Learning from improvement: special measures for quality
A retrospective review
November 2017
Excerpt from NHS Improvement “Four years after the introduction of special measures, we reviewed the experience of trusts that exited the process so we can better understand why they entered special measures, what actions they took and how they implemented change to improve.”
Leadership is mentioned frequently throughout this report

Robin Baddeley: Leadership thinking is swinging back from the “big picture” to local issues
BMJ, November 14, 2017
Robin Baddeley, editorial registrar, The BMJ.

Experiences of nursing students and educators during the co-construction of clinical nursing leadership learning activities: A qualitative research and development study
Nurse Educ Today. 2017,Vol 55, p90-95
Ha L and  Pepin J

The medical director induction guide
A joint NHS Improvement and Faculty of Medical Leadership and Management publication October 2017

Support local leaders or risk having no leaders in future ,15 November 2017
The NHS’s current management approach favours the stick rather than the carrot, leading to huge pressures on local leaders and could undermine the success of STPs, warns Helen Buckingham.

STPs: Destined to fail or the road to better care? Sustainability and Transformation Plans survey of clinicians: The hospital doctors’ view
A report by the Hospital Consultants and Specialists Association
October 2017
HCSA press release

A two-way street What can CCGs teach us about accountability in STPs?
Nuffield Trust , Holly Holder and Helen Buckingham
November 2017
Excerpt from page  19 of report (Chapter : Leadership challenges)  “The leadership environment for CCG chief officers is clearly not as supportive as might be hoped, and is some way from the aspirations that the NHS has for itself in terms of creating a positive context for leadership to flourish. The key issues that emerge from our interviews and research include: • the consequences of coping with austerity and a system under stress • excessive reporting demands • a culture of blame • lack of development and support • high turnover – loss of experience and skills. In addition to this, there is also some significant uncertainty about the future shape and role of commissioning as ACOs and ACSs start to emerge.”

Getting the most from developmental well-led reviews: Commissioning external suppliers and working with peer reviewers
NHS Improvement
October 2017
Following the recent publication of  the well-led framework, publications of two new guides with practical advice on how to get the most from reviews.
NHS Improvement also explain how you can incorporate peer input in these reviews, to make use of and enhance the skills and experience of leaders within the NHS.

Developing People – Improving Care A national framework for action on improvement and leadership development in NHS-funded services
An update on the implementation of DPIC will be published shortly. See http://nhsproviders.org/media/3932/developing-future-leaders-across-the-healthcare-sector.pdf (November 2017)

Quality improvement is not for the faint hearted, 13 November 2017
Embedding quality improvement into the fabric of the NHS organisations requires a fundamental shift in leadership, say Joni Jabbal and Siva Anandaciva

Using video-reflexive ethnography to capture the complexity of leadership enactment in the healthcare workplace
Adv Health Sci Educ Theory Pract. 2017 Dec;22(5):1101-1121
Gordon L, Rees C, Ker J, Cleland J
Excerpt from PubMed abstract “A whole (interprofessional) team workplace-based study utilising video-reflexive ethnography occurred in two UK clinical sites. Thematic framework analyses of the video data (video-observation and video-reflexivity sessions) were undertaken, followed by in-depth analyses of human-human and human-material interactions. Data analysis revealed a complex interprofessional environment where leadership is a dynamic process, negotiated and renegotiated in various ways throughout interactions (both formal and informal). Being able to “see” themselves at work gave participants the opportunity to discuss and analyse their everyday leadership practices and challenge some of their sometimes deeply entrenched values, beliefs, practices and assumptions about healthcare leadership. These study findings therefore indicate a need to redefine the way that medical and healthcare educators facilitate leadership development and argue for new approaches to research which shifts the focus from leaders to leadership.”

