• Jerica M Berge, Charles Peek, James T Pacala, Pita Adam, Shailendra Prasad, Deborah Finstead, Denise Windenburg, Jill Bengtson, Katie A Loth, Michele L Allen, and Angela Buffington.
• From the University of Minnesota, Department of Family Medicine and Community Health, Minneapolis, MN (JMB, CP, JTP, PA, SP, DF, DW, JB, KAL, MLA, AB). jberge@umn.edu.
• J Am Board Fam Med. 2021 Sep 1; 34 (5): 1055-1065.

BackgroundThe Department of Family Medicine and Community Health at the University of Minnesota engaged in a 5-year transformation to expand research and scholarship opportunities to all faculty. A harmonization framework was used to integrate the 3 missions of clinical care, education, and research to ensure that research and scholarship were an ongoing focus of the department.MethodsThe key elements of our transformation included as follows: (1) a general culture of inquiry, (2) harmonized leadership, (3) training and mentoring, and (4) infrastructure and resources. Components of each of these elements were intentionally instituted simultaneously and iteratively across the 5 years to provide robust and sustainable research and scholarship opportunities for all faculty.ResultsOutputs and outcomes of the harmonized transformation indicated that clinical and research faculty publications increased, and the percentage of clinical faculty trained in research and scholarship skills increased across the 5 years.ConclusionsImportant lessons learned during the harmonized transformation included the following: (1) key elements of the transformation need to be balanced as an ensemble, (2) cultural and organizational shifts take concerted effort and time, (3) embrace iteration: allow "bumps in the road" to propel the work forward, (4) transformation is financially feasible, (5) career research faculty can mutually benefit from clinical faculty engaging in scholarship, and (6) honor skepticism or disinterest and let people cultivate enthusiasm for research and scholarship rather than being forced.© Copyright 2021 by the American Board of Family Medicine.

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