What Is Relational Coordination? (The Heller School for Social Policy & Management)

Summary

Relational coordination is a powerful method for working better together to create value for your employees and customers. It is a complement to lean, Agile and other improvement methods, and a well-validated method in the healthcare, education and commercial sectors.

Relational coordination is shaped by organizational structures and, when strong, it supports organizations in achieving a wide range of desired performance outcomes including quality, safety, efficiency, financial outcomes, well-being, learning and innovation. Relational coordination is particularly important for achieving desired outcomes when work is highly interdependent, uncertain and time constrained, whether in times of crisis or everyday stress. 

Relational coordination is measured as a network of ties across roles in any work process that requires coordination. Its outcomes and predictors have been tested in 73 industry sectors and 36 countries.