Recently, over forty of CipherHealth’s leaders completed a three-part “Inclusive Leadership” training, developed and designed specifically for the organization by Mendoza+O’Brien. The modules—Authentic Leadership, Inclusive Teams, and Inclusive Conversations—included a range of topics, such as psychological safety, power dynamics and personal accountability, with opportunities for self-reflection throughout.
CipherHealth’s mantra, “Every patient is unique. Know them all.”, applies to our own team members—we continuously work to ensure that everyone can be their whole, authentic selves while at work. Inclusivity and psychological safety go hand in hand. Research shows that psychological safety is the number one variable for what makes an effective team.
“It’s a well-documented fact that when teams experience high levels of inclusion and diversity, they perform better, innovate more, and collaborate more. No one has a greater impact on the team’s feeling of inclusion than the leader,” Larry O’Brien, Course Developer & Key CH Partner, said.
Creating an Inclusive Workplace
We know that diversity, equity and inclusion are not just buzzwords—we integrate our commitment to these pillars into everything we do, from evaluating our hiring process for bias to our check-in and feedback processes.
Prioritizing and integrating DEI into the culture is an important asset for any organization’s growth and success. An inclusive workplace has many benefits—increased innovation and creativity, the ability to recruit diverse talent from all spheres of society and higher employee retention. If we do not appreciate the unique experiences and contributions of each team member, they will eventually choose to work elsewhere.
“I don’t think building a diverse and inclusive organization is optional. We all have the desire to be part of an organization where we feel valued and respected,” Jake Pyles, CipherHealth’s Chief Executive Officer said. “If our team members don’t feel that these concepts are part of our core values, then they will find an organization that does.”
Our Commitment to an Inclusive Leadership Program
At CipherHealth, our DEI philosophy informs our core values and individual success benchmarks. Displaying inclusive leadership skills at CipherHealth means empathy and inclusion are at the forefront of your work—you must consider other people’s perspectives and handle situations and conversations with care.
Among many other informative and interactive modules in “Inclusive Leadership,” leaders role played different scenarios where they learned both how to be vulnerable and how to respond appropriately to vulnerability from employees with differing experiences. These sessions built on the “Leadership Essentials” training that every leader is required to complete.
“CipherHealth challenged us to create an immersive experience where leaders learned and practiced how to lead inclusively, by focusing on self, the team, and inclusive dialogue. It was amazing to watch the leaders challenge themselves and emerge with a renewed commitment to inclusive leadership,” O’Brien said.
“In the future, I believe having an organization that truly embraces Diversity, Equity and Inclusion will be a competitive differentiator in the marketplace. These sessions provided us the tools necessary to build this type of organization and will position CipherHealth to be a leader in this area,” Pyles said.
Given the positive reception from the “Inclusive Leadership” training, these leadership programs will be modified and rolled out for all team members in the coming year.
Positive Feedback from CipherHealth’s Staff
“Working with Larry O’Brien and his team to design, develop and deliver this series has been a very special experience for our team here at CipherHealth. We have been inspired by the commitment to the work and the journey from everyone who participated. We look forward to continuing to grow and learn together.”
—Jen Compagni, Chief People Officer
“I value the commitment our team has to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. I feel proud to work for a company that works both internally through training and learning and externally through patient engagement to create a positive impact on our work environment and community as a whole.”
—Alyssa Higgins, VP Business Operations
“The inclusive leadership series provided many great reminders and working sessions on how to navigate and deal with potentially complex management situations. I’d recommend it to anyone looking to advance their career as it highlights many challenging aspects of work that we will all come to experience at some point or another.”
—Todd Jaschke, VP Customer Success Operations & Enablement
“Too often, DEI is treated as a single class to check off. These modules go deeper than most inclusivity training programs and provide a framework for us to hold our leaders accountable in an ongoing way. I feel safe knowing I work for a company that considers inclusivity a core value.”
—Alicia Fasciocco, SR HR Business Partner
“Being an inclusive leader has never been as important as it is today. In this virtual working world we’re operating in, we have to be more intentional than ever about creating an environment that ensures everyone has a safe place to perform at their very best. Leadership Essentials has given me the awareness and tools to do just that.”
—Jim Somers, Chief Marketing Officer
“I really appreciated these training sessions. They instilled in me a huge commitment to psychological safety within teams—that no one will be “punished” if for making a mistake or taking a risk, that it should be safe to bring up tough topics, and that you never reject others for being different. I know now that I have to actively work to build a safe and inclusive environment.”
—Derek Sanz, Data Engineering Manager
