McGill University, Desautels Faculty of Management

International Masters for Health Leadership

The International Masters for Health Leadership (IMHL) is a 15-month program of five 11-day modules, followed by a master's degree paper, leading to the degree of Master of Management at McGill University. Each module focuses on a particular leadership mindset. Between modules, participants return to the workplace where they apply the pedagogy and insights of the program. Following the five modules, there is a period in which the final paper is written under the guidance of an advisor. This last phase can be done from anywhere in the world.

Module 1 - The Reflective Mindset: Broadening Perspectives

The Reflective Mindset is designed to help participants gain a better understanding of their personal management style - how they present themselves to others, their strengths and weaknesses, and their current leadership skills. Participants learn how to be thoughtful and reflective, to step back from always doing, and to see familiar experiences from a new perspective.

Module 2 - The Analytic Mindset: Leading Organizations

The Analytic Mindset provides an overview of today's principal health care organizations including health-promoting hospitals, community agencies, health maintenance organizations, etc. Participants gain insight into the operation of these organizations by analyzing their intrinsic similarities and differences. Participants are also introduced to the analytical tools used to manage specific organizations and to formal approaches that improve managerial effectiveness. Key concepts in accounting, people management, and organizational strategy stimulate participants to diagnose the strengths and weaknesses of their own organization. Strategy, structure, sourcing, and delivery are explored in a systematic way that allows participants to view the managing process as a melding of art, craft, and science.

Module 3 -The Worldly Mindset: Navigating the System

The delivery of healthcare is rooted within highly complex systems that vary enormously across the world - from fully socialized to market-driven. Yet every system struggles with where it should sit on this continuum. Because most practitioners - whether managers or clinicians - typically spend their careers within a single system, they rarely have the opportunity to appreciate the alternatives. The third module focuses on these contextual "systems", exploring the various social institutions within the healthcare field and their interactions with economic, political, and social forces. The goal is to increase understanding of the dynamics of "system change". Participants are encouraged to seek creative solutions based on an integrated, rather than a fragmented understanding of health care. Participants also explore in greater depth the interactions between economics and health and the possibilities for leveraging change within complex systems.

Module 4 - The Collaborative Mindset: Appreciating Work Relationships

In this module, participants focus on managing relationships with patients, professionals, health advocates, administrators, the government, the media, and many other groups. Skill development includes relationship-building, negotiating, stakeholder coordination, and knowledge management. The managing of professional relationships is emphasized, with participants developing the advanced skills necessary to build and lead complex networks rather than simple organizations. The integration of knowledge from multiple disciplines and perspectives is also examined.

Module 5 - The Catalytic Mindset: Achieving Change

The final module is action-focused, and integrative in nature, focusing on the achievement of change. The impact projects on which participants have worked throughout the program are given considerable attention. Successful health management cases are reviewed and the action implications of adaptive management are explored. Other key areas of study include an integrated and sustainable approach to health; the notion of prevention and its applied dissemination; effective intervention within the policy environment; positive/negative outcomes of media exposure in health policy; and the notions of evaluation and accountability. Participants integrate and synthesize the knowledge they have acquired during the preceding modules. The program closes with an in-depth consideration of the process of transformation leadership and what it means to lead comprehensively, analytically, collaboratively, contextually, catalytically, and reflectively.

The IMHL is a demanding program with ambitious goals. Its success depends largely on the quality and motivation of the participants. It is suited to individuals, as well as to teams of four to five managers and/or clinicians who represent an organization, community, or country with a compelling health issue to address. Participants continue to work while taking the program. Participants hold positions of responsibility in health care, most have a clinical background (physicians, nurses, pharmacists, social workers, psychologists) and some have other backgrounds (economists, lawyers, etc.). They work in all manner of health organizations (hospitals, community care, public health, government ministries, international agencies, foundations, and others) and in all areas of health — from health promotion to prevention to treatment. They come from all over the world.

What is unique about McGill University's International Masters for Health Leadership program?

• We focus on international healthcare delivery issues through management and leadership concepts, and through the lens of managerial mindsets.
• Our teaching methods bring the learnings from application to practice in real time.
• Our program integrates traditional disciplines such as strategy, organizational structure and behavior, operations management and financial management into our managerial mindsets, maintaining a continuous focus on healthcare leadership and management.
• We focus on how you learn, beyond what we teach.