A ward at Burton’s Queen’s Hospital has been given a new identity as the culmination of 12 months of improvements to the provision of care for frail, elderly people.

Ward 4 has been re-named the ‘Acute Older Person’s Ward’ and an afternoon of celebrations was held to mark the occasion and other recent enhancements to the care of older patients. This move followed the launch in October – by the Trust that runs Queen’s Hospital – of the Elderly People Assistance and Care (EPAC) model – believed to be the first of its kind in the UK.

The EPAC model was developed to empower all clinical staff to deliver an enhanced level of care to older patients, which addresses both their holistic and medical needs on an individual basis.

http://www.fabnhsstuff.net/2015/12/15/burton-hospitals-dedicates-ward-older-patients/

The culture of the National Health Service (NHS) should be sustained by the core values in the NHS Constitution including respect and dignity, compassion and inclusion. Given the diversity of the NHS workforce, these values have particular resonance.

Recent research demonstrates that very little progress has been made in the past 20 years to address discrimination against black and minority ethnic (BME) staff in the NHS. There is evidence too of discrimination experienced by many other groups including women, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) staff, people with disabilities and religious groups.

The King’s Fund was commissioned by NHS England to assess the scale of this problem.

http://www.kingsfund.org.uk/sites/files/kf/field/field_publication_file/Making-the-difference-summary-Kings-Fund-Dec-2015.pdf

Have you ever been part of a highly-motivated, high-morale team?

If you have, chances are that most days you were happy coming in to work. You had fun collaborating with your colleagues, and, together, you were able to come up with some great ideas. Because of your focus and enthusiasm, you probably did some of your best work with this group.

Teams that are highly motivated and positive are not only fun to be part of, but they also accomplish far more than teams that are struggling with morale.

This is why it’s so important that, as a leader, you strive to build a positive team. In this article, we’ll show you how!

https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/building-positive-team.htm?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=mtpage

Do you have any habits that could harm your work or career? Maybe you check your email when you’re in meetings, turn up late to client visits, or take personal phone calls when you’re supposed to be focusing on your work. You might even let habits like watching too much television or excessive Internet surfing stop you working on learning goals in the evenings and at weekends.

Bad habits like these can damage reputations and limit what’s possible in our lives and careers, so it’s important that we learn how to deal with them.

In this article, we’ll look at bad habits in more detail: we’ll explore why certain behaviors become habits in the first place, and we’ll show you how you can overcome them.

https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/bad-habits.htm?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=mtpage

Have you ever been in the situation when you really didn’t believe what someone was saying? Did you have a sense that something didn’t ring true or a gut feeling that all was not right? Perhaps they were saying “Yes” yet their heads were shaking “No”?

The difference between the words people speak and our understanding of what they are saying comes from non-verbal communication, otherwise known as “body language.” By developing your awareness of the signs and signals of body language, you can more easily understand other people, and more effectively communicate with them.

There are sometimes subtle – and sometimes not so subtle – movements, gestures, facial expressions and even shifts in our whole bodies that indicate something is going on. The way we talk, walk, sit and stand all say something about us, and whatever is happening on the inside can be reflected on the outside.

By becoming more aware of this body language and understanding what it might mean, you can learn to read people more easily. This puts you in a better position to communicate effectively with them. What’s more, by increasing your understanding of others, you can also become more aware of the messages that you convey to them.

There are times when we send mixed messages – we say one thing yet our body language reveals something different. This non-verbal language will affect how we act and react to others, and how they react to us.

This article will explain many of the ways in which we communicate non-verbally, so that you can use these signs and signals to communicate more effectively.

https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/Body_Language.htm?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=mtpage

Most of us spend a lot of time at work. Yet a lot of people feel their jobs are not as fulfilling or engaging as they could be.

A 2014 Gallup survey of U.S. workers found that less than one-third were engaged in their jobs, 51% said they were “not engaged,” and 17.5% said they were “actively disengaged.” Unfortunately, the data from global surveys is quite similar.

Worrisome numbers like these have many business leaders wondering what types of big changes could be introduced to improve worker engagement. Fortunately, my research has found that small interventions that increase employees’ sense of psychological ownership of their jobs — like personalizing their offices with photos of their families or favorite posters, allowing them to choose their own work title, and giving them ownership of ideas, a team of people, or a product — can dramatically improve their sense of engagement in and happiness with their jobs, and their productivity as well.

Psychological ownership refers to the experience of possessing and being psychologically tied to an entity. Such feelings of ownership are fundamental to human life. Every day, we interact with a variety of objects we own, both material and immaterial. The state of psychological ownership is not only cognitive but also affective: simply by calling an entity — whether an object, another person, or a job — “mine” suggests that we have an emotional connection to it.

Employees often express a desire for greater psychological ownership of their work, believing this will improve their job satisfaction and happiness. Management research has found that these expectations do play out. For instance, using data from over 800 employees, Linn Van Dyne of Michigan State University and Jon L. Pierce of the University of Minnesota Duluth found that employees’ sense of psychological ownership for the organization is positively associated with both their attitudes (job satisfaction and commitment to the organization) and work behavior (performance and organizational citizenship).

Read more at:

https://hbr.org/2015/12/how-to-make-employees-feel-like-they-own-their-work

Your people may have all the expertise in the world but, if they’re not motivated, it’s unlikely that they’ll achieve their true potential.

On the other hand, work seems easy when people are motivated.

Motivated people have a positive outlook, they’re excited about what they’re doing, and they know that they’re investing their time in something that’s truly worthwhile. In short, motivated people enjoy their jobs and perform well.

All effective leaders want their organizations to be filled with people in this state of mind. That’s why it’s vital that you, as a leader and manager, keep your team feeling motivated and inspired. But of course, this can be easier said than done!

