What is the Roundtable?
The Roundtable is the keystone event of the Relational Coordination Collaborative. It is a highly interactive annual event that brings colleagues together to share their work and learn from each other through interactive presentations, keynote speakers, professional development workshops, and informal engagement that help participants develop their knowledge and networks and move their knowledge into action.
The Roundtable is hosted each Fall in different locations for participants to submit their work to a peer-reviewed process, then share their work. It is an event to build new relationships and renew existing ones. Roundtable participants are researchers, consultants and leaders from around the world who are interested in improving how people work together at the group, organizational and ecosystem levels.
Roundtable 2026 Registration here
Relational Coordination Is...
Relational coordination is a mutually reinforcing process of communicating and relating for the purpose of task integration. Relational coordination is shaped by organizational structures and, when strong, it supports organizations in achieving a wide range of desired performance outcomes including quality, safety, efficiency, financial outcomes, well-being, learning and innovation. Relational coordination is particularly important for achieving these outcomes when work is highly interdependent, uncertain and time constrained, whether in times of crisis or everyday stress.
Relational coordination is measured as a network of ties across roles in any work process that requires coordination. Its outcomes and predictors have been tested in 73 industry sectors and 36 countries. See Revisiting Relational Coordination: A Systematic Review.
What is the RCC?
We are an open inclusive global community of researchers and change leaders working across multiple sectors to build relationships of shared goals, shared knowledge and mutual respect for high performance and positive change. Founded in 2011, we are a membership organization based at The Heller School at Brandeis University.
What Your Colleagues Said About Roundtable 2025
"I genuinely enjoyed being around people who care so much for bettering relationships and humanity through connection. It was joyous to surround myself with the optimism that many people brought and the solutions to overcoming today's challenges. I loved getting to see the contexts which people are using relational coordination."
"A positive experience, a renewal of the mind to see the world from broader perspective."
"Energizing, fulfilling, challenging and inspiring! Loved both the large plenary groups as well as the smaller groups. Each brought unique value."
"I observed a very effective network with a continues stream of learning coming from graduate students' research and the writings of academics. The bridge to practitioners was less clear to me and appeared as the same challenge we face in our own network. The RCC was also very effective in attracting a sizeable group of new members, including others like us outside the healthcare sector because the intrinsic value of relationship coordination in systems design was articulated clearly. The convening model was also very well done with much attention to detail to make the whole experience valuable."
"The RCC Roundtable is always the crowning event of my academic year. This year was no exception. Despite being forced to attend it online, I made new connections, learned so many new things and came out energized and enthused about my research and work."
"I had a wonderful experience of the RCC because its values were demonstrated in every interaction which made the approach feel authentic. For example, people filled in tables, so no one sat alone, reached out with greetings and wanted to know something about the person before we engaged in dialogues about RC topics. The leader at every table made sure all voices were heard. The culture of RCC embodies RC theory and practice. I felt welcomed, engaged and respected for my different perspective. The feedback from our workshop was that we gave participants a very clear, concise learning experience that they could immediately use in their own settings."
"The environment was warm, and the participants and speakers were friendly. The research topics were innovative and intriguing. Additionally, meals and snacks were included in the conference cost. The meeting spaces allowed participants to engage in meaningful conversations."
"I needed 36 hours of being around like-minded educated people to bounce ideas off of. I was able to leave my surgical practice at the door and listen to other perspectives on improving relationships in complex systems of people. This was therapeutic as I was able to pump the brakes on the frustrations I face in the clinical setting and learn from non-physicians. The multidisciplinary group of experts makes this meeting exciting. Where can you interact with a systems management professor, a fire chief, union representative, chief nursing officer, or a cool consultant from California (to name a few)? Needed to leave the medical silo for a weekend. You can learn a lot from the person sitting next to you. I left the meeting energized - hope I can maintain that energy! Thanks, I needed that..."
"I found a “spark” at the Roundtable that had been missing since Covid. I was reinvigorated, inspired and in awe during the entire Roundtable. I am already forming my research questions."
"The event was well organized and enjoyable. In particular, the mix of seminar and shift-and-share formats offered effective avenues to learn about different topics and provided a welcome sense of variety to the program. Both keynote speakers were an excellent choice--informative, engaging, and inspirational. Like other years, the program hit the mark in finding the right balance between formality and informality which serves learning and relationship building. I am grateful to be a part of this community (to be honest, I cant believe it sometimes), and appreciative of all the hard work by many people to make the roundtables happen as they do -- thank you."
"I loved being in a group of people where mutual respect is highly valued. It felt empowering and inspirational. I was nervous coming into the conference having no previous experience. But those who work with this team were so supportive and understanding."
"I had a wonderful time at the Roundtable. People were so welcoming to me. I felt that the roundtable was one of the nicer conferences that I have been to."
"What always strikes me is how much overlap there is between change leadership in health care and in public education. It was a lot of fun to consider what I could learn from healthcare and apply it to my work in PK-12. Conversations were thought-provoking and ran deep."
"I was forced into the online version because of my travel problems- but it was almost seamlessly integrated into the greater program. It's like the RCC really cares about connections and relationships. Thank you!"
