RC Training

If you are an organizational leader or an internal or external consultant and want to take your understanding of RC to a higher level, we invite you to join us! 

Effective teamwork takes more than a group of individuals skillfully carrying out their specialized tasks. It requires interdependence: the ability of the team members to understand how their work processes intersect and to respond to each other’s changing needs and circumstances. What’s more, they need to be able to do this on their own in real time, under conditions of performance pressure and uncertainty, and without waiting for direction from a supervisor. This is the relational core of teamwork and, at a higher level of scale, of successful system function.

Brandeis University professor Jody Hoffer Gittell named this quality of high-performing teams and organizations “Relational Coordination” and developed a theory to explain how it impacts performance and how organizations support or undermine its development. She also developed a survey instrument to measure it. Her groundbreaking research has demonstrated that work processes with high levels of Relational Coordination achieve higher quality and efficiency, better satisfy their customers or patients, and foster greater worker satisfaction and resilience.

Since 2009, clinician-consultant-researchers Tony Suchman and Margie Godfrey have been working with Jody to develop practical workplace applications of RC theory and the RC Survey, creating a powerful interventional approach for improving work processes, fostering positive work environments and improving performance. To share what they’ve been learning, they have developed this program for organizational leaders and both internal and external consultants. 

Logistics

The highly interactive “on line” program consists of three parts:

Part 1:  An initial 1.5 hour welcome and orientation on Zoom, after which, participants will pursue some brief independent study to gain foundational knowledge about the Relational Coordination model and its research base.

Part 2:  Three 4-hour online sessions on 3 consecutive days that will provide videos, case examples, instruction and practice in defining work processes to be studied, relational mapping, setting up the survey, interpreting it, sharing back the survey results and planning follow up activities that both foster RC and embody its principles of partnership and engagement.

Part 3:  Three 1.5-hour video conference calls to discuss and learn from participants’ actual work in progress. To tailor the session to your needs, we will ask you to submit brief reports before each conference call describing the stage and progress of a project that involves measuring and improving RC.

(Having a project is not a requirement for participation; lots can be learned from others’ cases). Faculty will provide reflections and offer insights to support your development over the course of this program.

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. 

Essential to your success in this “on line” program is a computer, a web cam so we can enhance our
communication by seeing each other, a secure internet and time to test your browser and fire walls to ensure
100% full uninterrupted participation.

Fee Information

• Included in the registration fee of $2,650 are all virtual sessions and all course materials which will be delivered through an online instructional platform. Please register online or complete and mail the registration form.
• A 33% discount is available to full time graduate students and a 10% discount is available to Premium and Organizational partners of the Relational Coordination Research Collaborative. A discount is also available for groups, please contact us if you’d like to arrange for one of these discounts.

Please email RCRCinfo@brandeis.edu to request additional information.

Workshop applications are processed in the order recieved. If you need to cancel your course registration, please note that the RCRC cannot offer refunds for workshop registrations; however, we can transfer the registration fee to another course or to another person. 

We hope to see you at the workshop!