As we enter May, I provide a summary of some recent speaking engagements where I have been asked to talk about Goal Play! and the leadership lessons I have drawn from coaching youth soccer, as applied to corporate and institutional settings.  April was a busy month, and May has already started off likewise.

I am pleased to join your company, association, or school to present the stories and examples contained in this book, which MIT Professor Emeritus Edgar Schein has called, “One of the best leadership books I have ever read.”  I can promise you an engaging and inspirational session.  Please read some of the reviews in this post.

April started with an appearance at TEDx in Maastricht, Holland, in front of an audience of 1000 people in the audience and another 5000 watching on simulcast.  You can see the video here.  This was followed by a master class for faculty at Rahboud Univeristy Nijmegen Medical Centre and a faculty and staff seminar at Jeroen Bosch Hospital in Den Bosch.

Then it was off to Roanoke Virginia, for an April 9 forum for several hundred clinical and administrative leaders at Carilion Clinic, entitled, “Coaching lessons for leading improvement in patient care.”

Over 700 people were given Goal Play! as part of a keynote address I gave at the Health Care Quality Summit in Sasksatoon, Saskatchewan.  The title was “Getting impatient about eliminating patient harm.”

Maura Davies, CEO of the Saskatoon Health Region, later said in an email to her entire organization:

I learned a lot from Paul Levy. He challenged us to be more transparent in reporting the quality of our care. He also encouraged us to settle for nothing less than perfection. As we embrace Lean as the foundation of our management system, we are learning that when it comes to safety, there are only two numbers that matter: zero and one hundred. We should settle for nothing less than zero harm to patients or staff. We should expect 100 per cent compliance with the standards and evidence based practices we have adopted, such as the surgical checklist, hand hygiene and falls prevention. Are we up to these challenges?

Here you see two doctors in training at the IHI Open School Chapter at the University of Colorado medical school.  This presentation was in Denver on April 24, where I also helped out in residency training programs conducted by the Patient Safety Education Partnership for The Colorado Health Foundation.

Then to San Fransisco on April 29 to address the Vanguard Group of about 100 senior physicians leaders at annual meeting of the American College of Physician Executives.  The title of my keynote address borrowed a quote from the famous coach John Wooden, “You haven’t taught until they have learned: key leadership elements for change.”

Another speaker wrote me afterwards to say:

What a great pleasure to hear your talk at the ACPE annual meeting. Your use of soccer to teach leadership is thoughtful and inspiring. So inspiring, in fact, that I repeatedly referred to you and your talk during my session on servant leadership that afternoon. I referred to “hold ourselves accountable”, one “never knows when a kind word” can impact a person’s life, “human beings learn from their mistakes”, and especially your reference to “servant leadership”.  Thank you again for all you are doing to promote honesty and integrity into physician leadership training.

I was also asked to speak at a “lunch and learn” session at Eliza Corporation in Danvers, MA, on May 2.  You see some of the participants here. Company founder Alexandra Drane summarized the session as follows:

Never before have I seen a large room of Eliza family members sit transfixed for well over an hour – no blackberrying, no sneaking out to take calls or attend to emails – just rapt attention leading to a spirited discussion where you could see wheels turning and inspiration happening.

The following day, I appeared at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement for another “lunch and learn” gathering in Cambridge, MA.  On April 11, I had offered a similar lunchtime talk at Denterlein Associates in Boston and on April 26 at Brookline Dental Associates.

Interspersed among all of these corporate and institutional settings, I was pleased to have a chance to visit with fellow alumni at the MIT Clubs of Iceland (March 30), North California (April 30), and Boston (May 2).  Also, I taught leadership training sessions at the Northeastern University (April 21) and Boston University (May 1) MBA programs.

Professor David Boyd at Northeastern reported:

Your visit made a tremendous hit. After you left, the students kept commenting on how appealing and motivational your approach is.  They were perplexed why more leaders do not do the same. At the session was closing, a student thanked me for bringing you in.  The room then burst into applause – so , you see, I am basking in your halo!

And BU Professor Kathy Kram likewise reported:

We spent 20 more minutes in class reflecting on some of the ideas discussed while you were there—very rich discussion.  In particular, we continued on the issue of how to make use of these relational principles when senior leaders are not on board.  Very useful.

Thanks again for joining us;  you helped to make the last class of the semester memorable!