Heard about the Inclusion nudges guidebook: Practical techniques for changing behaviour, culture and systems to mitigate unconscious bias and create inclusive organisations ?
…….quick nuggets available on a free website
Deloitte Case studies : Inclusion nudges guidebook
Free short version (40 pages ) PDF available  (Jan 2016) 
Excerpt from Deloitte case study website : “A key finding  of the guidebook, is that while ‘Feel the Need’ nudges are most commonly used to raise awareness of unconscious biases, the addition of ‘Process’ and ‘Framing’ nudges can act as enablers to help individuals make objective and inclusive choices more easily. They therefore will have a greater impact in sustained behavioural change. Results have also found that “Feel-the-Need”and ‘’Process’’ Inclusion Nudges are also useful in bringing about compliance and accountability in employees without linking D&I to rewards; this is because they create a follow-the-herd reaction, showing the inclusive behaviour of the majority.

Other examples of where the nudges have been used are in:

• Helping individuals verbalise uncomfortable biased interactions
• Encouraging women to take promotional opportunities
• Highlighting biased customer- claim handling
• Understanding  the importance of diverse customers
• Retention of senior employees  (age 55+).

This Guidebook is a worthy edition to the literature on unconscious bias, helping  managers and employees identify the critical moments across the employee lifecycle where there is an opportunity create a Nudge and then to h behave more inclusively. The Nudges can be used to focus D&I efforts on making sustainable changes in behaviour and culture.”

Measuring up: your community and your workforce
NHS Employers
1st November 2017
This online tool aims to help employers in the NHS compare their current workforce data with data from their local communities. The aim of the tool is to highlight groups in the local community that may be missing from the workforce, and it offers signposts to advice on how to better attract, recruit and retain from these groups in order to strengthen the workforce supply.
This is a newly developed and launched tool, if you experience any technical difficulties please get in touch by emailing Cat.Clark@nhsemployers.org.
See also Engaging with and recruiting from your local community

Characteristics of highly rated leadership in nursing homes using item response theory
J Adv Nurs. 2017 Dec;73(12):2903-2913
Backman A, Sjögren K, Lindkvist M, Lövheim H, Edvardsson D
Excerpt from PubMed abstract: “Five specific behaviours of highly rated nursing home leadership were identified; that the manager: experiments with new ideas; controls work closely; relies on subordinates; coaches and gives direct feedback; and handles conflicts constructively. The regression analyses revealed that managers with social work backgrounds and privately run homes were significantly associated with higher leadership ratings.”

Factors supporting dentist leaders’ retention in leadership
Community Dent Health. 2017 Nov 10 [Epub ahead of print]
Tuononen T, Lammintakanen J, Suominen AL.
Excerpt from PubMed abstract: “Out of the five main components, two were significantly associated with staying as a leader: ‘career intentions’, which represented intent to continue or to leave the leadership position; and ‘work time control opportunities’, which represented how leaders could control their own work time. Other factors that supported staying were leadership education, more work time available for leadership work, and lower age. The main component ‘work pressure’ decreased, although not significantly, the odds of continuing; it included lack of leadership work time, and pressure from superiors or subordinates.”

High-performing trauma teams: frequency of behavioral markers of a shared mental model displayed by team leaders and quality of medical performance
Scand J Trauma Resusc Emerg Med. 2017 Nov 10;25(1):109
Johnsen BH, Westli HK, Espevik R, Wisborg T, Brattebø G
Link to PDF 
Excerpt from PubMed abstract: “The results showed a positive correlation of quality of medical management with leaders sharing information without an explicit demand for the information (“push” of information) and with leaders communicating their situational awareness (SA) and demonstrating implicit supporting behavior. When separating the sample into higher versus lower performing teams, the higher performing teams had leaders who displayed a greater frequency of “push” of information and communication of SA and supportive behavior. No difference was found for the behavioral marker of team initiative, measured as bringing up suggestions to other team members.”

