Healthy, healing work cultures and integrated care are not an accident. It takes hard work and very specific skills. There are three fundamental skills identified as essential to carry out the work necessary to achieve cultural transformation: Dialogue, Polarity Management and Partnership skills.

Fundamental Skills

Dialogue
Dialogue is meaningful conversation between providers and between providers and recipients of care. One of the major challenges facing the workface is the ability to have meaningful conversation. Thomas Merton notes "to live in communion, in genuine dialogue with others is absolutely necessary if man is to remain human." It is so easy in our busy worlds of work and home to fall into routine, scripted, dehumanized conversation and lose the skill required to have meaningful conversation. To be able to sit in the conflict of a situation and hold those who we may not even like in such respect so that we can have meaningful conversation, learn from them and vice versa, is challenging and takes practice. Meaningful conversation requires using the principles of dialogue. The use of these principles transforms the nature of meetings, conferences, councils, conversations with peers, patients and families and ultimately the culture.

Dialogue skills, help the team tap the collective wisdom of each other, patients and their families, generate new knowledge essential to keep up with the speed of scientific change, and deepen insights into the issues of dilemmas that daily haunt both providers and recipients of care. Dialogue teaches the sacredness of one's words and is fundamental for ensuring mutuality and engaging patients and family in decision-making. Without dialogue and understanding of polarities, effective communication, collabor-ation and learning will not be achieved.

Services offered by CPMRC:
» Basic Dialogue Training
» Train-the-Trainer
» Advanced Dialogue Skills
» Changing meetings with Dialogue

Polarity Management™

The face pace change that was the norm in the last decade of the 20th century lead to many of today's harsh realities. During this time there was a high turnover of executive leadership and with every new leader came another change. The leaders scrambled to respond to the challenges and demands to decrease the rising cost of healthcare and at the same time meet an increasing demand for service. Multiple change programs and re-engineering, redesign initiatives were introduced rapidly. All were done with good intentions. Yet many of the initiatives did not achieve the desired outcome or the positive outcomes were not sustainable. The intent was noble, everyone was "doing something" to make things better. Yet after all the effort the condition was not improving but declining along with staff morale.

The search to understand and address this phenomena lead to the discovery of the missing skill called Polarity Management™ authored by Barry Johnson, PhD. Many of the issues that haunt us are not problems to be solved but in fact polarities or chronic dilemmas. The usual problem-solving approaches will not work. Polarity Management is an essential skill for all healthcare providers but especially those who choose to lead.

Services offered by CPMRC:
» Basic Polarity Management Workshop
» Train-the-Trainer Intensivist
» Use of Polarity Management™ in Strategic Planning
» Measuring ability to manage polarities

Partnerships

One of the major problems in the healthcare system that impacts the health, trans-formation of the culture, and the ability to provide integrated care is relationship. So many have heard "relationships" referred to as the soft or fluff side of our work. When relationships are not consciously valued in the workplace, the culture becomes dehumanized. Clearly the concept of healing relationships presents a challenge and an ongoing dilemma within a deeply rooted hierarchical culture and a demanding clinical practice. With the help of thousands of caregivers and recipients of care, the CPMRC has identified the principles of partnership or healthy relationships.

The heart of it is about respect, conditional and unconditional. In a fast-paced work culture where recognition often centers around what you do, how fast you do it and did you leave anything undone, it is challenging to maintain and grow relationships. Respect is not a one-time act; it is a way of life. That way of life needs constant support and nurturing. Without a consciously designed system, structures called partnership councils that initiate and sustain healing relationships between caregivers and recipients of care, this element cannot be achieved.

Services offered by CPMRC:
» Principles of Partnership workshop
» Integrating partnership principles into day-to-day work
» Partnerships across disciplines, departments and settings

For more information, please call the CPM Resource Center or e-mail us.