We need everyone to be creative & innovative at work if we want to fundamentally improve the way we do things. However, many people find that when they generate novel ideas, they're discouraged or not supported to put their ideas into practice by their managers. New research…

A further graphic that makes the powerful point that we have to think differently about 'failure' if we want to build psychological safety for high performance in our teams & organisations. It's inspired by Amy Edmondson. The ideas are further developed in her latest book 'Right…

The first rule of being a change agent in an organisation is: 'you can't be a change agent on your own'. However creative, determined or passionate we are, the system will wear us down without social support. History shows that the people who make change happen are often small…

Experimentation ('trying stuff & seeing what happens') is such a key part of change. In most social change situations, we can't be sure about cause & effect until we give things a go. Every context is unique so we need to try out even other people's 'good practice' to make it…

'Conversation is the communal air we breathe'. A summary & sketchnote of 'Supercommunicators' - a new book by Charles Duhigg. It sets out why some people ('supercommunicators') are able to connect with others, build consensus & influence people to join them. He suggests this can be…

Tonight 8-9pm GMT: @TheSASCollect (a brilliant group of Specialist, Associate Specialist & Specialty doctors) is hosting a tweetchat on 𝘄𝗵𝘆 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗶𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗦𝗽𝗲𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹𝘁𝘆 𝗗𝗼𝗰𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘀 𝗯𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗦𝗽𝗲𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘀𝘁𝘀? 100s of SAS doctors meet the…

Learning & change are deeply connected. Successful change requires continuous learning within an organisation or system, yet we often don't think enough about the fundamental nature of learning within our change processes. So here are seven 'guiding principles for accelerated…

'All improvement happens project by project' (Joseph Juran). Lots of people who work in health or other areas of public service want to undertake project management training but aren't currently getting the opportunity. So a good starting point might be 'An Introduction to…

We keep being told that 'feedback is a gift'. But who really welcomes unsolicited negative feedback? Brain research shows it often triggers a “fight or flight” response, flooding our brains with stress hormones & limiting our ability to absorb information. Daniel Stillman says it's…

Being able to ask the right questions is a key capability for leaders facing situations of increasing urgency & uncertainty. Advances in AI are creating a seismic shift from a world in which answers were crucial to one in which questions are. But most leaders are not formally…

For those who use social media to connect/learn about health & care improvement. Which social media platform keeps you most connected to the quality improvement community? Vote below: #QI Twitter #QI

This article describes trends, key concepts & theories in Organizational Development (OD) between 2018-23 based on empirical evidence. The trends include:
1) strategic agility & speeding up adaptability to change
2) more systematic approaches to learning and development
3) the…

50% of people taking part in remote meetings multitask during the meetings (and we are doing more of it). Here is an excellent research-based article from asana to remind us why we should try not to multitask. It's bad for our productivity & our mental health. It creates…

I’m so proud to be part of the amazing NHS Horizons team, enabling large scale change in health & care. We hosted sessions throughout the International Forum on Quality & Safety in Healthcare two weeks ago and got to collaborate & learn with thousands of fellow improvers from…

Most transformation efforts fail. Major new research from Bain & Company says only 12% of big change programmes produce lasting results. They identify six 'good practices' for large scale change strategies that greatly increase the likelihood of success:
1) Treat transformation…

The 'Cambridge Elements' series on major approaches to improving quality & safety in health & care has published its new guide on values & ethics in improvement work. It's free for all to read/download. The guide helps us to focus on:
1) the rich array of values that underpin…

How to improve a meeting (when you’re not in charge). A recent article from Amy Edmondson. The tactics you use depends on the level of psychological safety:
1) The helpful workaround: works when psychological safety is low (on the team or with the person leading the meeting).…

How can we build a culture of learning at scale? There's an increasing focus on ‘learning networks’ (as well as, or instead of, learning within organisations). It's built on a sense we need to support learning to occur across scales & boundaries - from the individual to…