Proposed Curriculum

Leading Change

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Strategic Vision and Decision Making (2 hours)

Organizational leaders and managers face three central questions in evaluating their organization’s prospects: What’s the organization’s current situation? Where does the organization need to go from here? How should it get there? By answering these critical questions, healthcare executives in this course will be introduced to the aspects of strategic vision and decision making. Participants will examine phases of crafting and executing any organization’s strategy: developing a strong strategic vision; setting clear goals and objectives; crafting a strategy for achieving the objective; implementing and executing the chosen strategy efficiently and effectively; and evaluating performance and initiating corrective adjustments.

Emotional Intelligence for Executives (4 hours)

During this course, participants will appreciate how great leaders inspire others to action. A strong predictor of an individual’s success in a leadership position is emotional intelligence. Through combined didactic and experiential learning, participants will define the dimensions of emotional intelligence, identify individual strengths and learn how to enhance developing others and themselves. Participants will undertake a self-assessment and identify workable methods and strategies to lead others with emotional intelligence.

Leading Change and Organizational Culture (2 hours)

This change management course examines principles and applications of leadership, management and organization theory as applied to healthcare organizations. Participants will identify methods for assessing key features of organizational environments and internal structures and for identifying, developing and implementing strategies leading to improved performance. Leaders often have to reconfigure and align their organizations to deliver on the promise of new directions and strategies. Participant activities will focus on how change affects the success of the healthcare organization and the necessity for strategy, structure and cultural alignment.

Innovation in Action (4 hours)

Most organizations today overlook one of their biggest sources of innovation and improvement: the ideas of their employees. This course will use Innovations at Cleveland Clinic as a case study in healthcare innovation to describe the business behind innovation. Thereafter, participants will learn how to create an idea-driven organization – one in which rapid innovation and improvement are driven by a constant stream of ideas from everyone, particularly front-line people, and that are based on contextual learning and rapidly tested for effectiveness. Many idea-driven organizations routinely implement 20 or more ideas per person per year, and a few implement more than 100. As a result, these innovative organizations achieve extraordinary levels of performance created through advantages that their competitors cannot match. There is a lot to learn, much of which is counterintuitive.

Leading People

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Creating and Leading High-Performing Teams (2 hours)

This course will focus on the attributes of high-performing teams, including the skills and leadership abilities necessary to create and sustain team excellence. Work complexity and job specialization necessitate working across organizational, educational and institutional boundaries to provide the best care while maintaining quality and cost. Teamwork is essential; building and creating high-performing teams is critical to organizational success. Through didactic and experiential exercises, participants will understand the evolution of teams and the necessary leadership and team skills to develop team effectiveness. Through participation and attendee feedback, the course will also explore the nuances of teams across different cultures and countries.

Managing Conflict Constructively (2 hours)

This course will help participants become aware of their preferred conflict-handling approach through the use of an assessment tool and self-reflection on their past leadership challenges. Using the Crucial Conversations program, participants will learn to identify and resolve various conflict triggers. Participants will practice proven approaches to conflict resolution, learn techniques to build and repair relations, understand how to facilitate mutually acceptable results and develop resolution strategies for their organization.

Professional Planning for Healthcare Executives (2 hours)

The course examines ways for the aspiring healthcare executive to gain insights into the art of leadership and its differences with the practice of medicine. Participants will define themselves as a leader based on their deepest values, and align their capabilities with their organizational role, purpose and passion as a leader. The pathways of successful leadership development planning that will be explored include the role of mentoring, social capital and reflection.

Leading Results

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Patient Outcomes and Quality of Care (4 hours)

This course provides a critical overview of the tools used to measure outcomes and quality of care, development and use of practical guidelines, advantages and disadvantages of various methods, and the use of such analysis in administrative decision making.

Healthcare is changing. There are growing pressures to cut costs and improve quality. The value proposition in healthcare has never been more relevant. A recent report from the Office of Inspector General shows that one in seven Medicare beneficiaries in the United States suffers a temporary or significant harm event while hospitalized, of which nearly half are preventable. These events represent $4.4 billion annually in potentially avoidable cost during hospitalization. Like most hospitals today in the U.S., Cleveland Clinic is measured on safety, quality and patient experience with a growing emphasis on value. How is this done and what can we do to drive value in the care we deliver? Through didactic and experiential work, we will examine the value proposition in healthcare and what you can do to participate in the discussion. Practical tools will be shared and engaged to develop measurement solutions.

Patient Experience (2 hours)

The course will describe how Cleveland Clinic's mission of caring for the sick, investigating their problems and educating those who serve is being enhanced to provide a world-class experience for our patients. Cleveland Clinic's desire to put patients first has been guided by culture, metrics and teamwork. Hear what has been and what is being done to significantly improve patient experience.

