The Work in Progress with NHS England, Leading for System Change
What if leadership development evolved alongside the realities of the polycrisis, strengthening our capacity to care, connect and multi-solve across sectors?
The context
Five years on from Covid-19, health and care systems across England were continuing to navigate rising complexity, inequality and system pressure. NHS England commissioned a design refresh of the Leading for System Change offer to support Integrated Care Systems in England to lead change aligned to the priorities of each system.
The opportunity
To redesign the Leading for System Change offer for Integrated Care Systems in England considering the current and emerging health and care landscape and wider polycrisis context modelling approaches that reflect the change in the system we want to see.
The work
We worked with NHS England and partners to co-design and refresh the offer through a care and equity-centred living systems lens. The work modelled leadership that could:
- better reflect the realities of the polycrisis
- become more accessible across systems and sectors including with citizens
- create conditions for belonging, participation and power sharing
- position care as an essential first step in creating the capacity needed for working in and with interconnected challenges
- prioritise equity centred practice for more equitable systems change
- support leaders to work relationally in complexity and uncertainty
- move to embodied systems leadership development
- empower facilitators to lead delivery from a core ethos and set of design principles included in a full facilitation pack
The progress (so far)
So far, the work is:
- available for use across all sectors within Integrated Care Systems in England
- extending into wider NHS leadership development practice with the open source digital tools
- modelling power-aware brand identity and design
- living polycrisis-informed positioning and narrative development
- broadening access through multiple “corridors” and entry points into systems leadership
- shifting from “power over” to “power to” approaches
- embedding care-centred approaches that support the capacity needed for innovation
- embedding participatory and complexity sensitive impact evaluation
- a curation of systems and complexity-informed development resources
- wider conversations about how leadership development itself must evolve in response to the changing conditions facing society today.
One lesson for leadership
When we shift the lens from isolated challenges to the realities of the polycrisis, leadership development must also shift to create the conditions for finding the ‘polyopportunity’ – a way to meet many challenges whilst looking at one.