ogs - nhs employers/media/employers...also stay tuned to our website for our upcoming events and od...

A BOOK OF BLOGS

A leading workforce programme delivered by

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Do OD was created to support organisational and system-wide change in the NHS, with a particular focus on OD, HR and workforce leaders.

Across our web pages we give you access to a variety of blogs, articles and resources, feature OD superstars and provide insights from leading thinkers in the field, and summarise work across all Do OD projects.

The project is jointly led by NHS Employers and the NHS Leadership Academy by a team of six people: Paul Taylor, Karen Dumain, Danni Lindley, James Marcus, Jan Worthy and Rebecca Watts.

We would also like to say a huge thank you to everyone who has been involved in the Do OD journey so far, in particular, with this book of blogs. The support and enthusiasm we have encountered has been amazing - long may it continue!

Introduction

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Why a book of blogs?

What next?

In October 2014 we created #Blogtober. Every day for the month we published a blog that has been written by someone from the OD community. They were thoughtful, insightful and really popular, so we decided to turn them into a book and asked Simon Heath to create illustrations to bring each blog to life.

Blogs provide a flowing stream of thoughts, ideas and questions which stimulate learning and discussion.

We regularly use blogs from guests to start conversations and discuss OD topics. You can find them on our website www.nhsemployers.org as well as other articles.

We’d really love to hear your thoughts about the OD topics that matter most to you, so please do get in touch with your comments by contacting Paul Taylor at NHS Employers - [email protected].

Why not download our app? The app has information about Do OD including news updates and our twitter feed, as well as our Culture Change Tool.

This is designed to stimulate conversations with people in and outside your organisation on how you might individually and collectively take action on culture change, wherever you are on your journey. Download the app for free from iTunes and Google Play.

You’ll find the download links at www.nhsemployers.org/DoODapp

Also stay tuned to our website for our upcoming events and OD resources for you and your organisation.

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#Blogtober Day: Wednesday 1 October

Ever since the age of 14 I’ve had a job of some kind. I’ve had part-time jobs throughout college and university and full-time jobs since then. I’m proud (and lucky) to say that I’ve never been out of work. But at the same time I spent much of that time wishing I was doing something else but never knowing what it was supposed to be. I’d try a job and think: “nope, this isn’t the one”, and when I’d had enough of the politics or boredom I’d move on and try another.

Part of me loves to learn new things, so moving jobs isn’t an ordeal for me, I enjoy it. But on the flip side, when you can say that you’ve had more jobs than birthdays (since the age of 14) that does sound like quite a lot!

But then as part of the most recent NHS restructures I was given the opportunity for yet another new job and I thought that OD looked like an interesting team to be part of. Someone in my previous organisation had even said to me once that they thought OD might be something that would interest me. Turns out they were right!

I’ve spent 18 months working in OD now and I’m glad to say that I’ve finally found a career rather than just another job. At times over the past year I’ve thought “why couldn’t I have found my way here sooner?” but I’ve realised that it’s those past experiences, jobs and years that have made me the person I am and means I’m ready for OD.

When I look back over some of my jobs I can see what skills I’ve picked up along the way that form part of my role in OD. For example I spent 21 months working at a company selling spare parts for forklift trucks and built up skills in buying, sales, negotiation and customer service.

You can’t say they aren’t needed in OD?! I worked for a Debt Counselling Agency which helped me to understand other people’s circumstances and how to structure budgets. I’ve learned process improvement and knowledge of IT infrastructure at an IT support service to the Police and I’ve learned Project and Change Management processes and techniques when I helped to set up a new NHS organisation.

All of this knowledge and experience helps me to do my job today and if I’d got to OD earlier, I really don’t think I’d be properly equipped to deal with it!

Why I love ODSo all this aside, what is it that makes me love OD so much?

I like variety. I like that every project is something new with new challenges and new ideas. I can be creative and logical at the same time and there’s always something

By Cat Carpenter

A Journey from A to OD -

Why OD is the Place for Me

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new to learn along the way. I like that the different projects make use of my wide range of skills but at the same time they challenge me to use new ones and to develop myself.

I like that I get to interact with so many different people across the organisation at all levels. I’ve been known to say in previous jobs that “I’m not a people person” but I now realise that this was more a reflection on how the job was affecting me than this being true. I’m now really enjoying getting out and talking to people in our organisation, listening to their ideas, answering their questions and facilitating workshops.

I like that as a fairly young organisation there is lots to do and plenty of things I can contribute to.

I like that OD is working across the whole organisation, impacting on everyone; sometimes without them realising it, other times we are jumping up and down in their faces!Don’t get me wrong; OD can be hard.

I’ll never forget Mee-Yan Cheung-Judge saying that anyone who is a Myers Briggs J (Judging) will find OD hard because nothing is ever finished and that some days she has to go home and darn all the socks in her house so she can see something through to completion! I guess as long as I can recognise this potential problem I can deal with it using my own completion coping strategies. Or maybe sometimes things really do get finished (or at least handed over!)

The positives of working in OD certainly outweigh any negatives and the more we make happen as a result of it, the easier the doors in the organisation seem to open with smiling faces on the other side. To me, that’s making a difference and that’s what I need to achieve.

OD is the place for me.

Cat Carpenter is the Internal OD Lead at Greater East Midlands Commissioning Support Unit and can be contacted via Twitter @Cat_Carpenter, [email protected] or via LinkedIn.

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#Blogtober Day: Thursday 2 October

I love words, the sound of them, the way they roll off the tongue, the search for the perfect word with the perfect meaning at the perfect time. I like words like onomatopoeia and amoeba and love words with difficult to define meanings like ubiquitous and inscrutable ….

…. and there is no finer word to associate with organisational development than inscrutable! Everyone has a different definition and earnestly (another great word!) believes that we have to get the definition right if we are to do OD well. I disagree - sorry!

There are also those who find the OD link with HR uncomfortable - others insist they are perfect bed fellows - in fact, if there was an OD independence vote it would be harder to call than the result than the Scottish Independence debate! Incidentally, ‘kilt’ is also a lovely sounding word.

One of the great things about the Do OD campaign is that it doesn’t worry about precise definition, the beauty of the campaign is the ability to connect like-minded individuals to share a journey of development, success and failures but with a commitment to learn from the experience. To accept that we know roughly what we mean by OD and that is sufficient to make progress and to be collaborative (a stunning word!)

But the real delight of Do OD is the desire to help people network - face-to-face, emails, newsletters or virtually; in groups small and large. For what it’s worth, I think this is what has been missing from OD is the networking. There have been many well-meaning but often short-lived attempts to network, locally, regionally and nationally.

A year on the Do OD network is going from strength to strength and it feels very authentic (love that word) and remains vibrant. It is incumbent (ohh!) on all of us to keep it going. I intend to continue to play my part. You have my word!

- Dean

Dean is the Director of HR for Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust. The former Chief Executive of NHS Employers, Dean has been a DoOD supporter since the beginning and can be contacted via Twitter @NHS_Dean

By Dean Royles

Blogtober: It’s Only Words

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#Blogtober Day: Friday 3 October

I would not be doing my job as a Staff Nurse in an Accident and Emergency department if it wasn’t for my colleagues. Let me rephrase that – I couldn’t do my job. It would be impossible. I’m not talking about issues regarding staffing levels and the potential problems that arise from this though. Instead I’m talking about the bond I have with my colleagues which enables me to do my job. In short – they help me to keep going.

On days when I leave my work disheartened, exhausted and occasionally questioning my chosen vocation, they are one of the main reasons I go back the next day. Aside from the satisfaction of being lucky enough to help people at potentially the scariest moments of their lives, it’s my co-workers that motivate me.

At the age of 34 I’ve have had a fair few jobs. Teamwork was relevant throughout all of them. Here it seems even more essential than ever. My current job isn’t like Casualty or Holby City. Story lines don’t get wrapped up neatly prior to the credits rolling. No actors here. Real things happen. Real people get sick, and real people die. I’ve come to recognise the look that can appear across a person’s face when the realisation hits them that they’re about to lose a loved one forever. However, good things do happen too as well, honest!

Good or bad – it’s about sharing them and experiencing them with people that understand. I have often attempted to explain an occurrence at work to a loved one or friend and am met with a sympathetic nod accompanied by a vacant facial expression. That’s not their fault by any means.

How could they know what it’s like? But my colleagues know. When things get really tough at work, two pairs of eyes can meet across a department that’s bursting at the seams with a look that might say to me, “I know. I understand. We can do this.”

Not everyone is the best of friends obviously. That would be ridiculous and pretty much unheard of in any workplace environment anywhere. Not everybody agrees with how other people work either. However, in the moments where it’s needed the most, everything falls into place. I may work with someone who I have little in common with outside work, but they have taught me things which I will never forget. It’s these things that I’ll take with me on whatever journey the nursing profession takes me. At the heart of this reflection is the realisation of the importance of supportive teamwork. Being able to really lean on your co-workers and having awareness that you could be, and probably are, someone’s ‘leaning post’.

I believe that this makes us all equally important and responsible wherever we are on the professional ladder. Teamwork goes far beyond simply performing mechanical tasks together to get the job done and I think this applies to any organisation out there. Do you?

Matt Overy works for Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital Foundation Trust as a full time Staff Nurse in the Accident and Emergency department. You can connect with Matt via [email protected]

By Matt Overy

Teamwork in Accident

and Emergency Nursing

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#Blogtober Weekend Special: Saturday 4/Sunday 5 October

This post is about four very simple ideas that help make recognition matter.

In the middle of a recent week’s canvas of work was a trip to Tate Modern to enjoy the Matisse cut-outs. I had organised the trip through my business to see what we could learn and apply in our work from Matisse’s creative efforts in his later life.