Collective leadership and safety cultures (Co-Lead): protocol for a mixed-methods pilot evaluation of the impact of a co-designed collective leadership intervention on team performance and safety culture in a hospital group in Ireland
BMJ Open. 2017 Nov 3;7(11):e017569
McAuliffe E, De Brún A, Ward M et al
Link to PDF 
Excerpt from PubMed abstract: “There is accumulating evidence implicating the role of leadership in system failures that have resulted in a range of errors in healthcare, from misdiagnoses to failures to recognise and respond to patient deterioration. This has led to concerns about traditional hierarchical leadership structures and created an interest in the development of collective ways of working that distribute leadership roles and responsibilities across team members. Such collective leadership approaches have been associated with improved team performance and staff engagement. This research seeks to improve our understanding of collective leadership by addressing two specific issues: (1) Does collective leadership emerge organically (and in what forms) in a newly networked structure? and (2) Is it possible to design and implement collective leadership interventions that enable teams to collectively improve team performance and patient safety?  METHODS AND ANALYSIS: The first phase will include a social network analysis, using an online survey and semistructured interviews at three time points over 12 months, to document the frequency of contact and collaboration between senior hospital management staff in a recently configured hospital group. This study will explore how the network of 11 hospitals is operating and will assess whether collective leadership emerges organically. Second, collective leadership interventions will be co-designed during a series of workshops with healthcare staff, researchers and patient representatives, and then implemented and evaluated with four healthcare teams within the hospital network. A mixed-methods evaluation will explore the impact of the intervention on team effectiveness and team performance indicators to assess whether the intervention is suitable for wider roll-out and evaluation across the hospital group.”

Red Bull’s Wingfinder tool
(Assessment of strengths tool – focusing on four areas: Connections, Thinking, Creativity and Drive, all together comprising 25 Strengths in total . Wingfinder assesses the four areas over 35 minutes (approximately 280 questions) through five different assessment formats. Self-against-self and self-against-others measurement. The assessment provides a report about the strengths, with coaching guidance .
According to https://www.wingfinder.com/science Published Scientific research on the Wingfinder assessment by can be seen here (Leutner, Yearsley, Codreanu ,Borenstein, Ahmetoglu 2017 )
From Likert scales to images: Validating a novel creativity measure with image based response scales. Journal of Personality and Individual Differences , (2017) Vol 106, 36–40.
Leutner Franziska, Adam Yearsley, Sonia-Cristina Codreanu, Yossi Borenstein, and Gorkan Ahmetoglu

Book : Clinical leadership in nursing and healthcare: values into action
Stanley, David
2017  Chichester, West Sussex : John Wiley & Sons
The new edition has been updated in light of recent key changes in health service approaches to care and values.

Book: The Oxford handbook of compassion science
Seppala, Emma
2017, Oxford University Press, New York
Publishers website for book states “Includes diverse psychological perspectives, including clinical, social, developmental, organizational, sociological, and neurobiological. Written by established and rising experts in the emerging field of compassion science for basic and applied researchers. Addresses the various definitions of the term “compassion””

Peering over the precipice : a toolkit for hospices to survive and thrive 
Peering over the Precipice is published as part of Hospice UK’s Good Governance programme supporting hospice trustees, boards and senior teams.
The toolkit will give hospice boards and executives the means to diagnose future risks, to make robust plans and to support any changes that need to be made to ensure the sustainability of their service.
To download the report, please register on the website : currently the report is restricted and only available to Hospice UK members. If you work for an organisation that is a member of Hospice UK please select your organisation from the drop-down list, selecting “Other” if your organisation is not listed.

Improving staff retention – a guide for employers
NHS Employers, Sept 2017 
Excerpts “During 2016/17, trustees of the NHS Confederation granted funding for NHS Employers to work closely with 92 NHS organisations, to help equip them with tools and resources to develop and implement their workforce retention plans. This guide draws on the learning and experience from the organisations we worked with, and is aimed at individuals who are leading or working closely on retention issues.”
“During the work programme, several key retention themes emerged which are explored in more detail in this guide. These are: • looking at data in depth • developing organisational values and culture • supporting new starters • supporting flexible working • development and career planning • flexible retirement options • building line manager capability.”

Executive Level Leadership and Talent Management in NHS Scotland
Scottish Government , May 2017
This paper provides a set of actions to address the Health and Social Care Delivery Plan’s (the Delivery Plan) priority of developing a new approach to leadership development and talent management in NHSScotland.
See also Della Thomas’s Public health leadership in the face of complexity, NHS Health Scotland