Reading List: "Getting Unstuck"
A discussion with author Ralph Jacobson
In Getting Unstuck: Using Leadership Paradox to Execute with Confidence ($39.95, Productivity Press), author Ralph Jacobson cues in healthcare executives on how to utilize the paradox concept to become stronger leaders. He spoke to Healthcare Finance News about his book.
Q: What would you like readers to know about your book?
A: Well, there are lots of things, but one of them is that most of the issues we see today, especially in healthcare, we treat them as problems that can be solved instead of paradoxes that must be balanced.
[Also: Reading List: Fredric Tobis, 'The Healthcare Crisis: The Urgent Need for Physician Leadership']
Q: How does this apply to healthcare?
A: There are lots of paradoxes in healthcare. Is it a right or is it a business? Is healthcare about the community or the individual? There’s specialist versus generalist, high tech versus high touch, art versus science, competition versus collaboration. Of course, the reality is that it’s both.
Q: What are the take-home lessons for healthcare executives?
A: For healthcare executives, the concept of the paradox helps them balance and focus on the future. There are three big lessons for healthcare executives:
- The ability to manage paradoxes has been shown to be a better indicator of success than financial measures.
- Healthcare leaders will be in the vortex of some of the most difficult paradoxes we’re facing – to understand them will allow them to lead.
- Healthcare leaders need to not get caught up in paradoxes, not get sucked into one side or the other. The focus needs to be on balance.
Q: Is there anything else you would like readers to know?
A: Paradoxes can help healthcare executives understand why it can be difficult to get physicians on board. Physicians deal with problems that have answers while administrators have problems that have no answers. We need to create more ambidextrous minds.
[Also: Reading List: "Lessons Learned"]
