Leaders Key to Creating Health Equity
By Erica Baruch, Erica Baruch Consulting
As any individual who has attempted to alter his or her habits will attest, change is not easy. Those who have participated in organizational changes of any type are likely to echo that sentiment. Yet, as with changing our behavior to improve our personal well-being, organizations may reap significant benefits by delving fully into a comprehensive change process. This is certainly the case for organizations seeking to improve their cultural competency.
Organizational cultural competency efforts—efforts that often require modifications to services, established policies and practices, as well as staff attitudes and behaviors—may prove more complex than other change efforts because they require organizations to dig into emotion-laden topics such as equity, race, racism, bias and prejudice. Leadership commitment to and involvement in this type of development can impact an organization’s success.
Commitment from the top helps gain staff buy-in and the resources needed for successful implementation of change. When leadership, in particular the executive director or chief executive officer, makes it clear that understanding and interacting effectively with people from other cultures is a guiding organizational value, supports the changes taking place, and plays an active role in making those changes happen, others are likely to follow his or her lead.
Little, however, has been written about strategies leaders may use to guide their organizations successfully through a cultural competency change process. A new report from The Colorado Trust, Health Equity and Leadership: The Importance of Leadership in Achieving Organizational Cultural Competency, examines lessons learned from leaders throughout the seven-year Equality in Health initiative.
The report addresses challenges leaders are likely to encounter as well as strategies for leading this work. Those strategies include:
- Assessing their own and their organization’s level of readiness to undertake comprehensive cultural competency development
- Learning about health disparities, exploring their own biases and developing relationships with the diverse communities their organization serves
- Preparing for organizational change by establishing the vision and meaning; engaging staff, board and community; making it safe to address uncomfortable issues; and managing staff and board diversity
- Leading the effort and participating in the organization’s development activities
- Assuring progress by creating methods for accountability and sustainability and celebrating success
Read the highlights or full report to learn more about how leadership commitment to and involvement in comprehensive organizational cultural competency development can guide organizations toward creating health equity.
