Friday 22nd January 2021, 1.30pm – 5.30pm
Sunday 24th January 2021, 1.30pm – 5.30pm

HEALTH PROFESSIONS’ EDUCATION ‘LEADERS’ TOOLKIT’: LEADING AND MANAGING THROUGH CHANGE AND CRISIS

¹Judy McKimm, ¹Paul Jones, ²Kirsty Forrest, ³Greg Radu and ²Jo Bishop
¹United Kingdom, ²Australia and ³Canada

Workshop Description
Educational leadership and management has probably never been so turbulent in the last year because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The course aims to provide an introduction to contemporary theories and practices in leadership, management and followership in health professions’ education and healthcare in times of great change and crisis. We all live and work in a VUCA world: a Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous environment – where part of the complexity arises from our cultural and social diversity. We need therefore to have leadership approaches that are flexible, inclusive and person-centred. In healthcare and health professions’ education, we have to work directly with and in two complex systems (that of education and health) each of which are made up of many, often competing, elements. This can be challenging for leaders grappling with crisis, uncertainty and rapid change but an understanding of the theories and related approaches can help us be more effective.

Topics include:
• Leadership, management and followership in times of change and crisis
• Theory in practice: how an understanding of key theories, models and concepts help us to be more effective
• Leaders as change agents: an introduction to change models and their approaches;
• Crisis management: leading through high turbulence
• Adaptive leadership for complex systems: VUCA and RUPT; how to use these approaches in leadership and management
• Change and complexity: models and frameworks that help stimulate and generate change in a complex world
• Inclusive and person-centred leadership; putting people at the heart of what we do and acknowledging the psychological impact of change
• Identifying and developing personal qualities for effective leadership: the Immunity to Change model;
• Developing and communicating the vision: creative ways of setting a vision for change and communicating this to others

Workshop Objective
As a result of participating in this course, delegates will be able to:
• Define some key concepts in leadership and change management
• Demonstrate understanding of the organisational and psychological impacts of crisis and change
• Identify specific skills, behaviours and activities that promote effective leadership through change and crisis
• Apply change models to curriculum and programme development activities
• Develop and communicate a vision for change
• Apply theories to your own practice and that of others
• Construct a leadership development plan

Who Should Attend
All those involved in health professions’ education, management and clinical practice will benefit from this course which is designed to be applicable to people at different levels working within organisations who are coping with change and (possibly) crisis. We have taken to focus on some of the specific issues that the COVID-19 pandemic has raised for educators. The course has been designed by a highly experienced, international faculty to meet the needs of those who are in leadership or management positions, however junior or senior. All our courses are theory informed; practice driven; context specific, interactive, supportive and fun!