The Digital Health Leadership Programme (NHS Digital Academy) – Reflections on applying the learning

A couple of years ago (while working with the Health Education NHS Digital Academy team) I reflected a fair bit on motivations for doing the Digital Health Leadership programme. This was in context of working out how to attract the right people onto the course (and understand what right meant!) while also recognising there was a finite number of places each year. I largely themed these into three areas: getting a badge/kudos/recognition for doing the course, developing a peer network and application of the learning.

I will try to reflect on all three of these in the coming months, but I wanted to focus today on the application of learning having now come out of the other side of the course. The importance of each will be different per individual and per organisation. For me personally the application of learning was my main driver for doing this. I’m still relatively new to working in digital in a mental health trust and it was a great opportunity to cement that – and it’s an area I am hoping to stay in.

I’ve structured this blog first in terms of areas of focus for each of the module areas, then some overarching themes from the whole course. I hope this may be useful for anyone who is thinking about doing the programme themselves and will hopefully reassure you there is absolutely something for everyone within it.

Course Structure

I won’t go into the detail of each assignment, but I thought I’d highlight how I was able to broadly apply my learning of each in a mental health trust – and I found it really exciting the range of topics I was able to explore.  I know the module structure has changed now (it’s 8 rather than 6 and the topics are slightly tweaked) but that hopefully doesn’t change the intention here.

Essentials of Health Systems – In this module I explored the physical health check monitoring for those receiving a specific medication. I have been absolutely flabbergasted by the processes and challenges with regard to both ordering and receiving the results of physical health checks and for me it really highlighted some of the inequalities within mental health services. By mapping this out, it also highlighted the risk of duplication where things were not always linked up – this isn’t great for either the health service or patients. There is still lots of work underway in this area (which others are leading on and taking forwards) but by exploring the assignment brief it enabled me to expand my learning and knowledge in what is a really key area of mental health inequalities right now.

Implementing Strategy and Transformation Change – In this module I looked at the development of digital workforce strategy, both to support digital, data and technology professionals but also to start to tap into the wider workforce and digital literacy. I have a lot of ideas and thoughts in this area from previous roles and what this enabled me to start doing was to articulate that in a better way and think about the different impact this area of work could have. My focus and attention to this work internally has probably been superseded by some of the transformation work I have been involved in but it’s something I will be leaning on in the future. It also helped me to link the national and local work underway. It’s been really helpful in my Skills Development Network co-chair role too.

Technology Strategy and Health Information Systems Implementation – At the time of this module I was doing some work with our Mind Matters (Talking Therapies) service, so I used the opportunity to use some of the tools and techniques to support service development. It enabled me to surface conversations, ideas and some practical recommendations by viewing through a holistic health information system lens. Doing this identified some ideas for doing things differently, some in the short term some in the longer run.

User-centred design and citizen-driven informatics – I actually took the opportunity here to review a trust-wide initiative, around room booking and space utilisation. My initial involvement in this work reduced slightly but as ways of working becomes a hot topic across the Trust, I suspect I will be revisiting some of the work! This module introduced me to the ‘double diamond’ technique and has really helped to change my perspective on picking up new pieces of work, and giving myself the permission to do that detective work and understand what the real problems are, which are often different to the problem we think we are solving initially! SABP have been leading the way with our implementation of this and it was great to understand it more from a theoretical base as well. Through this work I was able to get under the bonnet into some of the more cultural issues rather than just simply wondering why the technology to support this didn’t always seem to work. This is also where you can get into those really interesting conversations about training needs, behaviours and actually just simply making things more transparent and easier for people.

Decision Support, Knowledge Management and Actionable Data Analytics – In this module I considered various ideas for the use of data within mental health. This was probably the steepest learning curve me for in terms of theory, better understanding the relationship between things like Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. I probably did personally struggle with this module the most just because I was that bit more removed from the practical side of things, but it was still really interesting and helped me to reflect on this area.

Finally, we had our leadership and transformational change module. For this I reviewed some of our ways of working as a directorate with a key focus on something called our monthly status report and our strategic partner relationships. There is still quite a lot of work to do in this area but it helped me to understand the various viewpoints and needs across our teams (both inside and external to digital) and regular reflection throughout this piece of work helped me to consider my own leadership style and what things I wanted and/or needed to work on. I’ve personally seen benefits to strengthening the strategic partner role I have with one of our clinical divisions, from both a personal learning perspective alongside supporting our operational and clinical staff better.

I hope the above highlights the range and breadth of topics that just one person can cover on this course.

Overall Themes

In addition to the practical learning from each module area, there were some overall themes I picked up in terms of applying my learning.

I still don’t always get this right, but it forced me to reflect on the different types of comms I used for different pieces of work, not only from a written perspective but getting across key points in just a few minutes and the use of visuals to enhance my ideas. I continue to try and play around with different ideas and concepts! I still hate public speaking and presenting, and this is something I have to work at quite a lot, so it’s given me a bit more confidence in trying new things.

A reminder to look up and out. When I did the programme, I think I’d become quite insular in my thinking. Part of this was justified and I was focusing a lot of my energy on building those internal relationships, but it reminded me to utilise that network I have and learn from what other colleagues are doing in this space in other organisations.

A highlight for me was getting to know different teams and subject matter areas better. This was great both in terms of my general working within SABP Digital but also as part of my supporting DDAT professional’s remit. We are well and truly greater as a collective and continuing to build that knowledge of how to connect the right people in at the right time is key. Building on this, it also gave me confidence about being able to lead in some more technical areas where I don’t have the practical expertise. That doesn’t mean you wing it through, far from it – it’s about asking the right questions and knowing enough, as well as opening doors where necessary, to enable those experts to shine and do their thing! Building on this, I felt very lucky to undertake this course with my two colleagues Mike and Helena. I learnt so much from this experience working with them, and it also naturally strengthened some of our day-to-day conversations around pieces of work by better linking things up.

It helped me with general tools and techniques that I could bring into my day-to-day life. Process mapping has probably changed my life! Not just to reflect on an existing process but to help consider a new process, and ensure we are resourcing and planning things sufficiently before they go live. Plus, any excuse to play with post it notes….

Linked to the section above, I’ve been able to use and share my assignments to turn the academic writing into practical outcomes and change. However, I’ve had to be kind to myself and remember this takes time. I had the luxury of forcing myself to focus and think about issues in a way we perhaps don’t give ourselves the space to do on the average day. This is why that regular reflective practice is so helpful though.

Finally – and in part this has coincided with some therapy I have had which has drilled more into some of the reasons behind this, but it’s forced me to think a bit more about what is and isn’t in my control and how much energy I am willing to give in the workplace. This doesn’t mean I am being lazy, or I don’t care, but I will burn out if I keep going 100% at everything. This included building on my learning around Clifton Strengths and my profile. I started this a few years back as part of the Minerva Programme and the perspective changed my life. I think anything we can do to enable people to focus on their strengths and what makes them unique in a positive way, is a fab thing.

