Dyad leadership blueprint: nine strategies for effective collaboration

Background/aim: The physician-administrator dyads are a strategic method of collaboration in healthcare organisations. Dyad leaders are part of a multidisciplinary team that integrates their expertise to generate better patient, physician, and organisational outcomes. An assumption of team science is that diverse experts, while knowledgeable, struggle to work together to resolve problems because of their vastly different decision-making and implementation strategies. Similarly, conflicting priorities, competing pressures, and lack of clear understanding of the other member's role will result in ineffective teamwork between the dyad.

Methods: We conducted a literature review of dyad leadership in healthcare and connected these insights to the teamwork literature.

Results: We connect the challenges of dyad leadership with practical solutions that help physicians and administrators integrate their diverse expertise. To overcome these challenges, healthcare employees, teams, and organisations must implement an effective structure for diverse dyads to work together effectively. We develop a framework based on a review of the literature on dyads and describe what is needed for an effective partnership between the physician and administrator.

Conclusions: We describe the teamwork mechanisms that develop as teams use these strategies, which ultimately makes the dyads effective in the organisation. Dyad leaders who use these strategies will develop their teamwork behaviours and teamwork processes to reduce conflict and sustain the viability of their team to complete their goals, benefiting the patient, the team, and the organisation.