A lot has happened to Andrew Lansley and his plans for NHS change in the last couple of months. In previous blogs I offered him John Kotter’s 8 steps for leading change as a lifeline to keep his project on track. Since he appeared to ignore this advice, his plans have gone backwards and his project has reduced in scope. Previously the project appeared to be “reforming the NHS”. Now it is better titled “Andrew keeping his job and salvaging some pride”.
I have some sympathy for Andrew as he tries to develop his leadership skills but it is clear he has bitten off rather more than he could chew. He is not the first talented individual to have failed to drive change in healthcare. The publicity for his project is becoming rather unfortunate. I typed “Andrew Lansley” into my Internet search engine today and the first topic that came up was “Andrew Lansley Rap”. Andrew’s woes are such that a rap video by a Leicestershire binman criticising him has becomes a hit online with 391,000 downloads. Even worse, in an exchange between David Cameron and Nick Clegg as they sat in Westminster Hall before Barak Obama’s historic address to MPs and peers, the PM was lip read to have said about Andrew ‘It’s nothing to do with him NOW!’ So much for Andrew building strong support for his plan.
At the current stage in what is a badly derailed project, it reminds me of a humorous alternative to John Kotter’s 8 steps for leading change, which was used during the 80’s by software project managers as they struggled with complex projects. I repeat one version of this below.
The six stages of a software project:
- Enthusiasm,
- Disillusionment,
- Panic and hysteria,
- Search for the guilty
- Punishment of the innocent
- Praise and honour for the nonparticipants.
I would reckon that Andrew’s project is in the search for the guilty phase at the moment. On a more serious note it does highlight just how difficult it is to make major changes to an organisation. If developing leaders are lucky, they learn this early on in their careers. Good luck to Andrew Lanalsey on trying to salvage his.
By Jon Davies | Righttrack’s Digital Marketing Manager