Overall purpose
To offer you an opportunity to
•
Explore the latest learning from current thinking
and practice in systems leadership and
systems change and the OD and HR
implications this raises
•
Think together about what this means for the
role of OD and HR leaders and how we might
take this learning forward, individually, in our
place, as a community
Outline for today
Timing
Outline
9.3011.15am
Welcome and introductions and framing for today
What are we learning about systems leadership and systems change?
Lessons from research and the field
11.15-11.45
Break
11.45-1pm
What are we learning about developing, strengthening and promoting
systems leadership? Lessons from current thinking and practice
1-1.45pm
Lunch
1.45-3pm
What are the opportunities and challenges raised for us as OD and HR
leaders/practitioners?
3-3.30pm
What might this mean for us going forward- as an OD/HR community,
in our area, individually?
3.30pm
Close and tea
Why systems leadership matters and why now?
“Collaborative leadership is the critical behavioural
factor in successful transformation.”
Better, Bolder Braver: Service Transformation
Challenge Panel, November 2014
“GPs and social workers share a common interest in leading and
creating system change that will support better outcomes and be
economically sustainable.”
GPs and Social Workers: Partners for Better Care, October 2014
“I’m committed to ensuring that NHS England plays its part in shared
system leadership…it’s not a few heroic individuals…it’s a different
type of leadership and a more nuanced range of management skills
and behaviours.”
Simon Stevens, King’s Fund Annual Leadership Summit, Nov 2014
Systems Leadership is..
‘…an attempt to effect change for positive social benefit across multiple,
interacting and intersecting systems’ (VSC 2013)
About leading:
•
When you’re not in charge
•
•
•
When it’s complex (VUCA)
When you can’t do it on your own
When new ways of thinking/working are needed
Systemic:
i.e. inter-connected, crosses boundaries, not piecemeal or divided into silos
- and based on shared ambition/purpose
Participative:
i.e. involves many people’s energies, ideas, talent and expertise- distributed
leadership at different levels and places
Emergent:
i.e. allows for learning from experiments and partial/’clumsy’ solutions, able
to work with uncertainty and ambiguity...
Relational:
Based on trust/relationships, connections and networks, formal and informal
Working in complex systems- what’s needed?
Far from
agreement
Systems leadership
• Saying ‘yes to the mess’
• Encouraging connectivity and
conversation
• Re-framing/handling ‘wicked issues’
• Amplifying difference
• Challenging habits and assumptions
• Reducing power differentials
Ordinary Management
• Containing anxiety
• Technical/rational decision
making
• Simple structures
• Effective procedures
Close to
agreement
• Monitoring/co-ordination
• Providing direction
Near to certainty
After Ralph Stacey
Far from certainty
What experience/questions do you
bring around systems leadership?
What would help to make
the day a success for you?
Learning from the field:
Lessons from Local Vision
Programmes and Integration Pioneers
Debbie Sorkin, National Director of Systems Leadership,
the Leadership Centre
Sue Goss,
Principal, OPM and Systems Enabler for
Local Vision
The Systems Leadership Programme:
research, leadership development, practice
Research:
Systems Leadership:
Exceptional leadership for
exceptional times
Leadership
Development:
Leadership for Change;
Future Directors
Practice:
Systems Leadership – Local
Vision Support for
Pioneers/BCF
Lessons for OD from Systems Leadership
research: factors that enable it to flourish
̶
Common vision or ambition: willingness to cede organisational
goals
̶
Focus on place-based initiatives and outcomes
̶
Strong/honest relationships; accountability; allow for different
views
̶
Combination of political and organisational commitment
̶
Role authority not sole source of legitimacy: influence, not
power
̶
People tolerate risk and accept multiple potential pathways
Lessons for OD from Systems Leadership
research: Your workforce – things to look for
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Willingness to align around a shared purpose or ambition
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Able to build engagement/relationships and really listen
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Preference for outcomes over processes
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Not being bound up with role and with a willingness to take risks
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Able to work reasonably well with conflict and uncertainty
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Having a strong commitment to a service in a particular place
So one lesson from Systems Leadership
research for OD: develop your teams
If leadership is for everyone, and
Systems Leadership is not solely about
role:
̶
Think about who might be suited to
Systems Leadership, at any level
̶
Try it out – set people a wicked issue
and ask them who might be in the
system, what might work, what they
might see
̶
Focus on behaviours/relationships
̶
Use coaching and support networks
Lessons from Systems Leadership practice:
Systems Leadership – Local Vision
− National programme
− c. 50 projects around England
− Projects focus on integration or wider
wellbeing issues
− Topics also include mental health,
inter-generational obesity, alcohol
abuse and social isolation
− Support via Enablers on the ground;
access to networks/ information;
extended to Pioneers and BCF places
Lessons for OD from Systems Leadership –
Local Vision and Pioneers - in practice.
1) No-one said this was easy…
̶
Places are finding it challenging to shift from a shared
purpose/high-level vision to a more detailed version – there
comes a point where you need to put cards on the table
̶
Geography really does make a difference
̶
Place yourself as a central enabler of system transformation – not
just ‘another thing’/part of initiative fatigue
̶
Powerful organisational imperatives can trump integration vision
̶
Hence the value of having an Enabler role to hold people to
the work
2) But there has been real progress - real
change in Local Vision places and Pioneers
Wiltshire:
Health and social care coming together in overall Systems
Resilience Group; three demonstrator sites for integration;
looking at longer-term partnerships with vol sector and better
T&Cs for social care.
