Able Health was founded as a bridge between the technology and healthcare worlds. As such, we are often torn between "moving fast and breaking things" and "doing no harm." This document outlines a middle way that uniquely represents what it means to be an Able Health team member.

This guide is a living document that outlines our current intentions for what we do and how we work. Like our company, it is an evolving entity, open to experimentation and feedback. Please make suggested changes by using a pull request. If you have any questions on how to do that, reach out to any member of the engineering or product teams.

1. Mission: why we exist
2. Vision: what we hope to achieve
3. Values: who we are
   • Curious experts
   • Comrades in service
   • Biased toward action
4. Team norms: how we work together
   • Honoring diversity
   • Sharing knowledge
   • Assigning work
   • Unblocking yourself
   • Navigating ambiguity
   • Surfacing disagreements
   • Dealing with conflict
   • Making mistakes
   • Exchanging feedback effectively
   • Interacting with customers
5. Company policies: our expectations of each other
   • Information security and privacy
   • Team meetings
   • Availability etiquette
   • Being “on call”
   • Vacation

Our mission is our singular purpose for existing. All of our work should contribute to our mission:

Our mission is to make value-based care simple so that care providers can focus on delivering better care.

Our vision is the future state we hope to create in pursuit of our mission:

Able Health will be the source of truth for quality-based payments to all US physicians.

Our values are what we believe to be true and how we conduct ourselves at all times, internally and externally. They are the qualities that define an Abler, to be used as a moral compass and screening for new team members. We are...

You hungrily gather new knowledge. You honor a diversity of strengths and perspectives. You welcome respectful debate. You make space for everyone to get their ideas on the table. You listen with an open mind. You bring all available information to bear on your decisions. You are a mentor and a mentee for life.

You want to improve the lives of others, whether those people are customers, coworkers, or strangers. You recognize that small interpersonal actions build lifelong relationships. You respect that everyone has deeply personal motivators. You want to lift up those around you rather than promote yourself. You seek to spread delight.

You act on problems when you see them. You work in service of outcomes, not appearances. You deliver incrementally to get to the right solution faster. You follow through on your promises. You produce high-quality work. You speak up when you disagree. You communicate directly. You own your failures, and you learn from them.

We are committed to creating and sustaining a culture that embodies diverse walks of life, ideas, genders, ages, races, cultures, sexual orientations, abilities and other unique qualities of our employees. We strive to offer a workplace where every employee feels empowered by the ways in which we are different, as well as the ways in which we are the same.

Diversity is not just good for the world; it also makes teams more innovative and higher performing. We all have unconscious bias, but we can control it. Consider the following practices as you go about your day (outlined by SYPartners):

• If you face an important problem where the way forward is unknown, consider what can be gained from less-heard perspectives rather than consulting the usual suspects

• When someone different from you presents a perspective you've never considered, appreciate it for opening your eyes rather than dismissing it as misguided

• When seeking feedback, solicit a diverse group for a fuller picture, rather than asking your closest peers

• When sharing professional advice over lunch, spread knowledge widely to help others learn and grow, rather than offering mentorship only to your friends and favorites

• When creating content for a blog, ensure the brand speaks to the variety of people we'd like to reach, rather than letting your bias influence the brand

• When sharing media with the team, challenge yourself to consider perspectives outside your own, rather than sharing consistently from the same sources

• When interviewing candidates, take time to listen fully before making judgements, rather than deciding quickly which are a good fit

• When networking outside the company, connect to a wide range of professionals, rather than keeping your network homogenous

As curious experts, our collective knowledge is one of our greatest assets. Always consider the most effective way to share knowledge, not just for short-term gains, but also helping the team in the long term.

• Collaborate or pair in order to share knowledge as it is created. Prefer this when:

  • Knowledge is core to day-to-day operations

  • The team will run better when there is not just one holder of knowledge

• Use automation to enforce processes. Prefer this when:

  • Processes are easily automatable, e.g. using automated tests in place of a comprehensive style guide

• Document plans and decisions in Podio. Prefer this when:

  • Team members will want to refer back to plans, processes, specifications, instructions, or meeting notes (Podio apps)

  • Tasks are assigned (Podio tasks)

  • You want to share interesting articles, findings, and ideas (Podio workspace)

  • You want to say hey (Podio Employee Network)

  • User stories are created or updated (Pivotal Tracker)

  • You need to share passwords or sensitive (non-PHI) information (LastPass)

Note that Podio does allow for private exchange of information. This can be done through the chat function or by assigning private tasks.

Any team member can assign tasks to any other via Podio, under the following conditions:

• Be clear about what you need. Provide additional context in the task description or offline if needed.