Through the exhibition we observed that simplicity can be very powerful, and often requires lots of practice, the ability to adapt is vital, and in the right environment, creativity can flourish against the odds of age and infirmity.

I returned home two days after our visit to find a bright purple envelope waiting for me. I opened it, and inside was this beautiful hand-made card:

What a lovely surprise! In addition to the beauty of the card, there were four things that struck me about the experience:

• It was unexpected.• It is personal.• It is relevant – I love the simple genius of making a

cut-out card after visiting an exhibition of cut-outs.• It is timely – we visited the exhibition on a

Wednesday afternoon – the card is with me on Friday.

Thanks to Hilary who made and sent me the card – what a pleasure. I’m really grateful. This simple act of recognition is on my office wall and is a powerful reminder to me of the importance of saying thank you in a meaningful way.

I hope it strikes a chord with some of you too, so that the next time you spot someone doing something right, you might choose to act on one or more of Hilary’s powerful triggers for great recognition.

Doug is a facilitator, writer, speaker and artist and helps people to communicate and collaborate more effectively through the use of conversational techniques, artistic practice and smart use of social technology.

Doug believes we do our best work when we are doing things with and for each other, not to each other. You can connect with Doug on Twitter @DougShaw1 and via LinkedIn.

By Doug Shaw

The Art of Recognition

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#Blogtober Day: Monday 6 October

My childhood story heroIs the famous Dr SeussHis books were like a tonicMixed not with gin – but juice!His rhymes and lines enthralled meHis words just made me headyHe made me want to ready, go!When I wasn’t even steady!

Now you might think this irrelevantWhen talking about ODBut believe me there are elephantsIn every faculty!So I want to share my storyThrough the words of Dr SeussAnd hope that they might resonateOr even be of use.

So when I think of DoODI think at first of jellyAnd then I think of KojakWho used to be on tellyAnd then I think spaghetti(‘Cos I’m always up for food!)And then reality hits meAnd I think again of DoOD.

But DoOD is such a slippery thingIt wriggles like an eelIt’s impossible to see or touchAnd invisible to feelIt floats around like ether(Neither one thing or the other)It hates it if you look at itAnd quickly runs for cover.

Do OD is sneakyIt creeps around at nightAnd tries to find the gaps and holesThat open up the light.

Do OD is craftyIt never ceases to surpriseIt has a brain the size of SpainAnd a million staring eyes.

Do OD is cleverIt knows just what you’re thinkingIt has the strength to launch a shipAnd the sense to stop it sinking.

Do OD is caringIt wants to make things goodIt wants to make the place we workBe everything it should.

By Paul Deemer

#Blogtober: DoOD and Jelly -

An Ode to Dr. Seuss

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Do OD’s inclusiveIt wants to make things rightIt wants to give us equal sharesWithout the need to fight.

Do OD is mindfulIt thinks about us allWhether facing up to challengesOr backs against the wall.

Do OD is helpfulIt wants to be your friendBut look at me – I need to stopI’ve nearly reached the end

My childhood story heroHas helped me tell this taleAnd now I need to round things upLike cowboys rounding cows.

I need to find an endingThat’s not a piece of stringI need to end on somethingThat isn’t just a thing.

Do OD’s the answerIt has so many guisesIt comes in lots of different formsAnd many different sizesIt has a size to fit youAnd a vast array of stylesIt holds your hand and helps youAs you walk a million miles.It guides you to the rainbowAnd when you’re nearly ready You wake up and you look aroundAnd all you see is jelly!

Paul Deemer is the Head of Equality, Diversity and Human Rights at NHS Employers and can be contacted via Twitter @NHSE_Paul, [email protected] or via LinkedIn.

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#Blogtober Day: Tuesday 7 October

A couple of weeks ago, my American friend sent me a link to an article in the Independent (other broadsheets are available) about the findings of a Commonwealth Fund report entitled, ‘Mirror Mirror on the wall, how the Performance of the U.S. Health Care System Compares Internationally’. The report compared the healthcare systems in eleven of the world’s wealthiest nations, including France, Sweden, Canada, UK and obviously the USA. Of the eleven, the NHS was ranked top, and of the nine indicators, the NHS ranked first in all but two of them. The USA ranked last of the eleven countries, despite spending more than double per person on healthcare than the UK.

I circulated the article to my team and some colleagues and said, ‘on those tough days, remember that you are working for, and contributing to, the best healthcare system in the world – you are amazing!’ I was overwhelmed by the response it generated (more response than my emails typically generate, even the really witty ones)! People expressed their pride and passion for the NHS, for the incredible opportunity they have every day to make a difference to people’s lives; ‘at times of basic human need, when care and compassion are what matter most’ (as the NHS Constitution would say). More than that there was a palpable energy, a reinvigoration and commitment to protect the NHS, and to keep working to make it unquestionably the best in the world.

It struck me how powerful just that one email and article had been. How much we unwittingly imbibe the seemingly mountainous levels of negativity that can surround this wonderful, amazing and complex organisation. An organisation that frustrates, challenges and impassions

us and how that makes a tough job feel on some days impossible. Equally, if we seek out what is positive (like being ranked first amongst some of the best healthcare systems in the world), then we can find the motivation, passion and joy to recommit to doing what we do best, delivering, as a leading alcoholic beverage would say, probably the best healthcare in the world.

Charlie Shaw is the Senior OD Manager at Hertfordshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust.

Charlie loves OD because done well it can really make a difference, and because she believes the best way to look after the people we serve, is to look after the people who work at the frontline. You can connect with Charlie on Twitter @CharlieShaw

By Charlie Shaw

NHS British healthcare

rated top

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By Zoe Nicholl

Learning from Mary Seacole


I found myself replying to the chance of writing a blog for DoOD quicker than I could think rationally about it. And as petrified as I felt when I got a reply I was excited to give it a go. So heart racing…hands shaking…I begin my first ever blog. The next challenge – what to write about?! I was inspired by the DoOD Project group’s ‘safe place to stay sharp’ initiative which really got me thinking about what kind of practitioner I want to be. Cycling home from work on a Wednesday night my cogs started turning and I realised the possibilities of what I could write about were endless!

I’m nearing the end of 12 months studying on the Mary Seacole Programme – Leading Care 1 with the NHS Leadership Academy and with my final assignment looming I am in full reflective mode about the leader I want to be. My biggest challenge at the start of the programme was getting comfortable with the notion that I am a leader; I don’t line manage a team of people which in the past to me seemed a pre-requisite for leadership. I’m quiet, I have a natural preference to work collaboratively rather than compete with others. How can I lead? But then I had an epiphany – it went by the name of ‘distributed leadership’. This is what I learned…

We are all leaders

Distributed leadership argues that there is no such thing as ‘ordinary’ people and no place for heroic leaders. Rather there are simply lots of people with unique skills. When we are the appropriate person to lead on something we lead.

This has completely changed my thought processes! If leadership is to have an awareness of the skills and strengths that I can contribute and to use them effectively that doesn’t seem so scary.

It’s exhilarating! I suddenly feel free in my thinking and confident I can do this. So I’ve been practising; steeling confidence to put myself forward in my role, voicing my thoughts and ideas, and questioning and challenging where previously I may have stayed quiet and frustrated.

I feel more effective at work, stronger and clearer on the responsibility I have in service of ensuring patients get the best care possible. I feel confident and it is noticed by my colleagues in the way that I behave and how I contribute at work, and it is appreciated.

I am a leader in the NHS

Zoe Nicholl is an ODIL Facilitator at York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and can be contacted via Twitter @zoe_nicholl, or via [email protected]

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Being a role model doesn’t mean being perfect but it does mean being aware, and constantly learning. We should always role model.

Enjoy your mind, don’t be afraid of it, or what other people think of it.

Share ideas, join communities, network, read, tweet, us OD practitioners don’t work well in isolation we get lonely.

You are not as impotent as you imagine. Big systems or individual conversations are all part of our OD story and have an impact at some level – sometimes it’s essential to sweat the small stuff.

Expect to be blindsided – hey who doesn’t love being asked to facilitate a workshop you knew nothing about, full of senior people, with hardly any notice….!! Character building they tell me…

It’s about asking questions, not giving answers – isn’t our role to challenge, tip that status quo, point out the elephant in the room?

Take note of the compliments you receive, forget the disparaging remarks and times you were asked “so what does OD do again?” (if anyone has a pithy answer to this question, I’d love to hear it).

Follow through – no good asking questions, stirring up ideas, empowering others to take action, and then running away like it never happened. Sure, it’s not for us to take the change forward but we might need to be there to support the process, to keep momentum going, to continue that creative journey.

Act as if what you do makes a difference… it does.

Juliet Flynn is a Management Development Facilitator at Kent and Medway NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust (KMPT) and can be contacted via @JulietEFlynn or via LinkedIn.

By Juliet Flynn

What I’ve learned about OD

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By Tom Power

Tom - A letter to my

younger self


Dear Tom,

So, you’re leaving management and heading to OD eh? Well, you’ll certainly get to exercise both sides of your brain! And you’ll have the privilege of working with others as diverse as the CEO one day and a team of Theatre Assistants the next in a way hierarchy often doesn’t allow. But that doesn’t mean it’s easy! Here are a few things I’ve learned along the way that might be helpful as you dive in.

Firstly, make sure you can explain what OD is / what you are here to do without using jargon and abstract models. Your passion alone won’t count for much if people can’t understand it. ‘Helping our organisation to remain effective during change by supporting the development of people and processes’ is enough.

Do try to remember where you’re coming to OD from. As a lot of your work will involve engaging busy colleagues in delivering change (something that they don’t always see as their day job). So, it’s worth recalling what it was like when you were delivering similar services.

