Advances in organizational management structure: Los Angeles County Department of Public Health Leadership Forums

The County of Los Angeles Department of Public Health (DPH) has over forty programs and 3,700 employees. DPH has a mission to promote and protect the health of over 10 million Los Angeles County residents. The Department needed to identify a method to enhance connections, collaborations, and communication within its complex infrastructure.

The Los Angeles Public Health Leadership Institute (LAPHLI) was developed in order to provide DPH executive staff and senior managers with tools and skills that would allow them to “lead” culture change, increase skill levels to “manage” daily routines, reduce internal silos, and work collaboratively and share resources with other programs to more effectively address public health issues. LAPHLI's success was evident through requests from participants of the first LAPHLI cohort to continue opportunities for peer support, idea generation, building trust and developing stronger relationships among senior managers, providing continued professional development, and sharing of best practices and lessons learned after the 5-day LAPHLI concluded.

The need for this type of informal yet supportive culture led to the development of an ongoing quarterly LAPHLI alumni meeting called the Los Angeles Public Health Leadership Forum. This forum focused on internal organizational change and capacity development that fostered collaborative leadership and has created tipping points within the organization to generate lasting and meaningful organizational change.

This presentation will describe the genesis of the Los Angeles Public Health Leadership Forum, its model, and components of the forum.