From silos to solutions: A new mindset for healthcare leadership

When an oxygen tank exploded aboard Apollo 13, the mission shifted from exploration to survival. NASA engineers in Houston threw every part and piece they had onto the table. The raw materials for a solution were there, but the crew’s survival depended on more than ingenuity. Teams had to combine expertise from across disciplines, figure out how to assemble the pieces in a way that worked, and then communicate step by step how to replicate the fix in space.

That kind of collaboration under pressure is what saved the mission. And it’s what healthcare needs now as the industry faces its own Apollo 13 moment. Leaders are navigating workforce shortages, financial pressures and evolving patient expectations while working to improve quality and access. As I talk with leaders about these challenges, I’m often reminded of a recent conversation with Sutter Health President and CEO Warner Thomas who said, “When uncertainty rises, the instinct is to retreat into silos, but true progress requires bringing more people together.”

It’s one thing to talk about bridging silos, but doing the work takes intentional planning and leadership. Here are three ways we see high-performing health systems broaden the circle to solve complex problems and move forward.

1. Bring diverse expertise together to create a common vision

Even the most well-articulated strategies take intentional action and accountability. Administrators, clinicians and operations each have their unique priorities and perspectives, which can be an asset or liability depending on the approach.

We saw this with a large health system that had completed a major acquisition but hadn’t done the hard work of integration. For nearly three years, departments operated independently and progress stalled. The opportunity was clear in the data, but leaders hadn’t connected across teams on how to achieve the desired future state.

The turning point came when leaders brought finance, operations and clinical teams together around a shared view of performance. Those conversations weren’t easy, but they sparked the alignment needed to move forward. Within months, teams began coordinating decisions that had once been made in isolation. The organization identified redundant services, redirected resources to areas of greatest demand and uncovered nearly $500 million in financial and operational value. Once leaders began solving the problem collectively, progress that felt out of reach finally took hold.

2. Systemness starts with the end in mind

Many health systems have the assets of a strong enterprise but continue to function as a set of independent facilities. This fragmented structure can lead to service duplication, quality variation and inefficiencies that erode margins. I see the switch flip for these large systems when they start with the end.

We saw a provider gain momentum around their systemness strategy when they asked themselves a different question: What do our communities truly need, and how should we organize to meet those needs? The answer to that simple reframe created shared clarity and laid the foundation for a system that could finally move in one direction. Conversations shifted from negotiating individual priorities to a unified focus.

3. Share data widely to turn insight into action

Health systems sit on mountains of data, but the value is often lost when each hospital, service line or function works from a different view. Leaders end up making big decisions based on fragments rather than the full picture.

One state’s flagship academic medical system tackled this challenge with eight of their institutions that were each looking at their own performance data. It was difficult to see patterns across the system or align priorities. So, they built a single Health Intelligence Platform that combines clinical, operational and other key data sources into one view of performance. Just as important, they turned it into a discipline: data scientists and quality leaders meet for 30 minutes every other week to share what they are learning and where they see opportunity.

Those conversations changed the work. Leaders began spotting hidden variation, coordinating patient safety and sepsis strategies across campuses, and using shared benchmarks to decide where to focus scarce time and resources. The technology mattered, but the real shift was cultural. Data became a shared asset, not a departmental tool.

Treat uncertainty with collaboration

Apollo 13 never reached the moon, but it became one of NASA’s greatest successes because of how people came together to solve the impossible. The mission’s outcome was defined not by failure, but by teamwork, communication and execution under pressure. The engineers on the ground didn’t just create a fix; they turned a complex idea into clear instructions the astronauts could carry out in space.

Healthcare faces the same kind of test. Breakthroughs often come from teams rather than individual heroics. Those who widen the circle, to link people, data and strategy across every level of the organization, will be the ones who turn the pieces on the table into meaningful solutions.