Mark O’Brien, Director for the newly-launched Oxford Healthcare Leadership Programme, is under no illusions about the challenges it is looking to address.
He said it has launched as leaders in healthcare sectors worldwide have had to find the answers to the questions posed by Covid-19, but often find little time and means to share and reflect on what they’re learning, beyond how to cope in emergency management.
Mark has worked at the forefront of healthcare since the mid-1980s and estimates that training he has developed in everything from risk management, leadership development, to performance improvement has been undertaken by more than 300,000 clinicians worldwide.
Now he says the Oxford Healthcare Leadership Programme will 'bring together great minds to help foster lasting change and innovation'.
‘Healthcare is now the biggest industry in the world,’ said Mark, based in Australia, who, among his extensive experience and roles is also Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Business, Economics and Law at the University of Queensland.
Its leaders are busy at the best of times but the past two years have been unprecedented. More than ever, it’s hard to find the time to meet with experts, listen to the experiences of colleagues from around the globe, reflect, and then develop your own way to lead. However, while the opportunities are rare the challenges of the pandemic mean making the most of them has never been more important.
Many industries, from vehicle manufacturing to technology and retail, will put plenty of effort and time into ensuring their leaders are the best they can be. We want to do the same for healthcare.’
The programme, recruiting now, involves eight live virtual sessions and six days on campus, from 20 April 2022, and Mark says it will help healthcare leaders tackle fundamental hurdles, including:
- Leadership of staff under stress while meeting unprecedented levels of patient demand
- The inevitable budgetary and operational limits of the Covid and post-Covid world
- Driving innovation in their services at a time of great disruption
- Digital transformation while delivering Covid 'business as usual'
‘While the challenges faced are great there may be no better time for healthcare leaders to undertake this programme,’ added Mark.
'I want them to go away from this programme with a playbook of ways they can continue to develop during a time of such great challenge. We are excited to bring inspiring and knowledgeable minds and global experience together as we all grapple with the challenges of Covid-19 and I am confident it could result in these leaders bringing powerful and lasting change to how healthcare is designed and delivered. There are no simple answers to the complex challenges healthcare faces right now, yet in every organisation and country I know that innovation and redesign is happening in the face of huge disruption.
The question now is the helping healthcare leaders find the time and the ways to tap into this rapid expansion of knowledge and wisdom. The University of Oxford’s DNA is to convene a global audience, ask the right questions of great minds, provide forums for debate and dialogue and then facilitate reflective practice that equips their students to navigate their own path to successful leadership. When it comes to providing leadership at one of the most difficult challenging periods any of us have experienced in healthcare I would beg the question, if not Oxford, then who?’
Mark O’Brien was in conversation with Dato' Dr Jacob Thomas, one of Asia’s foremost healthcare leaders and thinkers, at a webinar on Tuesday 25 January. They spoke about 'The importance of investing in the leadership development of clinical leaders in a post-Covid world to drive improvement'.
Find out more about the Oxford Healthcare Leadership Programme.