Beyond Skills: Preparing Leaders for Future Success with Children's Minnesota

The Next Practices Weekly call series has become a well-attended and wide-ranging discussion for HR leaders each Thursday at 11am ET / 8am PT. On this week's call, i4cp Membership Director Nathaniel Hudson and i4cp Senior Research Analyst Tom Stone were joined by special guests Laurin Cathey, SVP and Chief Human Resources Officer; Greg Johnson,, Sr. HR Director, Talent & Strategy; and Jes Beck, Director of Org Development & Learning at Children’s Minnesota. Here are some highlights from the call:

• The Children's Minnesota team began by sharing a powerful, drone-footage style video of one of their locations. See the recording above for this clip (timestamp 7:20-9:45).
• Jonson shared the mission and vision for Children's Minnesota as follows:
  • Mission: We champion the health needs of children and families. We are committed to improving children’s health by providing the highest-quality, family-centered care, advanced through research and education.
  • Vision: Every family’s essential partner in raising healthier children.
• Children's Minnesota is 1 of 35 "independent, freestanding" U.S. children's health systems in the US. They have seen consistent market growth in the Twin Cities area, and in recent years they have won numerous awards for clinical excellence and more.
• Cathey shared that several elements were key drivers for the development of their Leadership Academy. One was the need for a common language for the leadership team, so they could clearly communicate and get quick alignment on initiatives going forward. He said they also needed to "learn to rumble," to get comfortable pushing back and having key conversations, instead of always defaulting to being agreeable and overly nice with each.
• The objectives of the Leadership Academy were as follows:
  • Provide both horizontal and vertical development
  • Create a network and community of leaders
  • Provide skill development for senior leaders specific to system thinking, financial acumen, strategic decision making and more
  • Break down silos within the organization and promote collaboration
  • Prepare our organization’s leaders for new expectations today and for our future
  • Engage and retain our leadership
• The first cohort of the Leadership Academy was launched in September 2022, and the goal was to run several cohorts per year with ~150 leaders going through the program overall.
• We asked the following poll question of event participants: "What components of a leadership development program have you found to be most impactful? (Choose 1 or 2 components)"
  • 56% - Executive leadership engagement/teaching
  • 45% - Hands on experiential learning
  • 45% - Peer learning and networking
  • 32% - Coaching
  • 12% - Assessments
  • 8% - Expert Guest Speakers
• Beck shared that the structure of the Leadership Academy has three main aspects: Individual Assessment and Development Planning; In-person Live Learning Sessions; Small Group Growth Accountability Teams.

• Regarding the assessment and development planning, participants each do a leadership assessment, and get feedback from an executive coach. This provides powerful insights on their personal strengths and growth areas. It also creates a baseline that is then leveraged in a feedback report after participants complete the Academy program.
• The live learning aspect of the Leadership Academy had the following structure and components:
  
   
• Beck then described the small-group, Growth Accountability Teams (GATs) as follows:
  • A forum where peers share openly about their leadership learning – strengths and how they are applying them; development areas and roadblocks.
  • Peers act as sounding boards, give advice and coaching, and help to hold one another accountable as each individual progresses in their learning journey.
  • Space is held for individual development planning leveraging assessment insights.
• Beck showed both quantitative and qualitative success measures of the program as follows:
  
  

Links to resources shared on the call:

• Upcoming i4cp virtual events
• i4cp’s Global Events (APAC & EMEA) - register here
• Information on i4cp Membership
• i4cp’s new Team Network Effect report (full report for members, executive brief for others)
• Series of resources provided by i4cp for leaders from coaching expert Marshall Goldsmith
• I4cp experiential learning case studies: Shell and T-Mobile