#Teams4GlobalHealth: Perhaps the best hashtag to introduce a novel conference focused on the intersection of teams and global health practice. As Richard Siegrist, Director of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health’s Doctor in Public Health (DrPH) program, explained in opening remarks, it is important to openly acknowledge the under-studied nature of teams as they are engaged in a variety of practices related to public health.
The exemplary team of DrPH students at the helm of the conference, titled “Why Teams? Better Teams for a Healthier World,” were fully aware that their own efforts should emulate the best practices being discussed. During months of planning at the Incubator with the support of Faculty Director Sue J. Goldie, the doctoral students put their heads together to develop the conference, inspired by Professor Kim Leary’s “Enabling Teams” course at the Harvard Chan School. Working together as a “team for teams” were Jazmine Garcia Delgadillo, Paola Abril Campos, Elvis Garcia, Renzo Guinto, Jessica Huang, and Jun Nakagawa.
Keynote speaker Amy Edmondson, Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management at Harvard Business School, fulfilled the team’s best aspirations by bringing an interfaculty, interdisciplinary focus to the event, which asked, “What can global health learn about teams?”
Drawing from her book, Teaming to Innovate, and other research, Edmondson illustrated the “changing ecology of teams” in health care and other settings. Using the Chilean mining disaster of 2010 as a sustained example, Edmondson discussed how taking “innovative smart risks” in teamwork, having flexible roles, and developing “inclusive leadership” rooted in respect for all can disrupt a “status hierarchy” and facilitate finding creative solutions to problems. Extremely thoughtful advice that can be applied in many settings where vital decisions are being made by groups!