Leadership
Today, hospital leaders are under increasing pressure to improve performance, as quality and safety are becoming strategic foci of many organizations. Leadership expertise is critical: Leaders must take an active and visible role in their organization’s quality initiatives.
Articles
Canadian Chief Executive Officers’ Prescription for Higher Quality: More Clinical Engagement, Shared Accountability and Capacity Development 
Healthcare Quality 14(4): 18-21. This article examines the results of a polling exercise of 150 leaders from various sectors of Canada’s healthcare system at the Annual CEO Forum, which was held in February 2011. 
The Group Priority Sort: A Participatory Decision-Making Tool for Healthcare Leaders
Healthcare Quarterly 14(4): 47-53, 2011. This article describes an innovative leadership tool for informing decision-making through consensus building and effective consultation.
The Missing Link: Lean Leadership 
David Mann, Frontiers of Health Services Management 26(1):15-26, 2009. Mann examines the set of leadership behaviours necessary for implementing successful Lean initiatives.
The LEADS In a Caring Environment capabilities framework: A “For Health, By Health” enabler for leadership capacity development and leadership talent management
G. Dickson and B. Tholl. October 2011. This paper provides a Canadian model of leadership for system transformation.
Spreading Changes: Leadership
Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI). This article talks about how executive leaders can spread changes throughout an organization.
Interview
Leaders’ Perspectives on Accountability for Quality
Canadian Health Services Research Foundation (CHSRF), CEO Forum 2011. Five healthcare leaders talk about how organizations can work towards improvement through capacity building and promoting accountability.
Books
High Performing Healthcare Systems: Delivering Quality By Design
Longwoods Publishing, 2008. In many healthcare systems, a gap exists between the care that is possible and the care that is delivered. This book examines high-performing systems, to see what lessons can be learned.
Presentations
Critical Attributes for Leading Improvement
Paula Blackstien-Hirsch, Health Quality Ontario, 2010. This presentation explores the seven leadership leverage points (see Seven Leadership Leverage Points for Organization-Level Improvement in Health Care).
“Getting the Basics Right”: The Productive Ward and The Productive Leader
NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement, May 2008. This presentation describes how a productive leader can help create a productive ward.
Video
From Quality 101 to Quality No. 1
St. Michael’s Hospital Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, June 7, 2011. Dr. Robert Howard, President and Chief Executive Officer of St. Michael’s Hospital, talks about leading quality.
White papers
The 8-Step Process for Leading Change
Kotter International, 2011. Leadership guru Dr. John Kotter lays out a step-by-step process to help organizations become adept at change.
Execution of Strategic Improvement Initiatives to Produce System-Level Results
Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), 2007. This white paper outlines IHI’s Will–Ideas–Execution framework for executing system-level improvement projects.
Seven Leadership Leverage Points for Organization-Level Improvement in Health Care
Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), February 2006. This paper details IHI’s theory of leverage for leaders, describing what it takes to achieve results in quality and safety at the organizational level.
IHI Framework for Leadership for Improvement
Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), February 2006. The framework is a way of organizing leadership processes, to focus leaders on improvement.
The RACI Matrix
Health Quality Ontario, 2011. The Responsibility, Accountability, Consulted, Informed (RACI) Matrix is a tool that describes the roles and responsibilities of various individuals (or departments) in an organization when completing tasks or deliverables in a quality improvement project.
The Leadership Priority Calculator 
This tool helps leaders determine which improvements will have the biggest impact on helping them realize their vision.
Patient Safety Leadership WalkRounds Tool™
Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), 2004. A tool and activity that helps senior leadership demonstrate to staff their commitment to patient safety.
Canadian College of Health Leaders
Canadian Health Leadership Network
Emerging Health Leaders
National Center for Healthcare Leadership
