The highlights of last week would have been Family, Space & Emptiness, Mountains, Sun and Fun & Chilling, which in 5 pictures looks something like....
We have been skiing at Easter for a few years, so have gone back to Tignes, where the height almost guarantees snow, even in the middle of April and didn't disappoint this year. I still can't quite get to grips with the heat (t-shirt high in the mountains at lunch time) with the activity of skiing, but it suits us more than the better snow you might get in February that often comes with cloud, cold and twice as many people on the slopes.
So suitably refreshed and ready to be back at work this week!
Highlights of the Week - 25th April 2014 (@jeclo)
Highlights of the Week 1: Plymouth Health and Wellbeing Board Solution Shop: Systems Leadership & Alcohol - how have we done?
The Plymouth Health and Wellbeing Board does meet formally to carry out its important business, but has placed emphasis, from the outset, on having a wide membership, not acting like a "traditional council committee" and injecting development space in to its work.
This week we were hearing how the external support to experiment in using a Systems Leadership approach to a particular project - the delivery of the Plymouth Alcohol strategy - was working.
The facilitation was excellent and expertly delivered some hard hitting and key messages from the those charged with the delivery of the strategy. It seems like we aren't connecting well enough between the senior leaders at the Health and Wellbeing Board and our teams trying to implement; It felt to me like we aren't quite "walking the talk" and the messages for us were profound.
We spent an afternoon thinking carefully about that and what it meant for the more general work of the Board. We have a way forward that will ensure we listen really carefully to what the team has to say and respond with action. What was hugely encouraging was the sense that we are going to keep working on this together as a leadership community and get to the right outcome for the city.
Highlights of the Week 2: Another member of staff reflecting on the joys of living with an empty inbox - a coaching success
It is hugely annoying to post a highlight of the week as "finishing the week with an empty inbox" - I know the antibodies it can create! But having coached many people over the last few years on how to get to a daily state of empty inbox and lived in that mode, it is now the way things routinely are for me (and is definitely a positive kick that allows me to focus each day).
I had spent some time with a member of staff a few weeks ago who was really struggling to see the right way forward and progress anything meaningfully, because of the sheer amount of work that she had on, characterised by the number of emails in her inbox (hundreds). We talked about how this could be different and the benefits of being able to prioritise each day without the fear of what might be lurking, either opened or unopened, in the electronic post.
She went away sceptical, but determined. And today she came back in a different frame of mind, feeling much more in control and recounting how she has been able to really get to grips with things as a result of believing that it would be possible and then making it happen.
It reminds me that I have promised to run a workshop for staff on "Why I choose the inbox I have" and I have committed with my PA to get some dates in to do that a few times over the next couple of months.
Highlights of the Week 3: The Chief Officer Leadership Group of the Challenged Local Health Economy Programme - an emerging sense of joint action
We are three weeks in to the intensive support for the programme of work as a Challenged Local Health Economy, having been identified as one of eleven such communities nationally.
That means that on Monday the first checkpoint report went off to the national team which detailed the joint local understanding of the extent of the challenge. It feels like we have progressed well with that, with the Directors of Finance group working hard on determining the financial challenge we face over the next 5 years and support from PWC synthesising information from interviews, public health reports and performance metrics to present a rounded view.
The geography of NEW Devon CCG does not constitute a natural health and social care community as it spans three acute trust footprints and two local authorities. The boundary was chosen because GPs felt that this was the size of area that would be needed to address the issues we were facing and so we are starting the journey of creating a programme of work across the area for the first time.
It feels slower than I suspect it does in other areas where there are already natural communities that have been working together for many years, but it does feel like the chance of finding a strategic solution are better than they have been previously and the Chief Officer Leadership Group - covering 12 health and social care organisations - has met three times in a month; a sign of some real commitment to a health community wide solution to the challenges we are collectively facing.
Highlights of the Week 4: A clear Locality Workplan will be the cornerstone of our effort this year - and there is real sense of progress
The Locality workplan - the distillation of our QIPP transformation work and other workstreams - will be at the heart of our work in Western Devon for the next 12 months and beyond. It will be critical to the success of the Financial recovery plan too - we are facing huge financial challenges and we have to ensure all our commissioner QIPP plans come to fruition.
We had a broadly block contract with our main acute provider last year so the imperative around the Locality plan wasn't as pressing. We have to up our game this year and part of the rationale for reorganising our commissioning team was to ensure we are fit for that challenge.
We have a new lead for the workplan and cleared some space for her to get focussed over the next few weeks. There feels a really good energy around the work and I am more optimistic that we will deliver on our ambitions in the Locality - the contract under performed in volume and value terms last year and we need to make sure we manage that again. So on returning from leave I am impressed with the energy and looking forward to seeing the results and turing plans in to reality.
Highlights of the Week 5: A hour spent helping someone to prepare for an interview feels like some of the best use of time
I really enjoy being asked for input, coaching and advice from members of staff who aren't put off by the introverted exterior and demanding encouragements to action they often hear me utter. The question is often framed as "you won't have time, but....", but I hardly ever turn down those who ask; my ego is easily stroked!
This week it was to spend an hour doing a mock interview with someone who is desperate to further their commitment to the NHS by taking on a new role, staying within our CCG. It is clearly not about me, but I had a great time - there is something in the energy and intensity about the ambition to serve that I love hearing about from anyone who is driven in that way.
Not a perfect performance, but as I was once told, the purpose of rehearsal is to be perfect on show night, not in the warm up and the feedback will hopefully help them to be at their very best next time out.
And I guess it is a reminder to choose to put things in the diary that will end up as a highlight of my week....!
No comments:
Post a Comment