Magnetic North

We all know that working well as a team can make a big difference to health or social care services. But building and maintaining a good team culture isn’t easy. It takes time and skill. Where do you find resources that can help you? How can you tackle problems that your group may be facing?

This site developed by NES is a step in the right direction. It’s aim is to to point you to stuff that can help your team to work and learn well together. With exercises and guidance (particularly in the Toolkits already developed for NHS Scotland) the site makes it easy for you to find what you need. But this is just a start. The idea is that we can all learn from each other – you know what works and what doesn’t, which tips and tricks can make the difference. There is therefor the opportunity to contribute with feedback,ideas and suggestions.

Currently there is a fascinating video on the site called ‘Doing without doing’ which is definitely worth viewing.

To visit the site now click here. We also have a established permanent link to ‘Effective teams’ on the right hand side of our home page.

Our intrepid facilitators have just returned from a whistle-stop tour of our most northern network areas. Charlotte brought them Big Picture thinking whilst Brian introduced them to the FISH! philosophy.
A good time was had by all, however Charlotte and Brian’s one regret was that they had no time to appreciate the beauty of the Islands.
As promised here are the said presentations:

If you attended one of the events please leave a comment, your feedback is invaluable.

Places are still available in Aberdeen, Dundee and Inverness for a very unique event.
Hugh Sheils from Tall Poppy will be sharing  lessons learnt from an accident in the aviation industry focusing on the Human Factor element.The particular accident under discussion was the catalyst for huge change throughout the aviation industry.

A subsequent cultural change and staff training programme have now made this one of the safest industries in the world.

Hugh will examine the measures introduced to minimise future risks, namely team decision making, reducing human error, effective communication and effective feedback. He will consider the roles of transactional analysis, leadership, motivation, situational awareness and problem solving to help others.

Aviation cultural change and staff training programmes have already been successfully used in acute hospital and primary care settings all over the UK to change the way people work to ensure the safety of their patients. This networking session will be of particular interest to all of those involved in the provision of quality patient care, particularly team leaders, managers involved in assessing risk and clinicians.

Following a very successful event in Inverness Karen Darke continues her tour of the network with a visit to Dundee on September 11th.

Karen’s  aim for these events is to share information, stories and practical tips that might help you overcome challenges. Some are in relation to disability, but others will interest any of you who want to live life to the full, or ignite your adventurous spirit.

A traumatic fall from a Scottish Sea Cliff at the age of 21 changed the course of her life forever as it left her paralysed from the neck down. She had to challenge her own physical and mental barriers, completing many trips that others, including herself, believed impossible; from marathons and triathlons, to kayaking, sit-skiing and hand-cycling in some of the most inhospitable places on the planet.

”Modest and thoughtful, Karen is a highly sought after and successful speaker, whose stories inspire all those who take time to reflect on what it took to achieve them.”

How do we overcome challenges? Why is it that some of us are fortunate enough to fall down, pick ourselves up, brush off the dust and go again, whilst others let it stop them? Through her personal experiences, adventures and some ongoing research with others who have tackled great challenge, she enjoys sharing some understanding as to how we can learn from the difficult stuff, and use it to do the positive stuff. How we turn things around, no matter how difficult or seemingly impossible they may seem.

Book on line now to be sure of a place on this not to miss event!

You don’t have to wait till september to hear about Karen’s adventures, whet your your appetite with a visit to her Website

In April of this year, Brian and I embarked on our third year as MDN facilitators for the Northern Region.

 During the 2^nd year of this project, we successfully delivered over 30 free events to managers across the north, travelling from Oban to Aberdeen and Thurso to Dundee.   Over 900 Managers were provided with networking opportunities and around 600 took us up on the offer and attended a wide variety of meetings. 

 Maimie Thompson from NHS Highland did sterling work with her 18 WRTT events.   Richard Carey in Grampian and Gerry Marr in Tayside provided us with an outline of strategic developments in their own health boards and their take on Better Health Better Care.  Brian dressed for the occasion and introduced members to FISH and Charlotte worked with Practice Managers looking at the Bigger Picture.   We heard about Social Entrepreneurs and Andy Bounds enthralling event on communication skills.    Several managers toured Lifescan learning about Quality in a Medical Device Company and we were very much inspired by Karen Darke during her motivational talk on her mountaineering expeditions and overcoming huge odds to succeed in life.

 This blog has allowed managers to book for events on line and to catch up on things that they have missed.  Booking on line means that people can see who else is attending and catch up with those in the know!

