Servant Leadership Model Shifting Culture at Cleveland Clinic

The Cleveland Clinic is changing its culture through embedding the servant leadership approach in the organization with the view to deliver extraordinary patient experiences every day.

Chief human resources officer of the Cleveland Clinic Health System Joseph Patrnchak says the decision to implement a servant leadership approach came two and a half years ago in an effort to improve its service capability.

“We felt that a shift in our leadership culture was where we needed to start, and so we decided to shift to a serving leader model as we really felt it supported the service environment which we are in and it’s reflective of why people got into health care in the first place — to serve others,” he says.

At the time, Patrnchak says the organization was unaware of others in health care using the leadership approach, so the Cleveland Clinic benchmarked itself with great service organizations outside of the field.

Last month, the Cleveland Clinic was a co-presenter at a conference convened by the Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership focusing on servant leadership in health care.

There were more than 80 health-care institutions in attendance and a couple hundred people, which Patrnchak says for an inaugural event “was really spectacular.”

He adds the feedback during the conference and many inquiries since is a sign that “there’s a real foothold for this within health care.”

“I think there’s a lot of people feeling encouraged that even though an organization today may not really be in the culture that supports (servant leadership), it can change, it can be done, and progress can be made.

“I can’t think of anything more worthwhile than that endeavour to shift your culture to allow people and leaders to serve others more effectively,” he says.

Cleveland Clinic’s goal is to be one of the best places to work in America and be a destination for any caregiver, notes Patrnchak.

“The result of having that kind of environment is that we are delivering great quality outcomes and extraordinary patient experiences every day, that serving leadership is viewed as one of the fundamental key anchors of why we are able to do that,” he tells Axiom News.

Patrnchak says the organization is still relatively early in the process of adopting its serving leader model. With a soft launch and grassroots support built, he says there has been a lot of mandatory training and a start to creating awareness.

As part of its efforts to build awareness the clinic is teaching people the principles behind serving leadership including the behaviours and actions of a serving leader. This training takes place through the clinic’s leadership academy, traditional learning and development vehicles, internal consultants and trainers and a partnership with consultancy firm ThirdRiver Partners. 

“Over this next two, three years we really feel that we are building to a tipping point where it just becomes the way we do things,” says Patrnchak, noting that’s one definition of culture.

Patrnchak says through the approach the organization is seeing greater trust being built, which allows people to be freer, use their own judgement and feel more empowered to take action on behalf of patients.

He notes whenever a worker at any level feels more empowered they are more creative to use their judgement, and are more responsive and trust that when something goes wrong their leadership is there to support them.

“That’s a very releasing kind of approach, so we feel our caregivers are more empowered to do great things on behalf of our patients than ever before,” he adds.

Patrnchak says the most rewarding aspect for him is the change from introducing a foreign concept and having people reluctantly use the words “serving leadership” in a public environment to having it become legitimized and mainstream, as well as built into the way talent is evaluated.

There has been a lot of progress in using the model to make key decisions particularly when it comes to evaluating and promoting management talent, he says.

Health care in general is going through a major transformation across multiple dimensions, he says, one of which is recognizing the need to deliver not only great clinical outcomes but also great service.

“The whole service aspect of it is just as critical to any patient that comes through any hospital doors, so my aspiration for health care in general is that we really embrace this change and serving leadership is the key catalyst for organizations to transform themselves and to deliver on that promise.”

Based in Cleveland, Ohio, the Cleveland Clinic is a not-for-profit multispecialty academic medical center that integrates clinical and hospital care with research and education. To learn more, visit www.clevelandclinic.org.

Related Story:
ThirdRiver Partners Sees Success of Servant Leadership in Health Care
 

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