Director's Message

Welcome to the Centre for Health Leadership and Research!
 
As Director, I am pleased that we can share the many activities in which we are engaged and the links to many of our partners and collaborators both within Royal Roads and externally.
 
Exploring all the facets of health leadership is the essence of our work here. We accomplish this fascinating and complex work through applied, practice-based research in collaboration with many key partners including researchers and decision and policy makers. We believe strongly that the study of health leadership is made possible through the genuine engagement of the stakeholders not only at all levels of the health system but through important overlap with other systems, including post-secondary and advanced education.

I am sure you will agree that leadership in the context of change is still high on our collective agendas. In keeping with the accompanying photograph of the rapidly flowing white-water stream which portrays natural systems and change, I am reminded of Heraclitus[1], the Greek philosopher, and his famous dicta – “Everything flows” and “You cannot step into the same river twice.” However, Cratylus[2], a less well-known philosopher today was perhaps even more poignant in his observation that one cannot step into the same river even once because as you step in, you are changing and the river is changing.

So it is with rapid change in the white-water health system with which we are all too familiar. We need to re-frame our thinking about how we approach, understand and conduct real-world, practice-based research – research that is timely and relevant to the people who actually do the day-to-day work in the health system. We endeavour to move beyond the rhetoric of participation and collaboration. Our role is to help close the persistent gap between knowing and doing, between theory and practice, and between academia and community. We are committed to advancing and sharing knowledge in this critical area and we are confident that we can accomplish this with the combined efforts of our many partners and collaborators both within the Royal Roads community and externally.

As we proceed along our path of discovery, sharing, and integration of new knowledge and its practical application our website will be expanded and updated. I look forward to your continued interest in our work and invite you to contact us with your ideas and suggestions.
 
Best wishes,

Ron Lindstrom

[1] From Angeles, P.A. (1981). “Dictionary of philosophy.” New York, NY: Harper and Row, p. 37.

[2] From Angeles, P.A. (1981). “Dictionary of philosophy.” New York, NY: Harper and Row, p. 37.