BUSINESS IMPROVEMENT
employee engagement, leadership, culture, growth, a higher percentage of ‘satisfied’ patients, and a valued patient experience).
In many organisations, the principles can be observed in action and therefore pro- vide a checklist to determine whether the separate parts of an organisation are work- ing well. Where such principles are miss- ing we are likely to observe a shortfall from what is fully achievable.
We have framed a few questions around the principles to encourage thinking, de- bate and action on how your organisation, departments or teams might improve, to understand what is present and what might be missing.
To help the debate you might like to answer or score each of the following questions out of 10 and share your perceptions with your peers:
To what extent do you believe the organisa- tion chart helps you manage the complex- ity of your delivery of patient care?
To what extent do you believe that top- down imposed change harnesses support and delivers improved patient care?
How much flexibility do your frontline staff have to interpret processes using common sense responses to meet the variety of pa- tient needs and improve patient care using the skills and experience you employed them for?
Have you considered that leaders are op- erating at all levels and in all disciplines in your organisation and the consequences of not recognising and acting on this?
To what degree do your staff understand the purposes of the organisation and the parts they play in delivering the value proposition?
Do your staff contribute to team working to achieve delivery of the bigger picture for the NHS as a whole?
Is there a fully agreed strategy, and how much freedom does each department and team have to interpret, update and renew it locally for their particular circumstances?
How effective are your methods of engag- ing with staff in harnessing their know-how and innovation to develop future changes?
To what degree is there open and honest two-way dialogue between managers/lead- ers and staff, which builds confidence in the quality of the decision making through- out the organisation?
How well is patient care and its intended impact on society at large actually deliv- ered?
To what extent does everyone in your or- ganisation recognise that they are all re- sponsible for delivering patient care within the financial resources available and act accordingly?
Thoughts?
The NHS needs to take a lead from success- ful Trusts and private companies and build its own business value proposition and, we would contend, to introduce a differ- ent, more efficient approach to structuring, connecting and engaging all employees in the delivery of the most effective health- care for its key stakeholders the population of the UK.
There is no reason why, with the support of Government and trades unions, the clinical leaders, nurses and management can’t heal the NHS for the good of the patients and the UK economy.
Vin Mole
Dave Mettam
Jane Searles
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Vin Mole: 0161 486 5030 / 07889 403163
vin.mole@
compendiumukltd.com
Dave Mettam: 0161 43 1420 / 0801 414950
dave@interact-development.com
Jane Searles: 01538 372804 / 07900 175403
Jane.Searles@
btinternet.com www.janesearles.co.uk
Everyone can see the impact their contribution makes to the organisation’s performance as a whole. We achieve this by using a 10-step model to identify how each person’s roles and delivera- bles contribute to the delivery of the club’s purposes. The steps include the business strategy, an- nual plans, the teams and every individual’s deliverables.
We have one strategy, which is developed and reviewed with in- put from each business stream. Everyone in the organisation is connected by feedback loops down and up the organisation through their teams. In this way every individual has the opportu- nity to input and understand what is happening and why.
In summary, operating with these
structures and culture allows the club to engage with its staff and benefit from their know-how and innovation as a matter of course and leads to change often initi- ated by the staff at all levels in the organisation. Equally the structures provide for the trans- fer of information and ideas at all levels and dramatically improves not just the quality of the decision making but also the speed.
What did the staff think about this culture and structure?
In 2008 the Investors in People
audit reported: “A number of very complimentary comments were received about managers and how they are perceived to be very approachable, open and support- ive. This would appear to be in- dicative of the culture, inevitably stemming from the leadership of the senior management team and cascading throughout the organi- sation…Without exception inter- viewees described ClubAZ as a great place to work, some going so far as to say it was the best place they had ever worked, or describing how they had wanted to work for ClubAZ for some time before a vacancy arose.”
How well can the model cope with change?
In 2009 the club services were put out to tender by AstraZeneca
as part of a UK cost reduction programme. The Club’s leader- ship and staff entered a bid as ‘Compendium Wellbeing Ltd’ for their contract along with Sodexo Ltd and Nuffield Health.
Following Compendium’s sub- mission AstraZeneca suspend the bidding process, and later announced their decision to re- align the Club’s services within AstraZeneca.
FOR MORE INFORMATION Visit www
Vin Mole, one of the authors of this article, who was the UK di- rector of ClubAZ, developed the operational model and led the transformation. With Dave Met- tam and Jane Searles, they have translated the structure, adopting a number of the VSM principles, into a transferable model of ‘Dy- namic Organisation’.
Abc national health executive Jan/Feb 12 | 27
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