Relational Coordination Research Collaborative

Sharing experiences and emotions amidst racial unrest

John Paul Stephens, Case Western University (RCRC Board Vice-Chair)
with Douglas Lepisto, Western Michigan University

"...how does one orient, process, and take action amidst the rapid, unfolding, and swirling deluge of information, story, symbol, data, and emotion? We offer a simple framework that we and others have found useful to facilitate listening, thinking, and acting. This is not a framework centered on race, but rather a framework to make sense of the flow and flux of recent events and ultimately take effective action."

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COVID Chronicles with Jenny Rudolph, CMS

Jenny Rudolph, PhD, Executive Director of the Center for Medical Simulation, interviews the RCRC's Executive Director Jody Hoffer Gittell about relationships and work coordination in the time of COVID. Jenny is an organization behavior scholar on the faculty of Massachusetts General Hospital Department of Anesthesia Critical Care and Pain Medicine, and department of Anesthesia at Harvard Medical School.

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Participation:
Open to health systems that are Organizational Partners of the RCRC. 

The RCRC Health Systems Learning Network provides an opportunity for health system leaders to check in and advise one another about their change efforts, facilitated by Tony Suchman of Relationship Centered Health Care, Marjorie Godfrey of The Dartmouth Institute Microsystems Academy, and Jody Hoffer Gittell of Brandeis University and the RCRC.

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WATCH VIDEO

We are in a remarkable moment now, fraught with risk and opportunity. The opportunity is to harness this unique moment when old patterns of interaction have already been interrupted and bring teams back together in a way that advances teamwork and systemness and helps them create their new future state. To help focus on the intentional leadership that this time demands, the Academy on Communication in Healthcare (ACH) and the RCRC joined forces to offer a new program entitled, “Reuniting teams after the COVID-19 surge: Recalibrating for a new future.” 

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We need to build a relational society, starting in the communities where we live. At the root of our challenges are damaged relationships that need to be re-built in a far more inclusive way. At the micro level, we need human empathy, at the meso level we need coordinated collective action, and at the macro level we need supportive institutions. The RCRC community has launched the Relational Society Project, starting with three communities in the US, three in Scandinavia, one in the UK, and soon to include Nigeria, Pakistan and China we hope.

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Did you miss our last Partner Cafe?
View the recording online

Organizational Resilience in the COVID-19 Crisis and Beyond

Featuring:
Kenny Cole, Ochsner Health
Rushika Fernandopulle, Iora Health
Alice Andrews, Value Institute for Health and Care
Heather Gilmartin, Denver/Seattle Center for Innovation, Veterans Health Administration
Jen Perloff, Institute for Accountable Care, Brandeis University

Facilitator:
Jody Hoffer Gittell, RCRC, Brandeis University

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"The nurses and therapists started to ask each other, 'What is timely communication for you?' and soon realized that, if the therapists would visit the ICU in the mornings they could better address patient needs and reduce discharge delays. Just one example, and it was not a top-down solution."

- ICU Clinical Coordinator, Billings Clinic

"Recognizing every person's experience as unique, we can connect to each other through a deep understanding and acknowledgement of race, ethnicity and culture. This will ensure that we are mindful, respectful and inclusive."

- Superintendent, Rochester City Schools

"We haven't had a tool before for measuring this. One thing is talking about networks; now we can see it."

- Director of Social Health and Employment, Varde Municipality, Denmark