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Spotlight on Michael McCormack
and the
Massachusetts Institute of Community Health Leadership
Massachusetts Institute of Community Health Leadership
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Change—even
positive change—can sometimes look a lot like chaos. That’s
especially true when you’re dealing with a complex, multi-layered
bureaucracy like the American health-care system.
Riding the wave of change is easier when you understand how to remain present and connected with what’s going on around you, even when things appear to be out of control.
That’s why Michael McCormack, director of the Massachusetts Institute of Community Health Leadership, invited Carla Kimball to teach participants in the Institute’s nine-month-long leadership training program about the role of presence in their lives and work.
Funded by the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation, the Institute aims to increase access to health care for low-income and uninsured populations by supporting the professional and personal growth of those who work in organizations serving those populations. Participants in the Institute’s leadership program work for community-based health-care organizations, community health centers, advocacy groups, and government agencies.
“If you’re asking people to create change, there’s a space where, if it’s going to work, it appears out of control, on the edge of chaos,” McCormack says. “People that have presence can be in that place of ambiguity because they don’t panic. They must ‘hold the space’ so that the group can move forward.”
The leadership program, now in its second year, offers a highly experiential, module-based curriculum, with classroom work, peer-to-peer exchanges, and collaborative learning, culminating in the development and implementation of a project addressing a health-care issue that impacts uninsured and low-income Massachusetts residents.
Carla focuses on developing and using presence in several modules that teach students to build teams and relationships and to increase their awareness of their own personal strengths. She helps students learn to articulate and manifest their vision for improved health care in a way that can have the greatest impact. She also works with the students to help them feel more grounded and focused before they set out on a high ropes course.
“Presence is a process and a way of being as opposed to having a couple of models or tools,” McCormack says. “It isn’t just about speaking. It’s about being connected and grounded in yourself and doing all kinds of things from that place. You can see when somebody’s truly present. There’s a flow that happens between two people or between a person and a group.”
In a field where hard science and statistics are still valued above all, the Institute is working to compile data on the results of the leadership program. Along with anecdotal stories—like that of a participant who overcame her extreme fear of public speaking thanks to Carla’s work in the program—evaluations show that a third of last year’s participants received promotions or got better jobs, and that the majority of participants’ managers reported increased confidence and skills in their employees who took the training.
“What we’re doing will help people make a greater impact in the health-care system,” says McCormack, who has spoken on leadership and the Institute at the American Public Health Association and has been invited to speak at the Harvard School of Public Health. “You have to know the statistics and the issues in order to design and implement programs, but it’s presence that creates leaders. The most powerful leaders are those who make whoever they’re talking to feel like they’re the only person in the room.”
For more information about the Massachusetts Institute of Community Health
Leadership, visit http://www.mass-leadership.org.
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