Presented By: Julie Galliart, University of Kansas School of Medicine
Co-Authors: Brad Barth, University of Kansas School of Medicine
Kevin Bomhoff, Kansas Leadership Center
Nancy Davis, University of Kansas School of Medicine
Brian Pate, University of Kansas School of Medicine

Purpose 
Adaptive challenges are those where a decision or direction from someone in authority is unlikely to resolve the issue because stakeholders view and experience the problem differently. Academic medicine has adaptive challenges involving patients (lifestyle changes, vaccination uptake), hospital partnerships (differing values between the university and hospital systems), and organizational struggles (restructuring teams). Our school of medicine has partnered with a local leadership center to train faculty and staff to recognize and respond to adaptive challenges. This poster describes the program and its outcomes. 

Methods 
School of medicine administrators worked with leadership center representatives to develop and co-facilitate a custom program for our faculty and staff. Participants meet via Zoom for at least 8 hours of synchronous training including lecture and work in small groups or teams. Instruction is supplemented by training videos and books. Topics include identifying stakeholder groups, testing multiple interpretations, asking powerful questions, managing yourself, mobilizing others, and acting experimentally. As the training progresses, participants identify an actual adaptive challenge in their lives and plan an initial intervention. Participant feedback, satisfaction data, and self-reported achievement of learning objectives have been gathered throughout the program. About half of the participants were asked to complete pre/mid/and post-test measures of their leadership skill development. 

Results 
The partnership has been in place for three years and has reached 96 participants from two campuses. Learning objective achievement has been mostly good, with almost unanimous agreement from participants that their experience in the program will help them make more progress on work challenges. Participants describe the sessions as ""engaging, insightful, and expansive,"" and report thinking differently about leadership because of participating. 

Conclusions 
Adaptive leadership skills are valued by participants who appreciate the involvement of external experts as facilitators. Faculty and staff can benefit by engaging together in this training experience to enhance their learning.