Agility has climbed the charts of corporate values over the last half-decade, with the pandemic pushing it to the top of traits espoused by organizational leaders across all industries. Pivots gained currency.
But when does agility end and aimlessness begin?
Chaos can become intoxicating, with the absence of long-term vision paradoxically becoming the vision itself. The signs of such are unmistakable.
An increasing number of leaders, including those within health systems, openly declare their departure from 10-year strategic plans. Even five-year outlooks are considered ambitious, they argue, citing the uncertainties surrounding artificial intelligence, workforce dynamics, and policies shaped by an increasingly polarized political landscape as impediments to establishing and maintaining a long-term perspective.
But it wasn't that long ago that long-term perspective — and the risks involved in building and maintaining one — was once considered a cornerstone of leadership.
I witnessed this firsthand in my reporting, even a decade ago. CEOs consistently spoke of their organizations' "vision." It was a term I sometimes resented as a PR-massaged talking point, a safe harbor answer, an abstract concept too distant to be challenged or measured against reality. Vision needs concrete plans to matter.
Vision is not completely extinct, to be clear. Some health system CEOs still have one, vivid as ever, and pursued with senior leadership teams who operate with clockwork precision. These are the health systems that tend to accomplish numerous, significant things at once. These organizations, and their cultures, possess a distinct sense of identity — a clear understanding of their place, direction, and what they aspire to become or avoid. Their CEOs operate in the same chaotic and uncertain landscape as everyone else.
Such leaders are increasingly rare. It's true: Health system executives today operate in complex ecosystems, and they shouldn't bear sole responsibility for taking calculated risks and placing substantial bets on the next decade's landscape. Also true: Their voices would carry tremendous weight if they moved further in that direction.
The industry's fundamental questions — from access and equity to workforce sustainability and supply chain resilience — demand more than mere restatements of the obvious or stopgap solutions. They require leaders willing to identify constants amid chaos. Ten-year plans deserve rigor, not scoffing, in light of these challenges.
Moving beyond the comfort of perpetual chaos requires courageous leadership. It will take bold voices to advance discussions and guide colleagues past the well-worn talking points (insert here virtually any statement about value-based care, or the refrain that "AI won't replace workers, but workers who use AI will replace those who don't"). It also demands smart, capable and forward-looking boards and leadership teams who make for constructive partners.
How reorienting it would be to hear perspectives on workforce development that transcend sign-on bonuses or software solutions and instead focus on tangible investments — both financial and otherwise — in young talent, educational institutions, and fundamental skills development, for example.
Strong leadership means furthering change that you yourself may never directly witness. Adaptability and strategic shifts are important — we know. We understand. Change happens. Circumstances evolve. We've absorbed the message. The "power language" of flexibility increasingly reads as soft and evasive.
Instead, leaders who align their energy, resources and people behind a vision of what healthcare can and should be will continue to drive meaningful conversations. They may not possess any more control over their circumstances than others, but they'll have the courage. It takes fortitude to choose a direction, paint a picture of what could be before it exists, and to refine it thoughtfully as circumstances unfold.
Healthcare will be shaped by those who dare to envision it, not just react to it. In an era where "nimble" has become shorthand for noncommittal, the most disruptive act of leadership today is having the audacity to plant a flag in the future and rally others toward it.