Building change leadership capacity: Peninsula Health

Testimonial

Building change leadership capacity: Peninsula Health

Peninsula Health is the major public healthcare provider for Victoria’s Frankston and Mornington Peninsula. It operates a range of facilities and services, including two hospitals, and provides care for local residents from birth through to end-of-life.

The challenge

Like other healthcare organisations, Peninsula Health constantly needs to respond to significant changes that affect the sector. Most recently, these included adapting its services to deliver more acute care to people at home, as well as responding to government reforms to family violence responses, program funding, and the integration of mental health and drug and alcohol services.

In light of this, Peninsula Health needed to build the capacity of its senior leaders to manage change. The leadership group is comprised mostly of clinicians who have advanced to senior management roles with variability in formal training of change management. Leaders were invited to suggest training courses that would meet these needs, and nominated Monash Corporate Education's Leading Change program. Staff were drawn to the credibility of Monash Business School, and trusted it to deliver a sound education experience.

The solution

Monash collaborated with Peninsula Health to tailor the Leading Change program specifically for its directors and program managers, across four weeks.

During the program, learning was facilitated through a combination of expert-led live experience sessions, interactive activities and practical case studies – all tailored to the healthcare industry. It drew upon the latest research and theories on change management, incorporating the findings from Monash IP and other leading research publications.

For example, one activity within the program involved participants identifying and analyzing the application of various theories in the context of the HBR article “How one health system overcame resistance to a surgical checklist”.

Peninsula Health was impressed with Monash’s responsiveness and flexibility in tailoring the program to meet its budget, as well as the specific needs of staff. Monash also shifted the program to an online format to manage COVID risks.

Participants really appreciated the knowledge and skills of the program facilitator, and found the combination of the interactive online experience, pre-reading materials and group activities gave the program the necessary rigour.

The results

Participants are now applying their new knowledge and skills directly to their roles. The organisation has observed that those leaders who completed the training are more considered in their approach and are applying their knowledge of the science of change when responding to other staff members’ behaviours and responses. Peninsula Health has been impressed by their professionalism in planning strategies to progress the change process without getting hampered by the emotional responses that can affect it.

Participant feedback

With the entire Community Health management group at Peninsula Health participating in the program at the same time, everyone was able to hear and be heard by our peers. Personally, I feel energised for sustainable whole successful change, appreciating the relationship between change and project management. The content was very digestible, with weekly readings and self-led activities.

— Louise Andrew, Safer Care Consultant