Remember those great toys called Transformers? Kids would sit for hours manipulating human forms into mechanical creations, all the while imagining the process of going from one form of life to another. Pretty amazing!

Our 2011 Union Delegates Conference has the same dynamic in mind. Our theme is transformational leadership.You can become a transformer! (Actually, many of you already are!)

Transforming tough times

We live in horrific times. The Great Recession of 2008-09 has accelerated an economic and social crisis 40 years in the making. Robert Reich, former U.S. Secretary of Labor and today a UC Berkeley professor of public policy, reminds us in the San Francisco Chronicle that though the media and our government talk of a turnaround,

 “…we’re going backward. Millions of jobless Americans are no longer on the radar screen because they’ve stopped looking for work. The percent of the total workforce either in jobs or actively looking is at its lowest point in 25 years.”

If we accounted for the people who have dropped out of the workforce since the start of the Great Recession, Reich says, the current unemployment rate would be 11.5% instead of 8.9%.

Indeed, without tens of millions of good jobs, there is no hope for economic recovery or solutions to the fiscal crisis of government. After all, it’s income and commercial taxes, as well as the investment of wealth created from those jobs, that sustain economic viability

Partnering for a solution

Our work in the LMP is the best example in the nation of how working people contribute to the creation of great jobs. We do this by doing great work every day in service to the patients and members of Kaiser Permanente. But, we do much more, and that’s what our 2011 Delegates Conference is all about.

We are showing that it’s in the workplace where people directly contribute to the sustainability of economic activity. Yes, we have good jobs. But we are focused on value creation, improved productivity, getting the most out of technological and capital investment, and we have a say in the business strategy of our employer. This is because our unique National Agreement makes us full business partners as we determine the destiny of Kaiser Permanente.

If this were true in all walks of life in the U.S.--auto, steel, energy, transportation--we’d be living in a different country, I guarantee it!

The challenges facing KP are the same as those facing health care throughout the country. We must provide more access to more patients/members with higher quality, safer outcomes and better service, and we must do this as reimbursements per member per month continue to shrink. These challenges cannot be successfully met without the direct strategic input of the people who do the work.

Unfortunately, almost all employers in the U.S. choose not to include frontline workers in the decisions around strategies to improve value and outcomes. Given the times, our leadership is needed more than ever.

Filling a leadership void

People ask me all the time, “What is going on in Wisconsin?” -- where the governor and the legislature recently limited collective bargaining rights for public employees.  I ask in return, “How many industrialized countries in the world do not have universal health care?” Answer: one, the USA. Then I ask, “How many industrialized countries in the world don’t believe in collective bargaining?”  Answer: one, the USA.

Our transformative leadership capability is needed more than ever. We are successful in our work at KP. That success must continue in increasingly challenging times, especially now when unions are under attack like never before. Many people think that universal health care and effective collective bargaining are out of reach. We say, not only are they not out of reach, we are doing it!

However, to be able to get better and better, to achieve much more in the areas of service, quality, retention of KP members and affordability, we must continue on our path. Our standards get higher, not lower.

As we succeed, we create hope that both universal health care and worker voice and rights are sustainable and successful.

Transformative leadership is a high bar--a bar to which we aspire which we will surmount.

See you in San Jose!

(If you can’t be there, follow the conference live and in the days following on http://www.lmpartnership.org/home)