Help them to link what the organisation is trying to achieve, the support you can offer and the service they provide. Also, it’s a cliché, but patience is a virtue worth remembering, even when the heat is on. If you do your diagnostic work right, the robustness of what you help to develop will make the time it took to get there seem small by comparison. Get good data and engage people in understanding and applying it, involving them in identifying the real issues and developing viable solutions.

And finally, don’t be afraid to adapt things as you go. Letting things emerge and not drawing conclusions

early is a good way of ensuring that often very bright and committed colleagues don’t think you have a pre-determined answer or are trying to fix them.

This, and flexibility can be the difference between a really effective intervention and one that leaves people feeling short-changed.

All of the above will hopefully help you build on the valuable insights management has provided. There is much more that you’ll learn in the wonderful world of OD, but discovering it is half of the reward, so I won’t spoil the surprise by writing any more.

Good luck, and remember: enjoy yourself!

Tom

Tom Power is Head of Organisational Development & Learning at NHS Education for Scotland, a Special Health Board responsible for the education and training of over 160,000 staff in NHS Scotland. Tom can be contacted on Twitter @tomrpower or via [email protected]

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By Gary Theobald

Gary - A letter to my younger self

(if he could be bothered to read it)


In 1989, aged 27, and by then believing I knew all I needed to know about pretty much everything, I felt that local Government social services would be able to cope without me for a while, and I decided to move into the NHS. This was as a result of some really good advice from my mentor, and allowed me to take a role specialising in HR&OD.

What I had loved about working in general management in social services was the proximity to our service users, and the connection I felt between what my team and I did, and the service that was delivered to them. I thought that would be equally the case within the NHS, if not more so.

So what have I learned since then (that is both relevant and repeatable – and might be fit for others to ponder under the “Do OD” banner) that I might now want to share with my younger self, should I briefly be able to attract his attention? Five things, probably.

EngageThe more time spent on getting suggestions, ideas and involvement from our colleagues and stakeholders, the better. It’s not a panacea, but how often do we find that the answer to that seemingly intractable organisational challenge is actually lodged somewhere within the cohort most deeply affected? And how often do we forget that? Pay attention, younger me.

Less is moreIt’s an old maxim, but frequently ignored. Brevity often feels like a lost art, and we frequently wonder why we can’t take people with us on our beautifully designed change journeys when we don’t do them the courtesy of concisely setting out what we’re about and why they

should be interested – at least – and motivated, at best. One of the more famous quotes attributed to Winston Churchill was along the lines of “I’m going to make a long speech because I’ve not had the time to prepare a short one” and this demonstrates the challenge perfectly.

I’d urge my younger self to spend more time on boiling down the fundamentals of the changes desired, and keeping it simple. It takes time to do this, rather than blather on and bore people into submission, but it’s time well spent.

Picture thisI probably shouldn’t judge people by my own (low) standards, but I get the message a lot quicker if it’s conveyed visually. I often find that if you can describe something this way, through some decent graphics or even a simple flow-chart, then it’s probably a good sign that your idea may have potential.

Well at least you are able to describe it reasonably simply which means you then have a chance of being able to capture the attention and interest of your audience, even if only briefly.

We all have our own learning and engagement styles, but saying it with pictures works really well. Sit up and listen, younger me.

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Get over yourselfWell done you, for whatever it was that you did last time around that went according to plan/was delivered on time/gained you plaudits or bouquets etc.

However, any transferable learning will mean nothing if the next time you need to deliver a change or improvement, you rest on your laurels and make the mistake of ignoring the need to engage, listen and understand the organisational imperative and the context. Just because it worked before doesn’t mean it will work this time.

It’s our behaviour and our relationships that matterWe often make the mistake of thinking we need to reorganise in order to make the improvements we want to see. It’s a consequence of working in a political system where short term expediency often drives change, when actually we also need longer-term consideration and solutions.

The most beautifully planned structures will mean nothing unless we give time and thought to how we want the pesky humans in those structures to relate to each other, and with our stakeholders and the public at large.

Don’t forget why you’re hereFive things? Looks like there are six. (Note to younger self – your maths doesn’t get any better). The final thing to say to younger me is simply that public service is a privilege: we are here to make things better for the people that need and use our services. Nothing more than that.

Gary is the Head of HR and OD at Health Education England and can be contacted via Twitter @HEE_GaryT

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#Blogtober Day: Saturday 11/Sunday 12 October

Compassion starts with empathy, and then goes beyond – it leads to skilled action and a genuine emotional response to another’s suffering. Organisationally, it’s not enough to tell people to ‘be more compassionate’, and worse still to say ‘we’ll be measuring it.’ Authentic compassion comes from within.

As a work psychologist and improvisational comedy coach, I have had the privilege of working with incredibly talented and passionate people in both healthcare and comedy. On the surface, the two worlds would appear to have nothing in common.

However, I have discovered that the foundations of compassionate care and hilarious improvised comedy are more similar than you might think.

Great carers and great comedic improvisers need the same foundation to perform their crafts; full attention, deep listening, being completely in-the-moment with others, accepting-and-adding to conversation, and adaptability.

Healthcare providers improvise every day, and every patient interaction demands an element of improvisation. Patient consultations have no scripts. Within healthcare, improvisation is an overlooked, fundamental interpersonal skill set that empowers medical professionals to deliver outstanding compassionate care.

The good news is that improvisation can be improved and developed through increased self-awareness and training in how we communicate and act when we have no script to follow. Improvisation skills help increase capacity for empathy – deep listening

By Ryan Offutt

Laughing matters - What the principles

of improvisation can teach us about

compassion

People often think that improve comedy is simply ‘being funny on the spot’. The reality is that the best improvisers are great listeners.

Fantastic improvisers’ ability to listen completely allows them to genuinely and spontaneously respond to their fellow players. In comedy, what delights the audience is when they see genuine connections between actors on stage, not funny gags.

We have a rule in our improve comedy performance group – ‘no gagging.’ This means no making jokes that break ‘the reality of the scene.’ In that moment when you make a ‘gag,’ you stop responding to your fellow player, choosing your own agenda instead of collaborating with your acting partners. ‘Gagging,’ and pursuing your own agenda, kills the momentum of an improvised sketch in its tracks.

The same is true when providing compassionate care. Before I begin my medical improv workshops, I ask par-ticipants if there have been times recently when they’ve asked questions to patients and then not heard at all what the patients’ response was – everyone puts their hands up, every time.

This is the healthcare equivalent of ‘gagging,’ or ‘killing the momentum’ of the consultation. As we play improve games that emphasise deep listening, we increase individ-uals’ capacity to hear and increase their empathetic ca-pacity. Improve helps people get ‘out of their own head,’ and focused on the person in front of them.

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Instead of developing compassion from the outside-in, im-prove training helps people develop compassion from the inside-out, improving carers’ internal mindset for compas-sionate care. After all, there’s no ‘script’ for compassionate care – it’s always improvised.

Ryan Offutt is a work psychologist at Leeds University Business School, improvisational comedy coach, trainer and consultant. Ryan can be reached via [email protected]

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By Rebecca Watts

I Do Vs. Do OD


Growing up, I dreamed of my special day; marrying my Prince Charming in a picturesque castle with everyone ooh-ing and ahh-ing at the beautiful bride. The happiest day of my life, and a whole day about me.

When I started to plan my Phantom of the Opera themed wedding two years ago I learnt that my Disney-style dreams were misguided. I am sure the past and present brides among us realise very early on that the day is not about the bride, or even the happy couple.

When I thought about it, I realised there were a surprising number of parallels between OD principles and the world of white weddings:

Co-creation is keyI had never planned a wedding before; I didn’t know whether I wanted a sweetheart neckline with cathedral veil or that a cake would cost £400. To design the perfect day, I needed to call on the subject experts for their educated views and advice, and then test them out.

The wedding boutique knew all the dress styles available, but only my mother knew what would work for me. Whilst we should never devalue the OD theories or subject ex-perts we have available when designing an OD initiative, we should always ensure that we pilot our ideas with people ‘on the ground’ – only they will know the culture and context pivotal to success.

Be aware of existing relationships – but don’t be governed by themSo Auntie Jane can’t sit next to Nanna Ethel because she ran over her goldfish thirty years ago. Any bride will tell you that seating plans were the bane of their lives.

It is also no secret that a workplace has complicated relationships governed by historical experience and current priorities, but in when designing and implementing successful OD initiatives you will need input from both Jenny from data and Mick from HR as to why they don’t work together as effectively as they can and then collab-oratively determining how this can be improved. Ensuring they sit at different desks is not enough, but interestingly at a wedding this will suffice!

Plans, structures and timescales are needed but should not be inflexibleCertain stakeholders in the organisation’s development will need a plan with the details, a framework for delivery and timescales for completion to assure them that the initiatives you are drawing up are aligned to the business objectives and the detail has been though through.

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The venue and photographer will need detail, whereas the bridesmaids (and staff) won’t. Be flexible though – if the speeches run for thirty minutes instead of five, or a new priority comes to light, those involved will need to be able to adapt quickly.

Unpredictability is in our natureThe behaviour of your guests on your special day can never be predetermined, and neither can the behaviour of our staff through times of change.

Evaluate the factors that may contribute to someone acting out of sorts and appreciate that sometimes ‘life happens’ and people are preoccupied with other issues.

The way we behave is how we are communicating with the world at that moment, and we can encourage behaviour change sensitively and tactfully where it is not appropriate.

Be prepared for setbacksEnsuring a wedding goes smoothly is largely dependent on the many cogs of the machine running interdependently and reliably. If you lose one cog, then the whole thing may grind to a halt.

Ensure that you have a Plan B for everything, and monitor when some of your cogs may be losing enthusiasm or falling behind and may impact the success of your initiative.

