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David Nicholson says that leadership absolutely focused on the customer, the patient, on the community, makes a bigger difference than one that is focused on the bureaucracy and the centre.
Richard Branson also has advice:
- change the world, even if in a small way
- make a difference and help others
- do no harm
- always think what you can do to help.
Both of them have earned the right to offer advice to those who wonder where to focus their energies, as both can claim to be successful achievers.
But how can we tell if we are getting it right? I was watching “Britain’s Got Talent” over the weekend. Each of those contestants believed passionately in what they contributed, in all their different ways. It was the public votes that decided who would go through to the next stage – whatever “the judges” thought!
And isn’t it very much the same for us? The public, the patient, the community, will tell us if we are getting it right. I was at a consultation event recently when service users told us in very clear terms what it felt like to be recipients of our services. It makes me even more determined to involve them at every stage of the process as we plan our training needs, not just for customer care, but in all our staff development – and to involve them wherever possible in delivery.
It’s so obvious, isn’t it?
And reading? “Trying Hard is Not Good Enough” by Mark Friedman – How to produce measurable improvements for customers and communities. Read this if you are interested in getting from talk to action quickly – simple, common sense, plain language! www.raguide.org
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From The People Grower
Anne Axford is associate director for learning and development at Portsmouth PCT.
Readers' comments (2)
Anonymous | 30-May-2009 2:41 am
It's very interesting this whole involve the patient thing...
Patients tend to want things like 'help me get better' and perhaps each individual may want their needs to be understood individually.
But this doesn't translate into involve me. For example get me involved in focus groups, get me to fill in surveys.
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Derek Mowbray | 1-Jun-2009 5:22 pm
Leaders have to satisfy a vast range of judges including their own ethical test through to staff, politicians of various types and levels, the hierarchy in the NHS, and, of course, the customers who are both patients and their relatives.
My experience of working with the public was with the carers of people with developmental difficulties; I used the learning set approach because everyone in the set needed to understand everything about the differing needs of carers and the person they were caring for, as well as understanding the range of services available and how to access them effectively. Once the learning stage was over (and this took a number of sessions) the depth of discussion about services, their impact and accessibility was inspiring to everyone, and brought about changes in a number of processes and range of services. Worth all the effort, particularly for the carers who find it almost impossible to take time out for this kind of adventure, and regard every moment as extremely precious.
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