The Antidote to Expert Bias: Human-centered Co-design WITH Experts

A few years back, I was asked by the leadership of an academic medical center to tackle solving for experiential challenges within an essential hospital-based department.

They had grappled with these challenges for years, and the department had proven resistant to historical improvement efforts. What’s more is they had recently been dealing with the added exacerbation of clinician burnout from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Engaging with clinicians on the frontlines through structured interviews, I encountered a profound insight that illuminated both the existing gap and a tremendous opportunity:

"I don't know where this idea came from that we have different goals from leadership. We really have the same goal, which is to get people through efficiently, and we want to see as many patients as possible and get them to where they need to be. And we don't want more patients in the hospital than should be there."

So, if the goals align, what's the hurdle?

The challenge lies in the nature of expertise in healthcare, often characterized by hyper-specialized (siloed) thinking and hierarchical (one-way/top-down) communication. When these tendencies permeate systems-level leadership, they can hinder the ability to perceive problems from fresh perspectives, going beyond ingrained biases, and seeing opportunities beyond the singular environment.

Moreover, there is a tendency to overlook the invaluable insights from those closest to the challenges. In reality, those closest to the problems are not only deeply passionate about resolving them but are also remarkably capable.

And in healthcare, it's crucial to recognize that no one cares more about the patient than a care practitioner.

Rather than dictating solutions to the care team, we took a different approach. We actively involved both frontline teams and key senior leaders in a collaborative process where we collectively tackled their challenges.

By tapping into their passion, knowledge, and shared interests, we unlocked their potential.

Before crafting concrete solutions, we prioritized listening to understand their perspective, observed environmental and systemic challenges, co-created a shared purpose, identified differentiators, aligned around core values, and established principal conditions for success.

This approach fosters collaborative ownership of problems and opportunities before shaping solutions.

When those closest to the problems feel (and actually are) heard, respected, appreciated, and supported, the groundwork for a mutually-beneficial strategic partnership is laid.

In such a partnership, both parties are deeply invested in collaboratively solving problems, creating a more effective, empowered, and sustainable healthcare ecosystem.

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Hi, I’m Joel Worthington, and I help service-oriented, intrapreneurial leaders harness the power of collaboration and subject matter expertise to elevate the value of cross-disciplinary teams and partners.

Email me at joel@jwcollaborative.com to connect about #collaboration #codesign #humancentereddesign #facilitation #coaching and #coachsulting