In our last post, we introduced the second component of a workplace healing ecosystem: climate. As we noted, thinking about what climate means and how to work on it may seem more ambiguous than working on organizational structure, which might then discourage anyone from tackling climate as a means to improve well-being at work. In addition, it’s natural to wonder whether focusing on something as diffuse as climate can have an impact.

In our last post, we introduced the second component of a workplace healing ecosystem: climate. As we noted, thinking about what climate means and how to work on it may seem more ambiguous than working on organizational structure, which might then discourage anyone from tackling climate as a means to improve well-being at work. In addition, it’s natural to wonder whether focusing on something as diffuse as climate can have an impact.

As we continue to explore the concept of organizations as healing ecosystems, we now move beyond the first component of the model – structures and evidence that working on structures can enhance well-being – to an equally important component: organizational climate.

Completing my third and fourth year at Tulane during a pandemic in the combined public health and medicine program gave me the opportunity to witness crisis leadership first-hand, albeit from a medical student’s perspective. Feeling that intentional leadership training in medicine is lacking, and with guidance from some mentors, I sought to expand my expertise in this area. This led me to the Crisis Leadership Canvas for COVID-19.

Most of us think of structures as physical buildings or organizational hierarchy – but structures show up as policies, systems, programs, schedules, or any other decision, rule, constraint, or tool that impacts how work is organized and executed. Even an agenda for a meeting is a form of structure.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe. The Justice League. Superpowers abound – so cool, so fun, so unbelievable. Fantasy. Real people don’t have superpowers. Superpowers are beyond our grasp. Or are they?

Despite our tendency to view structures as immovable sources of burnout, they are important components of the ecosystem and therefore deserve attention.

Discovery creates interest, curiosity, and potential excitement among those directly involved. Fingerprinting the goal drives engagement in making it happen.

What would a healing ecosystem look like, at work? Defined, an ecosystem is a a community of organisms and agents that interact with and within their physical environment.

New Orleans is a city of jazz, crawfish boils and many other forms of togetherness. The collective city was very lonely. Krewe of House Floats gave us the opportunity for an aesthetic reset—a phrase sometimes used in Organizational Aesthetics (OA).

What are the “Sharpies” that people on healthcare’s front lines confront that represent choices their leaders have made, reflecting a focus on something other than what’s best for the patient/the clinician, and/or indicating we’d rather put a Band-Aid on a serious wound than to try and work on improving the condition(s) causing the wound in the first place?

Burnout for many frontline workers occurs when their identity is split by institutional demands, structures, and narrowly defined performance indicators. Their inner calling to heal separates from the outer requirements of the profession.