This made me realise that the tools I have routinely and unquestioningly used for years (email and documents) are hopelessly ineffective for the work that I do.
As part of my role within UnitingCare, an NHS owned partnership providing adults' and older people’s community services across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, I was keen to experiment with new things, particularly aspects which would help to connect and integrate care across our health and social care system.
We used Confluence, a wiki (which is a website that anyone can edit), and Slack a group messaging service.
We found that Confluence could replace documents, email and big meetings; Slack could replace email, SMS and small meetings.
Those of us who used the tools, worked more effectively together, saved time and felt better connected. The benefits were that... - we had more productive meetings, as many routine transactions were dealt with outside of the meeting room people could make their voice heard without having to attend face-to-face meetings and could participate in discussions at times which suited them - we reached consensus quicker without having to wait to set up meetings, or to manage complex email discussions - we involved others outside of our usual sphere of influence - we had a permanent and readily visible record of discussions - we received fewer emails, since we could choose to receive updates only about things we were interested in - we could get messages to large numbers of people quickly. Over about a year we managed to get about 250 people using Confluence and about 50 using Slack. Enough to be significant.
This experience really was Fab NHS stuff. Sadly when UnitingCare came to an end prematurely, this experiment also did.
We only scratched the surface of what was possible, but I can see that these tools can make a big difference to how effective we are at managing change.
But there are barriers...
- People, including senior colleagues, may not be familiar with digital collaboration. They may be unaware of the benefits, are concerned about security and do not have an impetus to try something new and transformational.
- Open communication tools require us to behave openly. Given the hierarchical nature of NHS organisations and the pressure we are all under, there can be understandable wariness of being open.
- The tools are new and it takes time both to learn how to use them and to adapt our style of communication.
- There are few people around with the experience of implementing these new tools and associated ways of working.
We need to get over these barriers quickly, as on the other side of them we will get things done faster, become more productive and may even be able to do things that were previously not possible. This will simultaneously make our working lives easier and ultimately will make things better for our patients.