RC Training

Khwezi Mbolekwa, PhD, is a passionate believer that a healthy, respectful, and safe workplace environment is crucial to unleash the creativity and innovation to drive performance and results. He is a strong advocate for an inclusive, collaborative, systemic approach for tapping into what is possible with teams and people.

Dr. Mbolekwa has a doctorate degree in organization systems and leadership, in addition to a couple of graduate degrees in health services management and organization systems. He oversees the Employee Experience portfolio with responsibility for the Diversity, Inclusion & Gender Equity Framework portfolio for a large municipality. He is a Certified Healthcare Executive (CHE) and a Certified Professional in Human Resources (CPHR) in Canada.

Shyamal Sharma, MPH, is a visiting scholar and the Co-Principal Investigator for The Relational Society Project, in collaboration with Professor Jody Hoffer Gittell at the Brandeis University Heller School of Social Policy and Management. Shyamal is the originator of The Relational Society project and has been the primary grantee of the Relational Society Research project funded by The Topol Family Foundation since June 2019.

Shyamal’s background emphasizes high-impact issues of research and innovation at the intersection of health policy and healthcare delivery. She was an early innovator in applying digital technology for improving patient adherence to self-management of chronic conditions. She was the Principal Investigator under a 2000-2002 Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) grant for innovational research at the intersection of healthcare technology and chronic care. Under this award, at a time when smartphones and digital Apps were a “thing” of the future, she developed and pilot-tested an interactive, web-based, handheld device-compatible application for enhancing patient self-management of Type 1 diabetes. Shyamal led and co-authored the 1998 Survey of the Health Insurance Status of Massachusetts residents, an early source of detailed policy-relevant information for eventual health insurance reform in the Commonwealth and a model for the ACA. She provided technical assistance to the state Medicaid agency at the time for evaluating the pioneering Medicare Research and Demonstration Program of All-inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE), aimed at providing community-based adult day care to nursing-home eligible frail elderly. Over a decade later, she returned to the public sector to serve as the quality director of MassHealth Managed Care Programs.

Shyamal's interest in Relational Coordination (RC) theory and practice stems from her understanding of the seminal role that the quality of interpersonal communications and empathy-driven collaboration play in any production process and its outcomes, including quality of work life and perceived self-actualization. She is a believer in the strength of human relations, and hopes to expand the Relational Society Framework and scholarship to many industries and sectors in collaboration with Professor Jody Hoffer Gittell – for testing the endurance of the fundamental human connection.