• Check out Using Social Determinants of Health Data to Improve Health Care and Health: A Learning Report.

Stewards of Change Institute has created a way for people working in different sectors to understand the perspectives of collaborators in other sectors. “We’ve applied this concept of personas or human-centered design, or scenario planning, to represent the complexity of the issues and the various viewpoints that are necessary to solve the issues, as opposed to trying to explain it from a technical perspective, which puts people to sleep,” says Daniel Stein, MBA, president of Stewards of Change Institute.

Stewards of Change Institute’s process brings people together and presents them with a scenario related to SDOH. The facilitator asks the collaborators how they would address the issues in the scenario. “This encourages them to think broadly. They rapidly see that their small view of the pie won’t solve the problem,” says Stein. The facilitator then engages collaborators through adult learning techniques including multi-media. This “challenges them to think differently and interact differently than they would normally,” says Stein.

While much of this type of training could be done through a toolkit, Stein recommends a combination of on-site and distance learning. “The importance of human learning is critical to these things,” he says. Available multi-media technology can be used to engage people using web-based training, and help them build competency in effective collaboration.

What is your favorite approach to facilitate multi-sector collaboration?