The Langston Center for Innovation in Quality and Safety: A Moderating Variable in Humanizing Disruptive Innovation.

Disruptive innovations may serve both good and ill causes. This means that disruption can stimulate positive outcomes or tip people and organizations into chaos. The Langston Center for Innovation in Quality and Safety plays a moderating role by ensuring that innovations consider the upstream and downstream consequences potentiated by change initiatives characterized by a rapid implementation cycle. Drawing on change management and implementation science approaches, human factor variables are intentionally considered to generate acceptance of substantive disruptions.

Job and Role Transitions: The Pathway to Career Evolution.

An individual's career trajectory evolves with each job and role transition. Over time, job/role experiences trigger choices as to whether to stay in a particular job setting or role. Reflective questions guide the process of deciding whether and when it is time to transition. Considerations include role fit with lifestyle expectations, need for advanced knowledge and formal education, and readiness for upward or lateral movement. Using a framework modeled after the work of Bolman and Deal, this article presents 4 lenses to guide a careerist's readiness and need for change: human resource, structural, political, and symbolic factors. Each lens is introduced to reinforce a holistic approach to key triggers and considerations in career change. The summary culminates with how to foster a joy-filled career.

Mitigating Knowledge Loss: A Strategic Imperative for Nurse Leaders.

With the aging of the nursing workforce and expected retirement of large numbers of experienced nurses in the next decade, mitigating the impact that lost knowledge will have on organizational performance and patient outcomes is critical. The authors raise awareness of the problem, summarize observations procured from hospital nurse executive regarding approaches for knowledge transfer through workforce development, and pose proactive strategies for nurse leaders who can provide direction to offset the issue before it becomes a crisis.

International Perspectives in Leadership Development: Part I.

In this first part of a two-part series, leadership development perspectives are shared from interviews and experiences gained while visiting Taiwan and China. Each country has a distinctive culture and needs, yet both are rapidly rising to strengthen the leadership capacity of nurses and are increasingly a source of advances in global leadership and organizational science.

Hot topics for leadership development.

Three areas stand out from a health systems perspective that should be on the development agenda for all leaders. These topics include population health, predictive analytics, and supply chain management. Together, these topics address access, quality, and cost management.

Leadership needs assessment.

Documenting a leadership needs assessment is complex. One approach is through developing a central aim, followed by the competencies needed to lead the organization, others, and self. By adding contextual factors, an actionable leadership development plan evolves.

Teasing leadership development out of clinical scenarios.

Staff development professionals increasingly use clinical simulation, case studies, and nonsimulated, real-time clinical performance for strengthening clinical judgment and corresponding action when training clinicians. Leadership competencies can also be strengthened and reinforced during these educational opportunities. Through debriefing and peer evaluation, clinical scenarios are rich with leadership development opportunities.

Leadership and brilliant mistakes.

Professional development educators work fervently to model best practices and appropriate ways of being successful within health care organizations. However, mistakes are made and happen at every level and are part of organizational life. Innovation requires risk, and risk means that mistakes will happen. The anatomy of the mistake is presented and, when appropriate, celebrated.

Identifying volition-driven leaders.

Professional development educators have access to health care practitioners at the onset of and throughout their employment. The educator-learner relationship presents an opportunity for educators to distinguish highly motivated individuals from those with the attribute known as volition. Motivation and volition are differentiated in this article.

Defining moments in leadership character development.

Critical moments in life define one's character and clarify true values. Reflective leadership is espoused as an important practice for transformational leaders. Professional development educators can help surface and explore defining moments, strengthen leadership behavior with defining moments as a catalyst for change, and create safe spaces for leaders to expand their leadership capacity.

Patient-Centered Leadership.

Patient-centered care has garnered new attention, as it is linked to health system reimbursement. The background for patient-centered care has evolved from a rich history of evidence, indicating that the patient experience matters. This article addresses the history of patient-centered care and the evidence supporting patient-centered leadership.

Developing leaders as systems thinkers-part III.

This article concludes a three-part series on developing leaders to function as systems thinkers. Part I differentiated between systematic and systems thinking and action, and part II elucidated competencies needed to develop and influence systems. The emphasis now shifts. Professional development educators are often expected to instruct individuals in multiple types of data collection, ranging from quality improvement to program evaluation metrics. The focus of this column is on collecting and using systems data.

Developing leaders as systems thinkers-part II.

Continued from last month's column in which the demand for nurses as systems thinkers was defined, this month's discussion now focuses on four systems thinking competencies. Having determined the differences between systematic thinking and systems thinking, these competencies will aid professional development educators in advancing systems thinking content and evaluation into programs.

Developing leaders as systems thinkers-part I.

There is an increased demand for leaders to become systems thinkers. This article explains how thinking and acting systematically differs from thinking and acting in a systems-oriented manner.

Leading through meetings.

Whether formal or informal, meetings reflect relational opportunities that are critical to effective leadership. Professional development educators can influence the quality, cost, and impact of meetings by emphasizing their structure, conduct, and behavioral dynamics.

Another level of leadership: nurses on boards.

The movement to place nurses on boards of directors is growing, enriching boards with individuals possessing knowledge of clinical quality tied to care delivery models, human resource competencies and management, finance, and organizational change. Professional development educators are poised to advance a board's capacity to address complex health care problems.

The power of relationships in leading.

A key component of successful leadership is the network of relationships that create the foundation for influence, support, and capacity for change. This article presents a four-step formula developed by Al Ritter for approaching relationships.

Developing positive deviants as change agents.

In nearly every quagmire, one or more individuals surpass the issue being faced. Knowledge gained from these positive deviants-who fall outside the norm-leads to a six-step approach to problem solving that is fundamentally different than reductionistic approaches. Professional development educators can train leaders to this technique.

Rankism in nursing and health care.

Professional development educators can frame their practice by understanding rankism from an organizational development framework. Forms and functions of rankism are presented with reference to the work of Robert Fuller.

The jester of leadership.

Innovation can be stifled in hierarchical organizations, filled with traditions and rules. One organization created space for an individual whose position required stimulating professionals through scenarios and storytelling, being a disruptive force for keeping the spiritual and innovative health resiliency of its workforce alive. This role is described.