A science-based leadership framework for building capacity and overcoming exhaustion in today's complex world

Epidemic Leadership introduces an adaptive leadership approach designed to help you (and your followers) thrive and influence in today's complex age. This book provides a how-to methodology for simply and practically putting the principles of epidemic phenomena into successful practice. By understanding their function in adaptive systems and applying their organizing principles to daily work, you can lead more effectively for greater results, more agile responsiveness, and deeper vitality.

Epidemic Leadership synthesizes science, stories of leadership experience, and practical technique to shape the challenge of "leading in complex environments" into a compelling field guide for leaders who seek to improve results and contribute to a healthier world. You will be inspired, challenged, and practically equipped to begin a journey toward exponential positive impact in this pivotal era.

* Discover a novel leadership approach that's particularly applicable to tackling the big problems in your workplace and world

* Realize better performance and enhance your ability to create results sooner and more sustainably, across a wider array of processes and topics

* Restore vitality in yourself and those you lead, for renewed hope, enthusiasm and engagement

Companies and institutions will benefit from the deep capacities Epidemic Leadership builds. For leaders who struggle to find enough time and energy to create the impact they seek, this book offers a unique path for our challenging times.

LARRY MCEVOY is an emergency physician, executive, entrepreneur, and innovator. He is the founder of Epidemic Leadership, where he focuses on the executive work of creating organizations of exponential performance, adaptivity, and vigor. From 2008 to 2012, McEvoy served as the CEO of Memorial Health System in Colorado Springs, CO. He completed his training in emergency medicine at Hennepin County Medical Center and graduated from Stanford Medical School. When he is not working with leaders to create positive epidemics, he can be found, or difficult to find, roaming the wild lands of his Montana homeland.

Praise for EPIDEMIC LEADERSHIP

Epidemic Leadership is a brilliant and timely book. Larry McEvoy, M.D., looking through the lens of an emergency physician, realizes that epidemics can teach us powerful, positive, and practical lessons about leading. Those lessons are not about people at the top using authority to control how things get done. From the perspective of an epidemic, leadership is now about swarming patterns among interconnected networks of people. Epidemic Leadership engages readers in looking at big problems in a whole new way, inviting all of us to become much more curious about the complex world we live in. McEvoy also goes beyond questions and offers practical applications of the principles of epidemics. This book deserves to go viral, and you will want to be one of those who spreads this infectious message.

Jim Kouzes, coauthor of the bestselling The Leadership Challenge and a Fellow of the Doerr Institute for New Leaders, Rice University

Epidemic Leadership reminds us that biology shows us the rules and that we can use those rules to build a better world. Mind-bending and practical at the same time.

Joshua Newman, MD, MSHS, Physician Executive

I watched Epidemic Leadership principles transform our school in Uganda as students and staff alike participated. I'll never again approach leadership in the same way, and I suspect after reading this book, neither will you.

Jean-Kaye Wilson, President, H.E.L.P. International

Dr. McEvoy masterfully illustrates how we might use the dynamics that power epidemics to lead in a way that adds to the world rather than steals from it.

Craig Bardenheuer, Founder, Create-Innovate-Operate, former VP of Business Innovation, Juniper Networks

A giant leap for how we must see leadership in our times: participatory, infectious, adaptive, agile, and everywhere!

Arvind Singhal, PhD, Marston Endowed Professor of Communication, The University of Texas at El Paso and William J. Clinton Distinguished Fellow, Clinton School of Public Service

Larry McEvoy nails it: leadership during these times is about convening a community that can create impact through a different kind of relatedness. His translation of biology to practical approaches is provocative and powerful.

Helen Prejean, CSJ, author, Dead Man Walking

We talk a lot about leading innovation. Epidemic Leadership talks about how to innovate leadership itself.

Jeffery Adler, CEO, iProtean

Zusammenfassung

A science-based leadership framework for building capacity and overcoming exhaustion in today's complex world

Epidemic Leadership introduces an adaptive leadership approach designed to help you (and your followers) thrive and influence in today's complex age. This book provides a how-to methodology for simply and practically putting the principles of epidemic phenomena into successful practice. By understanding their function in adaptive systems and applying their organizing principles to daily work, you can lead more effectively for greater results, more agile responsiveness, and deeper vitality.

Epidemic Leadership synthesizes science, stories of leadership experience, and practical technique to shape the challenge of leading in complex environments into a compelling field guide for leaders who seek to improve results and contribute to a healthier world. You will be inspired, challenged, and practically equipped to begin a journey toward exponential positive impact in this pivotal era.

• Discover a novel leadership approach that's particularly applicable to tackling the big problems in your workplace and world
• Realize better performance and enhance your ability to create results sooner and more sustainably, across a wider array of processes and topics
• Restore vitality in yourself and those you lead, for renewed hope, enthusiasm and engagement

Companies and institutions will benefit from the deep capacities Epidemic Leadership builds. For leaders who struggle to find enough time and energy to create the impact they seek, this book offers a unique path for our challenging times.

Introduction xiii

Part One Understanding Epidemics 1

1 My No Good, Very Bad Night in the Emergency Department 3

Friday Night in the Emergency Department 3

August 15, 2003, Billings, Montana 3

The Problem That Won't Go Away 8

Sleep-Deprived Insight 11

Notes 13

2 The Good EpidemicReally? 15

Good People, Bad Disease 15

The Epidemic Inevitable 17

Negative to Positive 23

Epidemics Spread Exponentially 24

Epidemics Tap Local Resources 25

Epidemics Are Adaptive: They Flourish Against Resistance and Surprise 26

Epidemics Organize Themselves 26

Epidemics Have Distributed Intelligence 27

Epidemics Flower in Instability and Disruption 27

Epidemics Offer a Vaccine Against Narcissism (Unless They're Traffickers of It) 28

Seeking the Good Disease 29

Notes 30

3 Swarming Simplicity 33 How Do They Do It? 33

The Challenge of Complexity 36

It's Not Just Complicated 37

The Power of Simplicity 40

The Miracle of Self-Organization 40

Popping Up When We Least Expect It 41

Is Complexity a New Thing? 42

What Does Leading Look Like in Complexity? 43

Biology's Ans…