Today, physician-led initiatives improve the business of healthcare better, faster, and easier.

Early and mid-career physicians learning to handle administrative, committee, or business leadership commitments beyond seeing patients day-to-day. 5+ years in practice.

The Physician Leadership Accelerator is based on Accelerated Learning theory – a small group of six physicians will be connected to one another through one Good Leadership Executive Coach. Together, through a series of retreats, webinars, and cohort meetings, the cohort will collectively learn new skills, behaviors, and ways of thinking. All participants will come together twice a year for a 2-day in-person retreat, where subject matter experts will facilitate workshops tied to key subjects.

Lead Coach and Curator:

· Paul Batz, CEO of Good Leadership is the Lead Coach and Curator

Founding Partners:

· Troy Simonson – Founder and CEO of True North Health Partners, former CEO of Twin Cities Orthopedics, and current CEO of Proliance Surgeons

· Rachel Uzlik, CPHQ – Founder and CEO of Aetos Health, and CEO of PELTO Health Partners

· Mark Sannes, MD – Chief Medical Officer, HealthPartners Care Group

· John Pryor, MD MHCDS – President and Chairman of Proliance Surgeons

· David Jevsevar, MD MBA FAAOS Chief Executive Officer at OrthoVirginia

Steering Team Members:

· Yarrow McConnell, MD – Starting June: Lead, Breast Program, MultiCare Cancer Institute at MultiCare Health System

· Rob Winfield, MD FACS – Head of Surgery, University of Kansas Medical Center

· Ria Paul, MD Chief Medical Officer at Santa Clara Family Health Plan

The Steering Team is comprised of early adopters – people who have shown enough interest in the program to volunteer their time to help it come alive. The collective group is facilitated by Paul Batz, Founder and CEO of Good Leadership. They are providing their personal and professional insights to the curriculum design. Some of the Steering Team members will also be participating in workshops and hosting sessions at the retreats.

The coaches will come from the coaching team at Good Leadership. Coaches will be selected based on the collective experience, aspirations, and personalities of each cohort group. Follow this link to see the full roster of Good Leadership Coaches.

The client services team of Good Leadership will interview each participant to learn about their motivation, goals, and leadership experience. The most effective cohort groups are comprised of people with similar motivation and varied backgrounds, skills, and experiences. Cohorts are best when they are multi-specialty, and represent an array of organizations.

The intention is to have physicians with varied specialties and backgrounds, including large systems and smaller physician-owned groups.

Business Leadership:

• Fundamentals of practice financials
• Effective board governance and fiduciary responsibility
• Identifying and leveraging market differentiators
• Strategic financial planning and practice model
• Building a business case for initiatives

Clinical Leadership:

• Developing and influencing a culture of data transparency and accountability
• Continuous quality improvement modeling to optimize practices
• Strategic navigation blending operations, clinical, and financial priorities

Organizational Leadership:

• Leading a high-performing team
• Building a culture of healthy accountability
• Influencing without authority
• Aligning the vision for growth

Personal Leadership:

• Effective self-leadership and understanding leadership styles
• Deepening understanding of strengths and areas of improvement
• Personal visioning and development planning exercises
• Work/life wellness through the Seven Fs

Executive coaching involves exploring personal and professional aspirations, learning how to leverage individual motivators, personality, and how to manage unprofessional stress responses. The coach will guide each physician in 1:1 conversations using specific Good Leadership coaching tools. Each participant will also receive the observations of people they work with through a process called Discovery Interviews. The coach will translate the aspirations, strengths, weaknesses, and motivations of each participant into a Leadership Development Blueprint which will guide each individual’s goals and focus areas.

Each 60-minute webinar will require between 30-60 minutes of pre-reading, listening to a podcast, etc. Homework will primarily be spent on the Organizational Change Capstone Project. The total time investment per month for pre-work and homework will be approximately 2 hours.

At the beginning of the program, participants will select a real-time change they can lead to better their organizations. The physicians will apply the skills, behaviors, and ways of thinking that they learn throughout the accelerator to their project. 2026 examples include:     

• Centralized purchasing and quality-testing of joint replacements
• Optimizing OR scheduling and turnover

All webinars will be recorded, and discussed in the cohort meetings.

Retreats will take place on:

• September 11-13, 2026
• April 30-May 2, 2027

Retreats will start on Friday night with an Opening Reception (beginning at 4:30pm), and end on Sunday mid-morning with a Closing Brunch (completed by 11:30am).

The short answer is “no.” However, the retreats have the highest collective value in the program – that’s where physicians expand their network and engage in real-time learning. Attending both retreats will optimize the investment of time, energy, and money for the program.

Good Leadership works with University of Kansas Office of Continuing Education. Claiming credit for a webinar or retreat is very simple, done through eeds.com, and will be discussed at the beginning and end of each learning session. Up to 32 credits are available over the course of the 10-month program.

$19,500. Travel and accommodation expenses not included.

Travel to Minneapolis/St. Paul by airline varies from $200 – $800, depending on locale and time of year. Ground transportation should not exceed $150 per trip.

Hotel expense is estimated at $250 per night. A flight, ground transportation, and 2-3 nights in a hotel could be as much as $1,700 – likely less. With two retreats, the total expense could be as much as $3,400 total – likely less.

Considering the fees for the program, and the additional fees and time that go into the project, the Organization Change Capstone Projects had an average 5-to-1 return on investment within the first year. Some projects had as high as 11-to-1 in six months.