1. Why should leaders be open about their flaws? | 2025 | Harvard Business Review
(Available in MN only, email library@allina.com for a copy outside of MN)
For decades, leaders have prioritized projecting strength and perfection, but research suggests that authenticity is more effective in building trust and engagement. Studies show that when leaders voluntarily disclose relatable weaknesses, they are perceived as more genuine without sacrificing competence or warmth. This shift from "Image Is Everything" to "Authenticity Is King" fosters stronger connections, enhances cooperation, and ultimately benefits both leaders and their teams.
2. CDC's funding for state and local public health: How much and where does it go? | 2025 | KFF
Federal funding has long been a major source of support for public health efforts across the United States, estimated to account for more than half of state and local health department budgets. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the primary public health agency of the federal government, provides much of this funding, helping to support public health systems and activities across the country. However, CDC and other federal health agencies are being targeted by the Trump administration for downsizing and budget cuts, reductions that could impact the amount of funding available for public health. To better understand how much CDC funding is provided to state and local jurisdictions, we analyzed FY 2023 funding obligation data (see Methods and Appendix 1).
3. A leader’s guide to transforming care delivery and improving nurse well-being | 2025 | Nurse Leader
This article highlights learnings from an Institute for Healthcare Improvement project funded by the Johnson & Johnson Foundation exploring innovative nurse-led acute care delivery solutions to promote a thriving workforce. Pilot sites tested virtual care delivery, innovative technologies, and creative use of resources. Results included a 7.78% increase in “I love my job,” time savings and reduced burden for staff, feelings of enhanced support, creation of new opportunities for nurses, increased staff engagement, and improved patient outcomes. A related toolkit offers strategic insights and resources to assist organizations in redesigning care delivery to support the nursing workforce.
4. What sets inspirational leaders apart? | 2025 | Harvard Business Review
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When people around the world are asked to reflect on both inspiring leaders and infuriating leaders, they point to three factors that distinguish the former from the latter. Inspiring leaders are visionary: They see the big picture and offer an optimistic, meaningful view of the future. This fulfills the human need for meaning and purpose. Inspiring leaders are exemplars of desired behavior: They are calm and courageous protectors, authentically passionate, extremely competent but also humble. This fulfills the human need for protection and passion. Finally, inspiring leaders are great mentors: They empower, encourage, and are empathetic toward others, but they also challenge others to be the best version of themselves. This fulfills the human need for support and status. Each of us can develop the capacity to be inspiring in all three dimensions of leadership. For example, to get into a visionary state of mind, use strategies that broaden your perspective: reflecting on your core values, considering your past and the winding road that led to your present, and vividly imagining the future. To prime the exemplar pump, think of a time when you had power, when you felt secure and in control, when you were your best self. And to shift into a mentor state of mind, work to learn from those below you in the hierarchy.
5. Pathways to improved quality and safety | 2025 | Healthcare Executive
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The article focuses on how healthcare organizations are advancing quality and safety through innovative initiatives that produce measurable outcomes. Topics include Northwestern Medicine's interdisciplinary quality improvement training program (AQSI), Kaiser Permanente Northern California's predictive Advance Alert Monitor system, and the Veterans Health Administration's use of the Surgical Pause to improve care for frail surgical patients.
6. Screening and intervention to prevent violence against health professionals from hospitalized patients: A pilot study | 2024 | Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety
Health care providers, particularly nursing staff, are at risk of physical or emotional abuse from patients. This abuse has been associated with increased use of physical and pharmacological restraints on patients, poor patient outcomes, high staff turnover, and reduced job satisfaction.
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1. In search of work-life balance | 2025 | The Pulse (podcast)
Our jobs can provide us with a sense of identity, connection, and meaning — but they can also feel like a never-ending to-do list that gets in the way of actually living. On this episode, we explore work-life balance: When do we find meaning in our careers, and when do we not? And how do we set healthy boundaries between our jobs and our personal lives?
2. What all leaders can learn from Taylor Swift | 2025 | HBR IdeaCast (podcast)
Whether you’re a fan of Taylor Swift or not, no one can deny her success as both a music star and businesswoman. Her career has been a masterclass in everything from customer connection to innovation, decision-making to digital adaption, offering lessons for people in any industry. HBR senior editor Kevin Evers investigated Swift’s rise and evolution for his new book, There’s Nothing Like This: The Strategic Genius of Taylor Swift, and found interesting patterns. He explains how she’s kept audiences loyal, why her Eras tour was so successful, and the vision and “productive paranoia” that have kept her on top. Evers also wrote the HBR article “The Strategic Genius of Taylor Swift.”
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1. The power of mattering at work | 2025 | Harvard Business Review
(Available in MN only, email library@allina.com for a copy outside of MN)
Quiet quitting, the Great Resignation, chronically low engagement numbers, increasing numbers of labor disputes, demands for equity and dignity in the workplace—business leaders have been warily watching these trends for years and fighting each fire separately. But the trends continue, because leaders are missing the underlying problem that connects these symptoms: Many employees don't feel that they matter to their employers, bosses, and colleagues. Mattering—a mainstay concept in psychology—is the experience of feeling significant to those around us because we feel valued and know that we add value. In this article the author shows leaders how to apply this concept in the workplace. First, leaders need to truly see and hear team members during daily interactions. They must also regularly affirm their people's significance. And finally, senior leaders need to scale these skills up to the organizational level so that mattering becomes a cultural norm. These behaviors may seem like common sense, but they've ceased to be common practice in a world of brief digital communications and condescension toward soft skills, and they're well worth relearning. The article includes three activities leaders can use to get started.
