CA HHS Secretary Diana Dooley Visits SPPD in Sacramento
CA Health and Human Services Secretary Diana Dooley Addresses SPPD Students in Sacramento
Empowerment. Vision. Process. Values. A few of the reflections that California Health and Human Services Secretary Diana Dooley shared when visiting Dr. Paul Danczyk’s PPD 515: “Strategic Management of Health Organizations” class at the USC State Capital Center in Sacramento.
In her remarks, she discussed vision, mission, strategy and tactics through practical leadership approaches. She explained how each of these built upon the former in creating effective organizations with maximum impacts. Secretary Dooley identified two key roles that should be the first priority of any leader – predictability and stability – particularly in times of transition. By doing so, employees and stakeholders are able to collaboratively partner in executing and responding to the organization’s vision and mission. This common understanding, along with transparency and access to information, leads to individual empowerment.
In addition, Secretary Dooley talked about personal values and left the master’s students with a number of thoughts to further reflect upon, including, how leaders live with ambiguity, deliver a clear message, recognize “words matter,” and balance personal beliefs and organizational mission.
“The class was very fortunate to learn from her experiences, and in many ways, led to the theoretical foundations that were later discussed,” noted Danczyk, who is interim director of the State Capital Center. “Secretary Dooley exemplified many of the characteristics that great administrators have — reflecting (Darling, Perry and Moore, and Daudelin), capitalizing on employee strengths (Buckingham), and crafting a strategic mission and vision (Kaplan, et.al., and Lipton) while avoiding the ‘experience trap’ (Sengupta, et.al) and understanding the ‘halo effect’ (Rosenzweig).”