Teamwork

I’ve played in a lot of teams over the years, beginning with my prize-winning tee-ball ventures as a little kid (the prize was one of those plastic trophies with a girl swinging a bat on it and a little plaque that said “MVP” even though everyone got one for participating). I’ve worked on problem sets and projects with others, and been in clubs and on committees. However, as I settle into my job at the Primary Care Coalition of Montgomery County, I realize how much I have to learn about teamwork.

In addition to learning about health care, this fellowship is teaching me about collaborating with teams of diverse people on projects. I am splitting my time between two main projects: “Hospital to Primary Care Connect” (H-PC) which I am working to expand from its focus on reducing avoidable Emergency Department visits; and “Triple Aim in Montgomery County” (TA-MC) which is aiming to implement programs aimed at improving health outcomes, individual experience of care, and cost-effectiveness of care in the county. These two projects, my supervisors, and the teams that I am working with are extremely different from each other.

There are intelligent people with a variety of backgrounds that are working on the teams – some people have experience with business, some with public health research, some with data analysis and IT, some have had clinical experience. Partly as a result, as one of my supervisors has pointed out to me, they focus on different aspects of a project, and have different learning, thinking, and working styles. Often, to move a project forward and accomplish the goals of a meeting, it’s important to strategically think about how to mediate between the different personalities, ideas, and emphases. I’ve never really stepped back and thought about something like this, and it’s definitely a steep learning curve for me to become good at understanding how people think about things and incorporating that information into how I present or talk about an issue.