Steve Onyett Solution focused consultancy, coaching, facilitation and research Doing your local leadership differently Steve Onyett

Steve Onyett

www.steveonyett.co.uk

Solution focused consultancy, coaching, facilitation and research

Doing your local leadership differently

Steve OnyettLong Term Neurological Conditions

1st May 2009

Steve Onyett



•“Leadership has been the neglected element of the reforms of recent years. That must now change.”

“Darzi Review” final report (DH, 2008)

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Putting People First

• …stated that “national and local leadership is now essential if we are to achieve system-wide transformation”

• and lists the first key element of a personalised adult social care system as:

• “Local authority leadership accompanied by authentic partnership working with the local NHS, other statutory agencies, third [non-statutory] and private sector providers, users and carers and the wider local community to create a new, high quality care system which is fair, accessible and responsive to the individual needs of those who use services and their carers.

Steve Onyett



Thought for the day. Today Programme. Radio 4. 26th February 2009

•“Here is the gift of relationship. It lies at the very core of what it is to be human.”

Rev David Wilkinson, principal of St John’s College, Durham

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The artist is Mel Gittridge, and this image was exhibited as The artist is Mel Gittridge, and this image was exhibited as part of Expressions, a touring display of art by people who part of Expressions, a touring display of art by people who have experienced mental or emotional problems- this picture have experienced mental or emotional problems- this picture captures the idea of environments where people can take captures the idea of environments where people can take power, supported by other environments where people can power, supported by other environments where people can take power. take power.

Start with what builds Start with what builds relationship for service relationship for service usersusers

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Chris Ham on commissioning

• Failed attempts at the purchaser-provider split suffered from “lack of time to develop skills, relationship and experience”

• “too much attention appeared to have been paid to the legal form of contracts and not enough to the development of relationships between purchasers and providers (HSMC, 3).

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Make time (somehow!)

• “..recent research into the impact of Local Strategic Partnerships .. suggests the need for development time to explore the type of relationships that local agencies want to have and the organizational processes and structures that will be needed to deliver this. Making this time and space is crucial yet difficult, as the pressure to deliver better outcomes for service users can often seem in tension with the need to develop the capacity of the board and thus the partnership”.

Glasby and Peck, 2006 p.16

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Steve Onyett



Trust and social capital• “.. the greatest loss over the past 50 years

may have been in squandered social capital. Social capital consists of those social networks of mutual trust and the associated norms of reciprocity that made the NHS “ours.”

• The NHS is essentially a national partnership between the citizens and those who work in it. For all partnerships the defining element is mutual trust and generalised reciprocity—the willingness to contribute, confident that at time of need in the future there will be support in return”.

Welsh, T. & Pringle, M. (2001).

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Four underpinning principles in the new DH approach to change

• CO-PRODUCTION– To engage people across “the system” to work

together to make change happen• SUBSIDIARITY

– Ensuring that decisions are made at the right level, and as close to the user as possible “Each tier of the system only does what it can only do”.

• CLINICAL OWNERSHIP AND LEADERSHIP– Building on the Darzi concept of staff as

“Practitioners, Partners and Leaders”. • SYSTEM ALIGMENT

– Aligning different parts of the system towards the same goals as a way of achieving complex cultural change

TAKEN TOGETHER THEIR

WHOLE IS GREATER THAN

THE SUM OF THEIR PARTS

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CO-PRODUCTION- It is not just about delivering public services

• “If co-production focuses exclusively on the types of labour needed to enable public systems to work better, it will tend to undervalue the significance of the effort invested in giving love and comfort, approval and disapproval, caring and mentoring – and equally the effort involved in civic engagement ranging from attending meetings to making phone calls to mobilising social protest”.

• “Personalisation” needs to be rooted in mutual support and recognition that not everything can be bought

• Should users use budgets to buy friendship?Edgar Cahn. Foreword. Co-Production. A manifesto for growing the core economy. NEF. 2

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Solution focused consultancy, coaching, facilitation and research New Economics Foundation. Co-Production. A manifesto for growing the core economy.2008. 2

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It is about “deepening and broadening” public service

• “The point is not to consult more, or involve people more in decisions; it is to encourage them to use the human skills and experience they have to help deliver public or voluntary services”

New Economics Foundation. Co-Production. A manifesto for growing the core economy.2008. 10-11

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Co-production and working from strengths

• “… people are defined entirely by their needs and so those needs become the only asset they have. No-one should be surprised when people then behave in ways that perpetuate such needs” (11).

