Rita Patel works as creative ally with individuals, communities and organization by designing bespoke projects. Her work cultivates personal and collective agency that increases agility and resilience especially in uncomfortable and unfamiliar situations. By building and tapping into each person’s creative capacity individuals and teams connect, act and are in their personal power with confidence.
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"Rita Patel is a thoughtful, insightful and dynamic healthcare leader. We partnered with Rita to create an experience for our healthcare executives to learn about the narrative approach to leadership and increase group cohesion. From this training, the company has experienced a significant increase in key metrics."
- Brian Bair, LCSW, MSW, MBA, SVP, Operations, Haven Behavioral Healthcare
Approach
Rita Patel facilitates creative change through structured experiences. The purpose is to collectively build common ground in systematic processes and methods for a sound foundation to work and evolve together. Her work transforms culture and builds intersubjectivity for better relationships. The practices are designed to evoke exploration and discovery in a playful manner. Rita’s approach is conversational and starts with bringing to the forefront an understanding of what we all mean when we say the same words. We live in wordsheds and language is how we create the world. Stories are the vehicles for sharing our world and the language of relationships.
By starting with specific words and prompts, people in organizations get at the core of their values and beliefs and can build cohesion and true community that sets the stage for co-creating a larger narrative as well as doing the daily work. Co-creating is only possible when we can meet each other with comfort in situations of uncertainty and unknown. This is achieved in deepening trust and psychological safety that unfolds by participating in the reflective processes. Communication – both listening and speaking – then occurs on a mutual plane leading to inclusion and a sense of belonging. From here, an organization’s narrative culture takes a sound hold. The design of Rita’s interventions has a positive systematic, concentric impact on the personal, interpersonal and organizational outcomes. (Background Details)
Selected Projects
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2019 – Upland Hills School, MI, Narrative Approach to Teamwork and Culture Change: Building a core identity and cohesion in culture via the Lexicon Map “How can we understand what we mean by ‘love-based’ culture and how does it translate to new structure and communications?” Coached leaders to guide the organization’s understanding of their patterns in actions, experiences, and emotions to set a foundation for growth, internal operations, and external communications.
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2016-2019 – Henry Ford West Bloomfield Hospital, MI, Narrative Approach to Teamwork and Culture Change: What is Relational Waste and how to reduce it (2016 in progress) “How can we transform siloed views and foster an environment of belonging, safety, trust and caring that positively impacts patient outcomes and bottom line?” Implemented a systemic approach of integrating personal storytelling in daily operations tied to metrics.
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2016-2017 – Detroit Institute of Arts, MI, Daily Retreat: “How can people transform their experience of time to feel it as expansive while enhancing wellbeing (foundation for public programming)?” Developed a self-guided program by forming a sustained personal relationship with art as mediator and conversation partner for internal and public programming.
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2014 – Partners 4 Health (as Subject Matter Expert in Public Health & Wellbeing at Mission Throttle), MI, Cooperative Care Model: “How can we address the non-health care needs of individuals to improve care, reduce cost and increase self-efficacy?” Managed process and developed a sustainable business model and multiple stakeholder buy-in through graphic storytelling.
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2013 – Common Ground, MI, Wellbeing Leadership: “How can we shift the organization's strategy and policies, so they mattered on a personal level?” Increased participation and engagement through personal meaning-making with new policies with individuals throughout the organization to ultimately provide enhanced care for clients in crisis. Foundation was personalization of the linkages between mental and physical health through food.