Kent:
Proactive care programme for people with long-term conditions;
set-up of rapid response service. By 2015, aiming to deliver fully
integrated health and social care teams and 24/7 communitybased care.
Wakefield:
Development of integrated model of health and social care; new
multi-professional and multi-disciplinary team based around GP
practice populations; single point of access and care plan; new
network hubs.
2) But there has been real progress - real
change in Local Vision places and Pioneers
NW London:
Established a model of co-design involving partners,
frontline professionals, Service users and Carers to
develop shared approach to personalised care: common
approach set out in toolkit and resulting framework being
implemented from April 2015.
Cheshire West and Chester:
The Local Vision programme worked on reducing social
isolation and loneliness. Through working closely with
local communities, identified many more cohorts of
people suffering social isolation: developed tailored,
community-led approaches to tackling issues, involving
four local housing associations.
3) And this is starting to work its way into OD
and Workforce issues
LB Islington:
‘Test and learn’ sites focused around primary care;
mapping of workforce development needs; integrated
community ageing team; integrated psychiatric liaison and
assessment team; locality navigators.
London WELC:
Developed provider collaboratives to co-ordinate services
and use single budget for health and care across a
population, including creating new workforce roles.
Leeds:
Developing integrated neighbourhood teams across the
city, working from shared data source and the ‘Leeds
pound’.
General lessons for OD starting to arise from
Systems Leadership work
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Relationships and shared purpose are crucial – if you have these you
can weather the storms
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Key benefits lie in increased connectivity and broader relationships
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You need political/senior level support
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Involve people in communities and go wider than you originally thought –
it’s where energy/creativity often lies
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Think about leadership going from senior to operational level – e.g. LB
Merton’s “Do-ers” Group
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Work out when you stop experimenting and start implementing
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Get Public Health on board – they can play a central role
Systems Leadership in practice: trying it out
̶
Base ideas of leadership on behaviours and honesty – hold yourselves
to account
̶
Develop your people: make Systems Leadership part of OD and CPD
̶
Embed strategies and skills for real co-production: have Service Users at
the centre
̶
Start small and use what you have – often more than you think
̶
Use influence – you don’t always need formal power. So make
connections and build relationships: think beyond traditional roles and
see yourselves as part of a collective leadership with a shared ambition
̶
Just look to make progress: give it time, allow for things to go wrong, take
adaptive action and keep going!
Systems Leadership – more information
www.localleadership.gov.uk
Debbie.sorkin@localleadership.gov.uk
The Future will be Improvised
http://www.localleadership.gov.uk/docs/Revolution%20will%20be%20i
mprovised%20publication%20v3.pdf
So how do we do Systems Leadership?
Six dimensions of systems leadership practice
1. Ways of feeling (personal core
values) – values & commitment
2. Ways of perceiving (observations
and hearing)
− observing ‘from the balcony’ as well
as ‘from the dance floor’
− allowing for the unseen and
unpredicted
− seeking and hearing diverse views
− sensitivity to other narratives
3. Ways of thinking (intellectual and
cognitive abilities)
̶ curiosity
̶ synthesising complexity
̶ sense-making
4. Ways of doing (enabling and
empowering)
− narrative and communication
− enabling and supporting others
− repurposing and reframing existing
structure and resources
5. Ways of relating (relationships and
participation)
̶ mutuality and empathy
̶ honesty and authenticity
̶ reflection, self-awareness and
empathy
6. Ways of being (personal qualities)
bravery and courage to take risks
− resilience and patience
− drive, energy and optimism
− humility and magnanimity
What do systems leaders do?
As well as the formal governance arrangements, there is always also
an informal network of leaders. Leadership in systems is seldom done
by one person…
Systems leaders:
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Find the ‘real’ leaders who are making change happen
•
Build a network…bring people together – off line – to think
together –
•
Create the conditions for an honest, difficult conversation
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Build a long-term sense of shared endeavor
What are we learning about what makes the most
difference in systems….
•
Think about meeting design and creating the conditions for
a different kind of conversations. For a meeting to be really
useful – it has to change something
•
Disturbance is important – we need to learn to do different
things
•
Difference is more interesting than consensus – cherish
the ‘outliers’ and the difficult questions
•
Conflict can be useful – if we make it creative – don’t duck
the important issues.
Needs a break/title slide
What are we learning about developing,
strengthening, and promoting systems leadership?
Examples from national to local level
Learning from different examples of
developing, strengthening and promoting
systems leadership
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National programmes e.g. ‘Leadership for Change’Virtual Staff College, Skills for Systems leadership,
PHE
•
•
•
•
Local programmes- Norfolk Commissioning Academy
Community level
In-house initiatives
Modelling systems leadership as systems leaders
Reflection
What are you doing and /or could do to
develop/promote systems leadership in your area?
What might you use or find out more about from
the examples shared?
What opportunities/dilemmas/questions does this
raise for your role as OD/HR leaders?
Insert break title slide
What does all this mean for us as OD and HR
leaders and practitioners?
Open Space session
•
What are the opportunities/questions/dilemmas
raised for us as OD and HR leaders and
practitioners?
•
What would you like to explore further today?
•
What might this mean for us going forward?
Four Principles of Open
Space Technology
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Whoever comes are the right people
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Whenever it starts is the right time
Whatever happens is the only thing that could
have happened
When it’s over, it’s over
and The Law of Two Feet/Mobility
30
And butterflies and bees…..
31
What influence/connections do we have?
What actions might we take?
Looking ahead
What might we want to take forward from here –
and how?
̶
In our areas?
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As an OD/HR community?
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Individually?