Curriculum

  • 5:00-8:00 pm

    Facilitated by: Phil Cass, Ph.D

    Orientation is an opportunity for Academy participants to become acquainted with one another and members of the core faculty. Participants will be introduced to the curriculum, Academy policies, and Academy requirements that will enable them to participate fully and get the most out of the year of study.

  • The Art of Hosting Conversations that Matter

    Faculty: Jeffrey Bell, MD Philip Cass, PhD, Stephanie Costa, MD, Jim Drescher, Janice Glowski, PhD, Marc Parnes, MD, and Tuesday Ryan-Hart, MSW

    The fall retreat is a requirement for all PLA participants. During the fall retreat weekend, we will learn more about ourselves and each other (becoming a community), have a more in-depth experience with meditation, and learn a set of social methodologies that can bring purpose and meaning to all kinds of our gatherings.

    The fall retreat is highly experiential, where you will be hosted in meaningful conversations and learn to host conversations that make a difference in your professional and personal lives. These social methodologies support a participatory leadership style based on caring. You will learn how to work with difficult conversations.

    We will also learn the basics of meditation and experience meditation using nature as a guide.

  • 3:00-8:00 pm

    Faculty: Jim Marsden

    Personal and Organizational Transformation- We and the organizations we work in are in a constant state of change and transformation. Although inevitable, transformation can be understood and worked with in our efforts to lead fulfilling lives and life-affirming organizations. In this seminar, we learn the architectural patterns of transformation. We also explore ways of visualizing road maps that can help us shift our personal stance toward the lives we want to be leading. Through lecture, guided journaling, and dialogue, we will learn how to affect personal and organizational transformation for ourselves and the people we lead.

  • 3:00-8:00 pm

    Faculty: Mrunal Shah, MD

    It is often said that culture affects everything in organizations. It is also the case that most physicians seek some culture change within their workplaces and a skillset to influence this change. In this seminar, we will learn about the elements of organizational culture. We learn about your role in creating the organizational culture in which you work and your power to influence change. We learn how to become more powerful in creating the change we seek and how to confidently lead others in change.

  • 3:00-8:00 pm

    Facilitated by: Jeffery Bell, MD, Laura Espy-Bell, MD, Kevin Dixon, Ph.D.

    Racism, especially as it relates to African American, Black physicians, and patients, is as old as racism itself is in the history of the United States. Research shows that medical outcomes for African American/Black patients are well below the outcomes achieved for the majority population. We also know that African American/Black physicians face macro and micro acts of racism in their various practices. In this module, we will explore our own racial identities as they pertain to whatever race we identify as. We will immerse ourselves in an evening of African American/Black culture and we will discuss the nature of institutional racism. We will learn how to be an effective ally using role plays and we will explore what systemic changes need to occur to make our health systems effective for all.

  • 3:00-8:00 pm

    Facilitated by: Marc Parnes, MD

    How we personally relate to money affects all aspects of how we understand healthcare finance. We will become aware of our personal relationship with money and how our personal relationship with money impacts our leadership. We will explore how managing our finances is a part of healing ourselves. We will understand the situation that our current US healthcare system finds itself in and how it compares to other countries around the world.

  • 3:00-8:00 pm

    Facilitated by: Chris Corrigan

    Managing in complex environments requires leaders to understand the nature of the problems they are working on and to design appropriate processes to address or solve those problems. The nature of complex problems - nonlinear, emergent, unpredictable, and unknowable - means that traditional problem-solving methods are inadequate. In this workshop, you will learn a framework to help make sense of complexity and provide you with key principles for leading and decision-making in complexity.

  • Thursday, April 16 (6:30-8:30 pm) teleconference

    Friday, April 17 (8:30-5:00 pm) in-person

    Saturday, April 18 (8:30-5:00 pm) in-person

    Sunday, April 19 (9:00-11:00 am) teleconference

    Spring Presencing Retreat-The underlying architecture that the PLA is built on is called “Theory U” or “Presencing”. Until this point in the program, participants have been "traveling" the "U" indirectly. In the retreat, participants will explicitly learn the elements of Theory U, apply Theory U to their own lives and have the opportunity to look at their futures through this new lens. This is a non-residential weekend event that serves as a time for reflection and learning about what each of us wants next in our lives.

  • Faculty: Terry Slayman, MD and Stephanie Costa, MD

    PLA participants become familiar with and receive executive coaching during the Core Curriculum of PLA. “Coaching Fundamentals for Leaders” teaches participants the key elements of spot coaching, empowering physician leaders as they ask powerful questions and reframe situations to create breakthrough thinking in team members, leading to a culture of growth and collaboration. Spot coaching techniques will also be applied in the clinical setting to create a more effective and rewarding partnership with patients.

