Over the past year or so, you’ve heard a lot about the Clinical & Systems Transformation (CST) project, a five-year initiative that will completely transform clinical practices across VCH, Providence Health Care and Provincial Health Services Authority.

In March, the project recruited Elisa Chavez to be its director of change management and she recently sat down with VCH News to talk about what she loves about her job, the challenges the project faces and one piece of technology she cannot live without.

Where were you working before?

I was with Providence Health Care, in their Change Initiatives group. Before Providence, I was with the BC Health Leadership Development Collaborative (BCHLDC) – it was an amazing experience of seven health organizations collaborating to build something really fantastic. There are some definite similarities between the BCHLDC and the collaboration inside CST…

What inspired you to take this job?

I think it’s two-fold. One, it’s about really making a difference in our health care system. The project’s outcomes are about meaningful change in how we provide care to patients. The CST project provides us with such a great opportunity in that respect. Secondly, I have such a passion for organizational change. Focusing on it a 100 per cent every day is quite lovely.

What do you see as the greatest opportunities for this project?

I think the greatest opportunities in front of us are with organizations collaborating about health care and staff and leaders making decisions in a wholly different way – while still maintaining a focused on evidence-based decision making. I think from a process standpoint, there are amazing opportunities to collaborate and share ideas and jointly work together. It’s so terrific that all three organizations are building CST together and its clinicians coming together to do so.

Our patients are transcending organizational boundaries, which means we, as health care providers, need to break down boundaries as well. I was talking with one of the clinical subject matter experts the other day who said, “because of the learning and sharing of knowledge in these design sessions, I’m a better nurse.”  That statement speaks volumes to me about the power of collaboration across our organizations. Don’t get me wrong, I see powerful opportunity in the workflow improvements and IT enablement, but I’m here because of the collaborative opportunity.

What are you excited most about for CST?

That we can collaborate and work together in different ways to serve our patients, even better than we do now. From a change-management perspective…that’s the stuff that really jazzes me. But of course it’s also the outcomes we’re expecting like ensuring information is immediately available to the health care provider and that we will have useful data, at the unit level, in order to regularly improve practice in meaningful ways.

What are the challenges of the project?

The challenges are really the same as the opportunities. It’s challenging to learn how to collaborate. It’s challenging to make decisions in a different way. So the things that can give us the most learning, the best opportunities, also pose the biggest challenges.

Why are you so passionate about this job?

What I’m passionate about, in terms of change management, is reflected in the adage “the only constant is change” – now more than ever. So our ability, as leaders in organizations, to effectively lead change and manage inside ambiguity is paramount. It’s paramount in any organization, but especially important in health care because the work we do is so important. If we’re not able to nimbly and quickly adjust when our data, research, evidence and patients are all pointing to a need to practice care differently. If we can’t cultivate leading well in change and ambiguity as a major skill set, then things are going to be rough.

I’m passionate about helping our health care system be the nimble system I know it can be and build resilience inside ambiguity and the messiness of organizational change.

What do you have in your office to keep yourself motivated?

Well, it’s a relatively new space for me so it hasn’t quite been personalized, but I am surrounded by books on organizational change. They were the first things I brought in and having the works of the pioneers surrounding me both inspires and keeps me focused. .

What’s one piece of technology you can’t live without?

I guess I would say my laptop – it’s a Lenovo ThinkPad. I’m not a technology gal, but it’s the first thing I grab when the fire alarm goes off.

What are some words or a quote that you live by?

“Do what you love and I love what you do.” And also, “compassion without honesty is sentimentality; honesty without compassion is brutality.” I don’t know who said that.