A note on the executive sponsor……

I will finish with a note on the executive sponsor and/or having autonomy within your organisation to do the exploratory work. I am fortunate I had both a supportive sponsor as well as quite a lot of freedom. I know for some accessing teams wider than those they directly worked with could be a challenge and they needed those doors opened for them. I think it is important to recognise this as a real enabler for the learning programme and while the role of the sponsor may be seen as a tick box, it’s really important to find the right person. I know when I’ve worked with the programme, they were incredibly supportive at helping people to do this and make that sponsor relationship work, so do reach out if you have questions and I’m sure you will be supported.

Final Thoughts

So would I recommend this programme from an applying the learning perspective? Yes absolutely! With the right support in place within your organisation there is so much opportunity for learning and change. Also by the way, the peer support aspect and the recognition were pretty awesome too, so I will come back to those topics at a later date 😊.

Weeknotes w.c. 1st April / 8th April

What’s been happening?

I’ve been doing quite a bit in the digital skills space this week. I’ve been looking at what our offers were last year and what need to be this year, working closely again with my colleague Charlotte. I’ve started to draw up a new signposter which I need to make look pretty, as the amount of learning out there continues to grow and grow. It’s incredible really how much is out there, when you know where to look or how to find it. I’ve been reflecting quite a but on the concept of whether training has a certification/qualification attached to it or not. This often makes it more costly, but it isn’t always the best thing for an individual at that point in time. I will come back to this, and I’m interested in whether this is more relevant to certain Digital, Data and Tech (DDAT) roles than others. This makes me think of a blog I did ages ago about motivations for doing the digital health leadership programme – with a combination of gaining the ‘badge’, building your peer network and also embedding / implementing the learning. Understanding those motivations helps to make that signposting more meaningful. I think……

I also took the time to sit down and properly reflect on and feed back on some of the ways of working conversations we’re having internally. I find it fascinating, especially with my @FlexNHS hat on – and it’s really not black and white. I came up with a number of tangible practical solution areas to think about which I have fed back.

• Support for line managers in managing flexible working requests

• Development of toolkits/support to bring teams to come together and explore what they need as a team/service.

• Ensuring ways of working / flexible working doesn’t just consider in person versus remote but also when and how much. Also, when you have multiple sites, the reality is, you don’t want to just be stuck at your HQ building either.

• Not conflating performance management with flexible working – people can be just as unproductive in the office, trust me!

• Finding the human connection in a meaningful way – doing the OD work that matters to bring teams together. Sitting there on teams next to each other wont build relationships.

• Last but not least, getting the most from using technology, giving people the skills they have to work effectively. We need to stamp out this back-to-back meeting nonsense.

Finally, I’d be lying if I didn’t say the current restructure and selection process was at the forefront of my mind. It’s one of the reasons why this is another double weeknotes, I didn’t have enough steam in me last week to really reflect on things.

I write this at quite a strange period. I’ve done the interviews for the positions I have identified as my preferences, and now I wait. So, sometime in the next week or so I will find out whether I have a role in our current digital leadership structure or not. There is nothing I can do now but wait and then see what the next steps are for me. I don’t like interviews; I find them really stressful (although I usually do OK once I’m actually in them) – so I’m feeling pretty drained by it all. There was a moment of crying into a pizza while I was out during the bank holiday weekend. So, as I say every week at the moment, please look after yourselves and look after each other during this time and I’m always happy to chat to anyone in the team/wider directorate if they want another avenue to talk things through.

What has excited me?

There are probably three things that have stood out to me over the last few weeks……

• I went along to one of our Electronic Patient Record (Adapt+) meetings today to explore with the Clinical Division I support how we may need to best configure the EPR. I really enjoyed it; it was great to hear Georgia our Associate CCIO and Helen our CNIO lead the conversation and then the dialogue which followed with the division. I’d like to think I provided some helpful input too from my time working with the division. We’re going to regroup next week with more individuals, and I look forward seeing what direction that takes us in. This happened to take place today, but I guess the theme is more about seeing clinically led decision making in digital change, which is so so important.
• The consultation and selection process has been tough, and it’s been so humbling to see colleagues rallying around and supporting one another ❤
• Finally, I’ve been progressing the Women in Digital, Data and Technology series (which I’ll share more about next week including hopefully a draft programme) and this has led me to have some brilliant conversations with different women – both new and old connections – national and local leaders – and it’s the boost and anchor I needed with everything else going on. So, this was lovely!

What strengths have I used?

I’ve been leaning into my activator/restorative quite a bit to get lots of little but overhanging things done, trying to take advantage of working through the Easter holidays this year!

I’ve also lent into my Ideation and Strategic quite a bit as we prepare for a South East Digital Skills Development Network away day – and this away day will help propel us from our journey to date to understanding where we need to be in the future. I’m really looking forward to this and having some more collective responsibility to do this.

What am I looking forward to?

On a personal note – I am doing Reading Half this coming Sunday! I can’t believe it’s come around what feels so quickly, but it’s actually been six months of real hard work and training to get to this point.  I had done Couch to 5K a few times in the past, but I’d never got past the running 5K. I’ve now in my training done a 10-mile run which is 16K – I can’t believe it! I’ve been using my runs to problem solve and reflect, which has been especially helpful throughout the interview process, and I’ve enjoyed just listening to nature as I do that. I don’t always stop and think enough, so this has enabled me to do that.

From a work perspective, we have our Digital Health Leadership programme formal celebration event next week. It’s going to be great to be reunited with Cohort 5 and see what everyone has been up to.

I’m also looking forward to five whole days off, which (sensibly) includes two days after the half marathon and once Alice is back at school to pretty much just veg out in front of the TV!

Weeknotes w.c. 18th / 25th March

Another double instalment as lots going on 😊

What have I been up to?

• Working in partnership with my colleague Charlotte, we completed our first Digital, Data and Technology census which was exciting! It has got us both thinking about job families in a different way and quite energised on ideas for the future. Sadly, as mentioned in previous week notes, due to our current consultation and restructure, we weren’t able to make it as dynamic and interactive as we’d perhaps like to, but hopefully there will be opportunities for the trust to do that in future years. I’ve personally learnt a load about how various services are commissioned and managed as part of this process. With my skills development network hat on and thinking about the broader purposes of this, I hope that the feedback provided my ourselves and our peers across the country will continue to help shape and inform the digital, data and technology professional capability framework.

• We’ve had quite a lot of noise and conversations about ways of working throughout the trust recently. I am trying my best to put my @FlexNHS hat on take that learning, bringing it into conversations throughout the trust. For me there are also the nuances to consider for those working in digital roles. I’m really happy that the conversations so far are pushing us to not think black and white about simply where you work, but different types of flexible working alongside some of the working patterns and cultures we have found ourselves in since the pandemic. How do we work a bit differently going forwards? No-one wants to trundle on the M25 for hours to then awkwardly find a space to sit on teams calls all day, but actually where is that space to think and be creative? So yes – I have lots and lots of thoughts in my mind about this and I hope the exploratory dialogue continues. A big piece of learning for me over the last few years though is even when jobs can be fully remote, there are the needs of your wider colleagues connectivity to consider, and how to make that meaningful so people do not feel isolated. But again, this only works if you come together with purpose, it doesn’t have an impact if you are sat on teams all day! Sometimes it also means bringing together the people who need more face-to-face time, so they have their own peer network to bounce around with in person. Lots of food for thought….

