Leading organisational change for social citizenship
In my role as the CEO of Flourish Australia I find myself thinking often about leadership as we head towards 2050.At the recent TheMHS event in Brisbane, I wanted people to think about the core skills we currently associate with leadership and the new skills we will need.
A human services connection
When I think about the new skills, I come back to:
- Digital data analytics,
- Measuring impact,
- Lived experience leadership and systems leadership.
It is about seeing leadership in mental health services not as a silo, but as something connected across human services and health. Things are not going to become any less complex. They will probably become more complex.
Consider digital
When I think about leadership, I go back to the core competencies we hold now.
- Safety,
- Quality,
- Financial management and strategic planning.
Those are the standard pieces. But we also need to look at our digital service delivery models. We need to understand where artificial intelligence fits, both in our corporate work and our service delivery. We need to think about how we co design new services that might be digital first or hybrid, and how we know who might benefit from those services.
We're human after all
I spoke recently with someone who works a lot with young people. They reminded me not to presume that young people want digital mental health services. The young people they talked to said they want to do it in person. As providers, we need to think about what different people need.
Organisational culture and a stronger focus on human rights.
Beyond that sits organisational culture and a stronger focus on human rights. I think of it as being part of a human rights movement as mental health providers and professionals.
Something I read recently shifted my thinking about organisational change. We are always told that we need the logic to explain change, but the article argued that organisational change is also about grief and loss. That resonated with me.
We are operating in a world that is volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous, and increasingly digital and diverse. It will not get simpler. I think we are up to the challenge if we look ahead and understand the skills people will need.
Psychological composting
One concept that came up was psychological composting. It fits well with this. It is about taking the grieving process and the things we have known, turning them over and reshaping them into something new. It is not about throwing things out or saying they no longer matter. People are connected to what they have done. Composting is taking what is there and transforming it. People have been doing things with the best intentions for a long time, but we have ended up in a fragmented place.
Integrated services are still the Holy Grail
One door, walk in, get what you need. We keep aiming for it and never quite get there. There are new models emerging, like the Medicare Mental Health Centres in Australia. You can walk in off the street and access everything. More support, clinical support, psychosocial support, peer support. It is fantastic, but the challenge is scaling that across the whole system so no matter where you live you have the same experience. No matter what service you go to, you do not have to retell your story over and over again. People want to feel understood, respected, safe and cared for regardless of what is happening in their lives.
Social citizenship
If I offer a final word, I go back to social citizenship. Recovery is a personal journey, but it happens in relationship with others and within communities. The next frontier is building communities. It is about building the capability of mainstream organisations, libraries, faith communities, universities, schools and sporting clubs so they are welcoming places where people can be who they are, and where they know others around them can help.
That is the message. That is the future. I think we are starting to walk in that direction, but there is much more to do
