Lessons in Leadership: Part II

Last week in Part I of this blog, I discussed the competition for early insight into how the future will be different from today. Today, I will focus on how to move your organization in the direction of your true north strategy.

Humans are social animals; groups include individuals with a wide spectrum of traits and proclivities. Our capacity to change varies, as do other traits. A minority of people are born leaders who are continuously sensing threats and opportunities. Even fewer are altruistic leaders driven to serve their social group for everyone’s benefit. Most people in human social groups find peace in being like others. They are comfortable doing what they did last week and what everyone around them seems to be doing now. They find change scary unless and until it becomes mainstream.

How do you effect change if you are the altruistic leader? For example, suppose you believe it’s advantageous for your organization to move toward AI-enabled cloud computing for medical imaging reporting and image management, but you are finding it difficult to inspire others in your organization to change. What I’ve learned over 45 years of change management is that progress does not occur by consensus; it happens when leaders identify their followers within the organization and start moving. If you are an altruistic leader, my advice is to identify the one or two individuals most likely to follow your lead. Pull; don’t push. When a few people follow your lead, others will follow theirs. When the most change-averse individuals see that those around them are moving, the same survival strategy that motivates them to resist change — the desire to be like those surrounding them — will cause them to naturally move with the herd.

If you wait for consensus, you will wait until the opportunity has passed. If you try to push the most change-resistant individuals instead of leading the most change-adaptable, you will find tough sledding. Most importantly, remember that opportunities come in waves. Your organization may or may not choose to ride a wave of technological change, but it will come nonetheless — and one or more of your competitors will ride it to their advantage.

Murray Reicher, MD

CEO, Synthesis Health