• From a personal perspective I submitted my ‘personal details’ form and expressed an interest in my preferred two roles across our new structure. I feel a bit in limbo at the moment as things are out of my hands now until selection formally starts, it’s really odd. I feel fortunate I wouldn’t say I’ve lost motivation, but there are definitely a few things I am holding back on because I don’t want to take things too far when the ownership will come under someone elses portfolio, and they will need to put their own stamp and ideas on it. It is a really tough time and I know I sound like a broken record but please do reach out to your line manager or one of the leadership team if you need to talk, and there are some other support offers which have been circulated. On a slightly more positive but I suppose complimentary note, I have also written up my BCS CITP application which I will be submitting hopefully today (certainly before 31^st March :D).

• The final activity I have done this week prior to logging off for the long weekend is feeding back on the draft questionnaire for our digital literacy/functional skills self-assessment for new starters. The collaboration between digital, workforce and education to get this work to where it is really exciting, and there is a lot of opportunity for the future. It’s only one piece of the puzzle, but it’s the start of us trying some different tangible ways to identify needs and develop the relevant support to the right people in the right way. Again – really interested to hear from others who may be doing work on this within their organisations.

• Last but not least, we said farewell to Doug our CCIO this week who is leaving SABP to take up his other role (at CNWL) full time. Thank you for everything you have done during your time here Doug and I don’t doubt for one moment we will cross paths again at some point! This weeks blog photo is from the office farewell (I think I have pinched this from Steve, thank you!)

What has excited me?

• Digital got some really nice feedback and recognition for the support it had provided for a piece of work supporting our ECT (Electroconvulsive therapy) teams. I will write it up at some point, but what I liked was it was a series of relatively simple actions and exploration which when added up, have quite a big impact. The convenor/co-ordinating role within Digital is so important when we have such a range of teams and skillsets. It was lovely from my perspective to share that success and thanks back to the individuals who had supported the work too, especially during a challenging period.

What strengths have I used?

• I’ve definitely leaned on activator/restorative to get the DDAT census done, turning ideas into action relatively quickly. The turnaround time wasn’t huge for something we haven’t done before – so we did have to be quite ‘on it’.
• I think I’ve used my developer strengths quite a lot this week too with lots of informal coaching and support to others, alongside much needed peer to peer support. Having some of those wider conversations and gaining perspective on things has been super helpful.

What am I looking forward to?

• I’m looking forward to the selection process getting going so I know where I stand and can identify what the next steps/actions I need to take are. There are so many variables at the moment, but I haven’t had the energy to do much beyond see where I land at the end of the process and go from there. Rightly or wrongly!
• On much more positive news, I am super excited about the long weekend, and I am finally going to see the Frozen musical! I’ll also be preparing for my final few weeks of half marathon training, so my legs are going to be hurting a lot!
• At the risk of sounding a bit odd, I’m also actually looking forward to working over the next two weeks to get my head down and tie up lots of things. My daughter wanted a ‘daddy holiday’ for Easter so he’s taking the time off this time around! The M25 is also a complete delight when the schools are out!

Weeknotes w.c. 11th March

Weeknotes w.c. 11^th March 2024

What Have I Been Up To?

Quite a bit of focus this week has been on supporting the Digital, Data and Technology (DDAT) census ask. From a local trust level this has been going quite well as we aim to complete the submission and it’s been really interesting to better understand the proposed national job family framework (and likewise, feed back on where it doesn’t feel quite right). I went along to an ICS Community of Practice to again talk about the census – always good to connect with system colleagues and for me the focus on things like the DDAT profession is a no brainer as there are opportunities to collaborate to recruit, upskill, build meaningful networks and so on. Then finally at a Skills Development Network (SDN) level while the day to day detail is being managed by the SDN team, along with others I’ve been trying to support as best as I can, in part by pulling out the key messages which are most relevant to those of us submitting the return (as I learn by doing!). Just a reminder/plea to anyone doing this work – use the comments and feedback section too, this is a learning opportunity for our national colleagues as much as it is for us.

I’ve been tying up a few pieces of work and handing them over to the relevant delivery teams. In some cases because of the current situation this has included some trickier conversations about what we can and cannot support but I feel fortunate with each piece of work we have been able to make some progress and support the clinical services going forwards.

I spent quite a bit of time reflecting on the proposed consultation for restructure with colleagues at all levels throughout the directorate. One of the next steps is going to be the emerging selection process which is going to be incredibly hard for a lot of us. It can feel a bit lose-lose at times as you may be successful for a role but your colleagues (turned friends in many cases – let’s not forget how much time we spend at work) may not, and vice versa. It feels more important than ever that this is the time to look out for one another. So if any of my digital colleagues are reading this, be kind to yourself and do talk to your colleagues if you are struggling – or indeed reflections can be helpful too!

Finally – it was just the most bizarre week in terms of stories breaking out in the media. Firstly the appalling remarks made by Frank Hester and the consequential discussions which followed. Secondly, some really odd financial incentives around A&E performance. Where did this magic money come from and yet again could be better used in prevention, early intervention and community? I found myself getting pretty grumpy more than once reading the stories this week. (Well maybe grumpy is being kind, other emotions included outraged, bewildered, confused and shocked!).

What excited me?

On a more positive note and internally, a huge highlight of the week was our lovely Marie bringing together colleagues in the digital directorate (and wider) as part of St Patrick’s Day. I really miss doing things like this and jump at the opportunity to connect with colleagues and have a bit of fun. I also came home with some lovely Irish tea cake and some banana bread which was a great bonus. Morale can be quite tricky when going through big team changes – and things like this can be a lifeline for some people. Thank you Marie!

For me the above is also about connecting and coming together with purpose. There is a lot of talk (including anxst) at the moment with regards to flexible working and the “return back to the office”. I’ve got lots of thoughts on this (pros and cons) of which I need to organise better and then I will share some thoughts. At it’s highest level though there is balancing that individual need, the team need and the “customer” need. I’ve got a lot of learning from my time with @FlexNHS to pull on including the importance of giving teams the autonomy and space to figure some of this out bespoke to their needs rather than blanket policies. Everything is up for discussion at the moment and it feels like we are being listened which is good – it is just unfortunate timing on top of the angst of a restructure. More on this will follow as I reflect and piece together my thoughts.

