It is our honor to serve healthcare and medical personnel with an opportunity for 7 teams to participate in a year-long program designed to build individual and team resilience, connectedness, and effectiveness.  The program includes participation in a recovery retreat, an assessment of team intelligence leading to a team development plan, and team coaching to support a team to reach their goals.  It is our intention that you will have tools needed to sustain consistent professional growth and resilience both individually and collectively. But most important, that your teams be reunited with the passion that took them into the healthcare field. Read the description below. We would love to connect with you if you are interested in this opportunity for your team.

What constitutes a team?

Teams are identified as work groups from the same agency numbering no greater than 16. Two smaller groups from the same organization may be considered if they are willing to work together as one; Teams larger than 16 may count as two teams for us to adequately serve each team in the program.

What does the year look like?
Stage 1 – Exploration of Team Needs, Desired Outcomes and Retreat (6 hr + planning)

The first event of the resilience and retention program is a six-hour retreat for each team. Prior to the retreat, Switchback will have preliminary meetings with each team lead to assess needs and begin to define desired outcomes for the year-long program.

Team Retreat

The day begins by offloading COVID baggage. The prompt for conversation is “Challenges and their cascading impacts”: Participants will be given the physical and emotional space to vent, to cry, to question, to process not only what they experienced but how it impacted them; what influence did these factors have in their families, professions, relationships? There are no requirements and no l  imitations to topics. The space is safe, confidential, and available. Throughout the day we have sessions on mindfulness, journaling, words, stress and resilience, joy, elements of optimal performance and effective teams, visioning, coaching, and energy The point of the retreat is not to deny the pain lived over the past years but to acknowledge it and move forward.

During the closing session, we dig into what the team wants to create together in the coming months, begin their collective plan and propose indicators that this year together will have been a success. This sets the stage for the coaching model that we will integrate throughout the coming months.

Inter-Stage (4 hrs)

During the months between in-person events we will have virtual coaching sessions with each team every month. As we reflect on the retreat and look towards greater team resilience, we will continue to discuss challenges teams are facing and available resources that offset those challenges. If the resources do not counter-balance the challenges, we will employ strategies to encourage expansive thinking and creative problem solving. We will check in frequently on team dynamics and energy levels and coach for greater effectiveness. 

Stage 2 – Team Emotional and Social intelligence (4 hrs + planning)

The second in-person event of the year-long resilience and retention program is a four-hour Team Emotional and Social Intelligence (TESI) workshop building from the insights gained through the TEAM’s 360 TESI assessment.  The goal of this portion of the program is two-fold—first, to provide insight into the team’s functioning in the 7 domains of Team Intelligence (TQ): Team Identity, Motivation, Emotional Awareness, Communication, Stress Tolerance, Positive Mood, and Conflict Resolution and second to utilize the TESI Team report as the basis for understanding the strengths and areas of current effectiveness that can be leveraged for sustained growth.  As part of the workshop the team will prioritize where they want to work and develop an action plan.

Timing of this event depends on cadence of the year relative to launch and available months. This event will fall within four to six months of program launch and leave at least two months for follow-up coaching.

Inter-Stage  (6 hours)

During the months between in-person events we will have virtual coaching sessions with each team every month. As we did with the retreat, teams can now use the additional information from the TESI workshop to inform and adjust their work. We will introduce a peer-to-peer coaching model for greater team efficacy and sustainability once our year together has come to an end. 

Stage 3 – Closure & Celebration

This third and final in-person event will bring closure and an opportunity for evaluation of this pilot program. It will provide an opportunity to reflect on where the teams began in the program and where they stand now; and insight into whether this model of team-oriented development is worthwhile as a means not only for retention but also for personal satisfaction and collective well-being.

Time Commitment

Total time for team in program activities approximately 22 hours, plus planning time with team lead.

Please contact us if you’d like to explore opportunities for your team.