I'm reading 'The Friction Project: How Smart Leaders Make The Right Things Easier and The Wrong Things Harder' by Bob Sutton (Bob Sutton) & Huggy Rao. 'Friction' means the forces that make it harder, slower or more complicated to get things done in organisations. They describe…

Our new report on a topic that's proved stubborn despite 3 decades of improvement strategy in health & care. It's about demonstrating & defining the value arising from quality or continuous improvement (CI) activity, particularly economic value. In the report, we summarise the…

I'm recovering this weekend after three ('mile a minute') days as the co-chair of the International Forum on Quality & Safety in Healthcare. Thousands of people from 63 countries shared & learnt together.
When organisational finances get tight, the inclination of leaders is…

Another excellent article about the book by Amy Edmondson 'Right Kind of Wrong: The Science of Failing Well'. In an interview with Harvard Business Review, Amy says experimentation and risk-taking are crucial for organisational success but they should be enabled within a coherent framework.…

I'm at #Quality2024 live, listening to Amy Edmondson talking about principles from her book “The Right Kind of Wrong – The Science of Failing Well”. Amy differentiates three kinds of failures in organisations:
1) Basic failures: caused by carelessness or ignorance
2) Complex…

The next keynote at #Quality2024 is being live streamed & open to all. It starts at 4.15pm this afternoon: 'The healthcare sector is responsible for almost 5% of global greenhouse gas emissions, and if it was a country it would be the 5th largest polluter in the world. But how do…

I'm engaging in outstanding discussions with leaders of change in health & care from across the globe at #Quality2024 . A big theme is how relationships & relatedness are increasingly becoming the primary focus of change methodologies. Read this blog from North East and North Cumbria NHS on how a theory…

For the next three days, I am co-leading the 'change' theme at the International Forum on Quality & Safety in Healthcare. A big message is that we need to stand back & take a systematic view to address large scale, complex problems. See this brilliant set of graphics by Virpi Oinonen / Business illustrator…

This morning, we welcomed April Kyle & Doug Eby, from Southcentral Foundation, Alaska to WBS to share their incredible learning from SCF Nuka System. It's one of the best examples in the world of person-centred, community-led system redesign leading to significant…

Building a 'minimum viable community of practice'. Communities of practice (CoP) can be such powerful spaces for change. They enable people to share knowledge & experience & build collective capability for change. But what is are the bare minimum aspects that should be in place…

One of the best weekly newsletters I subscribe to is the Psychological Safety newsletter from Tom Geraghty. It always has excellent (relevant & useable) content. This week's topic is 'graded assertiveness' (when we need to communicate an important message to someone who is much…

How can we 'design out' big societal challenges like loneliness, or waste or crime?
1) Build alliances around the issue with key people
2) Focus on emerging issues which are difficult to understand let alone solve
3) Understand what you need to “design out” & who you are…

There's a myth that 'change has to start at the top'. Change doesn't come from top-down or bottom up. Change can come from anywhere. It emanates from the centre of networks. We get to the centre through small groups, loosely connected & uniting them with a shared purpose. It is…

I want to help make sure people in the leadership & practitioner communities know about the 'Cambridge Elements' series on major approaches to improving quality & safety in health & care. They're written by leading authors & free to all. In date order:
1) Design creativity…

This happens often when we give a talk and get the audience evaluation back. 99% of the feedback might be positive. 1% of it is critical. We largely ignore the lovely comments from the 99%. We just dwell on the negative feedback. Life & work is like that too. It's why we need…