Relating Across Difference (RAD) Innovation Lab

The Power of Difference

Differences associated with professional and social identities bring a broad array of perspectives, life experiences, values, know-how, approaches to problem solving and more. These differences are an enormous resource for innovation and adaptation. The unique view of any one person may stimulate a whole new solution. If not managed well, however, these same differences become sources of conflict, tension and power struggles about whose views are ‘right’ and whose perspectives will prevail.

Which way things go depends upon the group members’ communication skills; do they make it safe enough for people to share their unique views and are they able to listen with enough open-mindedness to consider new ideas?

Relating Across Difference

Relating Across Difference is a relational approach to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). The RAD Innovation Lab is a group of colleagues who are dedicated to developing relational approaches to DEI, including methods to help participants relate across difference to better leverage the power of difference.

For example there is a RAD coaching program hosted at The Heller School, Brandeis University that is led by Wale Olaleye, Tony Suchman and Jody Hoffer Gittell.

There is also a RAD initiative at The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, led by Professor Stephanie Creary and colleagues.

Relating Across Difference Coaching program At Brandeis

Relating Across Difference Toolbox

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Innovation Lab Leaders

Olawale Olaleye

Astrozeneca; Relational Coordination Analytics

Wale Olaleye is Senior Manager, Global Business Services for Astrozeneca, and Director of Consulting for Relational Coordination Analytics. He serves as Co-Principal Investigator on Relating Across Differences - An Improvement Process for Clinical Units, funded by the Josiah Macy Foundation, implementing the results of his research in three U.S. health systems over a three-year period. He received his PhD in Social Policy at The Heller School, an MBA with a focus on Health Systems Management from the Charlton College of Business at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, and his Pharmacy degree from the University of Ibadan Nigeria.

Dr. Olaleye studied interprofessional teams at Beth Israel Lahey Medical Center in Boston where he identified workforce diversity as an impediment to effective communication and relationship building between and within teams. His dissertation focused on the use of Relational Coordination principles to uncover professional and social identity-related discrimination on health care teams. Prior to joining the Heller School, he worked at Steward Health Care System of Massachusetts and Care New England Corporate of Rhode Island as a Hospital Manager. He has also worked as a Clinical Pharmacist at government-owned hospitals in Abuja, Nigeria. His research interests include team-based care, diversity equity and belonging, opioid policy, performance of healthcare organizations and issues related to the healthcare workforce.

oolaleye@brandeis.edu

Leah Gordon

The RELATE Lab, Oregon Health and Sciences University

Leah Gordon, MPH, is a Research Associate working with Debbie Cohen, PhD. Gordon is currently serving as Project Director for multiple evaluations, including: ESCALATES, the mixed-methods national evaluation of a $120 million federal initiative dedicated to using the latest evidence to improve heart health in the U.S.(https://escalates.org/); the external evaluation of WellBeing Trust Foundation’s $18 million California Portfolio; and the evaluation of Medically Assisted Treatment program for opioid abuse at OHSU primary care clinics. Gordon is Spanish-speaking and her research interests include health disparities, population health, and mixed methods evaluation. Gordon has a Master's in Public Health in Health Behavior and Health Education from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Prior to joining family medicine, she was a Program Manager for the Center for Gender Equity and Health at the University of California-San Diego managing an international and domestic research portfolio focused on gender-based violence and HIV.

gordole@ohsu.edu

Brian Park

The RELATE Lab, Oregon Health and Sciences University

Dr. Brian Park, MD (he/him) is a family medicine provider. He loves partnering with people of all ages, genders and cultures to help them lead healthier and happier lives. He has special training in preventive medicine, transgender and gender-affirming care, and opioid use disorder treatments.

Dr. Brian Park is passionate about creating a more relational and inclusive health system for patients and communities by bringing diverse communities together to create systems and social change. He founded and oversees a community-organizing program in which patients, health care providers and community partners come together to create solutions for local health equity issues. He also directs a leadership program in which health care students and professionals develop relational leadership skills to better partner with one another to create systems and social change.

Dr. Park was born in Minnesota and raised by South Korean immigrant parents. He saw firsthand how language barriers and cultural differences influenced his family's experiences with the health care system. Because of that, from a young age he became interested in how health care could advance justice and equity.

When he's not working, Dr. Park enjoys movies, writing about music and health care (sometimes together), drinking coffee with a friend or hiking with his partner Alison and kiddo Haneul.

parbr@ohsu.edu

Alexander Mansour

The RELATE Lab, Oregon Health and Sciences University

I did not expect to end up working in leadership practice; most of my past work is focused on public health issues, program evaluation and US refugee policy. But my involvement with the Relational Leadership movement at OHSU and nationally over the past few years has been a highlight of my career. It is difficult to overstate how much this community means to me; it has been a source of growth as a leader and person as well as many wonderful relationships and friendships. I love so many aspects of what we get to do at the RELATE Lab, but what keeps me motivated in this work is the idea that individuals and the connection between people are the fundamental units of change on which our hope for better systems rest. The difference between people-centered and results-focused leadership is not just seen, it is felt.

alexander.e.mansour@gmail.com

Tony Suchman

Relationship Centered Health Care

Tony Suchman and his colleagues help leaders build their skills on the social side of the equation, and to fully integrate the social and technical dimensions of their work. They also help with large scale change projects, including culture change. Tony 's work has been to develop and implement approaches to Relationship-Centered Administration, the backstage administrative process necessary to provide Patient- or Relationship-Centered Care to patients and their families. He has also developed innovative applications of the Relational Coordination Survey in organizational interventions to improve teamwork, task integration and coordination in collaborations ranging from work teams to whole-institution projects to inter-institutional partnerships.

asuchman@rchcweb.com

Jody Hoffer Gittell

Brandeis University; Relational Coordination Analytics

Jody Hoffer Gittell is Professor and PhD Program Director at Brandeis University's Heller School, and Program Director of the Academy of Management’s Organization Development and Change Division. Gittell teaches Strategic Human Resource Management, Research Methods, and Organizational and Institutional Theory. She is the Founder and Director of the Relational Coordination Collaborative and Chief Executive Officer of Relational Coordination Analytics. She is interested in relational strategies for achieving organizational performance, organizational change and human well-being. She has published scientific articles and books such as The Southwest Airlines Way: Using the Power of Relationships to Achieve High Performance, High Performance Healthcare: Using the Power of Relationships to Achieve Quality, Efficiency and Resilience, and Transforming Relationships for High Performance: The Power of Relational Coordination. She is currently co-editing a book with Amanda Brewster, Ingrid Nembhard and Vicky Parker called Healthcare Management and Human Well-Being in a Turbulent Era.

Together with students and colleagues around the world, Dr. Gittell has developed relational coordination theory, which predicts that highly interdependent work is most effectively coordinated through relationships of shared goals, shared knowledge, and mutual respect, supported by frequent, timely, accurate, problem-solving communication. The theory shows how relational coordination drives a wide range of desired performance outcomes and how organizations shape it, for better or worse. Dr. Gittell speaks frequently about the theory and practice of relational coordination. She serves as Vice Chair of the Board for Greater Seacoast Community Health, and on the Executive Committee for NAACP Seacoast. She received her BA from Reed College, her MA from The New School, and her PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

jgittell@brandeis.edu