Advanced Methods - for Leaders and Facilitators

Systemness is the new frontier in improving organizational performance. There’s little additional gain to be made (and, in fact, there’s probably harm) from pushing individuals to work even harder, faster or more efficiently. They’re already maxed out. The focus of leading-edge work is shifting from individuals to systems: how can individuals and/or work groups collaborate more effectively? How can they better coordinate their interdependent tasks, respectfully share observations from their unique lines of sight, respond quickly and in tandem to rapidly changing circumstances, and find greater meaning and motivation in their common purpose?

Brandeis University researcher Jody Hoffer Gittell has developed a theory, Relational Coordination, that identifies 7 dimensions of communication and relationship that support effective collaboration. Extensive research in multiple industries shows that higher levels of Relational Coordination are associated with higher levels of quality; efficiency; customer/client/patient satisfaction; workforce satisfaction, well-being and resilience; and organizational learning and innovation.

In this 1.5-day workshop, you will learn through your own first-hand experience a variety of interventions to improve relational coordination, with the goal of enhancing systemness and improving performance. You will learn methods for:

• making interdependence visible, discussable and manageable,
• establishing trust and shared purpose between individuals and/or workgroups,
• exploring and aligning divergent stakeholder goals,
• creating a systems view by facilitating constructive conversations to explore and integrate differing perspectives, and
• managing interdependence by means of feedback and aligned work processes.We will also discuss how to combine relational, structural and work process interventions. You will leave with a personal implementation plan for applying these methods to a work process back home.

We will also discuss how to combine relational, structural and work process interventions. You will leave with a personal implementation plan for applying these methods to a work process back home.

For more information, please contact Diane Rawlins at diane.insideout@gmail.com or 206.890.0465 or Tony Suchman at asuchman@rchcweb.com or 585.721.9187.

This workshop is one half of a two-part series of trainings certified by the Relational Coordination Research Collaborative. A companion workshop, Improving Work Processes with Relational Coordination: Integrating the RC Survey into Interventions, focuses on how to use the Relational Coordination Survey as an intervention — how to set it up, interpret it, share back results and use it to guide the choice of interventions. These two workshops are highly complementary without being duplicative. You can take either workshop alone or you can take them both, neither is a prerequisite for the other. Both can help you prepare for RC Certification for Professionals, but they are not required, and attendance does not automatically confer certification.