3 Ideas to Start Thinking Differently in a Possibility-Focused Way

What if your workday didn’t begin with problems to solve, but possibilities to uncover? The creators of Human-Centered Leadership in Health Care have championed this transformative approach, and we asked them to explain how it’s done.

“The key is harnessing the power of individual and team strengths, ideas, and innovations,” explains nurse researcher Lucy Leclerc, PhD, RN, NPD-BC. She co-created this leadership approach with Kay Kennedy, DNP, RN, NEA-BC, CPHQ, and Susan Campis, MSN, RN, NE-BC, NBC-HWC, after asking nurses about what they need in a leader.

Human-Centered Leadership “starts with you, but it’s not about you,” Leclerc says.

The group offered these three ideas to get started:

1. Start with Wellbeing

To foster shared ownership, leaders must prioritize their own mindfulness, self-awareness, self-compassion, and self-nurturing so they can model and mentor the same in their teams. With a sense of wellbeing developed, leaders can focus it outward to awaken possibility in their teams, connect them toward common problem-solving goals, and uphold a psychologically safe space to find solutions together.

2. Activate “Appreciative Inquiry”

Kennedy describes “appreciative inquiry” as a harmonious problem-solving approach to change management that focuses on possibilities rather than “putting out fires.” Teams can implement a 4-D problem-solving process to:

• Discover— share the best of what’s worked in the past.
• Dream— consider a future state.
• Design— map out the solution.
• Deliver— bring to life the destiny of their plan.

Any issue fits into this upstream, positive way of thinking, according to Campis. “We’ve seen teams thrive using appreciative inquiry to address big issues around nursing identity, wellbeing, and trust in a post-pandemic world, as well as more micro-level issues such as length of stay, SSI and CAUTI.”

Leclerc adds that the benefits reflect in team trust and team ownership which, of course, create positive results for whatever the issue may be. “Soon enough, you’ll hear more comments like, ‘Our team rocks! Look at those patient experience scores.’”

3. Focus on Possibility

Additionally, teams can engage the opportunities that come with Human-Centered Leadership in Healthcare by embracing these possibility-focused mindsets:

1. If you can’t do more, do it differently. Harness the power of your inner human-centered leader and being a connector using Appreciative Inquiry to create a safe space to share ideas.


2. Change happens, so make it possibility focused. Flip the script, look at change as the norm rather than the exception, and awaken your team’s innovative ideas.


3. Focus on your strengths to transform. Emphasize team strengths to make the weaknesses less relevant. As an upholder, recognize that we’re all beautiful humans with strengths to co-create the solutions and shape our future.

Learn more about Human-Centered Leadership in Healthcare with Leclerc, Kennedy, and Campis during their Leadership Summit session at AORN Global Surgical Conference & Expo 2024. Registration opens soon, so keep an eye on your email and the website.