Foundations in System Leadership: Collaborating for Health and Care
Build the core skills and behaviours to implement systems leadership and use systems thinking to improve health and care.
Duration
5 weeksWeekly study
3 hoursDigital upgrade
Free
Foundations in System Leadership: Collaborating for Health and Care
Learn how systems thinking can help you lead effectively
There’s a growing realisation that many global problems are interconnected. For the health and care landscape, there’s a need to reduce the focus on episodic treatment for acute illness and notice the wider determinants of health, delivering more joined-up support for all.
On this five-week course from the NHS Leadership Academy, you’ll explore systems leadership, learn why it’s important in health and care, and develop new capabilities to implement it. You will also recognise where you may already be operating as a systems leader while developing new approaches.
Explore the foundations of a systems approach
Systems thinking is one way of understanding the world of work. Thinking about organisations as living systems means we can observe how to lead effectively based on how systems behave.
You’ll delve into different types of complex systems and look at their characteristics; building a view of how systems work and what aspects you can take away for your own thinking and leadership.
Discover a systems perspective on health and care
On this course, you’ll explore the current health and care context from both a theoretical and practical point of view to reflect on what systems leadership has to offer.
You’ll consider health inequalities and focus on integration and prevention as methods of improving population health and well-being. You’ll also look at other leadership styles to see how they enable and disable systems working.
Develop the skills to make systems leadership a reality
Having clarified what systems leadership is and why it’s important, you’ll analyse the capabilities that are key to leading effectively. Using case studies to illustrate best practice, you’ll build your core skills to help you explore, reflect, relate, and connect through systems leadership.
What topics will you cover?
- What is systems leadership?
To understand systems leadership, we need to consider what systems are and explore the nature of ‘wicked’ problems that exist in them. This takes us into the territory of challenges that cross boundaries, have no easy solutions and certainly can’t be solved by any one individual or organisation. We then look at systems leadership as a way of working with others to make progress in this messy and difficult context.
- Why is it important?
We explore the current health and care context from both a theoretical and practical point of view to reflect on what systems leadership has to offer. We consider health inequalities and focus on integration, devolution and prevention as methods of improving population health and well-being and we take a look at other approaches to leadership to see how they enable and disable systems working.
- How do you do it?
Having clarified what systems leadership is and why it’s important we then help you to consider how you go about doing it? We take you through and help you practise some of the skills, knowledge and behaviours that are key to leading effectively in this way. We use case studies to help illustrate best practice and we offer activities to help you explore, reflect, relate and connect.
Learning on this course
On every step of the course you can meet other learners, share your ideas and join in with active discussions in the comments.
What will you achieve?
By the end of the course, you‘ll be able to...
- Practice critical reflexivity in relation to circumstances and position in multiple systems
- Demonstrate an understanding of what a system is and what 'systems thinking' means
- Develop a systems leadership approach and understand when it can be used
- Investigate how systems leadership could help tackle some of the challenges in delivering health and care
- Develop clarity on how to collaborate across your system to develop a preventative approach to improving the health and care of people in diverse localities
- Explore what is going on in the wider environment that makes systems leadership a useful approach for delivering modern healthcare
- Develop a practical understanding of who you are as a leader and how some of your personal styles and behaviours will help or hinder you in working across systems
- Increase capabilities for leading effectively across systems by deepening understanding and developing a range of practical skills and techniques
Who is the course for?
This course is designed for anyone working in care and health with a desire to improve the way they collaborate across sectoral, organisational, hierarchical, and professional boundaries. Primarily aimed at those working in health and care, it will be ideal for you if:
- You’re already working across systems either formally or informally and you’d like to increase your impact
- You’re intellectually convinced that systems leadership is the way forward and you want to increase your ability to actually do it
- You’ve heard the terms ‘systems leadership’ or ‘systems thinking’ and you want to understand more about what they mean and how you can use them in your context
- You’re not familiar with the concept of systems leadership but you’re passionate about improving health and wellbeing outcomes for your local population and you’re curious about any new approaches that will help you
- You’re increasingly frustrated with how fragmentation, duplication and reactive service
Who will you learn with?
My current role as Head of Leadership Programmes at the NHS Leadership Academy is responsible for delivering a wide variety of leadership programmes and support for the 1.5m staff that make up the NHS
Simon works with leaders across sectors on an organisational, team and individual level. He is interested in making hard things simpler, and helping people turn theory into reality.
Liz is an energetic and skilled leadership & organisational development practitioner. She is passionate about development as a means of empowering teams and individuals to improve patient care.
Judy delivers system leadership programmes and has a strong track record in helping leaders work collaboratively across boundaries. She is currently facilitating several ICS development interventions.
A leadership & OD consultant with 30+ years experience & a special interest in integrated care systems. A former charity CEO, NED of an NHS Trust, & Honorary Fellow at Birmingham Leadership Institute.
Who developed the course?
NHS Leadership Academy
Our purpose is to help people discover and fulfil their leadership potential to deliver outstanding health and care.
What's included?
NHS Leadership Academy are offering everyone who joins this course a free digital upgrade, so that you can experience the full benefits of studying online for free. This means that you get:
Learning on FutureLearn
Your learning, your rules
- Courses are split into weeks, activities, and steps to help you keep track of your learning
- Learn through a mix of bite-sized videos, long- and short-form articles, audio, and practical activities
- Stay motivated by using the Progress page to keep track of your step completion and assessment scores
Join a global classroom
- Experience the power of social learning, and get inspired by an international network of learners
- Share ideas with your peers and course educators on every step of the course
- Join the conversation by reading, @ing, liking, bookmarking, and replying to comments from others
Map your progress
- As you work through the course, use notifications and the Progress page to guide your learning
- Whenever you’re ready, mark each step as complete, you’re in control
- Complete 90% of course steps and all of the assessments to earn your certificate
Want to know more about learning on FutureLearn? Using FutureLearn
Join the conversation on social media
You can use the hashtag #SystemsLeader to talk about this course on social media.