to explore alternative futures in the external environment" (Bryson & Roering 11).
The implication of this answer on health care managers and leaders is potentially profound. It means that the bulk of the responsibility for readying the organization for coming changes falls to them. The organization will be relying upon structural flexibility and functional effectiveness, as well as employee adaptability and ability to carry out different and more complex/difficult tasks than before. Managing/leading people is an art rather than a reproducible science, so there is no guarantee that any particular management or leadership approach will work. People are individuals, as well, not automatons that can be expected to react a certain way every time. Thus, there is risk involved with this approach, although there is risk inherent in the rapidly-changing 21st-century health care environment as a whole also. Leaders will need to cast a strong vision for their organizations to ensure that people have an immovable signpost to move toward as things around them change drastically, and managers will have to train and encourage their people to work more flexibly, think more creatively, and respond more innovatively to problems. In addition, it will be necessary for people to collaborate more often in order to solve problems quickly, so collaboration will become a required job skill. Everyone will have to be skilled in working with diversity and much stronger in emotional intelligence to ensure that conflict and lack of understanding do not create problems. Boosting internal capabilities will likely require training, possibly education, and an in-depth analysis of the organizati
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