• “When ..assets are deliberately ignored or sidelined they atrophy”. (11)

• “Co-production demands that public service staff shift from fixers who focus on problems to enablers who focus on abilities. … This role is not recognised or rewarded within the management structures that are currently in place”.(13)

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“Front-line staff are essential to delivery and empowerment...

•Their morale is as important as client morale. Yet in practice, the participation that they are asked to extend to clients is often not extended to them”.

New Economics Foundation. Co-Production. A manifesto for growing the core economy.2008. 13

Familiarity

Reliable Information

Clear Communications

Integrity

Shared Values

Shared Vision

Trusting Relationships

Change/Uncertainty/Dishonesty

Conflicting Needs

Pressures/Stress

Complex/Poor Data

UnclearCommunications

Lack of Time /Prior Experience

Distrusting Relationships

Source: Richard Lauve, MD (VHA Inc.)

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The energy of social movements

• “Social movement thinking is about connecting with people’s core values and motivations and mobilising their own internal energies and drivers for change…

• …[evidence from change management studies show] people change what they do less because they are given analysis that shifts their thinking than because they are shown a truth that influences their feelings

• ..rather than a single individual, it is a network of leaders at multiple levels who guide and mobilise the successful movement”

Helen Bevan of The NHS Institute

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‘Four Column Matrix’

Develop transformational

goals that connect with the

values that brought people

into healthcare in the first place

Develop system level measures

that track progress against

these goals

Show how externally set

targets sit within the context of the strategic goals to build ownership

to delivery

Align project level goals with

the strategic goals of the

system to create a sense of purpose

and channel energy

Strategic GoalsSystem Level

MeasuresNationalTargets

Projects

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Establish a system-level vision for improvement with ambition and commitment.

•Leaders need to commit personally to the vision. This means taking a stand and framing the objectives as promises to users and the people that support them.

Aims framed as promises to usersUser’s needs and wants

Promise

I want to be involved in my own care planning

Your care planning session will be attended by you and the people you know need to be there. The care plan will be signed by you to indicate your involvement

I want to be seen as a whole person not just an illness

Assessments and care plans will cover all the areas of your life that are meaningful and important to you. You will be able to control what is looked at and be given information telling you what you should expect

I want to be confident that I have had the best care and treatment

Your care and treatment will be evidence basedIt will be delivered by enthusiastic and skilled staff

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System alignment

• Allow yourselves with others to be moved by delivery stories

• Give wide and shared exposure to the lived experience of service users

• Envision the future together and ambitiously

• Don’t be coy about the love you put into your work

Steve Onyett



Steve Onyett



Appreciative InquiryIs about developing the competence to CHOOSE a way of thinking• “Appreciative Inquiry is the cooperative search

for the best in people, their organizations, and the world around them.”

• “It involves systematic discovery of what gives a system 'life' when it is most effective and capable in economic, ecological and human terms.”

From “An opportunity to learn more about Appreciative Inquiry” Presentation by Anne Radford

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We manifest what we focus on and “we grow toward what we persistently ask

questions about”or

What we talk about gets bigger!

Solution focus/appreciative inquiry- exploring what works so that we can do more of it

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It works to build the positive core of the organisations involved.

• Organisations need a lot less fixing and a lot more affirmation.

• Appreciation builds relationships, collective intelligence, and freedom to innovate

From “An opportunity to learn more about Appreciative Inquiry” Presentation by Anne Radford

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“The Power of Appreciation..

• ..rests with its self-reinforcing and self-generative capacity”

Srivastva and Cooperrider, 1999

• This requires inclusion, safety in participation and good communication =

• Effective teamworking and leadership• Teams are where this is modelled and

enacted

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The 2007 NHS National Staff Survey

• 93% responded positively when asked: “Do you work in a team?”

• However this shrunk to 42% when the survey explored whether the team in question fulfilled criteria for a well structured team

• Findings consistent since 2003!

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Real teams have..• Clear and shared objectives• Members who have to work closely

together to achieve the objectives of the team

• This interdependency includes users and their supporters

• Members who have different and clearly defined roles within the team

• The minimum number of team members required to get the job done

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Working well with living systems means working well with “complexity”– See for example –

• Bob Hudson. (2006). Whole systems working- a Guide and Discussion paper. CSIP-ICN

• Jake Chapman. (2004). Systems failure. Why governments must learn to think differently. London: Demos

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Or just

•“Recognising how the universe works and just getting on with it”

•.. theory

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Are your issues “wicked”?• Don’t be surprised of they are – the easy

problems have been solved!• They involve many stakeholders with

different values and priorities• “When confronting frustrating problems, an

enterprise would do well to recognise that they may be wicked. Moving from denial to acceptance is important; otherwise companies will continue to use conventional processes and never effectively address their strategy issues”

Camillus, J. C. 2008. Strategy as a wicked problem. Harvard Business Review

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“Wicked problems”• Involve issues with roots that are

complex and entangled. • Are difficult to get to grips with and

change with every attempt to address them.

