Given my focus on Adaptive Leadership in my blogs over the past six weeks, when one of my clients shared this with me recently, I just had to share it more widely. It is a wonderful example of Adaptive Leadership. In this case, in the aged care sector.

To remind you, the three attributes I see at the core of Adaptive Leadership are:

• Being courageous
• Proactively Experimenting
• Devolving Decision Making

In this interview on Skynews, Stephen Judd, CEO of HammondCare explains to host, Kieran Gilbert, how HammondCare has tried to get the balance right in their aged care facilities. As he commenced his explanation, Judd was quick to point out that no aged care provider deserves criticism for their response when compared to any other provider as each is operating with a different set of circumstances.

Irrespective, as you can imagine, the easiest way to keep aged residents safe and to avoid criticism is to lockdown facilities to visitors and only allow staff and necessary contractors. HammondCare took a different approach.

They “actively experimented” via survey of those in their care and via consultation with their representative groups. They found overwhelming support for the continuation of visits. Next, they empowered their teams to make each facility as safe as practically possible within the legal requirements set by the Federal Government. Via a little thoughtful creativity, they introduced the concept of a concierge. Their job at each facility is to politely screen every visitor, staff member or contractor with questions and temperature checks. And they applied and reinforced all the rules around social distancing during visits.

At the time of the interview, HammondCare did not have any cases of COVID-19 in any of their facilities. But even if they did, they managed the risk with eyes-wide-open having had the conversation with their most important stakeholders. The aged residents under their care.

Stay safe and adapt – quickly.