Crossing the Chasm: The dynamics of trust and collaboration in, and in between a consulting and client system

This paper presents a case study illustrating several key concepts central to a systems psychodynamic understanding of the dynamics of trust and collaboration in, and in between a consulting and client system. The context for the case study is a large public healthcare institution and teaching hospital. Where we explored the dynamics impacting the work of the Education Council: a committee of educators from across the clinical and service areas of the organization, which had been tasked with developing and implementing a collaborative, cross-disciplinary learning strategy. Considering the dynamic in our own research system as a potential parallel process to the dynamic in the client system provided rich data to explore the break down in trust in the client system and a way back to collaboration.