• Have no precedent• So .. nothing to indicate the right

answer


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Properties of “Wicked problems”

• There is no definitive formulation• It is not obvious when you have reached

a solution (no “stopping rule”)• There is no immediate and no ultimate

test of a solution- the solutions have their own consequences

• Every attempt at solution counts significantly


Steve Onyett



Properties of “Wicked problems”

• Each problem can be seen as a symptom of another problem

• Discrepancies can be explained in numerous ways- because people have different definitions of the problem

• You have no right to be wrong- there is too much at stake!

• Solutions are not true or false but good or bad- it’s all down to judgement

…there is only betterCamillus, J. C. 2008. Strategy as a wicked problem. Harvard Business Review

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So it’s a bit swampy!

• “Swamps were generally seen as useless and even dangerous”.

• “Swamps are characterised by rich biodiversity and specialized organisms..

• .. such as frogs”.

• “…. swamp draining is nowadays seen as a destruction of a very valuable ecological habitat type”

Wikipedia

ComplicatedComplicated ComplexComplexSimplSimplee

Source: Brenda Zimmerman, PhD

•Formulae have only a limited application

•Raising one child gives no assurance of success with the next

•Expertise can help but is not sufficient

•Every child is unique

•Uncertainty of outcome remains

Raising a Child

Recipe is essential

Recipes are tested to assure replicability of later efforts

No particular expertise; knowing how to cook increases success

Recipes produce standard products

Certainty of same results every time

Following a Recipe

A Moon Rocket

Formulae are critical and necessary

Sending one rocket increases assurance that next will be ok

High level of expertise in many specialized fields & coordination

Rockets similar in critical ways

High degree of certainty of outcome

From - Plsek, P. “Complexity, culture and large systems change” presentation

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Questions? (after Chapman, 2004)

• Are we spending too much time trying to apply complicated solutions to complex problems?

• What approach would we adopt if we accepted that systems cannot be controlled nor their behaviour predicted?

• What might we need to do differently?

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The problem of Big Planning

• “Long term planning and the rigid structures, precise task definitions and elaborate rules that often accompany it, may be positively dangerous, ‘fixing’ an organisation in pursuit of a particular vision when an uncertain world requires flexible responses”.

Hudson, 2006

• May need “holding frameworks” for relevant subsystems to keep direction and coherence

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Build collective understanding of what

working in complex systems really means

• Small changes can have big effects • ..and big changes very little effect• Emergence- the whole is greater

than the sum of the parts• Tolerance of uncertainty and

flexibility• Recognising the futility of control

Steve Onyett



The pointlessness of controlfrom Jenny Rogers “Influencing Skills”

• You can’t force people to work effectively on something they disagree with.

• Organisations are so complex and subject to so many diverse influences that it is pointless trying to control them.

• Distance from most senior to most junior makes it unlikely that control can be exercised over that stretch

• Much control is unnecessary -where there is openess and willingness to give feedback

• Control reduces risk taking- a necessary precondition for the innovation on which organisations depend

• It’s exhausting and your time can be better spent!

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What implications of more ecological thinking?

•Push and exhortation (nor even resources!) from leaders and policy makers can be counter-productive.

Steve Onyett



•People’s ability to stay the same will always be greater than our ability to make them different

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Working with your stakeholders- what is their•Readiness to change? •Confidence to change? •Judgement of the importance of change?

Steve Onyett



Respectfully consider these cells and provide information to inform

Advantages Disadvantages

Change + -

No change - +

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What are their natural attractors?

• Patient/carer benefit• Feeling effective• Getting to know people better• Autonomy• Choice• Self image (e.g. as a scientist)• Reduced paperwork and boredom• Geewhizz gadgets• Feeling part of something important• Lifestyle enhancement• Good stories to tell• CV brownie points• Etc., etc., etc., etc.

Steve Onyett



What implications of more ecological thinking?

•Change needs to happen bottom-up but the right conditions need to be created.

• …like gardening, or throwing a party?

