I look forward to reading follow ups and hope it stays updated. It’s just what I was looking for and you’ve done a great job explaining it, I’m sure everyone appreciates the effort you put into sharing this so thanks for posting it.

Diamond Tools

I appreciate your making the time to comment on my post

I understand and appreciate your distinction between tools and competencies. We hear often in healthcare administration the importance of building a tool-kit; I wholeheartedly support dialogue and engagement over “using the hammer”

I am so pleased to find this site and all the great work that is being done to integrate collaborative thinking and practices in health care, particularly in regard to physicians. Research has proven over and over again that the most critical factor to changing behavior, provoking insight, and solving complex problems is by motivating active engagement.

The comment from your book “Collaborative Listening,” that “the most important tool for hospital leaders and physicians to grasp is dialogue,” is profoundly important. I say this as someone who has studied, taught, and led numerous, high stakes efforts to overcome tense relationships and find common ground from which to make difficult steps forward.

However, I do not view dialog as a tool. I see it as an inherent competency in the practice and skill of performing successfully in certain professions. As a former instructor for Outward Bound, I know that a skilled mountain climber does not regard careful placement of his or her next foothold as a tool. It is part of many interlocking, smaller skills that contribute to the larger competency of mountain climbing.

In terms of your other questions, I can think of many other “tools,” or as I prefer to see them — competencies — that can be developed to build physician-hospital relations and increase effective use of collaborative approaches. I’m sure you are aware of many. I applaud your work and cheer you forward in your commitment to advancing collaborative endeavor.