Program on Health Care Negotiation and Conflict Resolution
To be at the front lines of public health leadership or health service delivery today is to be in the midst of frequent conflicts, disputes, and other situations that require negotiation. These conflicts include differences among: vocal constituents who have a stake in community health issues; clinicians about the appropriateness and quality of care; clinicians and managers over financial and administrative matters; providers and patients over medical procedures and service access; and on the policy level, between funders, providers and recipients over the access to and quality of care.
Many of these conflicts are an outgrowth of larger changes occurring in the health system: ambivalence about the role of the public sector in directing health expenditures and organization; tensions between prevention and treatment priorities; concerns about policies that modify reimbursement for services; disputes regarding reorganization that realigns interactions among health professionals; pressures resulting from social trends that are changing relationships between consumers/patients and the health system; along with the complexities of responding to unknown bioterrorist threats.
The research at the core of the Program for Health Care Negotiation and Conflict Resolution has led to the development of the Walk in the Woods, a distinctive approach to interest-based negotiation, and the Meta-leadership framework and practice method. Course topics range from developing a better understanding of yourself as leader – from brain function to emotional intelligence – as well as the many facets of conflict and how constructively to resolve them.
It is not uncommon for HSPH graduates to find themselves in significant public health leadership positions. For students who foresee such responsibility on their career path, courses in this program provide a focus and framework to integrate the overall HSPH experience into a public health leadership trajectory. Students are encouraged to explore and develop their leadership passion and actions that will translate that commitment into progress on matters of public health importance.
These leadership, negotiation, and conflict resolution concepts, tools, and techniques are also incorporated into an executive education program for executive and clinical leaders in health care and public health.
Faculty
Eric McNulty’s work centers on the challenges of leading in high stakes, high pressure situations. He teaches Leadership as well as Negotiation and Conflict Resolution to MPH students at the Harvard Chan School. He also teaches in numerous executive education programs at Harvard and elsewhere. He is co-author of the books, You’re It: Crisis, Change, and How to Lead When it Matters Most (Public Affairs, 2019) and the second edition of Renegotiating Health Care: Resolving Conflict to Build Collaboration (Jossey-Bass, 2011). He is co-author of numerous book chapters and academic papers. He is principle author of the NPLI’s case studies on leadership decision making in the Boston Marathon bombing response, innovation in the response to Hurricane Sandy, and the professional-political interface in the response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
Eric has an interest in complex “wicked problems” and the systemic thinking necessary to grapple with them. He has looked at the overlapping challenges of climate change, rapid urbanization, aging populations, and increasing interconnectivity.
Curriculum
Course Offerings
Please check the latest catalog for the latest course offerings and schedules:
HPM 245: PUBLIC HEALTH LEADERSHIP SKILLS
The importance of leadership as a determinant of the “public’s health” was made apparent in the aftermath of the Hurricane Katrina response. While the federal, state, and local leaders whose decisions and actions were at the center of the debacle did not identify themselves as “public health leaders,” their actions and decisions had a devastating impact on people whose lives depended on the public system. Once again, public health questioned just what “leadership” meant for its mission to achieve safer and healthier people.
Two important public health lessons emerged. First is the importance of reaching beyond the traditional scope of “public health” to have a health impact, to include also matters of global warming, tobacco utilization, and nutrition. Second, the recognition that just as pollution, smoking, and stress are public health risk factors, so too is “bad leadership.”
This course introduces the concept and practice of meta-leadership. Meta-leaders are committed and capable of advancing connectivity within the public health and health care domain and beyond. “Meta-leaders” are “leaders of leaders.” They act as system connectors able to reach outside their silo to fashion intentional linkages among separate endeavors. The course will delve into the five critical dimensions of meta-leadership practice. When infused into the culture of a complex health system, meta-leaders leverage system assets and capabilities to boost performance and productivity.
HPM 278: SKILLS AND METHODS OF HEALTH CARE NEGOTIATION AND CONFLICT RESOLUTION
Conflict can be viewed as a problem: they can also be viewed as an opportunity. By addressing rather than ignoring disputes that arise, providers, managers, consumers and public health leaders can generate opportunities for communication, collaboration and creative resource expansion and allocation. While some conflict is unavoidable, many disputes are amenable to prevention, management and resolution. And these disputes, when constructively and intentionally resolved, can lead to system learning and change that reduces the likelihood of recurrence. The course will direct our attention to framing conflict in order to achieve more inclusive and satisfactory outcomes: from the interpersonal to the organizational and policy levels. Students will learn concepts and techniques for interest-based negotiation, mediation, and alternative dispute resolution.
In addition to their courses for matriculating students at the T.H. Chan School, the faculty also present an executive education program for executive and clinical leaders in health care and related fields.