Team and board development
Why develop Teams and Boards?
Team and Board coaching can develop more effective and cohesive leadership teams and Boards. Usually, an initial engagement comes from a team wishing to ‘improve’ in some way.
This includes element that are:
Generative: A new team wishing to get off to a good start by developing good practices in both the content and process of their work.
Developmental: An existing team that wishes to go from ‘good to great’ or feels it needs to ‘shift into a higher gear’ to meet new/increased demands.
Reparative: A team that is not functioning the way it wants or needs to due to one or more historical/current issues
Effective team working can enable teams to:
- Communicate more effectively, reducing tension, mistakes and costly delays to patient care as a result of mis-communication.
- Make better and more timely decisions, having understood the wider context first, and factored in a diversity of views about the best ways to proceed and reducing costly mistakes.
- Develop mutual accountability that enables teams to take greater ownership for issues so that they are actively addressed.
Who is team or Board development for?
Staff College have worked with a variety of Boards and teams working in health and social care systems and settings, including:
- Boards of acute hospitals
- Integrated Care Boards and Integrated Care System leadership teams
- Boards of multi-agency transformation programmes
- Hospital Leadership Teams
- Senior Commissioning Teams
- Leadership Teams of Clinical Services
How Staff College Faculty work with teams and Boards
Staff College Faculty believe it is vital that for any approach to work, the desire to improve must come from the leader of the team – and ideally from fellow team members.
Faculty take a flexible approach to working with teams, taking the time up front to understand what leaders are hoping to achieve and what the key issues they’re contending with are. We work in partnership, adapting our approach to ensure that it meets the evolving needs of the team and recognising that best laid plans are often subject to change.
The form that sessions take depends on the needs and wants of the team itself. Sometimes we might work with a team for a short one-off away day or session to help them develop their team cohesion and capability when they become a new team. We also work with leadership teams over several years as they develop and take forwards their plans for improvement, growth or transformation. Sessions are often built around a team’s regular meetings, developing their ability to work better together and enabling them to make swifter progress with their strategic agenda in a time-efficient way.
“The Staff College have helped us to develop groups of clinical leaders into “Stewardship teams” ready to take a leadership role within their care area. The feedback from the teams has always been excellent, and their programmes have resulted in individuals forming into strong teams with a sense of mission and purpose, chomping at the bit to engage with their own complex system! Our Stewardship teams have stayed together over a number of years, delivering successful change within our Integrated Care System (ICS).
I have always found the Staff College team easy to work with, and have enjoyed collaborating to ensure their programmes are tailored to our needs. I would strongly recommend to anyone, individuals, organisations or systems, looking for some leadership development support.
Dr Peter Scolding | Clinical Director of Stewardship
Mid and South Essex Integrated Care System