If your senior management buy-in is dwindling, it is crucial to get that group back on your side; diagnose their issues and deliver the assurance they need that this will ultimately make the organisation more effective.

OD is never just about me, it’s about us. I am grateful to have the Do OD community as a valuable resource and network of like-minded, amazing people with great ideas and supportive natures. OD is not about what I want to achieve, it’s about finding what will work for everyone in

the organisation at that moment in time. The ultimate goal of OD is to improve the organisation through the people within it. With a wedding, it is to marry the person you’ve chosen to spend your life with. Never lose focus of the final outcome. That is all that matters in the end, not the long and bumpy journey it took to achieve it.

Rebecca Watts (neé Webber) is the OD Programme Manager for Health Education East of England and works part time as Senior Programme Officer for Do OD at NHS Employers. You can connect with Rebecca via Twitter @NHSRebecca, or via [email protected] and LinkedIn.

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By Nathaniel Johnston

Once upon a time... storytelling

in OD


Once upon a time…

What are the stories that have stayed with you since childhood?

I have always enjoyed stories. My Mum says I am a very good storyteller, but that’s certainly more to do with my ability to get away with things as the youngest child than any literary ability.

Given my religious upbringing it would be hard not to mention the Bible as the first story I heard. Then it would be the story of the Hungry Caterpillar with all those bright colours and delicious foods followed by hand-me-down Famous Five books. How could I not mention Harry Potter, which landed in my last year of primary school?

As I entered my teenage years and picked the easy option of watching the Hollywood blockbusters over reading the remaining Potter books, stories became a myriad school set texts like 1984, Of Mice and Men and A View from the Bridge.

Having moved through secondary school onto university and then onto my career, I have encountered a number of academic settings, development programmes and conferences. Regardless of the setting or the presenter, I quickly made the link between those who I remembered and those I didn’t.

Those who shared their experiences, anecdotes and stories about their past always stayed in my mind. I absorbed their history to help it inform and shape my learning and future.

Storytelling in leadership and OD…So what’s this all got to do with OD? If you haven’t guessed yet, this is a blog about storytelling in the workplace. Now, this isn’t a new idea, but only recently have I really considered it with any significant thought.

I read the other day that storytelling is the number one leadership competency of the 21st Century. Over and above anything else, good leaders should be able to tell stories. Quite a stark claim, and one I hadn’t heard before. I then read that Chief Storyteller is the next role that large organisations will be employing.

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According to Forbes, Proctor & Gamble have employed movie producers to help their leaders tell stories and 3M is helping managers write “strategic narratives”. Canon asks for business plans to be submitted with a story and Ritz Carlton asks staff to share a customer story in every team meeting.

Why tell a story?Sharing your experiences when delivering a message will bring it to life. Facts and details are what you might call ‘neutral’ until you are able to apply a story to give them meaning, The meaning that is created is what will bring staff along with you and help create the ‘line of sight’ between what we are doing and why we are doing it.

This isn’t more important than when people are going through change. As a leader, sharing something of yourself creates trust, demonstrates your authenticity and builds deeper relationships with your colleagues and stakeholders.

If you want to know more Google ‘storytelling OD’- there’s over 900,000 results.

So next time you need to deliver a message, a vision or a call to action, how might a story help you to engage the heart, minds and hands of your team?

Nathaniel works in leadership development for the NHS Kent, Surrey & Sussex Leadership Collaborative.

Passionate about developing people, Nathaniel supports the regional KSS OD network and internal OD for Health Education Kent, Surrey & Sussex.

Nathaniel loves OD because it puts people at the centre of improved business performance and can be contacted via Twitter @N8_tweets

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The use of Metaphors can help us bring the current structures, processes and (sub)cultures to life; Storytelling can help paint a picture of how our organisational landscape might develop. If this sounds too esoteric and left-field, fear not; all of this can be portrayed practically though a visual set of cultural maps/overlays.

Possible enhancements that could enrich the process of cultural mapping also exist. The use of Metasaga (Emil Joseffson, Kate Coutts) combines exploration of the physical landscape with storytelling in the Norse Saga tradition.

The use of ‘Oblique Strategies’ (Brian Eno & Peter Schmidt) can help unblock thinking when trying to perform a creative task such as future scenario planning. And I wouldn’t even rule out ‘gamification’; a horrible phrase, but a good friend of mine demonstrated something of this using her FarmVille application recently.

I’m certainly not adverse to online tools that might assist organisational mapping, but for me personally there is real value of working with paper, pens and materials that makes cultural mapping even more tangible and real; and creates the thinking to ensure it is both a reflective and engaging process for groups.

For example, tactile nature of shuffling and selecting the Oblique Strategies cards from the physical deck adds a sensation that similar online apps cannot replicate.

By Sandy Wilkie

Mapping the landscape - some

thoughts on organisational culture


“From up there you could see all that land; from the Back Settlement westwards where the railway moved into the pass, following the road toward the power station, the village beyond where the pass widened out towards the concession lands.

Birches clustered in sprays where the dried-up burns dipped into the streams....Flickers were coming off the loch and the massive sky seemed filled with a sparkling dust above those hot summer hills, fattened with plants and trees.” Alan Warner, Morvern Callar (1995)

Authors who set their stories within geographical & literary landscapes have always captured my imagination. From the imagined reality of Fens childhood (Graham Swift, Waterland, 1983) to the more recent landscapes of Argyll (Alan Warner) and East Anglia (Jon McGregor). Framing stories within the landscape creates the opportunity for connectedness, identity and ‘sense of place’.

The metaphor of an organisation landscape is a powerful concept. All organisations have history, structures, flows of information and physical artefacts.

The concept of cultural mapping can capture organisational traditions, portray current features and hint at future landscape change. With the past and present context understood, scenario-planning can be used to map out organisational development options in the future.

Cultural mapping can bring our organisational landscapes to life. Techniques such as Appreciative Inquiry can give us that historical insight we need in order to understand evolution.

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So what next? Well I’d love to play with these cultural mapping ideas further. I’d like to experiment with tools to capture real organisational landscapes.

It’s a concept that would work particularly effectively in the NHS setting, understanding the roots of healthcare in Victorian asylums through to the current challenges under new commissioning structures; through to future scenarios with fully integrated cultures across health and social care.

Interested in making this happen? I’d like to invite my colleagues from the Do OD Network to get in touch to see if a bit of co-creation can make cultural mapping happen in a real organisational landscape.

Please use my contact details below should this be something you would like to test out and you could be part of something great.

There is insight, richness and beauty in our (organisational) landscape to be understood and appreciated.

“When the mid-morning comes the sky is the colour of flowering linseed, a pale-blue hint of the full colour to come. Sometimes there will be clouds stretching, tearing, scattering patterns across the fields.” Jon McGregor, ‘In Winter The Sky; Upwell’, This Isn’t The Sort Of Thing That Happens To Someone Like You (2012)

Sandy Wilkie has held OD posts within the NHS and the Higher Education sector. He can be contacted via email address [email protected] and you can read more blogs from Sandy at lizardvanilla.wordpress.com

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By Anne Clare Gillon

What I find interesting about the

history of OD


I spend most of my research life looking into all aspects of OD, what it is, what it is not, where should it sit, what do we know about the profession. But one of the aspects of OD that fires my imagination most is its history.

I do like to visualise in my imagination as I am researching, so thought it would be fun to see pictures of some of the key figures in the hall of fame in early OD. Have a look at these photographs below and see if you can identify some of the names who are linked with early OD:

The first is Chris Argyris, on his right comes Warren Bennis, it was difficult to find a picture of Blake and Mouton, but I managed to find this one eventually, and they are followed by Rensis Likert, Richard Beckhard and Warner Burke. I love this photograph of Douglas McGregor in the second row, such an authoritative figure with his pipe in hand. Next to him, you can see Edgar Schein, Eric Tryst,

Ron Lippitt and finally Kurt Lewin. There are other key figures in the development of OD of course, but the people named above are amongst the leaders in the early field of OD. What is most interesting, is that if you read all the accounts of the history in the academic text, how linked the esteemed early leaders of our field all are, their paths cross and criss cross again and again.

Of course you also very quickly spot that (with the exception of Jane Mouton) they are all men. One of the quirks of history is that how it is documented matters and reflects the context of those who write.

Professor Bill Cooke points out that in two different editions of a French and Bell text, in the 1984 edition no females are mentioned. However in the 1996 edition, female scholar’s names are included. They are all white and with the exception of Eric Tryst they are / were based in the USA.

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I won’t comprehensively put dates or give you the themes to all of the key works of the leading thinkers, but I will pick out a little more detail. What is interesting is, that if you read all the accounts of the history in the academic papers and books, how linked they all are, their paths cross and criss-cross again and again.

In the last picture above, we have Kurt Lewin, the person who is most often referred to as the founder of OD. Sadly, Lewin died in 1947 therefore his direct work ended early in the history of OD, but he is considered to have set the underlying principles for, and the movement of OD in motion.

Ron Lippitt was also influential; he was on Lewin’s team at the Research Centre for Group Dynamics at MIT and in 1946 was one of the first trainers for T groups and a founder of the NTL Institute.

Richard Beckhard developed one of the first OD training programmes in OD at the NTL and Warner Burke established the USA basedOD Network, which now has a European offshoot.

When we are carrying out employee engagement, satisfaction or culture surveys, we can thank Rensis Likert, (as in the Likert scale) for founding the tool of organisation surveys. Chris Argyris has written several books on OD, some of which can be considered as classics in the field.

Edgar Schein was a key figure in the development of process consultation as an essential philosophy underlying OD and is a leading thinker on organisational culture. We associate Douglas McGregor with his Theory X, Theory Y and Robert Blake and Jane Mouton’s with their Managerial Grid.

