“How can we create a shared and common purpose in these trying times? We’ve become fearful of emotions and feelings within business.”

One thing’s for certain: David Liddle has big dreams and even bigger plans. Since the inception of Transformational Culture, we’ve seen the book become a bestseller and many organisations climb on board to change their organisational cultures for the better. It seems we were all in desperate need of a clear blueprint to achieving fair, just, inclusive, sustainable and high performing businesses. And now, the spotlight’s on health and social care to become truly transformational.

In association with Healthcare People Management Association (HPMA) and Executive Director Nicky Ingham, the Transformational Culture cohort, Founder David Liddle and Strategic Lead Consultant Blair Maxwell, opened the floor to share their research objectives for 2022 in an exclusive webinar. (Scroll down to catch up on the webinar recording). The collaboration aims to explore the need for a new cultural paradigm within health and social care and to evaluate the potential impact of a transformational culture on health and social care organisations. A report will follow the research in early summertime.

The research areas are outlined as follows:

1. The need for a fair, just, inclusive, sustainable and high-performance culture within the health and social care sector.
2. The development and benefits of a cross functional transformational culture hub.
3. Evaluating the impact of the eight enablers of a transformational culture.
4. Measuring the outputs of a transformational culture through the 7 Cs.
5. The benefits to the NHS of creating a greater alignment between employee experience and patient experience.
6. Possible alignment with the NHSE&I Culture and Leadership Programme.

A combination of quantitative and qualitative methods will be used to carry out a thorough research project. The group will involve a cohort of six to eight health and social care organisations as part of a wider Transformational Trailblazers initiative. The methodology will involve:

1. An online survey to HPMA members, TCM customers and other health and social care providers/regulators/commissioners/partners.
2. Semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders and partners.
3. Case study analysis sharing cultural transformation challenges and experiences.
4. Data gathering and analysis covering areas of values and behaviours, wellbeing, engagement, inclusion, power, justice, civility and respect, leadership, management, human resources and employee and patient experience.

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For David, it’s clear that organisations know the importance of dialogue but we’ve created and perpetuated workplace systems that diminish or block the art of conversation. In the words of Gruenert and Whitaker, “the culture of any organisation is shaped by the worst behaviour the leader is willing to tolerate”.

Under the Transformational Culture Model, culture within organisations becomes collaborative, predictive and proactive through a new social contract. The culture contract is managed and deployed by a designated, cross functional hub, working to prioritise the eight enablers of a transformational organisation:

By prioritising these integral forces of a positive and forward-thinking business, we embed values of courage, connection, collaboration, common purpose, communication, compassion and curiosity into our employees. These are the 7 Cs – they’ll turbo charge organisations to new and unsurpassable heights.

The Importance of Finding Joy by Nicky Ingham

“The news of vaccinations, virus circulation and sickness absence are relentless within health and social care. This conversation serves as a welcomed break, reminder and steer in the right direction of what we should be doing in health and social care to ensure the wellbeing of our workforce.”

For Nicky Ingham, Executive Director of HPMA, the time is now to transform culture within health and social care. Justice, civility and respect are common sense – but common sense doesn’t seem to be so common in present times. Healthcare places too strong an emphasis on policy, process and procedure, forgetting the people they exist to serve.

To work is to fulfil personal needs: we need to be motivated, and ultimately find joy, within our place of work. That means building a culture that celebrates diversity in its broadest sense, so that we can each have our own version of joy.

The ultimate task is to embed this cultural transformation in strenuous moments. Pressures continue to mount for those working within healthcare. Staff are overworked, overtired and underappreciated, particularly within the era of the pandemic. It shows no signs of slowing. It’s the paradigm of responding to national legislative needs and cultivating a positive culture. So, how do we ensure we focus on finding calm amongst the storm?

Nicky provides some simple words of wisdom to those fighting against the status quo:

1. Be curious.
2. Read and inform yourself.
3. Put thoughts into practice.
4. Take everything one step at a time.

We are all the architects of our cultural climates – so let’s make our workplaces serve our needs and provide us with joy.

If you’re interested in becoming a Transformational Trailblazer, please email our Strategic Lead Consultant Blair Maxwell here.

Missed the webinar and looking to catch up? You can view the full recording below: