Policy and Practice February 2019

By Natalie Williams ADAPTIVE LEADERSHIP The Evolution of APHSA’s Organizational Effectiveness Practice O n January 9, 2019, I sat down with Phil Basso, the architect of APHSA’s Organizational Effectiveness (OE) practice. Phil joined APHSA in 2003 as a leadership training specialist and soon after realized that APHSA’s existing technical assistance (TA) practice, which was designed to help health and human services leaders build organizational capacity and effectiveness, could provide an enhanced suite of training services that addressed multiple challenges that member agencies were facing. In 2004, Phil, in concert with APHSA’s leadership, expanded the scope of the initiative and created what is known today as APHSA’s OE practice. Phil has personally worked more than 1,200 days in the field with member agencies and has overseen more than 120 projects in 30 states and localities. APHSA’s OE practice is founded on this premise: “Effective organizations are foundational to building healthier and stronger communi- ties,” and bases its training principles on assisting health and human services (H/HS) agencies to progress through the stages of the Human Services Value Curve 1 and achieve the desired future state of the H/HS system: “Thriving Communities BUILT on Human Potential.” The features of APHSA’s OE practice, as well as its own evolution, provide useful examples of adaptive leadership principles in action.

Illustration by Chris Campbell

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