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Facilitation: Breaking out the Conversational Scrubs By John Sarvay | January 28, 2010

It's always nice when you find a piece of work that connects your competencies and passions to an organization that actively practices its core values in its day-to-day business.

That's the intersection at which I find myself with one of the newer opportunities to cross my path this year -- helping a team at Bon Secours Richmond Health System design and facilitate a series of conversations with physicians about their relationship with, understanding of and questions about a local hospital.

I had lunch today with a friend from Bon Secours who works closely with their change management initiative, which is focused on creating a values-based, service-focused culture throughout the Bon Secours community in Richmond and Hampton Roads. We talked at length about some of the different filters through which a non-profit, community-oriented, faith-based medical organization sees the world -- in contrast, obviously, to profit-based companies. But we also talked about how the leadership at Bon Secours Richmond has catalyzed changes that just don't happen without direction, focus and measurement.

I told her that I was struck -- though I'm literally only ankle-deep into this project -- by the competency, energy and outcome-focus of the project team whose work I will support through my facilitation. Next week, I spend an afternoon touring and exploring the local hospital. Then we'll map out the outcomes for the physician discussions, design the questions that need to be asked, check in with hospital administration and get rolling.

I expect to learn volumes about the medical profession in general, but more specifically I am intrigued personally about the opportunity to better understand the relationship between a single hospital and the community of physicians and patients it serves. And I'm excited to experience a values-based organizational culture as it goes about the business of listening, asking questions and making strategic decisions that will enhance its relationships with its clients.

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