The Care Collaboratory is built on our conviction of the need for positive leadership, new and innovative approaches to problem solving, and the value of aesthetics to engage others in confronting the issues of the day. We believe Blue Ocean principles create a foundation for how we can work together to find different solutions to wicked challenges and build support for needed change.

The onset of the pandemic crisis, built on top of increasing stress/burnout/fatigue seen across a myriad of settings and organizations, including health care systems, accelerated our desire to create new approaches to supporting those attempting to lead change. As the Care Collaboratory evolved, a model was created which drew from the work of Michael Arena’s Adaptive Space, identifying the need to initially focus on discovery before moving to planning and implementation. Discovery creates interest, curiosity, and potential excitement among those directly involved. Fingerprinting the goal drives engagement in making it happen.

As we reviewed our own past experiences with change and improvement efforts, we felt that the conventional wisdom of starting with a “planning” phase misses something critical to success. Currently, identified groups – usually senior leaders - come together to charter specific projects based on what they believe to be the solution. The chartered team, then, works within constraints to their own experience and creativity. Further, this approach often fails to engage the community or organization or to challenge their assumptions. With our interest in the concept of self-discovery as a key element in engaging others in change, we developed methods for how to support such efforts.

Challenged with trying to demonstrate the potential of this model we relied on the Care Collaboratory’s framework to guide us. The Blue Ocean concept of “humanness” resonated with us -- critical to creating an environment of trust, openness and embracing possibilities. Atomization - breaking down challenges into bite-size pieces - is one of the three elements of this humanness, and enhances the likelihood of success.

One key area of interest to us was the impact of loneliness and isolation on the health and well-being of communities and individuals and its role as a Social Determinant of Health (SDOH). While initially we were concerned with its impact on the elderly, we knew the pandemic had increased isolation for all ages. We decided to test our positive change/discovery model on this challenge. We leveraged the familiarity of one of our members with community-based organizations working in this space and struggling with how their traditional business models would continue to work in times of COVID. We brought leaders of seven discrete organizations together with the carrot of discovering together potential new paths forward. With a series of once-a-month virtual meetings over a six-month period a new strategy to enhance work in this area emerged and implementation is in process. The organizations see themselves in an expanding network fueled by the commitment to reducing loneliness and isolation and adding meaning to people’s lives.

Creating Caring Connections Network - Discovery in Action