Back to the excitement! Externally we had our NHS Digital Academy Learning Needs Analysis Show and Tell which excited me for two reasons! Firstly I continue to be mega proud when I see the team at SCW continuing to support work in this space – both proud of the individuals I see presenting great work and also humbled that the organisation is still spending time supporting work in this area after I did a lot of the initial team set up and development. Really, really proud 😊. Secondly it was exciting to see the opportunity of what is to come in this space. Many of the challenges presented were not surprising, but it was great to see the hypothesis raised and I look forward to seeing them explored further and turned into action! Again when I was working much closer to the team, this included work on the future vision and aspirations for the NHS Digital Academy, so it’s great to see this continue.

Finally on a personal note – I did some gardening and planted some seeds! Why is this of key relevance? Well I did the last of my ‘Here For You’ therapy sessions very recently and we discussed doing something to mark the occasion, if I wanted to. I was totally up for this and I knew we had some sunflower seeds ready to plant – I had packaged them up as part of my daughters party bags earlier this year. Not only did we end up planting them but we planted a bunch of other flowers and we branched out into some vegetables too! So while the sunflower will remain my symbol of hope at this stage, it’s also going to feel a bit new beginnings. One of the lovely bonuses, due to the nice weather we had in part – is quite a few of Alice’s friends also planted their sunflower seeds this weekend from her birthday.

Reflecting on Strengths?

I think I’ve drawn on developer and communication quite a lot this week. This is from spending lots of time reflecting with others and bouncing around ideas and thoughts – it’s easy to underestimate the value of this sometimes! I’d also say I’ve drawn into my command a bit too to get a few things done and over the line.

What Am I Looking Forward To?

I guess in a weird way I’m looking forward to understanding what our final structure is and going through the process to understand what next. I’ve got a couple of pieces of work now which I am progressing, but also cautiously because whoever leads on these from Summer onwards is going to need to put their own stamp on them and believe in them. So in all honesty it does feel a little bit bitty and survival mode at the moment and I feel slightly in limbo. Still really busy spinning lots of plates, but being mindful there are some things which I just need to slow down.

I’m also looking forward to doing my 10 mile run this Sunday. In part to get it over with and prove I can do it 😀 but it’s the longest run I will do as part of my training so will be an achievement. I’m still in awe I managed 8 miles the weekend just gone – so I will keep trying!

Weeknotes w.c. 4th March

What’s Been Happening?

I’ve been focusing quite a bit on the Digital, Data and Technology Census from a SABP Digital perspective. Now the ‘census date’ has passed (29^th Feb) we are able to start looking at which different job families and roles we have in place. For those who aren’t aware this is a nationally led piece of work to help understand future workforce demand. This piece of work should be really helpful at a national strategic level over time, especially with the view to get better alignment and improvements in ESR. At the moment there is so much inconsistency with job titles, career pathways etc – and hopefully making this a bit more consistent will help people with that career progression over time. It doesn’t mean people have to have a linear path and stay within one job family, but it’ll be easier to understand where you could go, what that may look like for you. If anyone is reading this and thinking ‘huh, should I do be doing this!’ the best place to start is probably your CIO/CDIO or digital skills development lead who have hopefully received their relevant regional comms on this by now.

Also this week a group of us have been critiquing and further developing our process map to support new starters with a digital literacy self assessment (although I understand this will expand to include all functional skills). I love a process map and it’s something I do more and more of when I can. Sometimes it takes a bit of time to get going, but the richness of the conversation it generates is so worthwhile. It has enabled us to think about gaps in the process, waste (upfront – amazing, we can take that waste out before we’ve even begun!) and what resource may be required to support different parts of the process so that those responsibilities are defined, and if need be gaps are highlighted. Love a process map! I think it also generates really helpful wider thoughts, for example reminding us this is a supportive process to understand initial training needs from the outset, and that is why it explicitly needs to happen after offers are made. Really interesting piece of work and I look forward to seeing where it goes next!

Our initial digital leadership into the Adult Eating Disorders work has been largely wrapped up for the moment. We were fortunate to have capacity to support this from the outset and I believe having both my self and Georgia (one of our Associate CCIOs – to provide the Clinical lense) has been really helpful. It has enabled us to surface some of the digital needs, where possible align those needs to wider pieces of work (including our ongoing Adapt+ (Electronic Patient Record) programme and consider additional tech which may be helpful for the services. Likewise, process maps have formed quite a big part of this work to think about what the future may look like. Again I look forward to seeing how this work continues and hope that the digital alignment stays strong.

Other bits? The Women in Digital work as part of the Skills Development Networks continues and the response to support this piece has already been brilliant! A blog will be coming out on this later today so I won’t say too much more at this point [I will re-edit this post to add the link to that blog later on]. This week also marks the deadline to submit our formal response for the consultation for proposed restructure. I’ve found it really hard but hopefully I’ve kept true to my values in my response.

Finally, I’ve been doing quite a bit of work on getting through mental walls this week! I posted on Sunday about a fab seminar I attended by Les Bubka, founder of Karate for Mental Health. I’ve never been taken down (or taken others down!) so many times as I had in that session and it was a real building of trust, confidence and breaking through walls. I had another experience only yesterday where I turned up at the canal for my 6 mile run and the access gate was flooded and it was really muddy. Instead of going home, I found a gate I could just about squeeze through the middle of, then found a stretch of approx. 0.5km which was just about manageable mud-wise, and I kept going back and forth until I’d done my six miles. I was really proud of myself and a big focus for my week has been getting through the wall of running outdoors. So that’s 2 out of 3 done, and hopefully my Sunday run outdoors will go well too. The weather if of course helping. It feels quite timely as my therapy came to an end next week. I’m trying to give myself headspace to piece this all together to support over the coming months.  

What excited me?

I don’t know if excite is the right word (!) but it was a relief to get my consultation response submitted as it felt like quite a heavy weight over my head. Then to be honest, I’ve been really excited to have been on leave Thursday and Friday. I love what I do but I really really crashed on Tuesday/Wednesday (and it was noticed by some considerate colleagues who asked if I was OK – I’m not very good at hiding it, my face just looks flat!). I think the weeks of running on adrenaline and autopilot had caught up a bit. Two days of rest, exercise, seeing friends and family – just what I needed. As I write this, I still have six hours to myself today with no plans. I’ve already had a walk today, and I’m going to catch up on some much needed sleep! It was a bit of an accident to be on leave for International Women’s Day this year, but sometimes you have to look after yourself first to then support others! Plus  there’s a blog and some work coming out so I don’t feel too guilty 😉

Reflecting on Strengths

Perhaps influenced by end of financial year I’ve pulled on my restorative / activator strengths quite a bit. While this makes me slightly paranoid I am being a bit of a pain in the arse, it can get things moving, resolved and concluded. It’s been helpful to tie up quite a few lose ends in this sense! This is probably also true of undertaking the DDAT census work locally and making sure we had a plan.

