1. Leadership for improvement
18 March 2008
Leadership for improvement
Andrew Goodall, Chief Executive, Bridgend and Neath Port Talbot LHBs

2. What is Leadership for Improvement?

3. What is Leadership for improvement?
It’s Team-working:
We all have experiences of working in good teams (and bad)
Cannot vest change in one individual
It is not about cloning … it is about bringing together different styles, experiences and approaches
Establishing trust and positive relationships

4. Leadership for Improvement
“The leaders who work most effectively, it seems to me, never say "I." And that's not because they have trained themselves not to say "I." They don't think "I." They think "we"; they think "team." They understand their job to be to make the team function. They accept responsibility and don't sidestep it, but "we" gets the credit…. This is what creates trust, what enables you to get the task done.”
Peter Drucker

5. What is Leadership for improvement?
It’s Delivery – a focus on actions:
Showing that change is happening
Introducing a culture that trusts the decisions of our staff
Demonstrating commitment at all levels (from the Board to the bedside)
A drive for continuous improvement

6. Leadership for Improvement
“However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.”
Winston Churchill

7. What is Leadership for Improvement?
It’s about Persuasion and Influence:
Acting as agents for change
Making progress in a partnership environment – different buttons and levers
Bringing contractor professions with us – a shared vision

8. Leadership for Improvement
“You do not lead by hitting people over the head – that’s assault, not leadership” Dwight D. Eisenhower

9. What is Leadership for Improvement?
You need effective Communication:
Keeping messages simple
Showing we are delivering on our priorities
Tracking progress – making a difference
Avoiding the culture caused by (i.e. once sent, assume received)

10. Leadership for Improvement
Welsh rugby legend Carwyn James described the results when a new strategy was agreed to drive the Welsh pack in what was one of the best Welsh rugby teams of all time.
A word sign beginning with the letter P was the simple signal to go forward to the right. Unfortunately, when Gareth Edwards called “Psychology”, half the forwards went left instead.

11. The Board’s Role
All Boards have a leadership responsibility and accountability for Patient Safety
Governance in health reviews have reviewed the extent of Board engagement
Board decision-making in LHBs
Retaining a focus on the patient…(in new money, the citizen) and the locality
Board focus and culture – adapting Board meetings and briefings – using members

12. Some Challenges for LHBs
Clarity on LHB role – involvement as commissioner and provider may require different approaches
Ensuring LHBs have the capacity to implement
Showing the campaign is delivering our local priorities (e.g. medicines management)
Conflicting priorities (Where does 1000 lives fit?)

13. Challenges
Patient safety – 1000 lives
Patient safety – 1000 lives

14. Some Challenges for LHBs
Adapting the campaign mechanisms for LHBs:
Visible leadership
Language (don’t just cross Trust X out)
Difference between employee and contractor relationships
Ensuring that teams we create now are sustainable beyond reconfiguration!

15. Leadership for Improvement
“We trained hard but it seemed that every time we were beginning to form into teams we would be re-organised. I was keen to learn later in life that we tend to meet any new situation by re-organising, and a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress while producing confusion, inefficiency and demoralisation.”
LHB Chief Executive (anon)
(but really Gaius Petronius c. AD 66)