As usual a wonderful reaction to the various presents that did arrive, some identical to the list, others similar to what was asked for (he is very specific on brand and model) and some that he simply didn't get, which was all fine.
He contemplated his new bat for a while, making all the right noises, but something was not right. Eventually, in tears, he declared that he didn't like Kookaburra bats, but he felt terrible for being so selfish for saying so. ("Its fine, we can change it...")
This reminded me of a great piece of learning about presents. We tend to give presents from our perspective (we give what we'd like to receive) and receive from the other person's perspective (we say what we think they would want to hear). How much better would be the world if we were truly able to give what the other person really wanted and valued and receive gifts in a way that was true to what we feel (with respect for the gift and the giver, but truth about our reaction)?
So we discussed "selfish" and "ungrateful" and the need to respect the effort, generosity and thought that goes in to the buying of presents, but the benefit of being true to self and carefully explaining what we like and don't like. He does often wish, I suspect, that his dad would just let him be!
Highlights of the Week 4th July 2014 (@jeclo)
Highlights of the Week 1: NEW Devon CCG has a new Chief Nursing Officer. I'd congratulate Lorna Collingwood-Burke if she was on Twitter!
Really delighted that Lorna has come through a tough recruitment process with a significant field to be appointed as the new Chief Nursing Officer for the CCG. I have worked with Lorna over the last couple of years and she undoubtedly has the values, experience, leadership and relationships to take forward the role.
Of course, with a new role comes new responsibilities and I'm looking forward to Lorna joining the small number of the Senior Leadership Team in the CCG who regularly use social media to share some of our key messages. So, I'm not sure, without use of Twitter, whether Lorna will ever get to this blog (there are links in my email signature block and in our weekly staff bulletin, so perhaps), but if she does..... make one of your first actions getting a presence on Twitter and then make a commitment to a regular tweet or two to highlight the great work that you and your team do!
Highlights of the Week 2: There are now three blogs in the Western Locality: you can find out about our workplan and Locality business too
I have been trying to enthuse the team for some time that we need to get a different approach to our communication and test out a new way for the CCG to engage with both our own staff, partners and anyone else who might be interested.
This week we have launched two new blogs, one on our Locality Workplan that Nicola Jones is in the hot seat for and the other on detailing the Locality business, including the parish notices, that Debbie Whiting will co-ordinate.
Some of this content won't be particularly relevant or perhaps even interesting to people outside of the organisation, but much of it will and I think writing the communication in a blog form and in a way that we are happy to share publicly will change our approach.
So here they are
Highlights of the Week 3 : Launch of Individuals at the Centre Year 2. How will it support the delivery of our financial transformation?
Really delighted to be working with Tim Robson from nowshopup.com (@timrobson07) again this week to launch the second year of our Individuals at the Centre Programme.
Our key aims are:
- to get the half day workshop to over 90% of our staff
- to have 15 project teams working through a modular programme with as much energy and passion as the 5 teams in year 1
- to deliver at the same cost and fractional cost per participant by moving to a lot of online, nudge and self directed content, supported by a social media platform
- to go further beyond the CCG to work with partners, regionally and nationally
So we have set challenging goals.
The Leadership Team will all mentor projects this year and this will ensure a greater sense of organisation wide effort.
Of course, everything in the CCG needs to be firmly aligned to our financial recovery and transformation programmes. So how do you reconcile this kind of bottom up change with the absolutely relentless focus on a CCG wide requirement?
We are expecting the teams when they volunteer to apply for the programme to have worked that out. We want to get lots of applications that address the financial issue head on; if they don't, they probably won't get supported (improving quality in an austerity climate is clearly part of this). What we want to test though, is that the finance message is so well understood and owned that our staff will make that link for themselves, without having to add it as an application criteria.
We'll wait and see! But lots of energy from the whole leadership team to address the challenges and support staff to do that from themselves as well as follow our clear direction. And wonderful reflections on year one from participants, mentors and those who watched the showcase.
Highlights of the Week 4 : Integration discussions with both Plymouth City and Devon County Councils making great progress
The CCG straddles two local authorities: the unitary authority in Plymouth and Devon County Council. These Councils move at different speeds, given their size and unitary versus two tier structure.
In to the mix of integration and the Better Care Fund we also have our plans for the reprocurement of community services that we need to complete before contracts expire in 2015 and 2016. All in all, this makes the life of integration and our CCG complicated.
That we are making great progress with both local authorities is, therefore, a real testament to the quality of relationships we are building with key councillors and officers and for their and our resolve that the path we are set is incredibly important and is worth the energy.
This week we were at Caring Plymouth Scrutiny Committee for a review of the business cases we have with the City Council for integrated commissioning and integrated delivery of services. There were plenty of questions and we pointed to a huge range of issues that we have yet to resolve, but we are making really significant progress and the Committee noted the alignment we are demonstrating.
The discussion with Devon County Council allowed us to step back and review the ambition of our joint vision and then how this would play out through our community services decisions. It was heartening that we both acknowledged the importance of continuing to find time to ask "why" - to be clear on the core purpose of integrating services and commissioning - rather than keeping pressing on with lots of urgent tasks. We reconfirmed our joint intent and the next actions that would move us forward.
Highlights of the Week 5 : The workshop "How to live with zero:Why I choose to have so many emails in my inbox" finally happened this week
It has been trailed here and throughout the organisation and finally I managed to deliver the first of the two hour workshops that I'll be running with staff from across the CCG that invites them to pause and think about how they manage their inboxes.
The reason is that most people find this a source of real stress and anxiety; a sense that the world is bombarding them and they are not in control. I've coached a lot of people on that stress over the last few years and the workshop is a combination of that work and my personal journey to get to a point where I live with zero emails in my inbox and have done for quite a few years.
So as more electronic letters were trickling in to our systems, about 20 people attended the workshop and listened, participated, discussed and reviewed the key messages. The feedback has been great (someone today told me that they already have 300 fewer emails in their inbox) and I'll be doing it again in other locations across the CCG.
The biggest message of all is that your inbox is a result of your choices... it doesn't land easily for people, but after a while people do reflect on how they prioritise different tasks at work and how that impacts on the number of items left to process.
And of course, within 24 hours, our youngest had decided he loved his new bat and was telling me all about the great things about it. Given time to reflect and little pressure, he formed his own conclusion, which was a great result. It has scored its first runs and that makes him very happy! Let's hope he has as much fun with it as I had with my Duncan Fearnley, Ian Botham Attack (you never forget your first bat) when I was his age....
Jerry Clough is Chief Operating Officer for Northern, Eastern and Western Devon Clinical Commissioning Group. He is also Locality Managing Director for the Western Locality of the CCG covering Plymouth and the surrounding areas of South Hams and West Devon.
Previously Jerry has been a Chief Executive and Finance Director in the NHS before spending several years running his own business driving programmes of change and delivering executive coaching and team and Board development.
No comments:
Post a Comment