Authentic Collaboration
During this busy season of school, conferences, and more for everyone involved in healthcare, I pause to think about what it means to work together. We all do it almost every day and I’d venture a guess that we all have experienced varying levels of quality in these collaborations. To formalize it a bit, let’s think of authentic collaboration. I found this extensive definition by Capacity Builders of Toronto that’s worth a quick read:
A well-defined relationship entered into by two or more different partners (e.g. individuals, organizations, networks) coming together from various sectors, groups and/or communities to achieve common goals. They are characterized by a commitment to building, nurturing and maintaining mutually beneficial relationships; joint responsibility and accountability for success; and the sharing of resources and rewards.
Wow, that’s detailed! I would add that “well-defined” is often in the eye of the beholder and less officially-defined collaborations are still relevant for the purpose of this discussion. What really jumps out to me is:
- Commitment to building
- Nurturing relationships
- Common goals
- Joint responsibility
- Sharing of resources and rewards
Do we all work toward these key aspects in our connections/collaborations? A collaboration can be as simple as two friends swapping baby-sitting duties as needed or as complex as several healthcare organizations working jointly to create a translational research center.
With so much time spent interacting online many of us see the good, the bad, and the ugly when it comes to collaboration – both very formal and more informal.
The process of authentic collaboration applies most aptly to our patient-provider relationships as well. Ask yourself, do the five bullet points above match your key healthcare relationships? As a patient? A provider? You can quickly see, any of these that are missing creates the type of relationship dynamic that likely isn’t ideal.
When considering all this, I want to move beyond communication to think about working together. All of the myriad ways we come together and share, build, explore – ranging from a follow-up appointment with your clinician to the oncologist working with their research staff on a current trial. No matter what you’re sharing, it matters to understand how and why we collaborate – such as the online social media connection that keeps healthcare vibrant or the team building a mental health solution for at-risk youth.
Some questions to consider:
- What does authentic collaboration mean to you? Does it matter?
- In settings with traditionally greater power distance, does this impact authentic collaboration?
- Are #DigitalHealth & social media creating more authentic collaboration or just more connections?
- When faced with imbalanced collaboration, how do you fix it? How much is too much?
Resources
“Authentic Collaboration”
Startup Development
8 年Interesting Joseph. A big impact on outcomes relies on the motivation behind the collaboration. We hope it's all for good but sometimes the question is, "whose good?"