Don't Read My Blog

The unconference UKhealthcamp took place at the offices of Accurx on Saturday 15 Oct 2022. A combined team hosted a session towards the end of the day, with a title which may be abbreviated to:

Broken user journeys. Feedback, complaints and constructive dialogue.

It was a lively session with lots of participation, thoughtful dialogue and respectful comments. It covered many things and this is news of only one of the issues raised by the hosts, and only one of the (many) responses from a packed room.

Hosts:

Please give examples of things that have worked well.

Respondent:

Thank you London. This is the report from Team Non-Judgemental. We have identified 4 good observations; things that have worked well; that has led us to establish 4 guiding principles; and we have detected a single, unifying undercurrent.

Good Observations

1. There is value in a system which promotes continuous feedback, especially among co-workers, and encourages action.
2. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is a public sector body which has a valid, competent feedback & complaints process that has demonstrated the value of handling issues sensitively and responding positively.
3. Care Opinion, a social enterprise, offers patients an opportunity to provide feedback about their experience of health and social care. Being independent of government, it adds authenticity to patient stories and equally to clinicians. Its processes are transparent.
4. The hallway track, the time and space between formal sessions at conferences and unconferences, provides an opportunity for ad hoc dialogue, and has been shown serendipitously to generate valuable concepts and ideas which are not covered in the mainstream sessions.

Guiding Principles

1. Authentic listening skills are valuable.
2. An ethos of openness promotes authenticity in everything.
3. Clearly identified roles enable the presenter, the aggrieved, the respondent, and all related parties to act cohesively and beneficially for all.
4. Diplomacy in dialogue is valuable, with an emphasis on eliminating personal biases.

Undercurrent

Think things through. The presenter, the aggrieved, the respondent, and all related parties benefit from careful thought. Authentic, deep thought, both in conveying an issue; and in responding to it.

Footnote

The team at UKhealthcamp, the staff at Accurx, the session hosts and all of the delegates gave their time and resources freely. A good day was had by all! Thank you.

What is management, or more to the point, what is good management?

According to Scott & Rochester (1984) good management is about three things:

1. Knowing what should be happening.
2. Knowing what is actually happening.
3. Bringing 1 and 2 closer together.

It is believed by many that good management is about moving:

“what is actually happening”

closer to:

“what should be happening”

However, Scott & Rochester point out that it is perfectly reasonable to move things in the other direction. And in reality, good management always rests on finding a happy medium between those two ends of a spectrum.

Do you know what should be happening and what is actually happening? How do you know? Where is it written down? What metrics have been logged? What changes are you implementing to make it better? Where is that process documented? What sort of management operation are you running?

What exactly are we trying to do here?

Build a universal problem solving technique.

The agenda for this 20 minute session as a small image:

Click here for a larger image

How long can you stand on one leg?

Before it was paywalled the detailed British Medical Journal article was there in full for everybody to read. More importantly, it showed you the correct photograph. Many resources online will talk about balance and incorrectly illustrate it with the Vriksasana yoga pose.

These photos show you the wrong and the right way to do a balance test.

Lift one foot a little, and use the toes of that foot to “wrap” it around the calf of the other leg, just above the ankle. It doesn’t matter where your arms and hands are. I try to keep mine down by my sides, and I move them a little to help keep my balance.

The ability to stand on one leg depends not just on balance, but also on your age and your muscle strength. The Chartered Society of Physiotherapy gave me the following summary when I worked at the BMA years ago.

Balance with eyes open:

• Under 40 ➞ 45 seconds
• Aged 40-49 ➞ 42 seconds
• Aged 50-59 ➞ 41 seconds
• Aged 60-69 ➞ 32 seconds
• Aged 70-79 ➞ 22 seconds

Balance with eyes closed:

• Under 40 ➞ 15 seconds
• Aged 40-49 ➞ 13 seconds
• Aged 50-59 ➞ 8 seconds
• Aged 60-69 ➞ 4 seconds
• Aged 70-79 ➞ 3 seconds

How’s your performance? Mine is fair to middling!