Steve Onyett



Working with complexity values•Allowing solutions to emerge

by:– encouraging rich interaction,

removing barriers and oppressive controls

– giving space and time, – not overspecifying means

Steve Onyett



Working with complexity values• Valuing multiple perspectives• Using multiple approaches

that make effective use of experience, experimentation, freedom to innovate and working at the edge of knowledge and experience.

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Comfort Zone

Discomfort Zone

Panic Zone

Working with complexity as “surfing the edge of chaos”, Pascale, et al (2000)

“.. In systems as in life, when threatened, [it] move towards the edge of chaos. At this edge experimentation and mutation occur from which creative solutions can emerge. When this occurs living systems self organise and new forms or patterns emerge. The challenge for leaders is to disturb or disrupt the movement at the edge to provoke the desired outcome” – sometimes referred to as “perturbing the edge”. McKimm et al, (2008)

Steve Onyett



“..Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss

of enthusiasm”. Winston S Churchill

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Leadership? Two broad approaches

• Some view leadership as a set of traits or competencies possessed by certain individuals

• others view leadership as an emergent social phenomena, a social process shaped by relationship within groups.

Bolden, 2004

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Competencies

• …. can be likened to Brighton Pier,

• very fine in their own way, ..

• but not a good way of getting to France

John Alban-Metcalfe quoting Neil Kinnock describing the 1981 Special Education

Act.

Steve Onyett



Law of the Situation•Leadership is transient and

contextual•Where knowledge and

experience are needed the person who can is the right person to do it.

•Not all leadership should be determined by position power yet people with authority should be prepared to exercise it.

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Subsidiarity

• Decision making should be located as closely as possible to the place where actions are taken.

• This means addressing the flight from authority

• .. and helping people love their monkeys!

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•“If you do not fill your leadership space, voids appear, and in voids bad things happen”

Hugh Martyn and Robert Scurr quoting William Calley on his lack of leadership in the Mai Lay massacre in Vietnam, 1968

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The essence of leadership and management

• …is the creation of environments in which people can be creative.. Where they can exercise power to achieve outcomes valued by patients/users, their supports, and other key stakeholders.

• This is usually a team

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“New paradigm” approach to leadership

• More “soft stuff” emphasis on working through others

• Leaders with more faith in other people than they have in themselves (and they have a lot of faith in themselves!)

• More concerned with connectedness and inclusiveness

With acknowledgement to Bev Alimo-Metcalfe of www.realworld-group.com

Steve Onyett



“New paradigm” approach to leadership

• More concerned with vision• More concerned with improvement• Less concerned with “Great man”

models of leadership• Striving for excellence through

optimism, openness and personal humility

With acknowledgement to Bev Alimo-Metcalfe of www.realworld-group.com

Steve Onyett



“Transformational” leadership- roots

• James MacGregor Burns transformation as that which turns followers into leaders and leaders into moral agents.

• Transformational leadership occurs when people elevate each other into a higher level of motivation and morality.

• Thus inextricably linked with the social meaning that people attach to their work.

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Leadership as an ethical endeavour

• Positive Emotional Climate = “an environment where managers take into account the emotional needs and personal growth of employees and encourage the sharing of positive emotions”

• Leadership practices that promote “positive emotional climate” associated with company gains in revenue, growth and outcome. Ozcelik et al, 2008

• Contrasted with “charismatic” (sometimes referred to as “transformational”) leaders who use their skills manipulatively in pursuit of organisational goals.

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The importance of authenticity

•Leaders lead most effectively when they are being themselves and being true to themselves.

•Authentic leadership is about, “being yourself- more – with skill”

Goffee and Jones, 2006

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Leadership as an ethical endeavour

•PEC associated with less cynicism and more engagement

Steve Onyett



“.. Sloterdijk (1987) observes that the whole of postmodern society is living within an internal dialogue or cognitive environment of a universal, diffuse, cynicism. As a predominant mindset of the post-1960s era, Sloterdijk takes the cynic not as an exception but rather as the average social character. It is argued that at both the personal and institutional levels, throughout our society there is a widespread disturbance of vitality, a bleakening of the life feeling, a farewell to defeated idealisms, and a sense of paralyzing resentment”.

DAVID COOPERRIDER, 1999

Steve Onyett



Research using the Team Leadership Questionnaire

•“Showing genuine concern” has the biggest impact on motivation.–Being interested in your needs and aspirations and how things feel for you.With acknowledgement to Bev Alimo-Metcalfe of www.realworld-group.com

Steve Onyett



Highlights from “Host Leadership: Towards a new yet ancient metaphor” by Mark McKergow PhD MBADirector, sfwork - The Centre for Solutions Focus at [email protected], www.sfwork.com Forthcoming in the International Journal of Leadership in Public Services

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Shortcomings of the hero metaphor

• The hero leader is seen as all-knowing and the followers all-dependent;

• The illusion of control • The homogeneous

imagery of the followers - are we subjects or sheep!