Then reflecting on the consultation response and current proposal for restructure. I’ve leant into my ideation and developer quite a bit this week, as I wrote my final response. The developer aspect relates to working with individuals to help them process their own thoughts and ideas for the future. The ideation for me is around looking at the new proposal holistically and making some suggestions which feel right, as per above, for the whole trust and people who use our services. I feel quite fortunate that my role to date has given me a lot of exposure to face outwards of digital and I have worked with many of our corporate and clinical / operational teams. This has been helpful to reflect on and think about both gaps and opportunities going forwards. Talking about this feels a bit like a ‘we don’t talk about bruno’ from Encanto – but the reality is, it’s happening, and we need to be aware of it so we can best support our staff.

What am I looking forward to?

I’ve got some quite long but meaningful sessions planned out next week which will be a nice change of pace compared to jumping around to different meetings and topics every 30 minutes! Some are with colleagues to go through a whole range of things, alongside our South East Digital Skills Development Network steering group and a local community of practice. It will be good to delve deep into a few things as part of these sessions.

FOMO about ReWired! I’ve been very fortunate up until fairly recently to have quite a lot of ‘freedom’ when it came to overnight stays or trips faraway because of my husbands work pattern. He has been back in full time work since December which has required some rejigging of our family routine – which is totally fine by the way I’ve had a really good run! I will make it out and about to a few things I’m sure, they just require more planning than before and I hadn’t clocked until quite recently ReWired was in Birmingham rather than London this year – so my plans to go along for a day wouldn’t quite work out! I think I blogged previously after he got made redundant it was quite scary not knowing what he would be doing and how our joint childcare arrangements would fall into place. I think we’re doing OK at the moment and have fallen into a new routine quite well. Anyway I digress…… but I hope those of you going have an awesome time!

Week notes w.c. 26th February (ish)

What’s been happening?

Let’s start with some of the personal stuff…..

So after a combined set of weeknotes I wasn’t expecting a week “off” sharing them but when I look back on the previous week, a whirlwind probably doesn’t quite justify it. It’s been a bit of a when it rains it pours period anyway. I had been shaking off Covid and processing our consultation for proposed restructure plus had some time off for half term, so already a lot going on as it was…..

Following half term, my “big dadi” became very poorly and passed away. I don’t know how else to describe it but like losing a piece of my childhood (which a colleague helpfully shared with me and it really resonated). The week was then a bit of a blur to be honest and while I was working most of it, I was a bit on autopilot with a lot of travelling back and forth between North London and Reading. From a personal perspective it just reaffirmed how lucky I am to have the family I do have. From a work perspective I had brilliant support from colleagues which ranged from covering one of my meetings to sending me photos of owls legs (who knew they were so loooong!). It has again however reminded me of perspective, and in the grand scheme of things, what is and is not important.

In other personal news, I had my last “Here For You” session. I have put so much work into these sessions and I am so grateful to have had access to them. I have lots to reflect and digest (I suspect more weeknotes reflectons on this will follow!) – but at its highest level, my biggest change is probably working out where to best focus my energy, to let some things go, and to better navigate situations if I feel things are at odds with my values or ethics. I’ve been on such a big learning journey – and I genuinely think the timing of this couldn’t have been more helpful and it’s left me in a much better place to tackle what’s currently going on around me.

So let’s unpick the last week a bit more and get back into some of the weeknotes 🙂

Women in Digital

It’s been a good week for Women in Digital! As part of the Skills Development Networks I have been doing some work (working with our South West network too) ahead of international women’s day and to eventually set up a special interest group for women in digital. We have started to reach out to both individuals and other networks to pull together an initial webinar series and scope what the offer might be. I look forward to sharing more about this as the work progresses. Regarding individuals I’ve been predominately reaching out to regarding this, it’s been those either based in the South East / South West or with national links to the skills development networks, but happy for anyone else interested in this to reach out 😊 and as part of this I got to catch up with Deborah El-Sayed which was great – and lots of reflections shared.  In addition I had a great session with Katherine Church (who was my system CIO when I first joined SABP) and Erykah Holder who I have met via FEDIP. Women in Digital are a really special group. I feel so lucky for all those who have supported me and hope to pay it forwards – sharing stories and anecdotes are so important.

Only this week I was in a fairly large system meeting where I could count the number of women on one hand, and I’m pretty sure in a regular session (I was there as a guest presenting) there would be more men there of the same name than women in total. So that was something to reflect on…… why does stuff like this matter? Well two obvious things. The first is diversity of thought in decision making and the second is supporting women to be part of that environment which can be quite intimidating sometimes! I’ve blogged on this before where from a relatively early stage in my career I could often be the only woman in a room, or one of a few – especially in the digital urgent and emergency care space! But I’ll stop there for today and more on this subject to follow as we get our series up and running!

DDAT Census

The other thing from both a national Skills Development Network but also taking this work into the Surrey Heartlands ICS is the national Digital, Data and Technology Survey. I will probably share a little more on this next week but it’s been great to explore it with my SABP hat on so I can really understand it from the user-perspective as well as promoting it. Co-Chair recruitment has also gone really well, and we will be making some announcements in the coming weeks. I do have to keep reminding myself we are only a few years old and have lots to still do though!

Digital literacy – new starters

We had another session developing our processes for this and colleagues in education have pulled together the first questionnaire draft. As I’ve talked before we have some great collaboration here between digital, workforce and education – our sessions together are really valuable and it gets us on the same page from the start. We very much have a learning and lets be iterative mindset which is essential. In parallel there is also work to consider this as part of significant changes to our Electronic Patient Record offer which will really unlock capabilities for our workforce via improved functionality. This is a really exciting area of work. It’s also one recognised in our new structure proposal I’m really pleased to say – so hopefully this work will continue to be led and owned by someone going forwards.

Bits and Pieces

It’s then been quite a lot of mopping things up and catching things from the last few weeks. Financial year end has been a big part of it – preparing contracts and ensuring all Purchase Orders are resolved. I reflect again it’s very much an area I have learnt by doing and asking questions rather than having formal training and suspect this happens to a lot of people. You need both of course!

What excited me?

The women in digital stuff for sure. I feel so privileged at how many have helped me and it’s great to be able to both pay it forwards but use things like the skills development network and strengthening relationships with other networks to develop more mechanism to support this.

Reflecting on strengths

Against the backdrop of all of the above, a lot of emotional energy in particular is being focused on the ongoing proposed consultation for restructure. It does sometimes feel a bit like an elephant in the room, we all know it’s happening, but we don’t necessarily talk about it. The reality is many people are worried either about their own situation, or for others, or a bit of both. This is also while trying to manage the impact it will have on overall delivery of work. So this is all really hard stuff – and as per a previous weeknote entry I reiterate the point if any of my SABP colleagues read this, please do reach out to myself or other members of the leadership team if you need any support.

So what does this have to do with strengths? Well I’d say again I’ve been really leaning into belief for a lot of this. From a personal perspective also being more practical about what I can and cannot put my energy into. It doesn’t mean I don’t care, it’s just being mindful of the amount of emotional energy I can spend and how to balance this so it doesn’t become detrimental to my own mental health. Again, I’ve had some very well timed therapy! I’ve learnt a lot about myself in the last few months about leaning into my values and how they ground me. So for the second week in a row (I think!) I am going to pick belief 😊

What am I looking forward to?

