Finding more effective ways of doing things is a big part of a leader’s job. There are maybe some organisations that can prosper by standing still but they are few and far between. Most organisations require someone at the top to spend time thinking about long term developments and ensuring the business is equipped to tackle the key challenges and opportunities that are likely to arise in the coming years.
Leading change can be quite a challenge in itself and should be a key element of leadership training for senior managers. Even if the planned change delivers a huge number of benefits, many organisations have an in-built inertia which makes progress painfully slow until the whole organisation absorbs the full implication of the changes.
Andrew Lansley, Secretary of State for Health, is tackling one of the biggest challenges I can think of, in the shape of his planned NHS reform. I wish him all the best in making these changes as they affect us all.
Unfortunately wishes will not be enough to help him. There are some big risks in making such a reform of the NHS. Getting decisions wrong in this area can literally result in life and death mistakes. So far the civil service management structure has not demonstrated an ability to lead smaller change management projects – type in the words NHS computer system into Google and the top 3 words associated with this are Failure, Scrapped and Cost. Not good omens for a government where throwing money at any problems will not be politically acceptable.
In the interests of my own health and that of the nation, I would offer Andrew Lansley some training guidance. For the leader who has not had to change the status quo on such a massive scale before then change management training could provide solid help. There are also some helpful change-management models out there, my favourite being John Kotter’s 8 steps for leading change. Andrew Lansley is yet to get to step 2 on the Kotter model: forming a powerful coalition for change. He has a big job to do in getting all the stakeholders and interested partners on his side. If he manages that then he stands a chance.
We must all trust that Andrew’s leadership skills are as strong as his passion for reform and that he really is good for our health.
By Jon Davies | Righttrack’s Interim International Business Development and Marketing Manager