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    Framework for Senior Leadership Formation

    Building On Experience, Preparing for the Future

    FrameworkFormationCoverToday's challenging economic environment leaves little room for businesses in any industry to expend resources that promise little or no return. The health care industry, and Catholic health care in particular, share this challenge. In the midst of these pressures, something appears to be happening within the Catholic health care community — something that speaks to the unique understanding we bring to our work.

    Many systems across the ministry are making a strong investment in well-structured, intensive leadership formation efforts. Noting this trend, CHA began an initiative to learn why this is being done and what the benefit or return on investment is.

    From this work, CHA, with feedback from hundreds of leaders representing the diversity of Catholic health care organizations, developed the FRAMEWORK FOR SENIOR LEADERSHIP FORMATION (.pdf).

    This is a framework that while not prescriptive, provides insight, practices and potential next steps. We hope it helps all Catholic health ministries in their formation and development activities.

    Background
    Since 2009, CHA's Ministry Leadership Development Committee has undertaken a project to identify leading practices of leadership formation programs developed across Catholic health care ministry so that we can collectively understand:

    • What is being done to assure the presence of lay persons who will offer integral ministry leadership for Catholic health care.
    • If our current efforts are enough to achieve a "critical mass" of well-formed leaders.
    • How we define the success or failure of these efforts.

    From the information gathered, a draft Framework for Leadership Formation was developed in order to share leading practices currently in place in formation work across the health care ministry, and serve as a guide for those developing future programs.

    As a ministry, we need to continually discuss this important activity and resist the notion of going into this work alone. Instead, we must find ways to share experiences, challenges and successes for the sake of our shared work. It is my hope that the work the leadership committee has undertaken will sustain and deepen this important conversation.

    On two occasions, ministry members were asked to review and provide feedback on drafts of the framework, with a final vetting at the 2011 Catholic Health Assembly.
    > Read a Health Progress article previewing the Framework (.pdf).

    Appendices A, B, and C
    > Access the appendices referenced in the Framework for Senior Leadership Formation (.pdf).

    For additional information about this work, please contact Brian Yanofchick, CHA senior director of mission integration and leadership development.