Program Overview
Curriculum | Cycle VII Program Highlights
Curriculum
The Ecological Model has been chosen as the framework to build the curriculum for the Kansas Public Health Leadership Institute (KPHLI). The 2002 Institute of Medicine report “Who Will Keep the Public Healthy?” describes this model as “a model of health that emphasizes the linkages and relationships among multiple determinants affecting health.” Specific curriculum modules are based on competencies developed by the National Public Health Leadership Development Network.
Program Goals and Objectives
The KPHLI was designed to increase practitioners’ transformational and
transactional leadership knowledge, skills, and competencies in areas that
are vital to the development of their public health organizations/institutions
in order to impact Kansas’s state and local health departments and public
health infrastructure directly. Other goals of the program include:
- Providing a collaborative sequential leadership development model that supports the application of new knowledge and skills in the practice setting;
- Enhancing the leadership competencies that are vital to strengthening the public health system in Kansas; and
- Strengthening linkages among public health practitioners and developing collaborative networks with public health academicians.
In addition, the KPHLI curriculum acknowledges the importance of eight content areas recommended by the Council on Linkages Between Academia and Public Health Practice. The council comprises leaders from national organizations who represent both public health practice and academic communities, including the National Public Health Leadership Development Network. These leadership competencies represent a set of skills, knowledge, and attitudes necessary for the broad practice of public health. They transcend the boundaries of the specific disciplines within public health and help to unify the profession. These content areas stress leadership that:
- Creates a culture of ethical standards within organizations and communities
- Helps create key values and shared vision and uses these principles to guide action
- Identifies internal and external issues that may impact delivery of essential public health services (i.e., strategic planning)
- Facilitates collaboration with internal and external groups to ensure participation of key stakeholders
- Promotes team and organizational learning
- Contributes to development, implementation, and monitoring of organizational performance standards
- Uses the legal and political system to effect change
- Applies theory of organizational structures to professional practice
The primary goal for each KPHLI fellow is to enhance and develop transactional
and transformational knowledge, skills, and competencies that are vital in
developing change strategies to impact the public’s health through 3
core functions. Within these core functions, the CDC has also identified 10
basic public health practices that are integral to the operation of state and
local health agencies:
- Assessment:
- Assess health needs effectively
- Investigate the occurrence of health effects and health hazards
- Analyze the determinants of identified health needs
- Policy development:
- Advocate for public health, build constituencies, and identify resources
- Set priorities among health needs
- Develop plans and policies to address priority health needs
- Assurance:
- Manage resources and develop organizational structures
- Implement programs
- Evaluate programs and provide quality assurance
- Inform and educate
The purpose of these functions is to impact the local public health infrastructure and meet the national objectives for the year 2010. Upon completion of the program, a scholar should have developed the knowledge, skills, and competencies to be able to:
Describe the meaning, value, and functions of leadership in public health
practice- Describe the mission, vision, values, goals, and objectives of their organization as a system
- Describe their own and other team members’ unique gifts and value to their organization/team
- Identify their personality styles and behavior patterns in regard to leadership practice strengths and areas for improvement
- Describe the purpose and methods for improving communication and teamwork in order to implement change strategies within their organization
- Describe the value of leadership competencies in their job and their impact on leading teams
- Select and define variables relevant to a problem requiring solution within their team and identify how the solution will contribute to the team’s vision of the future
- Develop and complete written documentation (as specified in course materials) of a case study addressing a problem in their work setting which seeks to enhance one or more of the three core functions of public health practice and meet specific national Year 2010 Objectives
- Describe how the five leadership practices of challenging, encouraging, inspiring, modeling, and enabling (according to Kouzes and Posner/Leadership Practices Inventory) are critical to most successful and productive leaders.
Cycle VII Program Highlights
The first session of Cycle VII focused on experiential leadership for public health teams. Facilitator Jeff King filled Day 1 with group activities to help illustrate multiple strategies for team building and assessing group dynamics. He used group discussions to help the scholars process the stages of a full value contract and how they can be applied to everyday scenarios.
KPHLI Co-executive Director Dr. Suzanne Hawley started off Day 2 with an explanation of the Myers-Briggs Type Inventory (MBTI) assessment taken by scholars. This assessment helps scholars understand the normal differences in people concerning where people get their energy, how they gather information, and how they make decisions.
Dr. Hawley also explained the scholars’ results from the LPI-Self assessment. The LPI tool is used to assess skill in 5 key leadership practices. Scholars used the results to reflect on what practices they are comfortable with and which ones they would like to develop.
Session 2 took place on September 16-18th in Kansas City, MO. Kansas scholars were joined by scholars in the Missouri and Oklahoma Public Health Leadership Institutes for the 2nd annual KMOLI Regional Leadership Institute. Scholars enjoyed time meeting and collaborating with other public health leaders from neighboring states. Kenneth McLeroy, professor at the Texas A&M Health Science Center started the session by looking at public health issues from a global perspective. He discussed the epidemiologic transition of public health and potential future directions for public health.
Sherry Immediato, Society of Organizational Learning, began Day 2 with strategies for systems thinking. Scholars learned ways to think globally while acting locally to impact public health. Sherry also discussed the importance of building lasting partnerships and avoiding “accidental adversaries.” Scholars discussed and assessed case studies of instances when accidental adversaries were formed. They brainstormed solutions to the situations and steps that could have prevented them from happening.
The final day of the session was filled with insight from Gary Eagleton, aha! Process, Inc. Gary spoke about how cultural differences can affect opportunities for success. Scholars acquired skills needed to develop plans to improve services to the community. Gary also discussed generational poverty and shared a mental model with the scholars to show its impact.
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Session 3 of the Kansas Public Health Leadership Institute took place on January 28-29, 2010 in Wichita, KS. On Thursday the 28th, keynote speaker Jeff Wilson took the scholars through a “train the trainer” workshop on collaborative leadership from a public health perspective. Scholars learned the fundamentals of collaborative leadership, which is the process of bringing groups of people together for mutual benefit. Modules included assessing the environment, building trust, sharing power, and creating clarity.
Jeff’s activities demonstrated different ways the scholars could take these ideas back to their own organizations. Activities illustrated different levels of collaboration and could be altered for a variety of settings and workplaces.
Friday the 29th featured creative leadership presentations. The personality of each of the scholars stood out as they told each other what leadership means to them personally. Presentations ranged from photos of kids demonstrating leadership qualities, to a word find of leadership values, to a game of leadership jeopardy. Co-executive director Dr. Suzanne Hawley closed out the session by discussing the LPI-Observer assessment. The LPI assessment allows scholars to receive feedback from their co-workers regarding their leadership styles.
Instructors:
Jeff Wilson, MSHA (Keynote Speaker)
Administrator, Orthopaedic Services
Henrico Doctor’s Hospital
Suzanne Hawley, PhD, MPH
Co-Executive Director, KPHLI
Assistant Professor
Director of KU-MPH Program – Wichita
Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
University of Kansas School of Medicine-Wichita
