The Heller School for Social Policy and Management
Institute on Healthcare Systems

Curriculum

Workshop 1: Assess and Measure the Relational Core of a Work Process

When: October 5, 2023; 8:00 am - 12:00 pm
Where: In person at Mass General Brigham
Who:  Mass General Brigham coaches and leaders

Objectives

Learn how to use relational coordination as a complement to other process improvement approaches, following the CPIP Approach to Process Improvement.  Understand how relational coordination impacts performance outcomes, including well-being and retention, quality and efficiency of patient care, and our ability to continuously innovate.  Learn to assess the relational core of any work process, using relational mapping and the Relational Coordination Survey.  

Pre-Work

Other Resources

Project 1: Assess and Measure the Relational Core of a Work Process

When: October 6, 2023 - November 8, 2023
Where: In person at Mass General Brigham
Who: Mass General Brigham coaches and their improvement teams

  • Choose an existing project in your health system that you will work with for learning purposes.  Please choose a project that addresses some challenges in working across differences, professional and/or social and ideally both.  One or two projects per site will be sufficient so feel free to work together as coaches.
  • Introduce your team to the CPIP Approach to Process Improvement and early sections of the Relational Coordination Playbook.  Create or update the Project Charter as needed.
  • Relational Mapping is an assessment tool and also a relational intervention.  It captures the perspectives of whoever is involved in creating it.  Invite your team to develop a relational map for the work process they are working to improve, using the Relational Mapping Worksheet.
  • The Relational Coordination Survey is an assessment tool and also a relational intervention.  See here for a Sample RC Survey and a Sample RC Survey Report (coming soon).  Get your team's input to complete the RC Survey Set Up Worksheet, then share this worksheet with Heba Naim Ali at RC Analytics (heba@rcanalytic.com).  With your team, determine the best dates to open and close the RC Survey. We recommend you close the survey before Winter Holidays, and give respondents 2 to 3 weeks to respond.  Example:  Open survey Monday November 27 and close it Monday December 11. 
  • You will receive a link from Heba to respond to the survey and you will share that link with all participants in the work process your project team is working to improve.  When the survey closes, you will receive a report from Heba.  In the January 11th Workshop 3, we will review the results with you as coaches and help you prepare to share the results with your team.
  • Please reach out to Tony Suchman at asuchman@rchcweb.com for individual consultation.

Workshop 2: Improve the Relational Core of a Work Process - Practice Interventions for Relating Across Difference

When: November 9, 2023; 8:00 am - 12:00 pm
Where: In person at Mass General Brigham
Who: Mass General Brigham coaches and leaders

Objectives

Deepen awareness of one’s own and others personal and professional identities and how they influence one’s frame of reference; get more familiar/comfortable with talking about identities and frames of reference. Explore dynamics and experiences of inclusion and exclusion. Learn communication skills for fostering inclusion and psychological safety.

Pre-Work  

  • Watch “Building a Psychologically Safe Workplace,” Amy Edmondson
  • Watch “The Dangers of a Single Story,” Chimamanda Adichie
  • Read “A Hole in the Heart of Anti-Racism Training," Cloe Valdary
  • Create a pie chart to represent your personal and professional identities - for example race, gender identity, disability, profession, education, income, parent education - not to be shared with others but as a basis for self-reflection. Develop a 2-minute personal story about one of the identities in your pie chart: 
    • What does this identity help you see and do?
    • What might this identity make it hard for you to see and do?
    • What is it about this identity that helps you feel valued and included?
    • What is it about this identity that could lead you to feel less valued or excluded?

 

Project 2: Improve the Relational Core of a Work Process - Practice Interventions for Relating Across Difference

When: November 10, 2023 - January 10, 2024
Where: In person at Mass General Brigham
Who: Mass General Brigham coaches and their improvement teams

  • As you coach your team in process improvement, try talking about personal and professional differences a little more than you usually do, remembering the crucial distinction between intention and impact. 
  • Try using some of these conversation skills with your team, noticing when they might be useful and how people respond.  
  • Keep a weekly journal to reflect on what you are learning. Pay special attention to professional and social identity differences in your client work team that are (i) helpful and (ii) challenging in some way.  Consider the impact of power differences due to personal and professional identities, as well as seniority.

 

Learning Lab with Other Health Systems

When: November or December 2023
Where: Zoom
Who:  Cleveland Clinic and Mass General Brigham coaches and leaders

 

Workshop 3: Improve the Relational Core of a Work Process - Share Data and Develop Interventions with Teams

When: January 11, 2024; 8:00 am -12:00 pm
Where: In person at Mass General Brigham
Who: Mass General Brigham coaches and leaders

 

Project 3: Improve the Relational Core of a Work Process - Share Data and Develop Interventions with Teams

When: January 12, 2024 - March 2024
Where: In person at Mass General Brigham
Who: Mass General Brigham coaches and their improvement teams

 

Workshop 4: Monitor and Sustain the Relational Core of a Work Process

When: March 19, 2024; 8:00 am - 12:00 pm
Where: In person at Mass General Brigham
Who: Mass General Brigham coaches and leaders

 

Project 4: Monitor and Sustain the Relational Core of a Work Process

When: March 19, 2024 - June 2024
Where: In person at Mass General Brigham
Who: Mass General Brigham coaches and their improvement teams

 

Learning Lab with Other Health Systems: Monitor and Sustain the Relational Core of a Work Process

When: June 2024
Where: Zoom
Who:  Cleveland Clinic and Mass General Brigham coaches and leaders

 

Learning Lab with Other Health Systems: Monitor and Sustain the Relational Core of a Work Process

When: September 2024
Where: Zoom
Who:  Cleveland Clinic, Mass General Brigham and University of Washington coaches and leaders