• Attach the task to the most specific relevant Podio object. Most ideal is an item (e.g. a blog post), then an app (e.g. Content), and then a workspace (e.g. Marketing).

• Only assign a deadline when it is absolutely needed. Err on the side of allowing people to prioritize their own work, and provide additional context in the task description to help the assignee prioritize.

• Tasks may be public or private.

• Be patient, unless the task is urgent. You will be notified whenever the assignee sets their own deadline or comments on the task. If the priority or timeline of your dependency changes, comment on the task and let the assignee know so they can reprioritize.

Everyone at Able Health is a mentor and a mentee. Do not hesitate to ask for help, even if you think you should know the answer.

Options for unblocking yourself due to lack of information:

• Search for information in Podio or on the web

• Ask an immediate team member for information

• Ask a subject matter expert or someone else not on your immediate team for information

Respect people's time by attempting to find the answer yourself first. When requesting information, consider people’s communication preferences in terms of timing and method of access.

Options for unblocking yourself due to lack of ideas or focus:

• Schedule a timeboxed session to brainstorm collaboratively or independently, using ideation techniques and prompts developed by Alex Osborn

• Reference aligning artifacts—such as Hills, Project KPIs, Customer and User Personas, Company Values, and Brand Principles (all available on Podio)—to filter ideas and tasks

  • If alignment artifacts have not been generated for your current project, generating or asking for them may help the team focus

• Ask someone for help prioritizing

In much of our work, we will never have all of the facts or have considered all possible scenarios. Thus, we need to work together to find informed and creative ways while living our bias toward action. Here is some guidance for moving forward, following the design thinking method developed at Stanford:

1. Sense the need for design thinking. This could surface from a fundamental misalignment among disciplines or a lack of confidence in any known approaches for a given project, task, or process. Often this manifests in a deliverable one discipline thought would be simple to complete but then snowballed once made public.

2. Pause and suggest taking a step back in order to find common ground. Find the right time to work through it.

3. Align on a goal. What should the project or task should accomplish?

4. Frame the problem. What is blocking us from achieving our goal?

5. Gather facts. What do we know about the problem and what do we still need to find out in order to confidently design a solution?

6. Diverge together. Based on a common understanding of the available information, what solutions might address the problem? Brainstorm and visualize solutions in a time-boxed session, feeding off of each other's ideas.

7. Converge on a way forward. What path forward will get us to our goal? Use voting, prioritization grids, or other methods to get to alignment. Remember that shorter projects, experiments, and prototypes preserve the option to pivot later on.

As curious experts, we work in service of the truth. To that end, we uphold the "obligation to dissent" with any statement we disagree with. However, it should be done carefully so as to consider all viable facts and ideas and preserve an open environment. Assume that the other person has good intentions and is putting forth their best effort.

First, decide whether you are discussing, debating, or teaching. Depending on your credibility on the particular subject relative to the other person, you might:

• Put forth a question for discussion

• Debate with a peer of similar expertise by expressing a contrarian opinion or fact

• Teach relevant information to someone less familiar with the subject

Remember that the goal is to find truth, not to win. And that we are all subject to the Dunning-Kruger effect, a failure to accurately assess our own incompetence.

At some point, decisions must be reached. Know when to move on, and establish a method for converging on a path forward in order to exercise our bias toward action.

In our work, we embrace healthy and respectful conflict as a way of getting to better solutions. Research on conflict by Jehn and later elaborated on by Bendersky and Hays has identified four different types of interpersonal conflict. Before dealing with the conflict, establish which type of conflict you are dealing with.

When dealing with a conflict, consider the following steps:

1. Decide to take action early to prevent tension from building and additional conflicts from cascading.

2. Find a healthy way to vent—for example, by journaling or to a neutral third party—so you don't have to unload on the other person.

3. Ask for time with the person to make sure both parties are present and understand the magnitude of the concern.

4. Establish a common goal and the type of conflict from the above list you are facing. Assume the other person has good intentions.

5. When you don't understand where the other person is coming from, try asking, "Can you let me know why this is important?"

6. Bring facts to the table.

7. Find a way forward.

8. Escalate conflict if unresolved and detrimental to work.

A good way to prevent conflicts is to get to know the people you work with personally. Do you know what motivates them? Or what experiences have shaped their work style? Or the overall context shaping their decisions and actions?

We are not perfect, and we don’t pretend to be. We strive to do the best job we can. As comrades in service, when we make mistakes, we acknowledge them with humility, resolve them as quickly as we can, and learn from them so that we grow stronger.

When you make an mistake that impacts the team, product, or business in a significant way:

• Take responsibility for it to the extent that it’s productive to do so.

• Ask: “How can I resolve this most effectively?”

• Focus your actions and energy on minimizing the impact of the mistake. Try to minimize energy spent on beating yourself up or replaying the event in your head.

• Trust and expect your team members to help you through hard times.

• After a crisis is resolved, take some time to reflect alone or with the impacted team members on how to avoid similar issues in the future.

• Share learnings with the team if appropriate.

When a colleague makes a mistake:

• Avoid making accusations or placing blame.

• Ask: “How can I help resolve this most effectively?”

• Support affected team members regardless of who’s at fault.

• Check in with others on how they are feeling, and see if there is anything you can do to help them.

In order to grow as curious experts, we must openly given and receive feedback. We strive toward a compassionate culture that solicits feedback. Feedback is more effective when emphasizing shared goals and good intent by the person giving feedback. Toward that end, consider the non-violent communication approach outlined by Innerspace as a guide.

When giving feedback:

1. Check in with the person: "Is now a good time?"

2. Emphasize mutual goals and positive intent: "My intention is…"

3. Focus on specific, observable behavior: "When do you X…"

4. Describe the impact of that behavior on you: "...I feel Y"

5. Ask about the other person's motives and intentions: "What was going on for you?"

6. Thank the person

When receiving feedback:

• Look for "grains of truth" in order to understand, not win

• Help the other person feel heard and ask clarifying questions

• Acknowledge your own feelings and manage your defensiveness

• Thank the person

End with agreements:

• Make specific requests: "What are we going to try moving forward?"

• Discuss the error case: "What can we do if someone doesn't uphold their end?"

One of the quickest ways to derail honest communication is by presuming to know the intentions of the other person. Remember to "stay on your side of the net"—focus on specific, observable behavior and ask the other person about their motives and intentions.

While we each bring a different perspective and set of expertise to customer interactions, we work with customers with a common voice and approach. This includes:

• A feeling of partnership. Helping our customers feel that we are supporting their journey to value-based care and that we are involving them deeply in the design of our products and services.

• A sense of clarity. Our customers come to us to help them navigate the extremely complicated and nuanced domain of value-based care. We disclose information in a way that fosters learning and understanding at key moments.

• A trust in integrity. It is up to each of us to build trust and make our customers feel secure. Thus, we act reliably by following through on our promises, respecting our customers' information, acting in compliance with laws and contracts.

Able Health's customers entrust us with a significant amount of protected health information (PHI). As such, we take great care to ensure the security and privacy of potentially sensitive information. All team members receive HIPAA training and may refer to our HIPAA policies and procedures at any time for further details.

• Daily Engineering standup (Engineering team)
• Daily Business standup (Product, Engineering, Business)
• Alternating, biweekly retrospectives:
  • Product Team retro (everyone who works on product)
  • Full Team retro (All Able staff)
• Monthly business update (All Able staff)
• Quarterly feedback (All Able staff)

• You should be generally available during PST 10am - 6pm.

• The general rule is, make sure your availability is not a blocker for the team. Set expectations for your own schedule with people you regularly work with.

• If you'll be unavailable (unreachable) for 1 or more hours during 10am - 6pm:

  • Email your team(s) so they know at least 24 hours in advance (ideally). It's helpful to remind folks at standup, too.

  • No need to go into details about the nature of the appointment.

  • Add it to the Availability Calendar.

• Solicit and expect feedback from peers on whether your schedule is negatively impacting collaboration.

• In general, we adhere to the following communication norms:

  • Need you right now or I can't move forward: tap on the shoulder, SMS, or call

    • Ask if it's a good time

  • Need you in the next hour: Podio chat

  • Need you within the day or longer: Podio update or task, or (for private communication) Podio chat or private task

• Set expectations with your team about your particular availability and communication preferences (e.g. if people need to get in touch over the weekend, should they call? email?).

• Expect to be on call once in awhile in crunch times.

• Able Health does not have an official number of PTO days. Team members are expected to take the time they need to remain enthusiastic and productive at work.

• Add vacation to the Availability Calendar and notify the team by email before you leave.

• If you will be out for a full day or more, try to notify team members a week in advance.

• For longer vacations (a week or more), run the dates by your team before scheduling. At least two weeks in advance, if possible.

• Do what you need to in order to achieve your work objectives. If you have a deadline, work hard to achieve your deadline in advance of your leave or work with your team to ensure that important work is done and doesn't impact the company or your peers.

• Leave your contact information with your team just in case something urgent arises when you're away.