North Florida’s largest health system. A five-year transformation. Hundreds of leaders.
And a workforce already feeling the strain of burnout and constant change.
Baptist Health partnered with WORKWELL to build the one capability that would determine whether their strategy succeeded or stalled: resilient leadership.
Location: Jacksonville, Florida
Recognition: America’s Greatest Places to Work in Healthcare — Newsweek
Program: Leadership workshop + ongoing implementation
Challenge
Baptist Health was entering a critical inflection point.
Years of deferred decisions meant the organization needed to change fast — across every department, at the same time — while still delivering high-quality patient care.
Leaders were feeling the pressure.
- Rapid, system-wide transformation created a “pace problem”
- Silos limited collaboration and consistency across the network
- Nurses and physicians reported rising burnout
- 300–400 leaders needed to align around one strategy and message
Baseline assessments confirmed the strain:
- Overall resilience score: 64
- Only 15% of leaders showed high resilience
- 60% of teams flagged critical culture concerns requiring attention
The risk was clear: without stronger leadership capacity and cohesion, the strategy wouldn’t stick.
Approach
WORKWELL reframed the moment.
Instead of treating change as a threat to manage, we positioned it as an opportunity to build lasting organizational resilience — a capability that would serve Baptist Health long after the transformation.
Together, we launched a focused, four-phase approach:
What rolled out
- Leadership culture and resilience assessments to establish a baseline
- A 2-day Change Proof Leadership Culture workshop with the Executive Leadership Team
- Intensive executive alignment sessions, including physician leaders
- HR champions embedded across the system to sustain the work
- Practical recovery tools across mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual dimensions
Core Focus Areas
- Trust culture (“got your back” leadership)
- True teamwork across departments
- Healthy conflict and honest dialogue
- Shared accountability
- Learning from failure
- Everyday recovery practices to prevent burnout
The goal wasn’t inspiration for a moment — it was building behaviors leaders could use daily.
Results
Momentum showed up quickly. Leaders reported stronger alignment, clearer communication, and renewed energy to lead through complexity.
Key outcomes
- Shared language and frameworks around resilience and change
- Executive team functioning more openly and collaboratively
- Reduced defensiveness and faster problem-solving
- Stronger trust across departments
- Increased morale and confidence during uncertainty
Organizational breakthroughs
- “First chair” mentality replaced with team-first collaboration
- “Meetings after the meeting” replaced with transparent conversations
- Leaders taking ownership beyond their immediate roles
And the impact extended beyond perception:
Research shows resilience programs are associated with up to 78% lower turnover intention.
As one leader shared:
“It was exactly the conversation we needed to elevate our ability to achieve goals that have eluded us for years.”
Why It Worked Well
Baptist Health wasn’t looking for a motivational event. They needed a system that would hold under pressure.
Here’s what made the difference:
1. Top-to-bottom alignment
Executives modeled the behaviors first. The rest of the organization followed.
2. Practical tools, not theory
Leaders left with clear, usable practices — not concepts.
3. Built-in accountability
Assessments, measurement, and HR champions kept progress visible.
4. Resilience embedded in daily work
It wasn’t treated as a program. It became how leaders showed up.
5. Designed for sustainability Ongoing development, integration, and recovery practices ensured the change stuck.Today, Baptist Health leaders continue applying these tools to navigate future challenges with confidence — without sacrificing culture.
"We can do this and not sacrifice our culture and thrive and stay independent… There’s a belief we can get this right."
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