Portfolio

Here are some examples of Group Jazz projects:

Maryland Patient Safety Center Leading Edge Initiative to Combat Hospital Acquired Infections
The purpose of this initiative is to combat Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA) infection transmission in the Mid-Atlantic Region’s healthcare facilities. The Maryland Patient Safety Center Initiative will expose and guide hospitals, nursing homes and dialysis units to use an innovative behavior-based approach called Positive Deviance (PD), which is aimed at dramatically improving adherence to established prevention strategies and uncovering hidden practices that can lead to reductions in MRSA burden on a scale that has been considered unattainable in the past. Instead of waiting for "experts" to mandate "best practices," the PD approach facilitates a process where everyone – from the chief surgeon to food service workers to those responsible for cleaning patient rooms - look inside their own organization for solutions. Once found they are shared and amplified to fuel hundreds more small changes in behavior that cumulatively push back decades of unchecked transmission of infections. Lisa Kimball is leading a team of consultants, trainers and coaches using the PD approach in more than 25 health care facilities in the MD region. Group Jazz is also providing a web-based environment for the team developing a Field Book for health facilities interested in adopting the approach.

Read the MRSA Fact Brief (pdf)

Plexus Institute Initiative Using Positive Deviance to Combat Hospital Acquired Infections
Medical experts believe most healthcare acquired infections can be prevented. So why aren't they? The answers are simple, but not easy. Every medical professional knows the importance of hand hygiene and environmental cleanliness. But knowledge alone does not erase old practices. What needs to change is behavior and habit. As Dr.Jerry Zuckerman, medical director of infection control at Albert Einstein Medical Center in Philadelphia puts it: "We have to change the culture from one of acceptance to one of outrage." In 2005 The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) awarded Plexus Institute a grant to begin an innovative effort to prevent infections in healthcare facilities. The effort includes a nationwide network of more than 40 hospitals, six of which are serving as "beta sites" using Positive Deviance (PD), a social change process based on the recognition that in every group or community, there are people who solve problems better than neighbors and colleagues using exactly the same resources. The emphasis is on finding solutions that already exist within the organization. That way, problems and solutions have the same DNA, and successful practices have a better chance of spreading throughout the organization. Lisa Kimball is a senior consultant for the project and serves as the project lead for one of the beta sites, Franklin Square Hosptial in Baltimore (a member of MedStar). She is also training and coaching additional consultants to use the PD process as part of Plexus Institute's network.

Read the Plexus Institute Newsletter - MRSA Issue (pdf)

US Department of Veterans Affairs, Veterans Health Administration "Getting to Zero" Initiative
Positive Deviance (PD) is an innovative approach to behavioral and cultural change from within an organization. VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System chose to incorporate this model to prevent Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections in an effort to foster leadership support of staff owned and operated implementation strategies. Results were so promising that VHA engaged Plexus Institute in a larger initiative launched in 2006 to pilot the PD methodology to combat MRSA infection transmissions in an additional five hospitals. The project provided educational and training support to ensure effective, informed use of the PD process, hospital-wide learning about this pioneering new method for quality improvement, and, most important, success in reducing the human and financial toll of MRSA infections. The goal is to build internal facilitation capability in the participating VHA hospitals to handle potential future expansion of positive deviance (PD) in additional VHA facilities; a train-the-trainer strategy will be utilized through a PD Community of Practice within the VHA. Lisa Kimball is a senior consultant on the Plexus team and is the project lead for the Baltimore VA hospital initiative.

Read the VAPHS Story (pdf)

PBS TeacherLine
Through local PBS stations, TeacherLine offers online professional development courses initially focusing on math and technology to teachers throughout the country. Group Jazz supports the growing community of over 200 course facilitators through face-to-face and online training as well as ongoing through an online community of practice. Read more.

Open World Program
The U.S. Congress-authorized Open World Program at the Library of Congress brings emerging Russian leaders to communities across the United States to expose them to American democracy and free enterprise in action. Participants engage in hands-on experiences, direct observation, and substantive exchange with their professional counterparts. The Americans who host Open World visitors or participate in their community-based programs in turn have the opportunity to hear about the new Russia from the people who are helping to shape it. Group Jazz supports the online community of organizers, participants, and program alumni, allowing the groups to stay in contact even after they have returned to their own countries.

Fannie Mae Foundation's KnowledgePlex
Community of Interest program to provide support for network community projects that leverage the potential of the Web as a "many-to-many" medium capable of catalyzing new perspectives, new thinking, and new relationships between people with a common purpose, project or focus. The KnowledgePlex helps existing communities that have already started connecting but don't have access to the latest and best web-based tools and may need more support to realize their full potential.

The City University of New York
Group of high-ranking university officials including vice presidents and provosts augment their regular face-to- face meetings with an online environment that allows them to collaborate on projects in between meetings. This is a pilot project to support communities of practice for human resource and personnel professionals at the university and college level, working towards the design and implementation of a 21st Century Personnel Office. At various points, guest speakers will be invited into the online community to add to the discussions.

Virtual Pre-Conference Workshop for Action Enabled Learning Conference
Before the attendees of the Action Enabled Learning Conference met in New York for a face-to-face conference, they convened online for a virtual pre-conference which let them get to know each other and the materials that would be discussed. Online conversations were held based on the themes that arose in the participants' profiles and introductions as well as on themes that arose from the various conference presentations. This article will examine some of the outcomes of that pre-conference and the effects it had on the conference experience, as well as draw out ways in which events like this could assist in enhancing the experience of managers meeting together in face-to-face offsite meetings.