Change Management in the Public Sector Candidate Showcase

I am currently an Independent Consultant and Coach working mainly for the Public Sector. Currently, I am a Regional Engagement Manager working for the Department of Health & Social Care on the Community Testing Programme within NHS Test & Trace. I have had 11 years experience within the NHS, with over half of that experience dealing with Change Management and Transformation Programmes. Roles include:

• Senior Implementation Manager for the National Digital Child Health Interoperability Programme
• Commissioning and contracts manager within Public Health
• Project Manager for the digital child health procurement and mobilisation
• Change manager for a service improvement team within a secondary care hospital

I am a trained executive coach and mentor via ILM and EMCC Providers and registered on the NHS helping senior and middle managers improve their performance or make transitions within their career. In addition, I volunteer as a Leadership 360 Facilitator and an Action Learning Set Facilitator for Graduates on a 2-year programme entering the NHS wanting to become senior leaders. Additionally, I contribute to City University’s entrepreneurial hub, the “Launch Lab” as a Business Mentor.

I am also an Author of 4 books and an online educator helping self-starters and ambitious professionals increase their productivity, realise their priorities, enhance their performance and live their life on purpose.

My change management journey started back in 2014, working for a recent Foundation Trust. I was early in my career working for the Service improvement team focusing on:

• The surgical patient pathway
• Redefining and mapping read code data
• Improving the Enhanced recovery pathway
• Working with Clinicians on bettering the maternal journey

I didn’t know it yet, but this experience would pave the way for me in terms of how to manage people and change, as well as contribute to the design of a service based on project methodology and informal and formal feedback from stakeholders.

I then used these skills learned within my commissioning role, dealing with huge changes occurring within London, namely around procurements, decommission services (and people’s jobs), as well as improving children's vaccination services across London.

More recently my journey took me to NHSX, an innovative place dealing with even more people (national) and technology. This is where pure change management was adopted and it was more of a science, regardless of how complex and ambiguous (at times), the programme was. This is where I began to truly appreciate change management, especially as I had completed the change management practitioner.

The change management course was suggested to me by my line manager at NHSX, who attempted to get the team up to scratch with change management methodology. As one of the first to embark on this programme I quickly saw its potential use in our daily acts of service. Where other programs in NHSX had mainly an agile methodology they failed to add the change management element, which clearly was needed.

I thoroughly enjoyed the training, particularly because of how behavioural and psychological concepts are taught and incorporated into the everyday experience of corporate change. There appears to be an intuitive transition from more behavioural to the structural concepts. I think what also really helped was that our trainer was absolutely awesome, full of great energy, and of course very knowledgeable. Their real life examples, and well-thought-out practice questions gave meaning to the content. The exams seemed to be OK, and were easier to complete based on the practice questions and preparation work we were given. Note: if you are doing the foundation and practitioner training, I strongly advise you to take up their advice on doing 20 hours of pre study before the training, it helps SO MUCH!

The course was conducted virtually via Webex, which was not a problem for me in the slightest.

As stated before, the trainer made the training online easy. Generally I am okay with online training, however the calibre was set pretty high with this training. I believe it is because of the following factors:

• The trainer's energy and knowledge
• The trainer's preparation and organisation i.e. examples and questions
• The etiquette of the learners
• The number of learners
• The schedule and agenda, taking into account breaks

As a trained coach & mentor I am accustomed to behavioural, humanistic and positive psychology elements. For example learning about B.F. Skinner, Carl Rogers and Daniel H. Pink piqued my interest and I can see where it could be applied. These concepts resonated with me because it highlighted why people do what they do, sometimes a core topic we forget in public services like the NHS.

Following on from the example above, recognising this, my attention was drawn to developing more transformational relationships aimed to draw out some of these qualities, for example when speaking to commissioners I was conscious enough to show empathy during this digital transition they were going through, by giving them time to express their concerns and needs, responding in a way that makes them feel understood. I would also show acknowledgment towards their importance in relation to the programme, as they had been out of the loop for a long time. This acknowledgment was portrayed by accurately describing the power and impact they have, recognised via my previous experiences as a commissioner. And finally, through "cheery" professional and transparent communication I would demonstrate unconditional positive regard. This created a strong and admirable reputation that made me appear omnipotent, as many commissioners and stakeholders got to know my name and qualities very quickly.

In addition, I admired the structural elements of the programme including the stakeholder analyses and mapping, as well as the various plans such as the change management plan and change delivery plan. This helped to clarify the approach and steps required to implement the wide scale change, and helped to get internal colleagues on board.

I acted with more confidence, as I had a conceptual framework to fall back on, recognising scenarios where part of the change management methodology would apply.

It has helped me clearly define what type of professional I am, and what sort of work I enjoy doing. So much so that it is easier to brand myself as a change management professional within the public sector. Where possible, I utilise these skills into my practice, as change is happening all the time.
 

The practitioner level gives you the opportunity to ruminate over the foundation material with depth. I was not aware of this, but by virtue of human nature (or at least mine), I wanted to be as trained as possible within the realm of change management, so that my competence, execution and knowledge is not second guessed. I do believe the Foundation is enough for most people, however the Practitioner gives you a feeling of satisfaction once complete.

Colleagues and I within NHSX committed to teaching others the principles learned, as well as implement them so that it becomes part of the everyday practice. Without their applications, teaching and learning it means nothing. Better management of change occurs from the application of the teachings and learnings of the change management material. The idea is that hopefully, it becomes as commonly used as other waterfall or agile methodologies. Furthermore, the aim was to consider the importance of change management principles, and change management teams per se.

At the time of writing, Michael was an Independent Consultant working for the Department of Health, NHS Test & Trace.

"I have 11 years experience working in the NHS. I am an ILM and EMCC trained Coach & Mentor, as well as an Action Learning Set Facilitator for NHS Graduates wanting to become senior Managers. I am an Author of 4 books, and Business Mentor for City University's Launch Lab. You can find out more information HERE"

Find Michael on LinkedIn  HERE