 Brian and I are extremely grateful for your continued support and would like to extend our gratitude also to all those speakers who have so kindly given up their time to support the Managers Development Network.

 Over the summer Brian and I will be finalising our programme for the Autumn – we can give you advance notice of three events happening on the 12/13^th October in Dundee, Aberdeen and Inverness.   Tall Poppy will be providing their insight into risk, safety and team work in the aviation industry and how some of the lessons learnt here can be applied to the health service (on line bookings available at the end of July).

 In the meantime we would like to wish you all a fantastic summer and I write this on the hottest day so far – long may it continue.  We both look forward to seeing many of you again in the Autumn.      

Charlotte Leggatt

Hazel Scott, Commissioner for Older Peoples Services, in NHS Tayside, has received the Institute of Healthcare Managements most prestigious Award.  At the annual IHM Awards dinner on Thursday 14th May Savoy Place London Stewart Bain IHM President presented Hazel with her Companionship of the Institute.

Hazel has been a member of IHM since the mid 1980s and serves the IHM Scottish council as vice chair and also on the IHM Executive Board and IHM Members Council.

In order to be eligible for Companionship of the Institute you must have made a significant and sustained contribution to the profession of management, with the contribution having a direct relevance to healthcare management.  Companionship is open to both IHM Members and Non-Members

Congratulations Hazel from all your friends and colleagues

At the taster session on social entrepreneurship Anne Porter spent some time looking at creative techniques that help us move from an insight (Wouldn’t it be great if…I really wish…Why do we do it this way?…) to a viable idea that will have real impact.

We all have ‘decision habits’ and a tendency to classify information in a way that is based on our previous experiences. This leads us to come up with the same type of solution to a problem time and time again, even when it has been shown not to work.

If you attended  the taster session you may remember  discussing the Underpant Gnomes from Southpark who thought they had a fantastic idea for innovation-‘Steal under pants!’.(see presentation) The only problem was they had no idea whatsoever on how to move from their fantastic idea to ‘Profit!’ The real challenge for the gnomes, of course, was that their idea wasn’t that great in the first place.

The idea has to be one that will work. An innovation is only an innovation if it has impact and makes a difference.

Organisations and teams can learn and adopt creative behaviours as part of their day to day work to help find ideas that will work.There are many, many publications on how to unleash creative behaviours, one of the most useful being Thinking Differently produced by the NHS Institute of Innovation and Improvement  www.institute.nhs.uk. It gives some great pointers on how to apply creative techniques in NHS settings.

Full houses in both Aberdeen and Dundee, were shown how to communicate in ways that really do work, by the dynamic, enthusiastic and energetic Andy Bounds. And…”Well that was a good thing for us because”… we now know how to save time and enjoy our jobs more.

Andy prodded us into action  with a very participatve and fun presentation which focused on the ‘Audience not the speaker”. We learned that  shortening our emails, meetings and presentations was ‘easy as 2 3 1′.  At the end we left wanting more or should I say “Looking for “Afters”. Sorry  you just had to be there. Thanks to all who were. Please leave a comment

Link now available to Andy Bounds resources (see BLOGROLL) or better still why not buy his book The Jelly Effect

And that whirlwinds’ name was Ann McFadyen!

Participative from the word go, her audience soon discovered that there was an entrepreneur inside all of us just waiting to get out.

Ann’s style was high energy, challenging and thought provoking and the outcome was a thoroughly entertaining presentation enjoyed by all who attended.

The only downside was the disappointing turnout at all three northern events. Remember it’s your network and it needs your support to continue the delivery of quality events to your area.

‘Tips and Hints’ now available – click here.

Here is Ann’s presentation, (every picture tells a story).

The network is delighted to welcome local Inverness girl, Karen Darke who will provide an inspirational and motivational talk at the Kingsmill Hotel on March 18th.

 Karen’s traumatic fall from a Scottish Sea Cliff at the age of 21 changed the course of her life forever.  Karen choose to fight the preconceived ideas of what was possible for someone who could feel nothing below their chest and four years after her accident, Karen crossed the mountains of Central Asia by hand bike. 

Karen has been working for some years now as a motivational speaker with large scale organisations and we are delighted that she is joining us on the 18^th. 

If, sometimes you feel like giving up, come along and here just what it is that keeps Karen going.  A bit of inspiration can go along way!! Karen is currently on tour and can be seen at Eden Court as well as other venues around the UK