Artemis March, PhD, MBA

Narrative and its interrogation continue to be one of the tools through which she helps organizations effect paradigm shifts by drawing out and applying learning buried in their own or another's story. In a similar vein, Dying into Grace is a full-length case study whose narrative can be explored and reflected upon for guidance. Its last two chapters make explicit some of the learning and wisdom embedded in the story, and help to empower family (and professional) caregivers in situations where they often feel helpless and out of control.

In fluid, unstructured situations where people talk past each other, or can't get their hands around it, or don't know how to begin a conversation or a project, Artemis organizes the content so that a productive conversation can get under way. Her maps of the problem space identify big chunks of "real estate" in relation to each other, thereby getting people on the same page. This focus on relationships, interdependencies, and systems permeates her thinking, and informed the relational paradigm she lived with her mother before she mapped it for others.

Through deeper excavations into a client's' unique, amorphous situation, Artemis creates a model or framework that reveals its structure, thereby making it conscious, discussable, and actionable. Her maps and models embody her gift for recognizing simplicity underlying detail complexity and order implicit in seeming chaos. A dying-caregiving story is likewise unique and seemingly without form. In Dying into Grace, Artemis draws on her signature gifts to distill the inherent structure of family caregiving, give form and voice to a dance of ephemeral moments and subtle movement, and create a groundbreaking, relational paradigm that releases the transformative potential in dying. Her model of the Caregiver's Story orients caregivers in real time and gives visibility, shape, and dignity to their culturally invisible experiences, stresses, conflicts, and triumphs.

Artemis began her work on facilitating paradigm shifts with manufacturing companies (Allegheny Ludlum Steel, John Deere, Boeing) when she was at Harvard and MIT. She continued related projects with Deloitte, the Manufacturing Roundtable, Babson College, and executive education consultancies. Clients included Chrysler, AT&T, and Johnson & Johnson. She has worked extensively with product designers who are seeking to leapfrog competitors through innovative approaches to product and process development. Apple, IBM, and Northern Telecom were among her clients. She published articles in Harvard Business Review, Technology Review (cover story), Design Management Journal, Target Magazine (periodical of Association of Mfg Excellence), Made in America (MIT Press), and many cases in Cases in Operations Strategy (Prentice-Hall).

During the past decade, Artemis has brought her horizontal/relational/systems thinking and passion for process and operations excellence into improving healthcare delivery. Her work is informed by the understanding that safety (zero medical errors and nosocomial infections), consistency, and coordination have to be designed into the system—wherein fundamental cultural change is institutionalized in simplified workflow (especially using Lean principles), working in interdisciplinary teams, and partnering with patients. Her understanding of how health care should be delivered counterpoints the paternalism, mediocrity, and harm-inducing behavior she and her mother battled in Dying into Grace. Some of her clients are the Commonwealth Fund, the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, and Partners for Healthcare Excellence. Artemis was appointed to the 2009 Massachusetts Expert Panel on End-of-Life Care where she was an active member (http://www.mass.gov/healthcare/expertpanel). Her upcoming speaking engagements include the Harvard Medical School's Continuing Education Conference on Aging and the World Healthcare Congress Leadership Summit on Hospice & Palliative Care.