Leading With Purpose: A Look at Cleveland Clinic’s Leadership Retreat

Cleveland Clinic will host its fourth annual leadership retreat in February 2026, drawing more than 300 leaders from its Ohio, Florida, Nevada, Canada, London and Abu Dhabi locations for the two-day event.

“We are a large, global organization, and everyone is leading their own set of priorities and work,” says Colleen Carroll, Senior Director of Learning and Strategy Design at Cleveland Clinic’s Global Leadership & Learning Institute. “Bringing people together at an annual retreat inspires them with a shared purpose to take back to their teams.”

The CEO’s vision

The impetus for the leadership retreat began with Tom Mihaljevic, MD, President and CEO of Cleveland Clinic, who approached the Mandel Global Leadership & Learning Institute (GLLI) about creating an event to convene leaders to share the health system’s priorities for the year and ignite a passion in them.

GLLI partners with the Corporate Event team to develop and host the yearly retreat, which is held a few weeks following Dr. Mihaljevic’s annual State of the Clinic report. The retreat includes remarks from Dr. Mihaljevic and Kelly Hancock, DNP, RN, NE-BC, FAAN, Executive Vice President, Chief Caregiver Officer and Chief Administrative Officer of Cleveland Clinic, as well as presentations from executive leaders, roundtable sessions and group activities focused on central themes.

A focal point in 2025 was The Power of Purpose, a recurring theme that is woven into Cleveland Clinic’s culture and patient care philosophy. At its core, the idea is that every individual has a unique "why" or purpose that drives their actions and contributes to the broader mission of transforming healthcare. During one of the activities, leaders at each table were asked to share their why by describing what guides them through change and motivates them to lead from wherever they are.

Such exercises create opportunities for individuals to connect to and share their personal and organizational purpose, fuels resilience and engagement, enhances both patient and caregiver experience and shapes organizational culture, Carroll explains.

“When you bring leaders together and ask them why they got into healthcare, they light up,” she says. “Most of us in healthcare have a very strong ‘why.’”

Five key themes

While topics vary each year, the leadership retreat is built on five overarching themes:

• Fostering culture – “We create activities throughout the day to get attendees talking to each other about Cleveland Clinic’s culture compared to their team’s culture and how they can take ownership for fostering culture,” says Carroll.
• Sustaining the organization – In addition to Dr. Mihaljevic sharing Cleveland Clinic’s progress and what lies ahead, Jim Cotelingam, Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer, talks about the organization’s strategic direction. This year, Beri Ridgeway, MD, Executive Vice President and Enterprise Chief of Staff, discussed Cleveland Clinic’s realignment of its practice model to help the organization realize its vision to be the best place to work in healthcare.
• Aligning on standards – Lean principles were the focus of this year’s fireside chat, as well as a presentation from Lisa Yerian, MD, Executive Vice President and Chief Clinical and Operational Improvement Officer.
• Making connections – The 2025 retreat included an interactive session where 15 executive team members rotated from table to table every eight minutes for about an hour. “It was like speed dating with a twist – focused on connection and mentoring,” says Carroll. “Executive team members would sit down, and leaders at the table could ask them any questions. It was a wild success.”
• Inspiring excellence – “Cleveland Clinic is a world-class organization,” says Carroll. “How can we be honest with ourselves about where we can improve while also focusing on what we do well?”

Lessons learned

When Cleveland Clinic began hosting the leadership retreat in 2023, around 70% of attendees said the event was a good use of their time compared to 99% this past year.

“Each year we use the feedback and try to do better,” says Carroll. “We are taking people offline for two or more days, depending on where they are traveling from.”

Carroll’s advice to those who would like to host a leadership retreat is to get buy-in from the CEO. “Propose the benefits of an event like this,” she says. “This is an investment in your leaders, who are the future of the organization. Talk about the impact it can make.”

Once the CEO is on board, develop the event around a main message they want to relay to their team.

“Let the CEO take the reins on who will be invited and what the agenda will look like,” says Carroll. “In time, build up that trust and create more opportunities for interaction, engagement and learning activities.”

Finally, be sure to have equal representation from clinical and non-clinical areas. Carroll and her team assign seats so that the tables have a good mix of leaders.

“We don’t have all physicians, nursing leaders or operations at one table,” she says. “The intent is to bring us all together, break down any siloes or misconceptions and build relationships.”