Wednesday 1 June 2011

Kings Fund Publishes NHS Leadership & Management Report

The King’s Fund set up a commission on leadership and management in the NHS with a brief to:
  • take a view on the current state of management and leadership in the NHS
  • establish the nature of management and leadership that will be required to meet the quality and financial challenges now facing the health care system
  • recommend what needs to be done to strengthen and develop management and leadership in the NHS.
The Commission has found that high-quality, stable management to be key to high-performing health services - no surprise I hear you cry! 

Taken from an except of NHS Innovation and Improvement the report says 'across the NHS, the average chief executive spends just 700 days in post. In part, this reflects a culture where ‘heroic’ leaders grapple with problems only from the top of the organisation, or are ‘parachuted in’ to replace individual managers and ‘turn around’ troubled NHS services. The report advocates a new type of ‘shared leadership’ involving leaders at different levels of the workforce working collaboratively with all those involved in patient care to lead change and improve services, rather than only tackling problems inside specific institutions.'

This brings me to one of my favorite quotes (thanks Chris) from Bob Nelson, head of Corporate Management Development, BBC who said, " Some leaders are at the top of their organisations, although the behaviours of leadership can be exercised at any level.  Where ever we are in an organisation, most of us are leaders, subordinates and colleagues.  Resent research has also found paradoxically, that there is more freedom to act at lower levels in organisations than at higher, where constraints and other influences can be more complex.  The knowledge and skills necessary to make organisations work are decentralised - so power is decentralised and leadership is needed at all levels.  An organisation that permits people to manifest and develop these kinds of power without regard to their official status is nurturing leadership."

It's quite disturbing that even now it appears it needs to be pointed out that there is talent throughout our organisations and more than ever we need to tap into it and give people the responsibility and recognition that they deserve.

Kate Peacock


For the full report http://www.kingsfund.org.uk/publications/nhs_leadership.html

All watched over by machines of loving grace

Have you been watching the BBC 2 series, 'All watched over by machines of loving grace'  (BBC 2, Mondays, 9pm)?  If not you can catch up by clicking on the following link and watching through iPlayer:


It is a fascinating exploration of the rise of machines (computers in particular), how humans have come to create and use them, but also how we have been influenced in turn, by growing networks of advanced technology.  The first part explored the influence of technology on financial markets (and their role in the current economic crisis).  The second looked at how technology was supposed to help in creating more egalitarian societies.  Why write about this on a blog which is about leadership and human development?  Well, what the series makes clear is that introduction of new technologies were based on changing philosophies, new world views and radical thinking of various groups.  Each new technology was an attempt to 'realise' what had been created in thought. 

From a psychological viewpoint, the series contains numerous examples of how people can act together to complete a common goal, seemingly without direction or open communication between individuals.  What happens is something emerges which is bigger than the sum of the individuals involved.  But there do seem to be limitations. For example, while social networking was acknowledged as a key element in mobilising people in revolutions in the Ukraine (amongst other countries) it was also shown that it had not provided an effective alternative to the regime that had been toppled.

The second programme, in particular, showed the dangers of metaphor becoming 'truth'.  The idea of an eco-system that was self-regulating and balanced was 'de-bunked' and shown how it had led to ultimately unsuccessful attempts to create egalitarian communities.

The last part is next week (June 6th, 2011).  It's not just an insight into the influences of technology, it's a fascinating exploration of how we live and work together, the underlying assumptions that underpin our society, while also giving us a glimps of who really 'sets the rules'.

Miles