Leanne Kaiser Carlson

Leanne Kaiser Carlson's Key Accomplishments Include . . .
Leanne Kaiser Carlson is one of the most visible and influential healthcare speakers and healthcare futurists in the United States. She approaches the future with a powerful perspective—a perspective that it is not enough to simply predict what lies ahead. Leanne Kaiser Carlson sees clearly that we must create the future we wish to experience, and her role as a futurist is to evoke new thought, see the potentials that often lie invisible, challenge limitation and create fresh strategy.

Leanne Kaiser Carlson is the co-founder of the Kaiser Institute, a place of exploration and support for innovators building the future. There, people develop their intuitive ability, learn how to more adeptly work with philanthropists and create environments to accelerate innovation. The Institute draws executives, physicians and many others committed to personal and organizational venture.

Leanne Kaiser Carlson serves as an advisor to CEOs and philanthropists, and is a hospital trustee, foundation director, teacher and frequent writer. She chairs the grants committee of the VHA Foundation which is funding innovation across healthcare—from organizations as large as the Mayo Clinic and Johns Hopkins, to an array of small and rural organizations. Leanne Kaiser Carlson also serves as a core faculty in the Spiritual Leadership Institute; a forum devoted to awakening spirit and countering the pervasive emptiness and loss of meaning in our professions. Leanne Kaiser Carlson is also on the core faculty of the Estes Park Institute; the nation's premier organization equipping trustees, executives, and clinicians with the skills to navigate today's complex environment.

As a keynote speaker, Leanne Kaiser Carlson is known for her insight and artistic speaking style. She often weaves ideas with teaching tales from world traditions, music, and images to create aesthetic and provocative audience experiences. Ms. Kaiser Carlson believes that if learning were only about words, one could merely read a book - the power is in the experience.

Leanne Kaiser Carlson obtained her Masters degree in Health Administration from the University of Colorado. She continues her growth through exposure to the scientific fields, deep exploration across spiritual traditions, extensive reading, and work with other futurists, creative thinkers, and innovators.

More About Leanne Kaiser Carlson . . .
Leanne Kaiser Carlson is a health futurist who helps organizations and individuals consciously evolve, often by uncovering potentials and resources in unusual places.

Health systems seek her out to think in new ways and create paths to a preferable rather than probable future. Leanne Kaiser Carlson is one of three founders of the Kaiser Institute, an organization that equips people with essential skills for the future. One of its newest initiatives is the Alembic, a program that teaches the 13 elements of transformation. The word Alembic comes from alchemy and means “container of transformation.” The Alembic began with 20 founding CEOs from innovative health systems.

Leanne Kaiser Carlson also initiated an innovation circle called Theater of Generosity. Organizations in this circle are designing hospitals and clinics where patients think about generosity, experience it in surprising ways, and are drawn to participate as philanthropic partners. Generosity comes alive as the heartbeat of the culture and unleashes hidden abundance.

• Singularity

  Many individuals and organizations can integrate as one—a singularity. Attaining singularity may be the greatest challenge of our time. But its potential is vast. In a singularity, we tap our collective intelligence to crack tough problems. Groups coordinate work across collaborative platforms and cross the chasms created by geographic separation. Organizations that are not part of the same system collaborate to do together what none could do alone. Anything can happen anywhere, as organizations intertwine with more partners in fluid combinations.

• The Abundant Future

  There is no true scarcity—only disconnection of resources. We live in a sea of possible partners and allies. Yet we often engage and capture the imagination of only a tiny portion. Many of those who could bring resources, intelligence, and energy are right around us. But we must learn to engage these allies in new ways. In some health systems, philanthropy exceeds the amount of money left from operations. Novel partnerships with payers and consumer product companies provide both resources and expertise. And donors work with clinical and executive leaders to develop centers for innovation and new care models. The potential for abundance exists even in apparent scarcity.

• Metamorphosis

  Something new is emerging. Catch its outline and you see something so profoundly different as to be almost unrecognizable. This new creature is the future form of healthcare. It arises only partly because of legislation and political mandate. The greater forces are powerful global shifts, technological breakthroughs, economic changes, and cultural trends. These usher in an era of precision medicine, new services, intertwined organizations, market upheavals, cheap and smart competitors, and advances in human enhancement. This is a time of radical deconstruction and rebirth.

• Continuum: Rethinking Everything

  As we are able to anticipate serious clinical events before they occur, we rethink when to intervene. As big and expensive medical devices become portable or even implantable, we also rethink where to intervene. Ultimately we even rethink who should intervene and build new clinical teams with different people. In the new continuum of care, homes become extensions of hospitals, and smart phones connect patients and providers. Organizations win in new ways economically and collaborate across geography. The challenge is daunting, but the potential is compelling. It's time to rethink everything.

• The Alchemist

  The things that occupy us are often important but not transforming. It is easy to immerse ourselves entirely in the routines and responsibilities essential today. Without a conscious focus on the future, all energies and resources flow into the immediate. The great management imperative of our time is to create a new kind of organization—one that continuously evolves and regenerates itself. Here innovation becomes a cultural imperative. It is approached with as much intentionality as cost and quality. Leaders think about future prosperity as much as present survival, and change is a proactive choice rather than a reactive response.

• Cheap and Smart: Racing Down the Pyramid

  The race is on. Entering it are entrepreneurs and healthcare organizations around the world. The goal is a new generation of services with strong outcomes and stunningly low cost. This challenge is much more daunting than innovating for the top of the wealth pyramid. But those who create novel solutions will own the future markets of the world. Look at what we can learn from innovators designing healthcare solutions for those with the least resource. Their breakthroughs ultimately reshape healthcare for everyone.

• Evolving for the Future Together

  Most organizations learned to survive using an old-style ethic of individualism and domination. When confronting something different or threatening, they attempt to conquer or eliminate it. And every encounter is a contest. Although much of the world is still shaped by this approach, something profoundly new is also occurring. This new thing is often called a business ecosystem. Here everyone's fates are intertwined—the prosperity or demise of one impacts all. Individual entities learn to work with each other more intentionally. Although they may compete, they also collaborate and co-evolve. In the future, no one thrives alone.

• The Wise Organization

  There is a deeper wisdom—a wisdom that appears crazy on the surface, but represents the twist in perspective essential for the future. If we can embody it, we will flourish. If we cannot, we will struggle without solutions. This wisdom is ancient, with roots extending into all the world's great sacred and philosophical traditions. Now it is appearing in healthcare, business, politics, and economics. Meet wise organizations integrating this uncommon wisdom. Explore how those even in the most demanding environments are thinking more universally, developing conscious capitalism and using spiritual insights.

• Inventing How We Age

  Aging is perhaps the largest growth field of the future—the area where imagination, innovation, and investment intersect. The results are radically new: "prolongevity," longevity medicine, bio-gerontology, anti-aging, successful aging, "sage-ing," and conscious aging. We are beginning to understand why we age, why some people and populations age differently, and what can be done to help people age optimally. Think about the possibilities ahead and what it means for health systems.