In truth, getting my consultation response written and submitted inclusive of my personal statement. I do feel like that’s hanging over my head a little bit! Also hopefully getting my spark and focus back a little after feeling like I’ve been chasing my tail or being on autopilot for a couple of weeks.

From a personal perspective having a few quieter weekends, focusing on my karate and half marathon training and spending valuable time with friends and family.

Weeknotes w.c. 5th and 12th Feb

What happened this week?

It’s been a really strange few weeks and quite tough for a number of reasons. After being really poorly with covid I worked a shorter week last week, and this week I’m off from tomorrow for the rest of half term, so have decided to combine things! The days have been quite ‘bitty’ with lots of ad hoc things here and there – which is probably helpful given my head is still feeling a bit foggy! There’s been quite a bit of sorting things out ahead of next year and reviewing contracts for the year to come working closely with procurement and finance colleagues as well as supporting the narrative for a business case. From a Skills Development Network perspective, we have met with a few potential co-chairs which is exciting and I’m optimistic that the network will continue to grow and move into a sustainability phase in months to come.  

It’s safe to say there’s been one key thing playing on my mind. Last week we also found out the devastating news that our digital directorate will be going through a consultation to restructure… after other options have been exhausted. This is genuinely heartbreaking to so many of us for different reasons, a combination of the individual stress and anxiety this entails, alongside what we have achieved to date as teams and as a directorate. It did not feel right to not mention this in my week notes in the spirit of working openly. While I will not be going into the detail of the consultation here, I want any of my SABP Digital colleagues to know myself or other members of the leadership team are available to support with questions or general emotional support through this challenging time.

What excited me?

I’ll probably pull on two things. Firstly I had a mentoring session (where I was the mentor rather than the mentee!) via the Federation for Health Informatics Professionals scheme. It was really rewarding and I learn loads, and of course it’s nice to pay it forwards. The second thing in light of challenging events above, I have felt well supported with a good peer network around me, both internally and externally. The compassion and support I have seen people having for each other has been incredible, just a shame about the circumstances. In terms of the external support, it was lovely to connect with an old colleague and friend Nadia for coffee and a pastry, providing some much needed space to reflect!

Reflecting on strengths?

I don’t feel like I’ve particularly been on the ball over the last week in all honesty! I guess I might signpost to ‘belief’ which is about honouring my values even in the tough time and in the context of these very weeknotes, considering how to open about quite anxious and stressful events, in a way which is respectful and supportive.

What am I looking forward to?

I’m on annual leave from now until the 20^th and I’m looking forward to trying to catch up a bit on things, physically and mentally. I’m feeling really nervous about my running because I’ve had to pause it until my chest recovers but hopefully I will be able to crack on with that soon. Other than that, looking forward to time with loved ones. While I feel a bit guilty about going off at the moment, I know it’s important to look after myself.

Weeknotes W.C. 29th January

What’s happened this week?

This week has absolutely flown by! I have just finished a therapy session, A is on a playdate with her friend so I have a bit of bonus time to do my week notes before the weekend this time, hooray! It was a bit of a shorter week as I had an extra day off but still lots of moving parts as ever…….

I attended a workshop with our Adult Eating Disorders colleagues reflecting on all of the work done to date and what the future may look like. I had to leave a little early (and of course felt all the childcare guilt, even though no one else said anything to me!!!) but it was lovely to meet people in person at last after lots of work via teams! It’s been great to have digital involvement in this work from the outset and has enabled us to really get the basics right as well as the more innovative ideas.

We’ve had some really good progress within our Skills Development Network “team” about future ways of working and future strategic direction. From a personal perspective it will enable me to feed into the network in a positive way which isn’t so time consuming and hopefully overall our momentum will continue to grow. I still eagerly await the national DDAT workforce plan and hope we will see it soon!

We also had our Digital Literacy workshop focused on supporting new starters. I really enjoyed it and we had a very productive two hours. We agreed on a number of success criteria to make this work, we reflected on the type of questions we liked (and didn’t like) including importantly how to ensure this is a piece of work which is compassionate and supportive. It’s not a barrier to recruitment but ensuring we develop the right offers for staff going forwards from the outset. We will be regrouping after a couple of individual queries and actions and hopefully this piece is not long off being a reality. What was really helpful is being able to reflect in parallel on how we align this to the Adapt+ (our Electronic Patient Record) programme unit rollout. These are some big steps to us creating that ongoing training needs analysis and support at scale – and it’s really exciting.

The last ‘work thing’ for me is the importance of supporting one another as colleagues. This works in all directions – it may be your peer group, it may be someone more senior than you or less senior than you, it may be a colleague in another directorate or even organisation. But those little ‘how are you REALLY doing’ conversations and looking out for one another is so important. I also accidentally but conveniently timed one of my in person days with there being lots of cake for Time To Talk 2024!

In more personal news, on Wednesday I went along to see The Lion King musical as part of a school trip. It was just as good as I remembered it, and I feel very lucky I got to share that experience with A. It was also nice to meet some of her friends, the other parents and teachers. I’m so happy with how she is thriving at her “new” school.

Also, I forgot to pop in last weeks update, I ran a 10K last Sunday! I cannot believe it and it makes me think I can do this! For those who haven’t seen, I am running Reading Half in memory of Elliott Peto. Elliott sadly passed away on 1st December 2022, Aged 5 after being diagnosed with Rhabdomyosarcoma, an aggressive type of cancer– you can read more about his story and donate here: Aasha Cowey is fundraising for Alice’s Arc (justgiving.com)

What Excited me?

I think I will keep it quite brief this week (partly because I’m processing a lot from my therapy!) but I think it’s the positive energy I am finding in the work place – and knowing where I get that from and what I need. This also interplays with things like my values, integrity, and authenticity.

Reflecting on Strengths

Building on last week, I have actively tried to change some of my practice and focus! In our Digital Literacy session for example, while I can facilitate and help and ideate – bring the right things together – I managed to do this in a way which didn’t then mean I became responsible for the follow up actions and momentum. This landed with the right people, and I think that’s good for all of us! I know I’m a good facilitator and can deliver productive sessions – I enjoy it too – so I need to keep thinking how I maximise the value of doing that. I’ve also really leaned into belief which has meant some really hard reflections, but again has enabled me to refocus on what my values are and know what my negociables and non-negociables are.

What am I looking forward to?

Next week has turned into a really ‘bitty’ week but I’ve got lots of different pieces of work and conversations to pick up throughout the week. I’d probably say I’m looking forward to, as part of us, putting my therapy into practice as I consolidate my learning – and I have faith this will help me as I continue on my leadership journey! The diary feels like it’s moving constantly at the moment so I’ll save things until next weeks reflections! On a personal note I’m also looking forward to seeing the Mean Girls (musical) film!

Weeknotes w.c. 22nd January

So didn’t quite manage to post these by the end of working week again! Although I did scribble down key points in a notepad, so at least I was able to extract things from my head prior to the weekend 😊

What’s happened this week?