• The willingness of the hero (warrior, king, even shepherd) to die in the act of saving the flock

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Shortcomings of the servant metaphor• The richness of the metaphor is not

obvious. Your waiter or Jeeves?• The image of servant is not a

compelling one to those (for example women and ethnic minorities) who are traditionally cast in such a role

• The leader as servant has similar hierarchical issues to the hero, but from the other end- who are really the masters and mistresses?

Steve Onyett



Leader as Host, Host as Leader

Hero

Host

Servant

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Warren Bennis on Gladstone and Disraeli• If you had dinner with William

Gladstone, you were left thinking “That Gladstone is the wittiest, the most intelligent, the most charming person around.”

• But when you had dinner with Benjamin Disraeli, you were left thinking, “I’m the wittiest, the most intelligent, the most charming person around!”

• Gladstone shone but Disraeli created an environment where others could shine. The latter is the more powerful form of leadership, an adventure in which the leader is privileged to find treasure within others and put it to good use.

From introduction to Parks 2005 p xi-xii).

Steve Onyett



Advantages of the host metaphor

• It’s an everyday image• Host and Guest are co-defining• Hosting is an activity, rather than a

defining characteristic of a person• Hosting gives a definite feel of some

responsibility for the success of the event

• The role of host can involve behaving as total hero or absolute servant

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Elements of host leadership

•The four balances + 1

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Principle of Response-ability

•Defining the event

•Responding to what happens

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Principle of Co-participation

•Engage and provide

•Join in along with everyone else

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Principle of Gate-opener

•Protect boundaries

• Encourage new connections

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Principle of Alpha and Omega•Be the first

•Be the last

The host is both the first and the last – Arabic proverb

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The 5th principle?

•Front stage work.

•Back-stage work.

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Parting comments on rethinking leadership

• Focus on what counts rather than what is easily countable

• ..and then measure with reports to the highest levels of governance

• Remember to “plot the bloody dots!” but that..

• “Crude measures of the right thing are better than precise measures of the wrong things”

Davis Balestracci, 2008

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• Focus on releasing capacity for effective hosting of important relationship building based on trust - rather than just talent spotting “high fliers”

• Notice and celebrate the good to build the confidence for effective subsidiarity

• Develop networks and teams based upon levels of interdependency required among people to deliver the task at hand

Steve Onyett




• Build in incentives and support for giving back at all levels, for example…– By service users in contributing to the support of

others– By staff in managing their own managers– By all in the planning, design and delivery of service

• Create an environment where innovation is possible- it is OK to celebrate failure as long as there is learning

• Create the infrastructure for learning• Start!- Use “Rapid Cycle Thinking” with small,

short PDSA cycles where data is collected, shared and learned from

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• Consciously address sustainability– Maintain attention– Celebrate and communicate– Take away that which supports the bad

old ways– Create and support the new roles and

ways of being– Model from above– Keep moving forward

Steve Onyett




• Ask yourself

Paul E. Plsek, 2008

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It’s all about well-being

Steve Onyett



•“If you think you are too small to be effective

you have never been in bed with a mosquito”

Betty-Reese

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Thank you!- [email protected]

Steve Onyett



Sources• Iles, P. & Macaulay, M. (2007) Putting principles into practice: developing ethical

leadership in local government. International Journal of Leadership in Public Services, 3(3), 15-28.

• Ozcelik, H., Langton, N., & Aldrich. (2008). Doing well and doing good. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 23(3), 186-203.

• Ham. C. (2008) “Health Care Commissioning in the International Context: Lessons from experience and evidence”. 2008.HSMC

• Ham, C. (2008)“Competition and integration in the English NHS”. BMJ. 2008. 336. 805-807

• Welsh, T. & Pringle, M. (2001). Social capital. Trusts need to recreate trust BMJ. 2001 July 28; 323(7306): 177–178.

• New Economics Foundation. Co-Production. A manifesto for growing the core economy.2008

• www.icn.csip.org.uk/leadership• www.leadershipnet-icn.org.uk – for people involved in leadership and teamwork

development• www.steveonyett.co.uk – see page on solution focus for links to a range of other

resources of solution focussed working. [email protected]

Documents

Steve Onyett Solution focused consultancy, coaching, facilitation and research Doing your local leadership differently Steve Onyett