The most effective leaders understand that problem solving is not a “one-size-fits-all” process. They know that their actions depend on the situation, and they make better decisions by adapting their approach to changing circumstances.
But how do you know which approach you should use in a particular situation? And how can you avoid making the wrong decision?
In this article we’ll look at the Cynefin framework, a tool that helps you make better decisions by assessing the situation you find yourself in.
The publication of The Forward View into action: planning for 2015/16 has seen a flurry of activity for NHS IQ. The guidance sets out the requirements for trusts to have met at least five of the ten seven day services clinical standards by March 2016. The NHS Trust Development Authority has also included assurance requirements in its guidance for trusts around how they are planning for seven day services and producing baseline assessments using the NHS IQ seven day services self-assessment tool.
Since these were published, the team has received a surge of requests for support from trusts and Clinical Commissioning Groups wanting to find out more and get their planning and improvements started.
Dr. David Munch, Senior Vice President and Chief Clinical Officer for Healthcare Performance Partners, is passionate about the
important role middle managers play in quality improvement. In a new post to the IHI blog, Munch, faculty for IHI’s web-based program, Leading Quality Improvement: Essentials for Managers, dispels five myths about building QI capability. “Building improvement capability is not only about skill building,” Munch writes. “It also means creating an environment in which
the frontline staff can identify and participate in needed improvements. It’s the role of management and the executives to create this environment.” In describing the ideal conditions for building capability to make and sustain improvements, Munch reveals how and why middle managers are uniquely important
in a system for improvement, and what some of their unique challenges are.
Building improvement capability is not only about skill building; it also includes creating an environment in which frontline staff can identify and participate in needed improvements. In this post, David Munch, MD, Senior Vice President and Chief Clinical Officer for Healthcare Performance Partners, argues in favor of better support for middle managers who lead improvement efforts by dispelling myths about building improvement capability. The myths identifies are:
Building improvement capability is all about learning a quality improvement methodology.
A strong quality department is all you need to make improvement.
Building improvement capability is too expensive.
The quality department should own improvement.
Executives have the most important role in making improvement.
One statement you will often hear senior leaders make is that “we need to align everyone to the strategy”. The problem with this idea is that strategy is not a ‘where to’; it is a ‘how to’. What we actually need to do is align our strategy to our aspirations. If, for example, we aim to double our footprint, then we better have a pretty aggressive growth strategy.
Think about the last time you came home from work completely and totally drained. I don’t mean the good kind of tired, when you’ve worked hard and gotten something done. I’m talking about exhaustion, colored by frustration and tinged with anger. Maybe you even felt hopeless. You were fed up, trying to be nice but snapping at family, wanting nothing more than to crawl into bed (or dive into a bottle of wine). If you’re like me, feeling pissed off and hopeless isn’t your natural state. And for those of us who love our work, feeling negative is doubly painful because it just shouldn’t be this way.
The expression of confidence is intimately tied up with leadership. Would-be leaders are careful to present a confident face because it helps gain them credibility and convince others that they know what they are doing. The problem is that leaders may be especially resistant to communicating uncertainty.
This digital report brings together examples of innovative practice from England and overseas to provide insight into future ways of changing health care for the better. Drawing on our work over the past two years, and highly relevant to the new models of care set out in the NHS Five Year Forward View, the report includes a rich variety of video, audio and visual case studies presenting the voices of patients, volunteers, clinicians and managers. It is aimed at anyone working in, or with an interest in, health and social care.
Sir Robert Francis’ report on whistleblowing in the NHS that identifies five overarching themes. These are the need for:
culture change
improved handling of cases
measures to support good practice
particular measures for vulnerable groups
extending the legal protection.
It sets out 20 Principles and Actions which aim to create the right conditions for NHS staff to speak up, share what works right across the NHS and get all organisations up to the standard of the best and provide redress when things go wrong in future.