tranSektoris – Leadership in Healthcare
For a New Understanding of Leadership in the German Healthcare System
Thinking and Acting Outside the Box
tranSektoris seeks to foster collaboration between traditional and new players in the healthcare system and to bring this collaboration to bear effectively and fruitfully on everyday work processes.
To rethink the sector, it takes leaders who are prepared to think outside of their own field, to learn from each other, and to act accordingly. It seems like that should be given – especially since all parties involved care about the health and well-being of patients and citizens. But unfortunately it is not.
Today tranSektoris has two main spheres of actions: a program – tranSektoris Impact Programm – qualifying leaders for more and better trans- and cross-sectoral cooperations and a network – tranSektoris FORUM – which sustains the day to day work of the participants in a transsectoral way.
Why tranSektoris – Leadership in Healthcare?
The German healthcare system can look back on a long history; the allocation of tasks, role definition, processes, and interests have become deeply engrained habits. Breaking up these habits to improve and develop the system is not easy, but it is imperative.
Conditions in the healthcare system have undergone fundamental change over the last three decades, with growing digitization, an aging society, patient empowerment, and funding issues introducing new challenges and new players.
Accounting for more than ten percent of the German GDP, the healthcare sector is a growth market that will only gain in importance in the future. Adjacent industries such as the automotive, real estate, and communications industries see healthcare as a new market opportunity. Local and regional administrations also need to shoulder new talks and challenges. There is enormous pressure to change.
"It is important to know the motivations and rules guiding the players in the healthcare system. The training program provides very good insights into that."
Dr. Christian Tidona, biotech entrepreneur and managing director of the BioRN Cluster in Heidelberg, participant
From idea to social business
What processes have been successful, what needs to be rethought, and, most importantly, how can this kind of re-evaluation work – free of lobbyist pressure? With these considerations in mind, the idea to create a training program to promote and strengthen the cross-sectoral dialogue emerged in 2012.
A pilot project started out with the idea to offer leaders in all fields of healthcare a safe space to gain insights into the mindsets of the key players. Today tranSektoris – Leadership in Healthcare is a social business, founded and run by Dr. Renate Müller.
First, a concept was developed where participants met with top managers and operational executives of the host institutions to discuss a specific topic. The participants themselves took an active part in designing the program. Stipends were needed to enable the participation of people from the medical professions, government administrations, associations or startups.
""From the beginning I was excited by the cross-sector idea as well as the professionalism and dedication when it came to implementing the idea. Therefore it was a logical next step for us to participate as a host organization."
Bettina Brennecke, head of Corporate Affairs & Business Support, GlaxoSmithKline, host 2012
It quickly became apparent that the initiative also needed a legal structure to be fit for the future. We owe it to the assistance and support of the BMW Foundation Herbert Quandt that we became a social business in the form of an Unternehmergesellschaft named “tranSektoris – Leadership in Healthcare.”
To have an idea evolve into a social enterprise with long-term impact, I believe that the support from a foundation with far-reaching insights into global social developments is indispensable and necessary – a foundation that serves as a sparring partner, an intermediary, a consultant on “practical and political issues,” and as an input provider on issues of shared concerns such as intrapreneurship. It is the special value of foundations that they – as an aggregate of knowledge, experience, and contacts for socially relevant topics – are able to offer independent capacity-building support and advice.
""For most participants, it is a real eye opener to experience the openness and straightforwardness of the discussions, which characterizes the interaction between the participants, and which is also evident in the host institutions, whether it’s ministries, statutory health insurers, hospital federations, industry, or associations of statutory health insurance physicians."
Dr. Renate Müller, founder and managier of tranSektoris – Leadership in Healthcare, Munich
What has been our impact so far?
A project that draws on dedication, intelligence, and funds ultimately needs to ask itself whether it has a visible, ideally “measurable” impact.
While there is no simple answer to this question and impact cannot always be measured quantitatively, we are proud of the achievements of the pilot Transferis (2012-2015) and its successor tranSektoris (since 2015) so far:
- Some enterprises and institutions have already integrated tranSektoris into their HR programs for executives and leaders. Other institutions regularly send people to participate in our program. tranSektoris aims to keep up the cooperation with the sending organizations, since this makes it more likely that the cross-sectoral approach will translate effectively and fruitfully into the everyday work environment.
- Bigger and smaller projects and collaborations have emerged from the training programs.
- Participants and speakers give each other professional and collegial advice.
- Two regional tranSektoris groups have formed in Berlin and in the Rhineland and meet regularly.
- The contents and results from individual modules of the training program have been put into writing and published by groups of participants.
- Information about the program and the network as well as the idea behind it are spread through articles and lectures at conferences and expert events.
- Participants have confirmed that they have significantly deepened their understanding of other stakeholders in the system – this was one of the findings of the first master’s thesis written about the training program in 2013. Already during the pilot phase, the participants remarked on the importance of the network for their everyday work.
- After participating in the program, many of the leaders were promoted for new challenges and complex work tasks.
For further reading
tranSektoris – Leadership in Healthcare
For a New Understanding of Leadership in the German Healthcare System
http://www.bmw-stiftung.de/en/about-us/networks/transferis-leadership-in-healthcare/
An Interview with Mascha Lazar
“Making the Healthcare System Work and Making It Better”
http://www.bmw-stiftung.de/en/people-ideas-views/an-interview-with-mascha-lazar/
About Dr. Renate Müller
Dr. Renate Müller is founder and manager of tranSektoris, a strategy coach, and co-director of Brandleague Ltd München., a consulting firm for companies in the healthcare sector.
