Lisa Hompe MSOD, BSN, ACC
Background:
SixSEED Partners was engaged to help a team of neonatal physicians and advanced practice providers at a community-based hospital outside of a major urban city for a year-long Team Development Series. The vision of the executive sponsors was to strengthen team bonds and increase the team’s effectiveness for patient care delivery and for their own well-being, Our goal was to help them think differently at the individual and team levels by using evidenced-based tools and frameworks to reflect, become more self-aware and integrate the new skills. The series launched with the full team together in person and exploring their individual and group DiSC Workplace Profile® to build self-awareness of their different styles and preferences within the team.
Strategy:
Following the series launch, this was the first of a 3-part sequence of experiential learning modules (ELM) to continue building awareness and provide additional thinking skills and practical tools for application. These virtually delivered team effectiveness ELM’s involve learning new behaviors by thinking in new ways, applying the learnings in between sessions, and reviewing progress together.
Solution:
Petra Platzer and Lisa Hompe worked with the neonatal team’s medical director and advanced practitioner team lead to design the team-based focus areas of work. The design approach intentionally combined individual and cross-functional team learning in real time. To accommodate the team’s shift scheduling, this session was delivered in 2 separate offerings for all to participate and learn together. After reflecting on how everyone’s DiSC styles and preferences appeared since the first workshop, this session introduced the team to 3 Vital Questions® to identify whether operating from a reactive, fear-based orientation or a creative, results-based orientation; to understand which role they may be coming from in those orientations; and how to take action to achieve their desired results. We shared practical tools for how to identify reactive triggers and ways to shift from the drama (problem orientation) to empowerment (outcome orientation).
Impact:
David Emerald’s framework – The Empowerment Dynamic* (TED*) – helped participants become more aware of how to improve their ways of interacting, for themselves and the team’s overall well-being and effectiveness. By participating in this experiential learning module, these frontline clinicians are now equipped to notice and practice shifting from drama-based roles to more powerful results-based roles. The team committed to practicing these new skills and techniques over the next few months to improve team communication and trust. This work will also benefit the patients and families for whom they care.
If this sounds like something that may be of benefit to you and your teams, and you would like to learn more, please contact SIxSEED Partners for more information.