In this article, we’ll go over the key theories, strategies and tools that you can use to help your people stay enthusiastic about their work.

https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/motivating-your-team.htm?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=mtpage

How often have you had a conversation with someone, and thought you were paying attention to him or her, only to realize shortly afterwards that you can’t remember what he said? Or, perhaps you got distracted while he was speaking and missed the message that he was trying to deliver.

In today’s busy world, it can be hard to shut out distractions such as noise and electronic devices, and our own thoughts or reactions can draw us away from a conversation. So, how can we listen more effectively? When we listen “mindfully,” we can be aware of these barriers and still remain open to the speaker’s ideas and messages.

In this article, we explore mindful listening and suggest simple ways you can use this technique to improve your listening skills.

https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/mindful-listening.htm?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=mtpage

It’s not unusual for executives to enter a new job with deep-seated feelings of being an impostor. Our research studying thousands of leaders rising into bigger jobs revealed 69% feel underprepared for roles they assume. Forty-five percent had minimal understanding of the challenges they would face, and 76% said their organizations were not helpful in getting them ready. Fearing exposure as a fraud, many leaders overcompensate with extreme attempts at flawlessness. There are three common, but mistaken, beliefs they share:

“I have to be perfect.”

Many driven executives struggle to accept that flaws and mistakes are part of being human. And when you act as if you are, or should be, perfect, you eventually expect it of others as well. The followers on whom those unfair standards are imposed typically revolt and withdraw their support. Starved for acknowledgement, such followers wait to pounce on any hint of (hypocritical) deficiency, leaving no room for executive missteps. Executives, fearing criticism and exposure, work to perpetuate the illusion of infallibility — and perfectionism becomes a self-perpetuating prison. Sixty-seven percent of our respondents also struggled with micromanagement, a common symptom of managerial perfectionism.

Followers need assurance that leaders know they themselves are flawed, and will in turn be understanding of other people’s slip-ups. Leaders should be up front about what followers can expect about their strengths and foibles. They must welcome feedback, encouraging candor when their weakness becomes problematic for others and apologizing early and often when they make mistakes. A leader’s greatest source of credibility is, ironically, their vulnerability. Owning imperfections wins trust; hiding them doesn’t.

“I have to be 100% fair.”

When it comes to resource allocation – from compensation and promotions to strategic priorities – leaders are scrutinized for “fairness” in unfair ways. Many employees expect to get overlooked when it comes to performance evaluations, promotions, pay, and access to resources and opportunities. A fragile economy and colossal gap between executive and worker wages continue to fuel distrust. Organizational injustice is in the eye of the beholder, and sometimes those that play the “that’s not fair” card lack facts. It’s easy for leaders suffering from impostor syndrome to worry too much about placating these people.

While people want to be treated equally, not all jobs are equal; not every contribution holds equal value. Instead of trying to treat everyone the same, be clear that disproportionate performance and results get disproportionate rewards, resources, and opportunities. When executives try to neutralize these differences by creating the false appearance of egalitarian polices that “treat everyone the same,” they provoke the very anxieties they sought to allay because people instinctively know that everyone is not the same.

Followers want to know the rules, and know leaders care when the rules are broken. If employees understand the standards, and how rewards will be distributed, they will believe there is no capriciousness beneath those choices. They want to know leaders have their backs, despite the realities of organizational injustice. One executive we worked with, thinking he was showing empathy, said to an employee, “I know our bonus structure is messed up, but there’s nothing I can do.” Making himself a co-victim reduced his credibility as he advertised feeling powerless to advocate for change.

“I have to be accessible 24/7.”

Leaders never feel they have enough time to give, and followers don’t feel they get enough. Two-thirds of our respondents claimed they had insufficient time to offer those they lead. The challenge is how to negotiate with each follower what they need and how to provide it. Don’t let militant gatekeepers prevent access to you, but don’t offer unlimited access either — don’t become everyone’s answer ATM. Set clear boundaries and enforce the need to work within them. Maximize the impact of your time with creative processes that help the whole team have shared access, rather than relying on too many one-on-one conversations.

Followers really want reliability. They need to know that if they have problems, leaders will help find solutions. If there’s something they can’t make sense of, leaders will offer perspective. If they can’t get an adjacent department to cooperate, their leader will run interference. While the amount of time spent doing these things will vary, it’s only when followers conclude leaders aren’t reliable that the amount of time they get with them becomes an issue.

The executive stage is a high-wire act. Anchoring yourself with transparent principles can help you weather the harsh blows dealt by the discontented. Satisfy your team’s real needs, and don’t worry about contorting yourself into what you can never be.

By Ron Carucci

https://hbr.org/2015/12/great-leaders-know-theyre-not-perfect

Many health care organizations today are striving to deliver better patient outcomes at lower cost and to be rewarded for accomplishing both. Most have begun this journey with pilot projects to obtain valid measures of outcomes and cost for one or two medical conditions. They implement process improvement and standardize care pathways from a patient’s initial office visit through all aspects of treating the condition, and then explore offering new value-based payment models, including bundled payments, for those conditions. To accelerate the dissemination and adoption of this value agenda for many more medical conditions, leaders should now consider establishing a new central office to oversee the creation of all the capabilities and information for such initiatives.

A “value management office” can greatly enhance an institution’s ability to improve outcomes and costs across the enterprise. At a minimum, it can serve as a center of excellence to assist decentralized clinical units in outcomes and cost measurement and management, set priorities for continuous improvement projects, facilitate the creation of value-based payment models with insurers and employers, and ensure that new information technology platforms are aligned with the value agenda.

https://hbr.org/2015/12/health-care-providers-need-a-value-management-office