The traditional “leader as hero” model is undergoing a reevaluation in favor of more collaborative approaches, say Ron Gutman and Aneel Chima, collaborators at Stanford University.
Their proposed model, Sapient Leadership, was developed in large part from the lived experiences of leaders in fields such as technology, government, business, and health care. These leaders are all adapting to what Gutman and Chima call “3D change,” characterized by its “perpetual, pervasive, and exponential” nature.
Gutman, an entrepreneur who co-founded at-home COVID-19 test provider Intrivo, noted that the healthcare sector is no stranger to rapid change and complexity, making it a prime candidate for new models of leadership.
The COVID-19 pandemic was one example of 3D change in the industry, but as we emerge from the pandemic, this change shows no signs of slowing, with technologies in areas like biotechnology, artificial intelligence, and telehealth continuing to alter how we think about medical research and patient care.
“Much as we might like to think of 2020 as an anomaly, it may not be,” wrote Gutman and Chima in the Harvard Business Review. “Conditions for accelerating change have been building for years.”
They argue that we’ve entered a new era in which change is occurring constantly, simultaneously impacting multiple areas of life and accelerating at an increasingly rapid rate.
“This three-dimensional change is defining our emerging future and, as a consequence, effective leadership will be defined by the ability to navigate this new reality.”
‘Listening. Compassion. Caring.’
The Sapient Leadership model proposes a proactive, collaborative strategy for navigating this kind of change. It suggests that the rapid pace and multifaceted nature of modern change require new leadership approaches that prioritize adaptability and human-centric values.
Conceived leading up to teaching a course at Stanford, Gutman and Chima adapted their research during the pandemic and were ultimately able to draw on insights from conversations with leaders such as Walmart CEO Doug McMillon, Toby Cosgrove, formerly of the Cleveland Clinic, Halla Tómasdóttir of The B Team, and former Salesforce co-CEO Bret Taylor, each contributing unique perspectives that shaped the model’s development.
Gutman explained that a through line of these conversations was an emphasis on eschewing a top-down approach and keeping an open mind and open ear to the concerns of both collaborators and those who ultimately stand to benefit from the work of an organization. The weight was on compassion and humility in the face of difficult and fast-moving problems.
“The best leaders, when you interview them, they all say the same thing. Listening. Compassion. Caring,” said Gutman in a recent interview.
For Gutman, the application in his own industry, healthcare, is obvious.
“It’s health and care. I think we’re focusing really strongly on health, really strongly with, ‘OK, we have a problem. We’ll solve it.’ But most people don’t realize — it’s like the elephant in the room — [in] healthcare, we know maybe 20%, 30% of what’s going on, and 80% nobody knows. So we need to be humble enough to understand that as much as we think we know, there’s a lot of unknowns, and a lot of what helps people recover and do better is the care side.”
The model also extends to organizational behaviors and culture within healthcare settings. It encourages active listening, transparent decision-making, and environments where healthcare professionals feel empowered to contribute their expertise and where administrators and medical professionals can work together to create a more patient-friendly experience.
Sapient Leadership in Healthcare: A Case Study of Intrivo
Intrivo’s pandemic response offers a practical example of how Sapient Leadership principles can be applied within the healthcare industry.
Healthcare is not only highly regulated, but also carries the moral weight of dealing with human lives. Products must be effective and they must be developed quickly to meet demand, with the pandemic an extreme example of this challenge.
This environment, Gutman suggests, requires a leadership style that’s both agile and deeply rooted in ethical considerations. It’s a style that resonates with Sapient Leadership’s focus on humility and continuous
learning as essential traits for effective leadership.
It also required an openness to data and an ability to adapt quickly in response.
“We acted quickly to put together a team of skilled engineers, product experts, designers, and operators who worked around the clock to develop the technology and partnerships necessary to produce high-quality at-home, rapid antigen COVID-19 tests,” said Gutman in a recent interview with Healthcare magazine. “Despite the significant uncertainty and difficulty in predicting future demand, we used data and made a well-informed bet to produce as many tests as possible.
“Our use of data and advanced analytics enabled us to predict and plan for manufacturing millions of additional tests, proving critical when new strains of COVID-19, such as the delta variant, caused a greater than others expected increase in viral spread. While other companies without our foresight ran out of tests, Intrivo remained prepared to meet demand.”
A Roadmap for Adapting to Change
The Sapient Leadership model suggests that a shift is underway in how leadership is conceptualized and practiced. This shift is informed by both evolving technology and a greater appreciation of empathy and compassion when adapting to that technology. Ultimately, it has implications for organizational structures, decision-making processes, and metrics for success.
The model also implies that everyone within an organization, from top-level executives to front-line employees, has a role to play in the landscape of 3D change. It highlights adaptability and collaboration, skills that are increasingly recognized as vital in a rapidly changing and multidimensional healthcare environment that encompasses administration, tech, research, and medical practice.
“In a world of 3D change, no one person or organization can master all knowledge across all domains, no single person or organization can master enough skills in breadth, depth, or pace, to keep up,” wrote Gutman and Chima.
“Instead, learning must be inspired by leadership, reinforced by culture, occur across a variety of domains, coordinated through the whole and shared openly and actionably to create the broader picture.”
