What did you enjoy?
A workshop in London to look together at the shared roadmaps for work on the NHS App and other national digital channels in the NHS. We’re getting better at this quarterly planning rhythm and it really helps to keep product teams aligned and decision-makers on board.
The Transformation Directorate’s leadership forum. We’re the biggest directorate in the new NHS England, covering a vast range of different professions and services. I enjoyed meeting new people in the breakout rooms and learning what they do.
I have volunteered to be one of the senior leaders supporting the implementation of our new approach to hybrid working. The new policy has to be implemented with care and compassion. Many of our teams are geographically distributed, so the benefits of in-person collaboration need to be seen more widely than just working within one team. In our Leeds headquarters, we’re lucky to have an on-site user research lab where we can invite the public in to co-design services with us, and an accessibility lab where we can make sure our digital products work for everyone. We have a chance to collaborate with other teams and professions in our new organisation, to learn from public service leaders such as HMRC who share the same building, and with health and care innovators in our city region. We could do so much more to make use of these opportunities for radically multidisciplinary working.
What did you learn?
A while ago a colleague gave me a tip when trying to understand policies and procedures: start with the accessible documentation. I was looking for a simple way to explain NHS ambulance categories to a colleague and found this easy read version did the job perfectly.
Who did you talk to outside your organisation?
A call with a team member from one of our major tech suppliers, who was looking at organisations’ readiness to apply artificial intelligence. She asked great questions which made me think.
What do you wish you could have changed?
A FOMO feeling heading south for a couple of days in the London office, when I discovered that some colleagues I really wanted to catch up with were themselves travelling the other way to Leeds. The London trip was still productive, but could have been better coordinated if we’d had visibility of each other’s travel plans.
What would you have liked to do more of?
Despite the green shoots of recruitment, a lot of management attention in my part of the organisation is still focused on the direct and indirect consequences of carrying large numbers of vacancies. Every hour leaders spend on “resourcing” is an hour they’re not putting into the actual problems of the NHS that we’re here to solve. On-going anxiety about being over-stretched limits the ambition that colleagues will show for their products and services.
What are you looking forward to next week?
I have more work to do on my 2024-25 objectives, linked to my team’s business plans. I sent out a short survey last week asking some people to give feedback on my performance over the last 6 months. Colleagues’ constructive feedback is always helpful in setting my next objectives.
Matt Edgar writes here 