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Drawing on organizational learning theory and leader knowledge, insight is presented to navigate the COVID-19 crisis and foster the new normal. Effective leaders learn in realtime and act accordingly to improve performance and plan for the future.
The coronavirus pandemic continues to stress healthcare organizations and communities in ways unparalleled in modern history. Leaders across the spectrum are dealing with multiple crises every minute of every day. They and the staff they lead have performed heroically during this unprecedented time. Moreover, they have done so in the face of intense volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity.
Leaders manage this crisis, not as a one-time event, but as an enduring series of events that seemingly have no end. Eventually, this crisis or series of crises will subside, and leaders will need to manage the postcrisis environment. Guidance for healthcare leaders to navigate the remainder of the crisis and the new normal can be found from nurse leaders' perspectives. Relevant sources, including experiences from Hurricane Katrina and 9/11, are discussed. In addition, chief nursing officers and executives share triumphs and lessons learned.
The healthcare sector has been critically affected by the pandemic because the resources needed to deal with the number and severity of infected patients are dependent on the availability of those resources. Although individual hospitals and systems will undoubtedly conduct formal reviews of their performance during the pandemic, leaders must simultaneously create and manage the new normal to ensure a level of confidence that the organization is ready when the next crisis comes. This organizational learning is an important tool for awareness and readiness for future crisis events.
Organizational Learning
When reflecting on leader learning during and after a crisis, there is an engagement beyond individual learning. Healthcare institutions' ability to improve performance is rooted in learning about the environmental aspects and complexity of relationships unique to healthcare institutions. Organizational learning (OL) includes approaches and theories about learning that support improvement (Basten & Haamann, 2018).
Postmortem evaluations, as noted by OL scholars, contribute to learning by reflecting on past experiences. Learning and insights are richer when many individual reflections of previous experiences are shared. The purpose is to prepare for and improve outcomes of future similar experiences (single-loop learning). It is also beneficial when values...