Enhanced interaction between individual drive and organizational goals in the political leadership of the Danish Nurses' Organization

Challenge

The political leadership of the Danish Nurses' Organization faced challenges in finding a correlation between the individual drive of politicians and the organization's overall goals. There was a need to develop the role of the politicians and strengthen the interaction between individual and collective leadership, as well as to create a better link between local political units and the central organization.

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Solution

Based on initial and follow-up conversations with each politician about their political purposes, drive, and aspirations, we worked on actions to support both individual and organizational goals. By first thinking big about what is possible and then starting small with test runs of actions over 100 days in participants' own everyday lives, politicians have tested specific strategic leadership tools to support political goals for enhanced interaction with members and elected representatives through involving, decisive, and engaging communities. The actions were carried out by the participants in their own everyday lives in the spaces between the 8 training days, while on the training days we discussed and debated the underlying models and mindsets that creates leadership as well as the dilemmas faced by politicians in practice.

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The result

The process has laid the groundwork for organizational learning about the understanding of political leadership and strengthened cohesion and coherence, as well as initiated actions locally to support the realization of the Danish Nurses' Organization's strategic goals and political benchmarks.

The evaluation of the development process has also shown that all 15 participants have gained significant benefits, with emphasis on the following effects:

• Increased decisiveness and networking skills for political leadership from an organizational perspective
• Strengthened leadership in the individual political units
• More initiatives across the Danish Nurses' Organization
• Enhanced awareness of each individual's impact within the community

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