  • Facilitated by: Roberto Benzo, MD

    What is purposed-based living, and what is the role of mindfulness practice in supporting this way of being? This question will be the basis for this module. We will learn “down-to-earth” personal mindfulness practices to bring attention to what matters most. Mindfulness-based living is both simple and hard work. We will learn how to incorporate this into our lives.

  • 6:30-8:30 pm

Introduction to Organizational Culture and System Change

Facilitated by: Mrunal Shah, MD

During this module, we will learn about the elements of organizational culture and the importance of understanding your organization’s culture.  We will learn about our role as physicians and physician leaders in creating our organizational culture.  We will become aware of how our “internal condition” affects all aspects of organizational culture.

Racism in Medicine: Experiential Learning

Facilitated by: Jeffery Bell, MD, Laura Espy-Bell, MD, Kevin Dixon, Ph.D.

Racism, especially as it relates to African American, Black physicians, and patients, is as old as racism itself is in the history of the United States. Research shows that medical outcomes for African American/Black patients are well below the outcomes achieved for the majority population. We also know that African American/Black physicians face macro and micro acts of racism in their various practices. In this module, we will explore our own racial identities as they pertain to whatever race we identify as. We will immerse ourselves in an evening of African American/Black culture and we will discuss the nature of institutional racism. We will learn how to be an effective ally using role plays and we will explore what systemic changes need to occur to make our health systems effective for all.

Money in Medicine: A Mindful Exploration of Finance

Facilitated by: Marc Parnes, MD

How we personally relate to money affects all aspects of how we understand healthcare finance.  We will become aware of our personal relationship with money and how our personal relationship with money impacts our leadership.  We will explore how managing our finances is a part of healing ourselves.  We will understand the situation that our current US healthcare system finds itself in and how it compares to other countries around the world.

Introduction to Systems and Design Thinking

Facilitated by: Jim Marsden

We, as individuals and people in systems, are always in a state of becoming.  We will learn a conceptual and practical path for understanding transformation.  Some practical steps for active reorientation during transitions and transformation will be offered.  You will be introduced to design thinking and how it relates to transformation.  You will be able to describe how leadership and transformation are related.

 

Managing in Complex Environments

Facilitated by: Chris Corrigan

Managing in complex environments requires leaders to understand the nature of the problems they are working on and to design appropriate processes to address or solve those problems. The nature of complex problems - nonlinear, emergent, unpredictable, and unknowable - means that traditional problem-solving methods are inadequate. In this workshop, you will learn a framework to help make sense of complexity and provide you with key principles for leading and decision-making in complexity.

Non-Residential Weekend Retreat

Presencing

Facilitated by: Phil Cass, Ph.D, Arawana Hayashi

Most strategic thinking and planning are based upon a model in which we are reflecting on the past in order to predict and act for the future. However, to bring about the level of transformation required in our current environment, we need a new way of learning and of leading that tunes into the possibilities of the future and help us to crystallize, prototype, and realize those possibilities.

Presencing or Theory U is a five-stage process for learning: from the emerging future and growing the capacity for deep innovation and collaborative action. And, it’s also a set of principles that invite us to design our work processes and relationships in a different way and to use deeper sources of knowing as we move from awareness into action. This retreat is an experiential introduction to the concepts and practices of Presencing and Theory U, as described by Otto Scharmer. Through individual and collective practices, dialogue, Social Presencing Theatre, and case clinics you will “travel the U” by applying gestures of suspending, redirecting, letting go, letting come, and embodying to personal and organizational change efforts. Through awareness-based methods, you will experience the underlying, often hidden wholeness in your life organizations and projects. You will strengthen your capacity to work with others, to see the systems that you are part of, and how to lead from the future as it emerges. Theory U is at the center of a global action research community, housed at M.I.T. that seeks to facilitate profound innovation and change. The Presencing Institute was founded in 2006 and so is very young both in its development and implementation.

Coaching Fundamentals for Leaders

Facilitated by: Stephanie Costa, MD and Terry Slayman, MD

Coming Soon…

The Mindful Physician

Facilitated by: Roberto Benzo, MD

What is purposed-based living, and what is the role of mindfulness practice in supporting this way of being?  This question will be the basis for this module.  We will learn “down-to-earth” personal mindfulness practices to bring attention to what matters most.  Mindfulness-based living is both simple and hard work.  We will learn how to incorporate this into our lives.   

Graduation Celebration

More physicians asking for leadership strategies

With physicians facing COVID-19 realities throughout 2020, expectation was set for a smaller fall 2021 cohort. But some central Ohio physicians had no plans for pandemic pressures to put their professional growth on hold.

As applications opened, interest in the PLA increased dramatically as the 2019/2020 fellows made it clear in their feedback: the PLA was a welcome respite from the stress and negative emotions they were facing in the world around them. The fall 2021 cohort quickly filled and had more qualified applicants than any prior year looking for leadership growth.

This was followed in 2022 with an even larger class.