We should not miss out the UK’s place in the founding of OD, particularly from The Tavistock Institute where, for example Eric Trist and Elliot Jaques carried out the first Socio-technical systems research studies.

In terms of the criss-crossing of paths, The Tavistock Institute and the MIT Research Centre for Group Dynamics jointly launched the Human Relations Journal in 1947.

This organisational link is not so surprising when you learn that, after leaving Germany in 1933, Kurt Lewin spent time at The Tavistock Clinic (The Insititute was not formed until 1947) and then Eric Trist visited Yale in 1936 where he again met Kurt Lewin.

The cross Atlantic relationship continued with Warren Bennis and Robert Blake also studying at The Tavistock Institute as did Chris Argyris, who held several seminars with several of its leaders in the mid-1950s.

So where are the all the women and where is the diverse mix which we enjoy in our community? We know that in the UK we now have leading figures in the field of OD, with Dr L Mee-Yan Cheung-Judge and Dr Linda Holbeche amongst their number. Our whole community must find its voice, get involved in research and start shaping the future of OD!

Anne Clare Gillon is a Lecturer at The University of The West of Scotland. She is a Chartered Fellow of the CIPD and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

In 2015 Anne Clare has been elected to be a Vice Chair of The British Academy of Management (BAM). She is a former Chair of BAM’s Organisation Transformation, Change and Development Special Interest Group.

Anne Clare is a novice Twitter user @UWSACG, but she is best contacted at [email protected]

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The following four tenets of networking will help us all build better networks within our health systems:

Really ConnectConnecting is not enough, you need to follow up as soon as possible and really connect.

Help!It is all too easy to attend a meeting with someone in our network and be fixated on what we want; instead, think about what you can do to help.

FacilitateIn our private lives we make referrals all the time; from great plumbers to brilliant accountants. Doing the same within a health system strengthens the links and enhances relationships between all parties. Give someone an introduction to live up to!

NurtureA great relationship is nurtured through continued interaction and the flow of value. Keep in touch and demonstrate how much you value your relationships.

Simon Phillips is the author of “The Complete Guide to Professional Networking: The Secrets of online and offline success”.

His passion for Organisational Development within Health and Social Care began in 2002 and is currently working with Central Southern CSU.

Simon can be contacted via Twitter @1simonphillips

By Simon Phillips

Building Health System Networks


In 2005, I was involved in two system improvement projects; both focused on the patient experience of admissions and discharge, both involving professionals from across multiple Health and Social Care organisations and both a major priority for the organisations involved.

However, initial results were dramatically different. The overall pace, enthusiasm and energy involved was dramatically different and the cause was not obvious.

However, one conversation with a discharge nurse on the failing project, set us straight; “I just wish they would talk to each other!” she said. What she was identifying was a lack of meaningful dialogue between the leaders at the hospital and the local GPs, but the protagonists could have actually been any of the key stakeholders. They were just not networking.

Bringing People TogetherWe switched our efforts to focus more on facilitating local system networks. We created space for the stakeholders to connect/reconnect at a fundamental level – as people concerned about the health and wellbeing of their fellow human beings, not directors and budget holders. Almost overnight, improvement was accelerated as the volume of assumptions decreased (the phone was easier to pick up when it was a friend at the other end) and the opportunities for greater resilience increased (primarily through informal conversations).

What is Networking?The best networkers in the world agree that networking is all about relationships. Relationships are not the result of exchanging business cards or connecting at a conference; these activities may form part of the process but relationships form over time.

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By Byron Currie

What OD means to me

#Blogtober Day: Saturday 18 October

Organisations are made up of people. People make organisations. So defining OD in the NHS for me is quite simple.

It’s about developing a group of people so that they are more able to deliver the vision, mission and strategy of their organisation, maximising the psychological and emotional contract with employees, simultaneously enhancing and modifying their skills, so that we consistently give the best patient care (or support to front line health workers) possible. OD is everyone’s business, their key business.

In testing financial times, it is crucial that all NHS boards and staff see OD as a lever to maximising organisational potential, which means for the NHS improving the health and lifestyle of all citizens, and in turn helping to improve society.

For OD to be successful, it cannot be left to the few OD specialists to wave a magic wand that leads to sustained organisational improvement. No. It is the responsibility of all employees at whatever level to contribute to the development of their organisation, in a systematic way that maximises their energy and creativity.

I recall a really successful OD intervention. I have previously worked within a regional organisation that had a centralised HR offer. Electronic Staff Record (ESR) was managed centrally and payroll services were offsite.

Colleagues had no real time electronic data on their personal or payroll, and managers had to manage the team’s performance, attendance, training and development plans etc. through a range of electronic or paper based systems.

HR were required to respond to most basic of employee enquiry because the employee and manager were not empowered to have individual or team based data to inform their personal, operational or strategic plans.

I was part of a project team responsible for the implementation of self-service ESR to employees and managers.

The project identified a range of benefits of the implementation. However the most impactful one wasn’t one that was identified during the project development phase, but soon became evident after implementation.

It was quickly recognised that the implementation of self-service ESR led to significant step changes in how people behaved and were managed.

For example:• managers were better able to plan their work

activity around people’s planned absences from the workplace, as they now had access to real time attendance data

• managers took more ownership of supporting long term sick employees back into the workplace, or putting improvement plans in place for those staff that had high levels of short, uncertified sickness absence

• employees, who now had to request training and development courses through the IT system that then alerted their manager of this request, were now having conversations with their manager, rather than the HR team, as to how the training would be beneficial to meeting their objectives

• as employees now had access to their full payroll and expenses record, colleagues became more knowledgeable in understanding the data on their payslips, and more confident in approaching payroll direct regarding pay related queries, thus freeing up some of the operational responsibilities from HR.

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• Co-create your OD strategy fully utilising the knowledge, feedback, skills and energy from your staff. Include feedback from your patients, customers, stakeholders, and your trade union partners. Use both qualitative and quantitative data sets.

• Don’t forget about the learning and sharing opportunities that networks and partnerships provide. There are many organisations doing fantastic work in and around health and social care. Develop and maintain a healthy and varied network of people and organisations in and around the NHS.

• Be mindful that traditional Performance Management systems usually prioritise business objectives above developing people and organisations.

• Ensure you maintain your work-life balance, so you have time to relax, recharge and to feed your creativity.

Byron Currie has been the Head of HR and OD at the NHS Leadership Academy since July 2012.

He has held a range of leadership positions in the public and private sector since 2000, and within the NHS since 2008.

Byron is a Fellow CIPD and holds an MSC in Strategic HRM, and can be contacted via [email protected]

I was also part of an organisation that was responsible for developing local services and facilities for local people.

The organisation only seemed to work with established and relatively secure community groups and local service providers who may not have had a full and detailed knowledge of the area, and appeared to have little connection with the residents too.

On one occasion, the organisation arranged an event to get views from organisations and residents of the local area on how to best develop particular services.

Delegates from the “established organisations” were invited to present first, and their content appeared to be very out of touch that it irritated many of the delegates who were listening.

Some of the delegates spoke passionately about events that had recently happened which conflicted with the original presentations. The facilitators were completely unaware of the context and were clearly caught off guard… big time…which had significant ramifications for the reputation of the organisation.

On reflection the design of the event may have been OK, but clearly the facilitators hadn’t fully prepared and were unaware of the historical and cultural context, and had not thought how to manage related conflicts during the session.

• Nothing changes if behaviour doesn’t change – never forget the power of your personal behaviour in demonstrating the changes you wish to achieve.

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By Paul Draycott

The ice bucket challenge


This summer has seen a phenomenon that, on the face of it, was impossible to predict; a phenomenon that added to demonstrate the power of social media. It importantly demonstrates the benefits of people thinking creatively which has meant millions of pounds for charity.

A golfer from Florida, Charles Kennedy,(featured in The Telegraph, 20 August 2014) is credited to have started to relate the ‘Ice Bucket Challenge’ to charity when he was asked to do it as a dare and said he would do it to support Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS); as his cousin is someone who is affected by the condition.

He then nominated his cousin’s wife to take the challenge and urged others to do the same. It was taken on by a New Yorker, Pat Quinn, who also has ALS. He launched a campaign to help his friend and fellow ALS sufferer Pete Frates who was responsible for the social media frenzy by posting videos of friends which has then gone world-wide.

The key to this whole phenomenon, like many simple successes, has been creativity and innovation. People standing back and spotting opportunities to do things differently for something they are passionate about.

Being innovative and doing things differently that we are passionate about – sound familiar? It is what staff in the NHS attempt to do all of the time. I say attempt because we know that we don’t always find enough time for reflection, innovation and change in the way we do things.

The evidence from the work of Professor Michael West (and others) has demonstrated many useful principles but one that is not as widely quoted is that of reflexivity – individuals and teams taking time to reflect.

We just don’t seem to value it enough as a community, we don’t appear to see the value of it in comparison to ‘doing things’.

Our prime role is to clearly deliver quality, safe services but enabling innovation is essential and reflection is key. Why do Google, Yahoo and Apple support staff to be creative, because it is vital for their business. We provide care but understanding how, learning, innovating is just as vital to find space for.

For professionally registered practitioners, reflection is part of our portfolio requirements and for some it is vital for revalidation. Does it work? For some yes, models of reflection are great but it tends to be for some individuals it will work for others it won’t.

We visited Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust recently. What an inspiration they are – not just the executive team that have led some of the changes but just as impressive are the staff that talked about their experiences with pride and conviction and just as importantly were able to use information effectively to evidence it.

They have provided time for reflection linking innovation and time to quality. They have provided the tools and a consistent message that is relevant, understood and owned by staff but also relates to the patients and community they serve - great people trying to do great things for their community. They are the first to admit they have things to improve but my goodness how they have progressed.

