I’ve read so many emotive, inspirational and powerful #100daysofchange stories these last few months that I knew, at some point, I too should be knuckling down to write one. I’ve thought long and hard about my ‘change’ this year. This is my first role in a national team, and therefore, the potential to make a difference to a large number of people is within my grasp. This got me thinking: “What could I do, using my skills, that would really make a difference to other people?”Let me clarify this: I come from a background in mental health services. I’m a Cognitive Behavioural Therapist; one of the first of the ‘radicals’ Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT), back in 2008. I have practiced as an evidence-based therapist, been a clinical lead and service manager of primary care mental health services, and set up a new, self-referral, talking therapy service from scratch. I’ve battled with waiting lists, demand flooding capacity, staff burnout, serious incidents and frayed relationships within the system. I have tried to be the leader, problem solver, carer, listener, innovator, rebel and ‘mopper-upper’ at the end of the day when there was no-one else to respond to calls of crisis or urgency. I’ve had great ideas and really bad ideas and tried a myriad of ways to make them work.
I was a self-confessed, autonomous change agent. I did my best to spearhead initiatives and changes that I believed would make a difference, not knowing about the theory, methodology and connections that I’ve now gained. At times, I felt elation, achievement and pride in my change efforts, but have also felt despondency, confusion, isolation, frustration and exhaustion.
My idea for my ‘change’ is really simple: an alliance to complement the School for Health and Care Radicals. The energy and commitment in the School is palpable right now. People are amassing on Twitter, Facebook and weekly webinars in their hundreds, from around the world. The School is meeting a need in their continuing professional development, and the leadership toolkit is helping them to understand the principles of how we should and can ‘do’ change better, bigger and quicker. It's all about moving from a traditional to a transformational perspective, where change is relational and open, relies on power through connection (not hierarchy) and makes sense of challenges through emotional connections to articulate a shared purpose.
I am proposing a Rebel Alliance: a social network of people that are involved in leading change in health and social care. I’m not talking system leaders (although they are very welcome too). This is a group for everyone who wants to do something to make a change for the better. The alliance is not about the tools and methods underpinning change and quality improvement; NHS Improving Quality already provides a fantastic repertoire of knowledge and skills to do this. The alliance is all about peer support for individuals through the inevitable emotional and motivational ups and downs of leading change.
I will do this in my own time, although this alliance will very much complement the work of my day job, and working with my peers, I will co-create a proactive and nurturing alliance that looks after our change agents, radicals, rebels… people (whatever they wish to be called). I hope it will become a valuable resource for those who need it. The purpose of the Rebel Alliance will be to mitigate against despondency, helplessness and burn-out by drawing on the collective shared-experience of the alliance to reframe problems, challenge unhelpful thinking patterns, provide a sounding-board, boost a sense of self-efficacy and support emotional resilience to ‘roll with the resistance’ (@HelenBevan, Module 3: Rolling with resistance, School for Health and Care Radicals).
I’d love to hear people’s thoughts and ideas about this. I’ve already received over 80 comments on the School for Health and Care Radicals Facebook group, so please keep them coming on here, on Twitter @JodiMOlden or to my email: [email protected].