Design-Driven Leadership for Value Innovation in Healthcare

As design thinking continues to evolve in its application for value creation, organizational change, and culture setting, the quest for value in healthcare has just begun: value-based healthcare as the foundation for patient-focused and outcome-driven value creation. Unfortunately, this process needs acceleration. We claim that it is necessary to adopt and learn from design thinking practices to identify meaning, purposeful thinking, and patient-oriented innovation. We need to use design to structure culture and organizations to continue the healthcare value journey. Effective leadership in these uncharted territories is necessary. Comparing design capabilities and leadership capabilities presents us with a whole new viewpoint: interdisciplinary leadership design, as a basis for the formulation of options to enhance value creation and the outcome-based management of change and innovation. Lessons can also be learned for the needed evolution of design leadership in healthcare. This article uncovers a selection of design elements that contribute to new forms of leadership and identify design capabilities and activities that need adaptation for application in the (converging) healthcare arena. The article identifies elements that help reframe the application of design in convergent healthcare systems to create value by current and new leadership approaches.