“And if a kingdom be divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house be divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand.”
Mark 3:24-25 ASV
I once worked at a hospital that was resource depleted. “We can’t afford that,” was more than a mindset. It was the reality of a small city health center accustomed to providing care to the uninsured populations. Budgetary tightness at times led to inexpensive workarounds or “quick fixes” to hold over until the empty promises of the next fiscal cycle.
The leadership of this small town hospital were some of the most compassionate and brilliant I had met. With dignity and courage this team pooled resources, shared limited supplies across departments, and developed creative solutions to make ends meet. The result was a sense of mutual understanding and family. This hospital leadership team was tiny, but mighty.
Fast forward to a new role I started in an outpatient clinic network with ten physical locations and over 30 formal collaborations. The organization is the definition of innovation. Telemedicine has been in existence and integrated for at least five years. The clinic operations pivoted and surged during the COVID pandemic and to this day. I’ve observed how the lean supervisor/management/executive team treat and talk to one another. I find a common theme. Dignity, humility, and unity of mission. Unity is the secret sauce to thriving under pressure.
In the midst of limited resources, UNITY forges a pathway to excellence. The leadership principle of unity leads to communication among team members, listening to shared barriers and opportunities, and participation in identified solutions.
Unity, by it’s nature, requires a forfeit of individual ambition for the sake of collective benefit. It’s a mindset. A practice. A belief system. It works!
I have seen the mightiest organizations be crippled under the fear of failure conflated by ego. The building blocks to an organization’s success are the strength of its relationships. The infrastructure will shift like sinking sand if it’s members spend deliberate time in pointless disputes and excessive politicking. This type of activity detracts from unity of the mission.
When there are limited resources, unity paves a way. It makes the impossible, achievable.
Call to action: How might you model unity in your own leadership structure and contribute to an organizational culture of collaboration?
Warmly,
Nydia Elena Garcia, MPH, CPHQ, SSGB, CMI, ORDM