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So what can and do we do? We can, like the evolution of the Ice Bucket Challenge, take what others internally and externally do and build on it and make it work for us.

There are great examples of it across the NHS but we aren’t good at allowing ourselves the space and time. We need to consistently see that as important.

In the Observer article entitled ‘Addicted to Email?’ (30 August), Yvonne Roberts states “American Gloria Marks, professor of interactive and collaborative technologies, has found the average worker checks his or her emails an extraordinary 74 times a day.” Wow.

She also says now that Daimler, Volkswagen and Deutsche Telekom have a ‘holiday mode’ for emails saying an alternative contact and that your email will be deleted from the person’s inbox - delight for some, worst nightmare for others but something to consider for those chained to an inbox.

Meetings – are we clear what they are about? What is the purpose? Whose assurance are we looking to meet? Information sharing and problem solving, identification, learning but is that what we do or are they focussed on something less relevant?

It needs to be valued and time allowed by managers and leaders across the NHS to allow front line staff the space and time they need. One lesson from Salford – the right level of staffing is vital!

We actually do reflect, often - post incidents, on the drive home from work, talking to colleagues, breaks, reading this and other blogs - it’s turning that into action where we could do so much better and doing it with colleagues so there can be a collective change.

We should each think about Charles Kennedy, Pat Quinn and Pete Frates and see if we can enable even greater services than those an amazing NHS already provides.

I’ve been nominated by my son for the Ice Bucket Challenge so I’m off to join a global phenomenon, add to a great cause and nominate our chair of staff-side.

Paul Draycott is the Acting Director of Leadership and Workforce, North Staffordshire Combined Healthcare NHS Trust and can be contacted via Twitter @DraycottPaul

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I thank colleagues and friends who have inspired me, challenged me in those informal conversations. The ones that after make you go ‘ahh’ and where that light really does get turned on and a connection made.

It means I also have to be mindful in all of my conversations - true, courageous, brave, honest with myself. I don’t get it right all the time.

I’ve been privileged recently to work with both emerging new NHS leaders as well as a group of executive future NHS leaders. It’s a powerful reminder of the value of our words and conversations. Those questions, encouragement and important challenges that support and develop the potential in us all.

Working across systems and boundaries is hard sometimes. It’s the OD world of working between the spaces and crossing the bridges. I hope I have helped others to cross those bridges. I know my conversations with others have been immensely helpful, as my bridge collapses or when the walls in my space suddenly grow closer.

It’s these conversations that make a difference. The power of our words.

I’ve been working on the OD Culture Change tool co-creating with 10 brilliant healthcare organisations and our academic partner Stefan Cantore. It’s built around the questions we can ask, and the power of our conversations. Every day I have the gift to create my culture and influence others. We hope others will find the tool helpful in looking at their culture and the changes they need to make.

By Karen Dumain

Singing Along to Bananarama


My teenage years were lived through songs – the emotion, the story, my connection. Singing my heart out, knowing each and every word to different songs. I love words, any words. Those that are written, spoken, sung. My on-going love affair with words continues with my love for opera, musicals, plays and poetry.

At one event recently a speaker used the Bananarama single ‘It ain’t what you do but the way that you do it’. I know for some of you that will be Bananarama who? They were an all-woman 80s girl band with great hair. It’s a great lyric and in our world of Organisational Development (OD) to show the importance of the how over the what.

As I was singing and dancing along in the 80s, it represented individuality and a spirit of independence to me, and now I find myself changing the refrain to ‘It’s not what you say but that the way that you say it’.

I’m the ‘why use one word when you can use seven’ kind and it’s something that I have to work on. Why? Because as a good friend reminds me, it’s important to think about the impact of me. How do others see and hear me?

I passionately believe that good, rigorous, OD holding true to its profession makes a difference. A real difference. But it’s not abstract it’s me, us, our conversations that can provoke, inspire, deflate or deny. Mee Yan Cheung Judge talks in a wonderful and inspiring way about using the self as an instrument. Every time I speak I have an opportunity.

How scary is this? It’s not just those conversations we might plan for that need some thinking about but also those instant, in the corridor chats.

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I’ve been watching my teenage daughter dancing and singing her songs and searching for 2014 update of Bananarama’s song. I’ve had lots of fun joining in the singing but they are her songs, not mine and maybe the next line of the old classic is good enough:

It ain’t what you say but the way that you say it that’s what gets results.

Karen joined the NHS Leadership Academy late in 2012 and works nationally and regionally to de-velop leadership & Organisational development capability, as well as working in partnership with NHS Employers to help develop and support the Do OD network & resource.

The golden thread in all her work is the passion to support people and organisations to be the best they can be, coaching, facilitating and bringing a curiosity and belief in developing potential where ever people and teams might be within organisa-tions and across systems.

Karen can be contacted via Twitter @KarenDumain1 and via [email protected]

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And most importantly, we need to welcome these concerns and suggestions and to say thank you.

It’s not always easy to manage the suggestions and ideas and it’s sometimes easier to wish that they had not been made. It can be very frustrating and time consuming. But we know that that’s how we learn and how we make things better and it’s how we include everyone in the journey.

Does anyone else remember the advice the Hues Corporation gave to us in 1974, about not tipping the boat over?

David is not currently working, but until recently was the HR & OD Transition Director for NHS Improving Quality (NHSIQ).

He can be contacted via Twitter @DavidMBell or via LinkedIn.

By David Bell

Rocking the boat


I am sure I don’t need to remind an OD community about the wonderful grassroots-led NHS Change Day?

It attracted more than 800,000 pledges in 2014, including my own, which was, to apply my own knowledge and skills to making the NHS better for staff and patients as an HR and OD practitioner. Don’t forget it’s all happening again on 11 March 2015.

However, it is probably a little less likely that you know about the fantastic School for Health and Care Radicals, but I really recommend finding out more. Led by the amazing Helen Bevan, we radicals joined an online programme to help give us the tools we need to be change agents in our everyday working lives, to put us in touch with other radicals, to help us make a positive difference to health and care and most of all to learn how to rock the boat without falling out.

More than 1,500 people took part during the term and over 60 people became certified change agents and boat rockers as part of the school. Somehow someone worked out that it had a Twitter reach of 2.6 million.

It seems to me that this is a great example of what OD practitioners are trying to achieve for our organisations.

We know that a healthy organisation is one in which everyone is valued for their unique contribution and where there is open and honest communication and trust and we also know that people value and support something they can influence and help to build.

We want everyone to be focussed on safety, quality and innovation and so we want everyone to be raising concerns and having them addressed and we want everyone to be making suggestions about how to make things better for patients and staff.

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Each workshop lasted four hours and had around 20 people. In the scale of culture change and OD interventions it’s fair to say it’s a tiny one.

Yet the outcomes have far exceeded the expectations. It’s helped to break down some of the barriers between managers and front line staff, it’s improved service user satisfaction on the wards and it’s allowed front line staff to tell and hear their stories and lead for improvement and change regardless of hierarchy and professional position.

In OD we are often focussed on the big strategies, the workstreams and programmes that deliver culture change and this can feel overwhelming or that we are under resourced. Sometimes a small perfectly crafted intervention can maintain our energy and faith to make a difference.

Sandi is the Director of HR & OD at East London Foundation Trust and would like to thank OD consultants, Mayvin, for their contribution to the storycircles project.

Sandi can be contacted by email [email protected] or for more information on the project, contact Juliet Flynn, Senior OD facilitator at Kent and Medway Partnership Trust.

By Sandi Drewett

Storycircles


Every man needs his space - there’s a man shed in Thanet. It wasn’t there last year. It’s a space for service users with dementia. It’s a space away from the ward where men can work on projects in a safe way, at their own pace and in a safe friendly environment.

There’s a choir on a ward. It wasn’t there last year. It’s a space for service users to find their voice and sing with others. There’s a pat dog that visits an older adult ward. He didn’t visit last year. He provides company and comfort to service users.

These and over 15 other service improvements are the result of two staff storycircle workshops. These workshops brought together front line staff and invited them to tell stories of when they had experienced something extraordinary at work.

The themes from these stories were collected and used to support ideas of what could be done to be extraordinary more of the time. Using the other participants in the room ideas were generated and evaluated and over the next six months put into place.

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do in that next right now (a new step one). In the present we never know what will happen next.

We have to be open, adaptable, and willing to experiment. It is only in this place of uncertainty that learning is truly possible.

Whether trying to find blame for something that happened in the past, or careening down a predefined path toward a future that must be there -- in either case, the risk is in closing oneself to what may be going on along the way.

These stances shut off curiosity and any ability to learn from what is happening. If we can develop the discipline to live most of our lives in the present and find the courage to be comfortable with all the uncertainty that implies, we will have cultivated our ability to learn more fully.

Michael Ciszewski has built an international OD practice over the last twenty years with experience in the US, UK, Europe, Africa and Asia.

Based in Washington D.C., he specialises in helping executive and leadership teams have potentially difficult conversations. Michael can be contacted via [email protected] or Twitter @CampdenHill

By Michael Ciszewski

A theory of change


The way we have thought about change over the years has been influenced by the social and scientific thinking of the time.

• Kurt Lewin’s unfreeze-change-refreeze is straight out of the linear cause and effect world of Newtonian physics and Cartesian epistemology: Change as a planned and managed process.

• As we started to familiarise ourselves with systems thinking and large-scale change efforts, we taught ourselves to work with transformation -- something bigger and more complicated, but still with causal chains and loops that fit with the world as we understood it. The world was speeding up, but it was still something we could manage through.

• Now we have quantum physics, complexity science, behavioural economics, and other disciplines that are showing us that change is not manageable, controllable, or able to be planned. It is with us all the time as an emergent phenomenon.

