Roles & Integration
Understanding what each partner brings — and how those contributions become one voice.
The most important thing to understand: you are not dividing a course into two halves. You are not "the theory person" and "the practice person." You are building one integrated course — together, from the ground up.
What Each Partner Brings
Weatherhead Faculty
- Theoretical frameworks & research grounding
- Models for change, strategy & organizational behavior
- Rigor in data collection, analysis & interpretation
- Academic credibility and MBA-aligned competencies
- Structured facilitation of complex group learning
- Longitudinal research on what actually predicts outcomes
Healthcare Practitioner
- Lived experience of leading change at scale
- Case examples where theory met — or failed — reality
- Credibility with clinicians, administrators & boards
- Real tools used in actual healthcare systems
- Real-time feedback on DRIVE Innovation Project feasibility
- Insider knowledge of where plans collapse under pressure
Both of you may bring theory. Both of you may bring practice. Do not pre-assign lanes. Begin every course development conversation by mapping the terrain honestly — your overlap is not a problem, it is a resource.
The 7 Principles of Transdisciplinary Co-Teaching
1
Problem-Centered, Not Discipline-Centered
The organizing unit of your course is a healthcare leadership challenge — not a set of theoretical concepts. Concepts serve the problem; they do not define the course structure.
2
Visible Expert Dialogue and Productive Disagreement
When you disagree in front of participants, you are not undermining the course — you are teaching the most important lesson available: that responsible leadership requires holding multiple legitimate perspectives simultaneously. Productive disagreement is pedagogy. Fake consensus is a disservice.
3
Integration Over Parallel Contribution
Your voices should weave together, not take turns. An academic lecture followed by a practitioner story that doesn't reference the lecture explicitly is co-presence, not co-teaching. Integration means each of you shapes what the other says — so the theory explains the practice, or the practice surfaces the limits and possibilities of the theory. If a participant could swap the order of your contributions without losing anything, the integration isn't there yet.
That integration begins in the asynchronous work, which is where new co-teaching partnerships have the most to gain. Both voices should be present in async content — not equally, but meaningfully. Participants should arrive at the live session already knowing that two different expert perspectives exist on this material. A Weatherhead faculty member delivering a conceptual framework, followed by a practitioner reflection on where that framework held and where it didn't — that is enough. The depth of the dialogue is what the in-person day is for.
That integration begins in the asynchronous work, which is where new co-teaching partnerships have the most to gain. Both voices should be present in async content — not equally, but meaningfully. Participants should arrive at the live session already knowing that two different expert perspectives exist on this material. A Weatherhead faculty member delivering a conceptual framework, followed by a practitioner reflection on where that framework held and where it didn't — that is enough. The depth of the dialogue is what the in-person day is for.
4
Executive Ambiguity as a Pedagogical Asset
Do not resolve every tension. Healthcare executives operate in permanent ambiguity. Your modeling of how to think through unresolved complexity is often more valuable than the answer itself.
5
Reflection Across All Dimensions
Every significant course moment should invite reflection across at least three of four dimensions: analytical (what does the data say?), ethical (who bears the cost?), operational (what can actually be done?), and human (what does this require of the people involved?).
6
Faculty Reciprocity and Epistemic Humility
You should be willing to learn from each other — visibly, in front of participants. "I had not considered that dimension — can you help me understand how that showed up in your work?" That moment is worth a semester of lectures.
7
Applied Synthesis Tied to Organizational Reality
Every course concept should close the loop to the DRIVE Innovation Project. Participants should be able to say: "I can see exactly how this applies to the problem I am trying to solve." If they cannot, the synthesis is incomplete.
Support Resources
Instructional Design Consultant
Suzanne Healy
Translates your content vision into polished LMS modules. Advises on multimedia learning, chunking, and accessibility. Your first contact for content structure and your mid-development check-in partner. Come with your draft modules and a question list — not a status update.
Program Logistics
Julia Kious Zabell
Handles scheduling, logistics, room bookings, and panel guest coordination. Your first call for anything operational — not content-related.
Media & Production Support
Abby Ernst
Coordinates recording studio access, remote production support, and technical setup for asynchronous video content. Contact Abby early in the production process — not after you've written your scripts.