Problem-Solving Techniques and Strategies (2 hours)

Global healthcare leaders who confront diverse problems on a daily basis require a repertoire of problem-solving techniques to increase leadership effectiveness. This course will engage the learner in a variety of experiential learning simulations, normative models and examples to familiarize participants with problem-solving techniques and strategies, so they are better equipped to solve problems in their organizations.

Proposed Curriculum

Business Acumen

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Healthcare Industry: Global Overview (2 hours)

This course will provide an overview of various global healthcare systems. This overview will include a comparison of different systems from the perspective of function, planning, innovation, finance and human resources. Participants will be invited to describe the uniqueness of the organization they represent and share an organizational success story.

Healthcare Industry: Cleveland Clinic History and Mission (2 hours)

The course will provide insights into the group practice model. Participants will use a case study of Cleveland Clinic to understand the mission, vision, values, history, unique culture, governance structure, strategic planning process, policies and procedures. The video, All for One: The History of Cleveland Clinic, will be shown as an example of a valuable management tool and powerful emotional message.

Executive Financial Management (4 hours)

Even highly innovative and creative healthcare executives must report their results using financial terms and concepts. This course will help participants better understand how finance affects the organization's operations, while demystifying the numbers behind the terms. It will provide sufficient familiarity with financial information so each participant can confidently interpret and use financial data in daily decisions.

Marketing for Executives (2 hours)

This course will focus on the critical issues needed by an organization to effectively market in today’s increasingly globally competitive marketplace, including understanding the value equation, identifying the aspects of branding, protecting brand equity and recognizing the need for customer loyalty. In today’s marketplace, it is imperative that healthcare organizations deliver value to the customer. Central to this requirement is the value equation and the variables that comprise that equation. The course also will focus on the concept of brand equity and how it is derived and managed. Finally, it is important to recognize that marketing is undergoing a major paradigm shift from market share acquisition to customer loyalty and retention. This change has dramatic global implications that must be understood and implemented to effectively market a healthcare entity.

Cleveland Clinic’s market approach will be discussed in terms of how it operationalizes value by putting patient’s first. Since Cleveland Clinic’s brand is known globally, its brand equity is highly valued. Course faculty will discuss how patient and employee loyalty have been created and developed through Cleveland Clinic's marketing efforts, both nationally and globally.

Global Human Resources Management (2 hours)

This course will focus on the fundamental challenge of any global organization: to be globally integrated yet locally responsive. How does an organization retain core organizational values while being respectful of local customs and traditions? Organization theorists have come to recognize the importance of Human Resources as the critical tool for developing a corporate culture that allows the most capable people to be recruited, selected, developed and assigned anywhere in the world, without regard to passport. Specific practice challenges, such as obtaining, organizing and using the right global labor market data, will be addressed, and experience from Cleveland Clinic’s own international activities will be shared and analyzed.

Using and Managing Information Technologies (4 hours)

Once considered a laggard, the healthcare industry now appears to be the booming market in terms of IT. This course will familiarize leaders with the principles of information systems and management at Cleveland Clinic. In addition, participants will acquire an understanding of current trends in information technologies unique to healthcare in the U.S. and globally.

Building Coalitions

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System Integration: Regional Perspective (2 hours)

This course will describe the history of Cleveland Clinic's regional healthcare system, governance and administration. In addition, the faculty will examine the efforts toward system integration and the emerging priorities of regional healthcare in a global industry. The curriculum will provide valuable insights into the numerous opportunities and challenges of a world-class healthcare system.

Cleveland Clinic Operations: U.S. & Abu Dhabi (2 hours)

Cleveland Clinic is a global healthcare organization with a dominant presence in the United States and an evolving presence in Abu Dhabi and Canada. During expansion efforts, Cleveland Clinic Operations has been highly involved in system integration. Participants will be introduced to the key business units responsible for system integration, revenue and FTE trends, contract consolidation, U.S. energy savings projects and programs, as well as system integration efforts in Abu Dhabi.

Negotiating Effectively (4 hours)

Drawing on the latest research and best practices across a breadth of industries, this course will develop participant negotiation capabilities and decision-making strategies that participants can use throughout their career. Through activities and case studies, this course will help participants understand how to navigate the culture of a group practice model while negotiating for patient experience, quality, information technology, budget and human resources, and while making executive decisions.

Executive Communication Skills (4 hours)

Effective leaders are great communicators. This course prepares executives to communicate their visions in a manner that resonates with others and inspires their team to be active partners in the process. In an active learning environment, participants will have an opportunity to explore, engage and develop a communication strategy fit for a transformational leader.

Global Partnering (2 hours)

This course describes and analyzes in broad terms the cultural, legal and social structures that shape how global partnerships are formed and maintained. The course will focus on the necessity for greater cultural sensitivity among healthcare leaders, enhanced diversity and appreciation of different social/legal structures within which these partnerships operate. Participants will acquire a greater understanding of the language skills, cultural awareness, social norms and local laws that affect partnerships.