2. Insights report: How to improve poor patient health literacy | 2025 | NEJM Catalyst
Acknowledging the importance of health literacy for patient care, members of the NEJM Catalyst Insights Council discuss who is responsible and how to improve health literacy.
3. Alleviating bedside nurse burden: A virtual nursing program | 2025 | Nurse Leader
The virtual nursing program was created in response to nursing workforce shortages. The rapid implementation leveraged current telehealth registered nurses and utilized existing technology and equipment, all while maintaining budget neutrality. The program created an integrated care model that enhanced patient and registered nurses satisfaction, throughput, turnover, and vacancy and demonstrated a financial impact. The conclusion of the pilot is that it is not a one-size-fits-all approach. Different hospitals and communities have different needs. For sustainable growth, having robust frameworks, operational procedures, program methodologies, and defined metrics is essential.
4. Exploring the core of emotional intelligence in healthcare leadership: A concept analysis | 2025 | Journal of Advanced Nursing
Concept analysis identified defining attributes of emotional intelligence in healthcare leadership, including leadership qualities, management competencies, and sets of leadership styles which were related to supportive and transformational leadership behaviour. The antecedents were socio-demographic factors, well-being, and workplace resources. Finally, employee-, manager-, organisation- and patient-related consequences were identified, such as the well-being of both employees and managers, organisational performance and patient care quality.
5. Creating and sustaining a culture of inquiry and research | 2025 | The Journal of Nursing Administration
Today's nursing leaders have complex roles. One of the expectations of the nurse executive is to create a workplace culture supporting nurses and exemplary nursing practice. In Magnet ® environments, creating this kind of culture is not enough. Nurse executives in Magnet-designated organizations must create and sustain cultures supporting inquiry and research. This column reviews some key actions that nurse executives can undertake to make a culture of inquiry and research a reality.
6. Second term policy changes signal a shift: Guidance for leaders through a fluctuating landscape | Healthcare Executive
(Available in MN only, email library@allina.com for a copy outside of MN)
All eyes have been on Washington, D.C., as the Trump administration implements numerous policy changes. Context is key for understanding how these changes will impact the U.S. healthcare system.
7. Managing the sudden critical shortage of intravenous fluids | NEJM Catalyst
In the wake of Hurricane Helene in late September 2024, hospitals across the United States were faced with a sudden shortage of intravenous fluid (IVF). The deadly Atlantic storm damaged a major IVF manufacturing facility in North Carolina, halting production and creating a sudden supply chain crisis. At Luminis Health, a hospital system based in Annapolis and Lanham, Maryland, Incident Command orchestrated a swift, multidisciplinary response that allowed for minimal disruption to the flow of patient care. Interventions included adjustments to perioperative protocols, daily reviews of clinical necessity, and an emphasis on oral hydration. Hospital inventory data were used to compare IVF use before and after the shortage. The incident reporting system and patient discharge surveys were analyzed to assess for potential harm. Incidences of potentially preventable renal failure and acquired hyponatremia were evaluated in retrospect. The hospital system saw a 60% (P<0.001) reduction in IVF use on implementation of the shortage protocols. Notably, implementation revealed important opportunities to reevaluate systemic processes and improve value in certain standard-of-care practices. The reduction was sustained and allowed the hospital system to continue all elective procedures after only 1 day of delay. The few adverse events related to the protocol changes that had been reported were resolved. Of the patients with plausible protocol-attributed renal failure, none required dialysis, and all improved toward baseline prior to discharge. Analysis showed no increase in acquired hyponatremia during the shortage, when compared with the year prior. The protocols enacted for IVF management serve as a blueprint for other hospital systems to follow in the case of future supply chain interruptions and highlight areas for standard system improvement without compromising patient care.
8. What people get wrong about psychological safety | Harvard Business Review
(Available in MN only, email library@allina.com for a copy outside of MN)
Psychological safety—a shared belief among team members that it's OK to speak up with candor—has become a popular concept. However, as its popularity has grown, so too have misconceptions about it. Such misunderstandings can lead to frustration among leaders and employees, stymie constructive debates, and ultimately harm organizational performance. In this article the authors identify the following six common misperceptions: Psychological safety means being nice; it means getting your way; it means job security; it requires a trade-off with performance; it's a policy; and it requires a top-down approach. They explain why each misperception gets in the way and give advice on how to counter it. They also offer leaders a blueprint for building the kind of strong, learning-oriented work environment that is crucial for success in an uncertain world. Leaders should clearly communicate what psychological safety is and what it isn't, and take steps to improve the quality of conversations and to establish structures and rituals that will help teams assess their progress in building a psychologically safe environment.
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1. The conversations you should be having with your manager | 2025 | HBR IdeaCast (podcast)
As you advance in your career, you develop the skills to lead teams and manage direct reports. But no matter your role or seniority, you’ll always need to manage those above you and to develop the right relationships to progress. The secret to managing up, says Melody Wilding, is being strategic and thoughtful in several key kinds of conversations with your boss and boss’s boss—including finding alignment, setting boundaries, getting visibility for your work, and winning a promotion. She explains how the effort pays off both in future opportunities and your day-to-day satisfaction on the job.
2. Why AI is our ultimate test and greatest invitation | 2025 | Ted Talks (video)
Technologist Tristan Harris has an urgent question: What if the way we’re deploying the world’s most powerful technology — artificial intelligence — isn’t inevitable, but a choice? In this eye-opening talk, he calls on us to learn from the mistakes of social media’s catastrophic rollout and confront the predictable dangers of reckless AI development, offering a “narrow path” where power is matched with responsibility, foresight and wisdom.
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