Teamwork
Perhaps more than any other sport, teamwork is essential to success on the soccer field. It can be seen in how coaches work with youth athletes on route running and blocking assignments. To be successful, a football team must be coordinated and act in unison. All it takes is for one player to miss a block or run the wrong way for the whole game to go sideways.
Similarly, public health professionals and organizations must work in unison. While the adage, “If you’ve seen one health department, you’ve only seen one health department” is often celebrated in public health, these differences can cause confusion among stakeholders about what to expect from their health departments and reduce coordination in solutions outbreaks or epidemics of chronic diseases that cross jurisdictional boundaries. When some health departments lack the resources or economies of scale to effectively deliver essential public health services, collaboration and teamwork are needed to make progress. Just as every football player must perform at his best for the team’s success, having a well-functioning network of public health organizations in every part of the state is crucial.
Preparing for the future
It is evident that the football program in my community is serious about their aspiration to win – to compete for championships every year. To bring this desire to life, they intentionally paired current high school players and coaches with youth athletes. By participating in these youth practices, high school coaches are able to provide a vision for the entire program. As high school players work with youth athletes, they offer mentorship and help build a long-term winning culture. Additionally, all youth teams practice on the same field, which fosters a sense of community and connection to the culture of the program.
We can learn a lot from this in the field of public health. While we have our conferences and associations, how are we preparing the next generation of public health leaders? How far are we planning? How can we be more intentional about this? Nationwide, the typical term for a state health department director is just three years, and for a local health department director, it is only six years.5.6 That means we need more than 170 public health leaders in Kansas every ten years, and that’s not counting the various other leadership positions. In addition, younger public health professionals are more likely to avoid or leave state public health.7 Lack of opportunities for advancement was cited as the main reason.
Public health could learn a lot from this football program. Dynasties are not built one year at a time. Lasts for generations. If we are to build a public health system for the ages, how can we be more intentional about connecting past, present, and future public health professionals to create pathways to leadership?
Conclusion – Leading and adopting the vision
While I may not know the full story of how this football program came to prominence, one thing is clear: the coaches had a vision for success and demonstrated the leadership skills needed to bring that vision to life. During my doctoral studies in public health leadership, I became a strong advocate for the power of visionary leadership. A clear and ambitious vision is essential to align the efforts of all stakeholders and to inspire them to undertake the hard work required to achieve it.
Just as this football program united coaches and players across the school district, public health in Kansas needs a unifying vision to bring us all together. The moment for this unifying vision is building. Kansas Department of Health and Environment Healthy Kansans 2030 kicked off this work from identification priorities for State Health Improvement Plan. The Kansas Health Foundation and the Kansas Public Health Association are head a winning run to call attention to Kansas leads the nation in health and reassessment public health system for Kansasrespectivelyactively. On to build on this momentum and move the conversation forward, KHI is working with its partners across the public health system to create a clear process for shaping and implementing this vision and actionable strategies for the future of public health in Kansas.
In public health, as in football, success requires not just a vision, but a collective buy-in to that vision that results in each team member excelling in their role. Together, we hope to create a stronger and more cohesive public health system for Kansas—one that is equipped to meet the challenges of today and tomorrow.