It’s been a busy week in more ways than one. Lots of travel and face to face stuff which was both energising as well as draining (I am an inner introvert at heart!) – plus jumping around between quite different pieces of work.

This I visited one of our clinics I’ve been doing a bit of work with at Farnham Road hospitals which was great – it was lovely to meet the clinical team and walk through the current processes. I have come home with a stack of paperwork (plain copies I’ll add!) which we’ve actually already built into our Electronic Patient Record. For whatever reason we haven’t however changed the process of how we complete that paperwork in real time digitally. This definitely highlights where the development of a product alone is insufficient without the right learning and adoption support – and willingness to change things from the way they were always done. Benefits realisation is one thing I want us to get a bit stronger at and this has made me reflect we also need to get better at building in check ins to find out how products are being used after launch (I’m sure a lot of our teams already do this, so I’ll be doing some digging to find out the history on this one! Although the team are really pleased with the work digital did to date…. So understanding this gap of changing practice is going to be interesting!).

Working with my education colleagues, we have planned a digital literacy workshop for next week which will allow us to both develop a questionnaire alongside a process (which will need joint ownership from education, HR, digital and others) to be a success. I have my post its and magic paper ready! What this will allow us to do is measure where people are at before they join us and start to then develop the offers they need to do their job. This is a good cohort to start with as it’s discreet and will provide some learning into the wider organisation. It’s important to remember we may need to iterate and try different things, but it will be a great starting point to get something in place.

Skills Development Network world has needed a bit of attention this week. Hopefully people have seen the comms now that our Co-Chair Kevin has made the tough decision to step down so we have had to fully throw ourselves into recruiting a new co-chair ready for some of the work the SDN will be tasked with over the next year or so. As part of this we have also got momentum on our steering group away day and it’ll be fab to bring together the different voices across the South East – representative of different ICS’s and professional groups – to develop the strategy for the next 3-5 years (exact timeframe to be confirmed).

Finally, as a Digital Leadership Team we had an away day focused on Clifton Strengths. It was the first time (in my memory) we have come together and done a focused piece of OD work which allowed us to explore each other as individuals and reflect on the team. We were hosted by Ian from Kingfisher coaching who has previously worked with many of the team. One of the activities we had to do was to share which of our strengths we like, which frustrated us, and then invite the rest of the team to share what ‘strength envy’ they had of us!

For my strengths I picked ideation as the one I love. For years I thought my brain was just noisy and messy – but actually I’ve realised I see the world in a different way and am able to connect things in a way which others cannot. I have learnt to move away from feeling like I am a nuisance to sharing helpful insight. The challenge of course is to not take on the responsibility of actioning all those connections, but I will keep learning! For frustration I went for my activator/restorative (which are my top two) and ultimately can sometimes make me my own worse enemy. I just get things done, I often take on too many things, I say yes to everything. It’s not sustainable and I know it’s something I have to work on! (the flip side is, it does get things done, and I know that’s really valued and important!). In terms of strength envy I then got some beautiful feedback from colleagues which in honesty made me very emotional and something I don’t think I’d realised is I do draw on strengths like command (which isn’t always perceived well for a woman!) – yet I do things in a way which is very sensitive with the person always at the heart of what I do / how I say things / how I enact. That’s something I will explore more and it cements that I need to trust my intuition. It was likewise great to feedback to colleagues things about them I had strength envy for – and reflecting we often see ourselves differently! It was a really emotional exercise – and likewise a great way at showing appreciation without it being really tacky and forced.

I also met up with the lovely Antonia Brown for dinner who is CNIO at a neighbouring community trust. It was the most fantastic session and just affirmed to me how important peer support is both within and outside of your own organisation. It’s a really tricky time to be doing stuff like this, as I’m fully aware that the optics do not work in our favour. But I would argue we cannot make it a race to the bottom and what this allows us to do as individuals and a digital leadership team is to better support each other as we navigate the choppy waters of an NHS in financial recovery! If anything I think we should be doing more of this kind of stuff to support anyone in a leadership role, department lead or managerial role – because we need to support our staff in the current environment.

What Excited me?

Probably three things?

1 – The connectedness we made as a digital leadership team by going through the exercises above. It felt really special and timely as we, like pretty much every NHS trust at the moment, tries to navigate the current financial pressures. I am feeling more hopeful about how we can pull together and use our individual and collective strengths much better.

2- When other people can see the value and difference that doing digital well can bring. In the clinic example above, the icing on the cake was when the [AD] for the service started talking about this piece of work and how the clinical lead was working with us [digital]. I think working in digital it is very easy to be quickly pointed at when things go wrong, but the recognition can be a bit harder. So this was a real win for me (and genuinely why I come to work every day).

3- The recruiting of our Digital Skills Development Network Co-Chair has given myself and the team an opportunity to reflect on roles, responsibilities and expectations going forwards which is really helpful (in fact, all teams should probably do this on occasion!). This will help to get the most of out the co-chairs time (again, recognising organisational pressures in our day jobs) as well as reflect a bit more on our governance and the work we take on. Reflecting on my current exploration of ‘actual versus perceived responsibility’ this is a really interesting one. I do feel personally responsible for the South East Digital SDN – and I need to unpick that because it’s not healthy for me to have that expectation on my shoulders. So I’m feeling really optimistic about the future and I feel lucky to work with such a fab SDN team on the network!

Then to a slightly different angle, it’s been a bit of a strange one personally as all the constant build up to Christmas and then birthdays was suddenly over. I felt quite lost last weekend! I need to be mindful to not either (a) suddenly drop off a cliff or (b) ramp straight up back up to 100mph! Linking back to some of the therapy I’m trying to also be quite mindful of letting myself be bored and not filling up all of that time with work or something because of the need to constantly feel like I’m doing something. I guess in a way it’s exciting that I’m learning so much about myself at the moment, some of this years overdue, and I think it’s going to be a huge benefit in both my professional and personal life.

Reflecting on Strengths

So the eagle-eyed of you may have noticed I have renamed this section which was previously what would I do differently? I’ve decided to refocus it to reflecting on my strengths as this enables me to think positively and reframe ‘do it differently’ from sounding like a negative to how do I lean into the strengths of both myself and others around me for whatever the task at hand is.

It’s quite an interesting week because I’ve actually drawn on my activator/restorative strengths loads, which I’ve said can frustrate me because I do too much! But actually a lot of the work I’ve focused on will make my life easier in the long run. I say easier, there will always be something else that comes up! But it will allow me to better focus on where I can add the most value.

I’m slowly realising as well, organisation isn’t my best strength. I actually hate it. I find it overwhelming, exhausting, probably over complicate things a lot of the time! But I then over-compensate for it (perhaps because of the anxiety I’m not sure?) and as a result appear on the surface to be incredibly organised!

What am I looking forward to?

I’m really excited about facilitating the practical digital literacy workshop outlined above and look forward to seeing how far we get with our outcomes on the day. In my personal life, I am seeing the Lion King musical in London which I am so excited about! I will be the one sobbing through about 50% of the performance again I suspect!

