Team working in the real world

1. Team working in the real world Units United Conference 29th June 2009

2. 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

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

4. What whole system? Family, friends, neighbours Within CAMHS Moving to adult-hood The practitioner The team The local mental health service Primary-specialist care Health and social care Hospital and community care Statutory and “social purpose” provision Health and education Housing, employment, leisure, benefits, substance misuse, learning difficulty, sensory impairment, etc.

5. New Economics Foundation. Co-Production. A manifesto for growing the core economy.2008. 2

6. 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

7. 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)

8. “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

9. “System alignment” • Allow yourselves with others to be moved by stories • Give wide and shared exposure to the lived experience of people who use your service • Envision the future together and ambitiously • Don’t be coy about the love you put into your work

10. 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

11. Human systems Make a move Follow a move Moving Following Observe and make comments intended to move the group forward and connect ideas Opposing Bystanding Oppose a move

12. Take them away and you get…. No direction Mover Follower No completion No perspective Opposer Bystander No correction

13. Stalemate Mover Follower Bystander Opposer

14. Dictate Mover Follower Bystander Opposer

15. Let’s not Mover Follower Bystander Opposer

16. Hall of mirrors Bystander Bystander Bystander Bystander

17. Dream team Mover Follower Bystander Opposer

18. Real teams have.. • The minimum number of team members required to get the job done • Opportunities to review the performance of the team and how it could be improved • A team identity, in that others can recognise it as a team

19. Effective teams have….. • Good processes for decision making • Norms for excellence • Support for innovation- both rhetorical and practical, including.. • Defended time out to review what it is trying to achieve, how it is going about it and what needs to change • Safety in participation

20. Hackman’s five trip wires • Describe the performing unit as a team but continuing to manage members as individuals. • Fail to exercise appropriate authority over the team - leave it to clarify what it does. • Neglect internal structures for operational management • Fail to provide organisational supports in the form of rewards, training, information, and the material resources required to get the job done. • Assume that team members already have all the competence they need to work well in teams.

21. Trusting Relationships Conflicting Needs Shared Vision Pressures/Stress Shared Values Change/Uncertainty/Dishonesty Integrity UnclearCommunications Clear Communications Complex/Poor Data Reliable Information Lack of Time / Prior Experience Familiarity Distrusting Relationships Source: Richard Lauve, MD (VHA Inc.)

22. Appreciative Inquiry Is 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

23. Solution focus/appreciative inquiry- exploring what works so that we can do more of it We manifest what we focus on and “we grow toward what we persistently ask questions about” orWhat we talk about gets bigger!

24. 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

25. “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 team working and leadership • Teams are where this is modelled and enacted

26. 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

27. Simple Complicated Complex Following a Recipe Raising a Child Building a Moon Rocket • 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 • 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 • 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 Source: Brenda Zimmerman, PhD

28. 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?

29. 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

30. 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 openness 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!

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

32. What implications of more ecological thinking? • Push and exhortation (nor even resources!) from leaders and policy makers can be counter-productive.

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

34. Respectfully consider these cells and provide information to inform

35. 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?

36. Working with complexity values • Allowing solutions to emerge by: • encouraging rich interaction, removing barriers and oppressive controls • giving space and time, • not over specifying means

37. 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.

38. 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.

39. 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!

40. “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

41. 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

42. “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

43. “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

44. “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.

45. 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

46. Leadership as an ethical endeavour • PEC associated with less cynicism and more engagement

47. 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

48. 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

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

50. 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