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As many association leaders in the healthcare sector prepare to attend ASAE & The Center’s first Healthcare Association Conference in Baltimore next week, they likely will hear more about the rash of healthcare-oriented coalitions underway to address a wide variety of system-wide form, research, education, and other related problems and challenges.

One of the newest coalitions is Stand for Quality, whose 165 organizations have developed a “framework to improve the quality and affordability of health care for all patients through a public-private partnership” focused on promoting and executing six recommendations, which you can read about here.

My point, though, is that this coalition is a good representation of the slow but deliberate shift by healthcare leaders to move out of their professional and industry silos toward a much more inclusive strategy. World-famous surgeon, nonprofit founder, and Opening General Session speaker Dr. Ben Carson Sr. talks about this in my recent interview, which will appear in an upcoming Associations Now, but I’m guessing attendees will run into the term “multi-stakeholder” and phrases such as “inextricably linked” more than ever before during the Baltimore event.

As a result, healthcare leaders will need to set aside ego and commit to further developing their collaboration, conflict resolution, and overall “people skills,” as Carson says. (A great book that examines the role of ego in leadership development and life in general is Egonomics (Fireside; Reprint edition, September 2008) by David Marcum and Steven Smith.)

I look forward to hearing more about this sector’s creative efforts to resolve the complex health problems of the nation and world.