The river is perhaps the most apt metaphor for thinking about change. As steady and constant as the mightiest of them can seem, we can never step into the same one twice.

Another illustration of this perspective is contained in the proverb that instructs us there is no step one, step two, step three; there is only step one. We have moved from a concept of change as something you do through planning and execution to change as something that is.

Because change is always with us, it is far more effective to decide what to do right now (step one), watch what happens, and on the basis of those results, decide what to

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By Alex Shepherd

My first experience of the NHS and

OD

#Blogtober Day: Saturday 25 – Sunday 26 October

I started with the NHS, like many others I am sure, as an agency worker. A three week role eventually turned into me applying for a permanent role within our OD team, and I am now excited by the idea of working here even longer!

Why?

Despite my colourful job history, I could certainly never be called a quitter, especially when it comes to a challenge! And challenge it was; I was joining a sector I had no previous knowledge or experience of (what does NHS restructure even mean?), and I previously didn’t know what OD was.

This does not sound like a recipe for success, but luckily, I have a passion for learning, and once the three week role turned into me becoming a permanent addition to our OD team, I had to learn fast!

My learning began with the 2013 NHS restructure. This gave me some before and after, and it turned out that I was working for an organisation that had not been alive for much longer than my own employment within it.

The fact that this organisation had brought together numerous people from what were the primary care trusts, along with other areas, understandably many processes and practices were fragmented.

As a new growing organisation, many new employees were joining us, and there wasn’t a corporate induction process to welcome them. This was my first task; what better place to start for someone as new as myself with so much to learn?

I knew how hard it was joining the unknown. Even with background research, which we all should do before starting a new job, how much can you really know about an organisation that is in its infancy before you join it? And if you’re new to the NHS, where can you even start to understand your place within it?

I drew on my own experiences, of all of the inductions I had ever attended, and on my own feelings of entering an unknown entity, along with expertise from my new colleagues, to compile the suitable content and structure that any new employee would need.

No matter what grade, role or previous experience of the NHS, it needed to be relevant and inclusive for all. For a new organisation, it was essential to ensure that all new recruits were receiving the same valuable corporate messages, so that we would all work together, from the same page, and grow!

I learned more about the NHS within a few weeks than I had ever known in my life. I learned so much about the organisation; who’s who and what we do, that some members of my team now look to me as the ‘go to’ person for information about us as an organisation.

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But mainly, I learned about what makes me and others tick when starting a new job. It’s that sense of empowerment that knowing the bigger picture gives you. It’s sharing and believing in a set of values, and knowing that what you do matters, as we are all one team!

It is these things that have made me stay in the NHS, and I can’t wait to have so much more to blog about in the future!

Alex discovered what it is like to work in OD and in the NHS a year ago – the variety and change that this brought is what has made her stay and want to learn so much more.

Alex can be contacted via twitter @AShep987 or [email protected]

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By Fay Andrews-Hodgson

Coaching’s key ingredient

#Blogtober Day: Sunday 26 October

The coaching arena can be a hugely powerful place for both coachee and coach; when coaching goes well it really can feel magical. In these moments it can be tempting to allow the experience to seep into our ego as a coach. For this reason, one of the key ingredients of coaching is humility. Without it there is the potential for us to go for the glory.

So how do we maintain that humility? One way to look at it is that the magical bit is the coaching process itself, that we are merely conduits of this wonderful thing called coaching.

Another way to look at it may be similar to what is described in Elizabeth Gilbert’s (author of Eat, Pray, Love) fantastic TED talk called ‘Your elusive creative genius’. She challenges the societally accepted view that artists are people tortured by their creative talents, questioning whether it has to be that way.

To do this, she looked into past civilisations and noticed that this view of creative people has not always been the same.

According to her talk, Ancient Greeks and Romans didn’t believe that creativity came from human beings, rather that they had a ‘genius’ – a magical divine entity that lived in the walls of an artist’s studio, like a little house elf.

This psychological construct allowed the artist to distance themself from the outcome of their work and this in turn protected the artist from the potential pitfalls, e.g. narcissism, if the work was brilliant (as the artist couldn’t take too much credit), or depression, if the work was rubbish (because obviously your genius had been useless that day and you couldn’t held entirely responsible!) But then the renaissance came and people changed their description from people having a genius to being a genius. Elizabeth argues that this was a mistake.

That now the highs and lows of a creative person’s work fall straight onto their ego with no psychological construct to protect them. Hence the tortured artist.

As silly as the idea of having a house elf appears, this strikes me as an interesting psychological construct for coaching.

It is undeniable that coaching is hugely rewarding for the coach as well as the coachee, and there are plenty of opportunities for us to take power out of the relationship if we are not really careful.

So to keep our ego intact and maintain our humility, perhaps we can do what Elizabeth Gilbert suggests…that we do our part and show up for work (to coach), and at the same time invite the genius elf to join us!

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Fay Andrews-Hodgson has been an OD practitioner for over six years at York Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, with a focus on delivering bespoke OD.

She started her journey towards OD ten years ago when she reflected upon what truly interested her the most, and concluded it was the way people work.

She graduated with an MSc in Occupational Psychology, developing a further specialisation in coaching and more recently in coaching supervision. Fay can be contacted via Twitter @AndrewsHodgson and blogs on her website.

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By West Midlands Ambulance Service OD Team,

and Jacynth Brown

The stories we tell

#Blogtober Day: Sunday 26 October

As an OD team in West Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust, we have a belief of regularly developing together; it’s our safe place to stay sharp so that we can provide the right experiences in the right way to enable us to support others to ‘stay sharp’. One way we do this is by hosting a themed conference every year.

Last year’s theme was about innovation and storytelling and the closing address, delivered by Jacynth Brown non-executive director, was so powerful it stands on its own:

Innovation and storytelling, wow, who would have thought that the two would go together?

Over the years we have heard a lot about innovation and innovating to stay current and ahead of the game. Story telling has been less popular. Often I hear people bemoan the challenge of innovating along with the need to deliver evidence-based practice… ”we must have the evidence or how do we know it will work?”.

A good question to ask is, “what is the power of storytelling and innovation in the real world of the NHS?” Does it really fit? Well if you think about it we are constantly telling stories, sharing accounts of people and events that have crossed our paths, talking about things that went well and recounting the times things didn’t go so well.

Why do I tell you these stories? They are my stories, my experiences; these are the stories of so many, the stories I grew up on and the stories that have made me who I am.

What are your stories? What has been your journey up until now? It’s time that these stories had a different ending.

It is said that we are all wired to tell stories; they take place in our imagination and are a pathway to engaging our right brain and triggering our imagination. Stories help us to see things differently and increase our empathy for others. Through our imagination we tap into creativity that is the foundation for innovation, self-discovery and change.

My question to you all is what are the stories that you tell and how do those stories challenge and encourage change and innovation? What are you going to do differently, how are you going to challenge yourself and your colleagues to think differently. We all know the saying ‘if you keep on doing what you’ve always done you will always get what you always got!’

At some point in time we all need to be encouraged to

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think differently and to innovate so let’s dare to dream and let’s start telling stories.

The full text is a great example of how to tell a powerful story and you can read it here.

Jacynth Brown has over 25 years of NHS experience, starting her career as a nurse, midwife, and health visitor.

She progressed throughout her career to become an Executive Director of Clinical Leadership within a Primary Care Trust and an Acting Director of Nursing within a Strategic Health Authority.

Jacynth has been an active member of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) and can be contacted via [email protected]

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By Andrew Moore

We all wobble at times


Like many of you within our community of practice I found myself ending up as a practitioner having followed a winding road of twists and turns throughout my career path taking in both the leisure and travel industries before settling in generalist HR for a number of years, latterly with the NHS.

This changed when I made the transition to OD and realised that this was my place, this is where I fit and where I wanted to be. Why? I felt I could align myself and my values very comfortably within my practice.

I have always been passionate about people and their development and recognise that this has given me the most reward over the course of time. The move also coincided with a particular ‘wobble’ for me personally which I now believe has supported and informed my practice.

It began my thinking that no matter who we are or where we come from we all have a winding path that we travel on to get where we end up, this path has many challenges for us to negotiate on the way. I, like you, see, hear and feel this every day with the people as individuals and teams in difficulty who we work with.

It seemed that much of our time was spent coming in to support a situation once it was broken, involving tidying up, mending and developing.

The reasons teams and individuals get into difficulty are vast, one reason that we hear often through our work is change. Clichéd though it may be, it is widely recognised that change is now the only constant.

So was there anything that we could do differently? I began looking at the literature around personal resilience with a view of proactively ’front loading’ our practice through the introduction of personal resilience learning and interventions within the organisation.

This is work in progress but so far we have introduced personal resilience workshops, a masterclass series with expert speakers, a mindfulness programme to name but a few as well as ntroducing one to one building resilience conversations.

My experience of the work is largely positive through the creation of space and permission for us to think about personal resilience.

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It is also heartening to recognise the positive impact that colleagues get from hearing each other and myself as a practitioner putting my ‘self’ in that space alongside them that hey we all wobble from time to time, let’s look at what’s out there that might support us.

In the confusion, anxiety and emotions that permeate the dynamic of helping others and facilitating change, the process ultimately begins and ends with our internal landscape of characteristics, values, beliefs, and assumptions. In short, the structures that makes up consciousness and ‘self’ (Jamieson, Schectman and Auron, 2010).

ReferencesJamieson, D. W., Auron, M. And Shechtman, D. (2010) Managing use of self for Masterful Professional Practice, OD Practitioner, Vol 42 (No 3), pp. 4 – 10.

Andrew has worked within the NHS for eight years; having previously worked in people management and development in both the private and third sectors for over 25 years.

