Developing a safe container and strategies to engage both the heads (e.g., data, research) and the hearts (e.g., values, experiences) of others is critical to effective change — to building new teams, reshaping organizations and institutions, and supporting the well-being of others around us. Narrative leadership is an emerging framework to cultivate resilience, establish connection, and motivate action through strategic public storytelling.

In this workshop, participants explore the art and science of story, as well as the essential components of compelling and deliberate storytelling. Through crafting their own story and responding to others’ narratives, participants learn how narrative can help build teams in healthcare, foster well-being, and inspire necessary action.  

In this session, participants will be introduced to the relational one-to-one, an intentional, face-to face interaction we have with others to explore their motivations, develop shared connections, and identify individuals who would be ideal teammates to engage in core teams. Participants will first learn a framework of team building that is founded on building a small core team of passionate, committed colleagues. They will then learn the practical skill of one-to-ones, practicing in groups and receiving constructive feedback to hone their approach.

In this session participants are introduced to the Empathy Bridge, a framework designed to help us better navigate our relational connections and communicate care when faced with uncertainty. Relational Leadership is often needed most when our known world is disrupted - an organization undergoes a reorg or begins the process of staff layoffs; there is a breach of trust with a heretofore trusted colleague. The need arises to establish or reestablish psychological safety on a team after a sharply felt challenge. The framework in this session explores how we might offer empathy and a path forward in a manner that is both credible (others believe you know what they feel) and palpable (others experience support and agency in addressing the needs of the moment) through shared language and a shared process. Participants will practice the elements of the Empathy Bridge in small groups to explore making meaning in difficult situations and defining what is meaningful work, together. 

To make lasting, powerful change in healthcare — from transforming health systems to introducing new approaches to health professional education — we have to cultivate leaders who will usher in that critical change, motivate people to step into leadership positions, and help more colleagues lead from where they stand.  

Based on a strengths-based, Gestalt approach, our coaching training is an opportunity to develop a comprehensive set of tools for building leadership capacity in others. In this interactive workshop, participants learn basic coaching theory, draw on powerful tools to bring out the best in others, while empowering peers to find their own answers to vexing questions. 

What would it look like to mobilize to effect change at the institutional, local, or even national level? What strategies would need to be employed? Is there a way to do that so that we not only accomplish our goals, but we also reinvigorate ourselves and our colleagues in the process? Revisiting and expanding on narrative leadership provides a framework for effective and engaging advocacy.

 In this workshop, participants will focus on integrating previously learned Relational Leadership™ tools, all of which are needed to develop the advocacy mindset and skills needed to accelerate change. Participants will continue to explore their own understanding of and feelings toward power, as they examine real examples of building relational power to accelerate change in healthcare. They will also learn to harness the power of Narrative Leadership to build strategies and advocacy tools, as well as connecting with and empowering individuals to work towards meaningful change.

Closure is an integral stage of team development, providing an opportunity to identify areas of growth, opportunities for improvement, and protect time and space for individual- and team-level reflections to enhance resilience. It is not unusual in our professional lives, however, to forgo steps to acknowledge closure and transitions of teams/projects, amidst our busy lives. The emotions that closure surfaces may even be uncomfortable for some team members.   

This session provides space for participants to engage in a formal closure activity together, to identify individual and collective accomplishments in their time together in the program. It also provides an opportunity for participants to synthesize their learning, exploring ways to act individually and collectively to incorporate and spread Relational Leadership™ practices into their professional and personal lives.