Over and out for today 😊

Weeknotes w.c. 8th Jan / 15th Jan

So another slightly jumbled edition of weeknotes but with good reason I hope! As I get back into the swing of a more normal routine I will revisit the format which was working for me previously 😊

My main reason for not doing my weeknotes last week is that the weekend just gone, we hosted a party for nearly 30 kids for my daughters 7^th birthday. It was lovely (she has such lovely friends both from her new school and old ones – which means my friends too!). But it’s just been non stop since Christmas as there was no gap between putting the Christmas decorations away to running around decorating cupcakes, filling party bags and chasing up RSVPs!

It’s safe to say headspace became a bit limited. The flipside is I should really be doing this as part of my working week because the reflections make me better at my job, it’s part of my professional and personal development, but it’s just been busy……

So a couple of updates?

Rest/Wellbeing

I don’t feel like I’ve had a break really. The lead up to Christmas was exhausting, and while I had 9 days (I think?) solid off and did switch off from work, it was all Christmas and then birthday! Then straight back into quite a lot of busy asks. I sat down last night and have tried to carve out some protected time in my diary so I can slow down a bit and have a bit of thinking time to work on the more strategic pieces I have on at the moment. I’ve also booked a couple of days just for myself (yay!) after the next half term. The flipside of all this is I can get grumpy, irritable, takes things more personally than usual, it’s not good for my anxiety. Taking breaks from work is so important – and feeling rested is necessary.

360 Feedback and Mentoring

I mentioned in my last blog (and probably several in 2023!) about coming to a bit of crossroads and not really knowing what I want to do next. Although actually in quite a lucky way because I think I have several paths. I feel like 2024 is going to be a bit bumpy so I’ve taken the approach what are the things I can control and work on about myself during that period and understand where I need and want to grow.

There are two things I am doing in particular to focus on ‘the self’ in a work sense – in addition to the therapy I have been undertaken. I met with Debbie Loke earlier this week as part of the new Digital Health mentors programme. Really excited to be a part of this programme and I know there is alongside it a bit focus on how we support the next generation of women coming into these roles. I look forward to working with Debbie and the rest of our group (in fact I was reflecting on my old grad-scheme buddy Erith the other day on the power of action learning and group work, actually we do so little of that if it’s not proactively led by someone or a programme – there’s so much more we could do in every day life. Of course the programme and discussions itself will be confidential but I’m sure I will share some of my personal learning and reflections as we proceed.

The other thing I did was go through my 360 assessment as part of the NHS Leadership dimensions. It was fascinating and actually very timely as it compliments some of the things I am exploring in my therapy at the moment. In a space where I don’t probably get as much feedback as I need it was reassuring to see on paper those views from others around me and it’s no secret that I struggle with feeling valued (although I know it is in the large, an irrational feeling). Likewise, the facilitation call afterwards was incredibly valuable and I got to unpick some really important areas. If it sounds like I’m just focusing on the negatives I’m not – it’s just I think they are the more interesting areas of growth to write about.

One of the biggest things I need to reflect on is the impact of the really high standards I hold myself against, and the impact that may have on others which I hadn’t really considered before. This naturally made me quite sad. I think in some cases people who know me quite well, and know I struggle with anxiety etc hopefully are used to me but for those who perhaps don’t know me as well, or we haven’t established some of those explicit working relationships with, it could be detrimental to.

The second key area is around delegation. I’m fairly happy delegating transactional and simple things but then the bigger more complicated things I do struggle with – and I think there are a number of reasons here which I am exploring……

• Finding the balance of getting involved enough to pass it on. I know this is partly experience and practice but it just is something I find difficult. Sometimes it’s because the bits of work I get involved with often involve numerous parts of digital so it’s not always straightforward. The more and more I work with teams and individuals this becomes easier of course and this will also help tremendously with my role in supporting the Digital, Data and Tech profession! Also a lot of the work I do is just generally quite messy because I am going to cut through the noise and find out what the problem is – so I will try to give myself a bit more credit. I also probably need to get more comfortable with the fact I won’t always see the result, and actually a lot of the time the end result will be quite different to the one I perhaps envisaged (which is a good thing, as it means it has evolved).

• An additional complication to the above is I don’t have direct hierarchical influence over many people – it’s all influence, team work and negotiation. Which actually I’m fairly good at, but sometimes the “easier” thing is to just try and do it yourself! I hope that by not spreading myself so thin in the future, I can focus more on the depth of those relationships especially the more regular ones and give myself time to breathe in between things so can consider whether I’m giving people enough support to get the best out of them to do the work. I’ve said people to quite a few people I just felt like an absolute pain in the arse to most people in digital for at least my first year! Building those relationships to navigate the asks is something really powerful – and not to be underestimated.

• I struggle to process things sometimes. This isn’t something we explicitly spoke about but I know I can sometimes get brain fog, or quite literally just NOT GET something someone else is telling me because I simply need space and time to process it on my own. This is probably infuriating to those on the other side as well! But I don’t think this helps and I probably need to unpick how I process the work other people have done in a way which is meaningful. If this sounds a bit vague it’s because it is 🙂

• One of the biggest, if not the biggest thing for me – as I don’t like to over burden people. It probably links a bit into the above but I worry about others workloads. Actually I need to take a step back sometimes and remember people are adults and they (hopefully!) know they can ask for support and help if they need it, rather than the other way round. I don’t want to change this part of me, I think being an empath is a massive part of my leadership style and strengths- but I cannot shoulder all of that responsibility for others.

A big big theme in the above is how I do enough, and it being enough, and having the faith that it is good enough! Also that step into leadership roles has to be – and I know this – doing less of the work myself and guiding and coaching others into doing the work and finding their own path. I find this really hard…. but hopefully acknowledging it and knowing it is something to work on is the first step! I also know I can do it – because sometimes I do! So perhaps I need to reflect on why I might be more comfortable in some situations over others. Finally – the thing I am currently exploring in therapy is actual versus perceived responsibility which again I think is a helpful cross cutting theme across all of this.

Why I do my job! Tangible change for our clinical services

So this blog has already become fairly long so I think I’ll go into the detail of this next time, but I’ve had two fantastic pieces of work with two different services this week about how we can make things better for them. Benefits include better data reporting and integrity, a reduction in paper and manual processes, and future proofing.

With both services, working with multiple experts accross digital, we were able to identify some quick wins now (quite simply training issues to use our EPR in different way) – alongside some longer term opportunities which I’m in the process of writing up with the relevant clinical leads and pitching to our programme teams to get into our development backlogs.

I quite literally ended a call by saying “I love this – this is why I do my job and this is why I come to work”. I hope that for both pieces we do some quite robust work around benefits because I think that is something we need to do a bit better, but ultimately everything we do working in digital should be to make that experience better for our staff and ultimately lead to better outcomes for the people who use our services. It’s been a good anchor in a tricky few months!