One key area of his work is in relation to personal resilience. This includes supporting the creation of space for people to think about their resilience through workshops and the introduction of resilience learning within the organisation.

Andrew is undertaking a Professional Doctoral programme within this subject area. Andrew can be contacted via Twitter@NHSAndrewM or via [email protected]

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By John Holden

Placing care into revalidation


Since primary care was re-organised in April 2013 the removal of all supervision for nurses in general practice has become an ever increasing issue.

This is unsatisfactory in many ways; the most obvious being that doctors and nurses have very different approaches to care and patient relationships, a view from practice nurses I have been working with.

Recently I was asked to support practice nurse appraisal training for a local Clinical Commissioning Group from an organisational development perspective. It is clear that the demands placed on nursing care and our nurses have risen; and in light of a number of influential reviews, the pressure to perform at the highest standard and ensuring that patient care and the patient experience, are at the top of everyone’s agenda. This is in turn is placing increasing demands on the system to deliver.

On a rare but inevitable occasion, sometimes the systems set up to ensure this excellent care for patients fails. Arguably often as a result of lack of support, clear guidance, appropriate measures to support healthcare professionals and organisational cultural issues, the appropriate care is not given.

While the whole system needs to be accountable for any care delivered, there is also a responsibility on the individual to understand what excellent care looks like and to raise appropriately, concerns and challenge to the system when needed.

When I looked at developing a framework to support the appraisal process that could potentially align with revali-dation, the Compassion in Practice 6Cs jumped out at me, providing an excellent framework for developing conversations around the

challenges currently facing health care practitioners especially those working in isolation within the community settings.

Care, compassion, competence, communication, courage and commitment lend themselves beautifully as the cornerstones of a great conversation with healthcare professionals.

Using these cornerstones to develop a mature, meaningful, challenging and reflective conversation, between two people exploring and examining the successes and challenges faced on a daily basis, has proven incredibly valuable. It enables individuals face those every day complex situations and respond with professional competence and genuine care for the patient.

The coaching style conversation methodology we have developed, built around the 6Cs, allows the individual to close the gap between current and potential performance.

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The coaching relationship allows the health care professional to unlock their resourcefulness, helping them to desired sustainable change. Yes the conversation can be uncomfortable and difficult, such as asking: “when haven’t you been compassionate?” but with skill and sensitivity this reflective approach can allow support to be given in a non-threatening way through self-exploration which aims to facilitate necessary changes in behaviour.

Health and care systems are traditionally geared towards targets, but placing an organisational development philosophy and mentality at the heart has opened up a potential revolution within the system.

By helping to realign and reignite care, compassion and a positive culture back into the value base of those with direct patient contact, has the potential to be liberating for both patient and practitioner. Long live the revolution.

John Holden is the Organisational Development and Transformation Senior Manager at North West CSU.

John is passionate about change, empowering individuals and supporting those that society has turned its back on. You can contact John via Twitter @JohnHolden13 or via [email protected]

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Central to all of this is us. Ourselves. How do we choose to show up when we go to work everyday? How do we choose to spend our time when we are at work? What do we choose to do with the information we have?

We don’t always need a change programme and a budget to make things better. We can choose our actions every day. We can all Do OD. I recommend looking up the next time you walk outside, and see if you can notice some real live tweets.

After starting out in generalist HR with Great Ormond Street Hospital NHS Trust, Ali has worked in media and tech industry for the past 13 years.

Creativity and curiosity are Ali’s key drivers and she is passionate about working with others to ‘make things better’. Ali can be contacted via Twitter @AliGermain1 or via [email protected]

By Alison Germain

Real live tweets


Simon Barnes writes in ’The Bad Birdwatcher’s Companion’, the art of bird watching begins with just looking. This strikes a chord with me.

It reminds me of Daniel Goleman’s plea for us to work on our emotional intelligence by just noticing. It also made me think of mindfulness, or being present, which we hear more about as it makes its presence known in organisations across the country. It got me thinking about the art of OD.

We love to debate what is OD? We might read job descriptions with words such as transformation and intervention and systemic.

These words have connotations for me of consultancy and project management charts, data analytics, and work streams. So what do I say when people ask “What do you do?” I have recently decided I aim to make stuff better and the way I begin to make stuff better is by just looking… by noticing.

Recently I was sitting watching birds on the river. There were seagulls, mallards and a tufted duck. Simon Barnes explains that tufted ducks take food from a deeper part of the river than mallards. This way there is enough food to go round. An example of nature’s connected system.

Organisations can be seen in a similar way. By just noticing we may see each of the component parts and how they fit together. These parts could be structural, process, and people dynamics for example.

Once we have this information, we can choose what we do with it. We could give feedback, to highlight our observations. We could reflect on the observations and begin to formulate an initiative than can help an organisation move forwards, to make it better.

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I hope I am not alone in remembering times when I have been curt, sulked, been unclear, excluded people or failed to complete tasks, this probably eroded the relationship slightly and then we all moved on like it never happened.

So how do I, as an adult, make sure I don’t leave my manager feeling like a frustrated parent? There’s a PHD in there for someone, I am going to go straight for the heart, at the end of my next one to one I am going to ask the question, “How have I behaved this week?”

Orlando Hampton is Head of Improvement Programmes at Health Education East Midlands, a school governor, a director and trustee of a charity and a non-exec director of a primary care provider group.

His daughters Matilda aka “Tilly” (5) and Florence aka “Floss” (1) are both delightful and terrifying. Orlando can be contacted via Twitter @orlando_hampton

By Orlando Hampton

Flossophy - a reflection on being a

good son and a brilliant employee


I imagine that I am like most parents in that I have a love / hate relationship with the responsibility. I love my children and (mostly) love spending time with them, but sometimes I hate the way that being a parent makes me feel.

One of these emotions, which I didn’t see coming, was the reflection of guilt about my own behaviours as a son, how these must have made my parents feel and what effect it must have had on them.

This was based on the evidence that I was now feeling cross / frustrated / bewildered about the behaviour of my child (ren). I felt the need to ring my dad there and then from the supermarket sweet aisle and say: “sorry dad, I really am, for saying I hate you and kicking you in the shins in a sweet shop (Hayling Island, Summer 1979) for not letting me have sweets AND crisps”.

This then lead me to reflect on what I have been like to manage through my career. I could assume that any imperfections in my performance as an employee would be raised through the appraisal process, and therefore if no one has said anything then I must be doing alright.

But that’s often the difference between a good and bad report. I would like to improve on the difference between being good employee and being a brilliant employee (a huge assumption by me that my manager thinks I am good!).

In a manager’s defence the subtle behaviours we all exhibit when we are tired or being stretched too far can be hard to quantify and feedback.

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By Paul Taylor

E.T and Yoda walk into a bar...


Back in 1982 we got our first video recorder. It was a big deal. One of our neighbours got a copy of E.T. and the whole cul-de-sac crammed into our living room to watch it.

My favourite part was where they take E.T. out during the Halloween parade dressed as Yoda. An alien dressed as an alien, hiding in plain sight. I didn’t realise at the time how much that idea would shape the next few decades of my life.

Fast forward to my 40th birthday. I was feeling reflective and had a light bulb moment when I realised there were a couple of personal values that had become really important to me. Two things I was no longer prepared to compromise on:1. never apologise for who you are2. never pretend to be someone you’re not.

It took a while for me to really live those values. At times I had worn different masks to please different people, sometimes at the expense of myself. And it wasn’t just outside of work I was apologising and pretending.

Telling people you work in Organisational Development usually results in one of two responses. There’s the puzzled-not-sure-I-really-understand-please-tell-me-more face, which is great because it opens up dialogue.

The other response is what I call OD’s Kryptonite and it usually goes along the lines of: “Oh, you’re the pink and fluffy one then”. I used to really react badly to that one.

The pink and fluffy bomb used to send me spiralling into an apologise-pretend response. Who wants to be seen as pink and fluffy? No way! That’s not us!

We’re hard edged business people who can demonstrate results and return on investment and measures and stuff. (Which is also true by the way). But what’s wrong with pink and fluffy? I believe that the practice of OD should amplify the humanity in organisations. OD should help everyone to feel good about their work; to have meaning and purpose.

If that makes me pink and fluffy, bring it on. It seems there’s an absence of pink and fluffy in some of our organisations at the moment.

There’s a mantra that I often hear: happy staff equals happy patients.

Nobody disagrees with it. Yet it’s the most pink and fluffy phrase of all, and I love it. It should always be our goal.

And yes, alongside happy sits safe and productive and competent and all those other things but let’s embrace the call to action where happiness is a goal.

We can argue about how we measure that in the pub later. Let’s just agree that pink and fluffy isn’t such a bad thing, stop apologising for it and stop pretending it’s not part of what we do.

As it’s Halloween, think about the masks you wear. Reflect on the disguises you adopt when you want to slope away and hide in plain sight.

Consider how liberating it feels to leave the fancy dress at home and be the wonderful, brilliant OD practitioner that you are.

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Never apologise and never pretend. In some respects, life in 1982 seemed so much easier, with a community of people sitting around a living room watching a movie together. But things are also so much better today, for so many people, and our job as OD practitioners is to make things even better, for everyone.

Whenever that feels tough, remember there’s a community of people waiting to help. That’s the purpose of Do OD - to help you connect, share, learn and grow. To paraphrase ET: “...we’ll be right here”.

Paul Taylor created and leads Do OD. He spends his time working with the most amazing people across the NHS and is constantly grateful for their generosity and brilliance.

You can follow Paul via Twitter (where he shares too much) @NHSE_PaulT

He responds to tweets much faster than email these days. His ideal Halloween costume would be Animal from the Muppets.

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