In a workshop with a group of NHS Finance professionals, we were focusing on leading and managing change successfully.
What most appreciate that delivering sustainable change is a huge challenge. Especially in big NHS organisations. In these organisations you have a huge range of professions. Each profession has its own agenda and priorities.
Despite all of these and many other challenges, many make change. Perhaps not always as fast as they would like. Equally progress is a step in the right direction.
During our discussions and feedback, what became apparent was that you can have great process but achieve little. On the flipside you can have a big focus on people but if there are no plans and measurement you achieve little.
So how do you overcome this challenge?
For me it’s about finding the right balance between focus on people and focus on process.
The clues to what is the right balance lies in reviewing those changes that worked and those that didn’t work out as expected.
Review enough of them and chances are that you will find some common contributors to successful changes. You will also find some of the common missing links when projects didn’t go to plan.
Armed with these insights you can start to do more of what works and take action to mitigate the impact of what doesn’t work.
Chances are that you have probably heard something along these lines before. Of course knowing something doesn’t always mean that you do what you know works.
Often it starts with your attitude and outlook to change as a leader or manager. Do you see it as a journey or a destination? In my experience there’s always opportunities to make small changes to your approach.
These small changes or marginal gains can often be the catalyst to better results.