Organisational Development Matters

What was the issue/ problem?

Trying to break the cycle of command and control and old power approaches to leadership in the NHS in Scotland, Project lift aims to bring a more human, collaborative and engaged new way of thinking into leadership at all levels in Health, Social Care and Social Work.

As an entirely new entity, Project Lift wanted to clarify the role of the team, the initiative and what we were offering as something, not mandatory or a top -down SG policy, but rather as an opportunity based on individual self-agency for those who related to the Project Lift ethos as a preferred way to bring about change in the culture of leadership.

How did you determine it was something that required OD support?

The background of where Project Lift came from, the case for change, came from an initial realisation that there were not the required succession pipelines for senior roles within NHS Boards to respond to anticipated recruitment needs. The wider case for change shows that this was impacted by the current leadership and wider culture and noted that a transformation was required. 

The identification of the need for cultural transformation across the wider health and social care system led the team to view this as something that brought together many roles, stakeholders and expertise groups, including OD at a range of levels. When leaders are connected in the system, to those in different roles and with different perspectives, the opportunity for relational and transformational practices is enhanced.  We at project lift recognise that systems leadership plays a pivotal role in transforming health and social care and saw an opportunity to draw people together in a different way.

What approach did you take and why?

Our aim was galvanising leaders at all levels and in all roles in a call to action, by connecting with their intentions and aspirations for a different culture at a deeper level and encouraging leaders to use the Project Lift suite including the tools, team support and, most importantly, ambition and ethos for their own local community or networks.

The approach was to start small, build connections, co-create and collaborate, understanding others and sharing learning.  It was based on relationships rather than a policy or model.

Myron’s Maxims formed the basis of the approach, the Project Lift team followed the maxims of:

• start anywhere, follow it everywhere,
• connecting the system with more of itself

and promoted leadership at all levels.   

A parallel approach (formal and informal) was taken, and the team stayed open to see how things evolved.  The aim was to stay curious and not be prescriptive, to carefully listen to what was working and what isn’t, to seek out learning and assume that as the team we didn’t have the answer but that the answer would be found within the system. 

As Change agents, team members didn’t expect to provide the answers. It was our role to seek to understand, to engage and enable ideas and potential answers to come through. It was essential to us to act in a way that was in practice, as well as experienced as, ‘done with not done to’.

People connected with the ethos – kindness, connectivity, collaboration, vulnerability and especially leadership at all levels - and were trusted to carry forward these messages to their own communities.

How did you determine the type of intervention(s) / tools to use? 

Project lift ran workshops and listened to voices within the community.  As a team we made connections with other agencies including Scottish Social Services Council, talking to OD leads and others in NES and Scottish Government with links into national networks, working with external agencies and partners including Seasalt, Kaleidoscope, SilverMaple and Daysix.  By staying open and making no assumptions, trying things out, listening to feedback, the approach was to build on successes, notice when things weren’t working well and continue to experiment.  Project Lift’s aim was to use approaches that could be used by others within the system e.g. Sharing resources and events insights packs from events which feature a DIY guide to running your own event and making these accessible to users on the Project Lift website.

What role did evaluation play in your design and in the measurement of impact?

Project Lift gathered outputs from events, discovery workshops, suggestions from conversations, writing up insights and asking the Project Lift community what was important to them and what success would look like. 

Overall, the aim is to extend the reach across public services and the third and voluntary sectors in Scotland creating formal and informal partnerships around communities and networks, having more formal and informal evaluation. The priority to keep listening with curiosity, not merely to confirm success but to enquire into what next, who else and how to move forward.

Measurements of success include engagement, reach and spread.  Asking those who do engage, ‘what else can we do to engage others like you?’ and always asking what people will do differently because of each element. Where appropriate we take an action inquiry and embrace a continuous improvement approach every step of the way to ensure the offers are vibrant, different and valued by those who participate.

We continue to evaluate connecting all 5 elements of Project Lift; Leadership Development, Talent Management, Values Based Recruitment, Executive Appraisal and Project Lift Engagement, to understand the extent to which we are impacting the different elements of leadership culture and how this is having impact.

Benefits of our current approach include increased registration numbers on the Project Lift circulation list and social media accounts, improved engagement with the Project Lift App and community events and noticing a wider, more diverse range of speakers, hosts and attendees in our community events.

* the work of Project Lift has now moved into the larger programme of work called Leading to Change. You can find out more by visiting the Leading to Change website.