often seem reactive. Is that true? If yes, why is that the norm?
2.What stops us from creating proactive policies?
3.What is your advice to individuals who are keen to develop a proactive healthcare thinking and leadership style?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3qITNXtZiI
Last week, I had the pleasure of discussing the above topic with Anjali Westwood. Anjali teaches and is the module lead for "The Essentials of Healthcare Management" on the MBA Healthcare Programme at the London Campus of the York St. John University. She is the co-founder of
I Love 9 Months, a Maternity Wellness Start-up that focus on products and services to improve maternal and infant outcomesusing technology to enable millennial women to enjoy their journey of motherhood by empowering them and their families to deal with modern day challenges.
Using the above three questions as a reference, our hour-long discussion covered a broad range of topics including:
• current policy making process,
• political and public service roles,
• institutionalized top—down leadership models,
• resistance to innovations,
• current “rescue”mindset and bias towards fire-fighting,
• COVID 19 pandemic accelerating “stalled technologies”
• outdated tools, skills, knowledge and mindsets
• common funding mistakes for start-ups
• need for disruption and how to disrupt,
• importance of selecting and being a team player,
• wrongly applying simple or complicated solutions to complex problems,
• getting insights from the nuances of stories and narratives rather than just rely on “Big Data”,
• too many leaders failing to keep learning,
• short sighted vision due to lack of imagination and creativity
• importance of purpose, vision, mission, strategy, operating and business models
• leading from back, middle and not always from the front,
• power of networks and finding the right networks
• importance and the cost of being courageous
• getting a coach to push us out of our comfort zone
• a practical exercise to test our ability to create a vision
Making a real, meaningful, positive and sustainable impact on the future of healthcare requires a commitment to a life-time of deep learning, being a team player, resilience and courage to disrupt status quo. Patience is a key attribute of being resilient and taking the time to listen to this hour-long podcast could very well be the starting point.
The practical exercise towards the end of the podcast serves two purpose: (1) helping us to understand how inadequate our current vision of what future healthcare will look like, and (2) more importantly, through the eyes of consumers, patients, users and their families. When you try the exercise, I would love to hear from you and share experiences and learnings.
Chai Chuah
24th March 2021
Wellington, NZ