“Leadership starts from the top, but it’s easy to forget that it has to start from the frontline too.” Creating a culture of innovation and improvement requires tenacity. It means challenging deeply embedded attitudes and behaviours, asking difficult questions, and being open to experiences from a diverse range of other organisations. Good things happen when we learn from each other. You begin to realise that you’re not alone, that different organisations are on the same journey, working towards comparable visions and tackling the same challenges on the way. And, above all, that there are different and sometimes complementary ways of reaching the same goal. Nowhere is this illustrated better than in the two days of discussion which took place when twenty-five participants from several European countries took part in Fresh Thinking Labs (http://www.freshthinkinglabs.com/)’ Engaging Everyone in Innovation event last week. Leo Pharma&rs..

Introducing Multi-Disciplinary Teamworking to Maternity Services The evidence has been around for a long time. Multi-Disciplinary Teamworking in healthcare leads to better clinical outcomes and experience for patients, and better quality of working life for staff. Yet it is far from universal. Multi-Disciplinary Teamworking challenges traditional professional roles and demarcations, and can be hard to achieve. While the general principles that characterise good clinical teams are well understood, their translation into specific clinical settings involves open dialogue, experimentation, learning from failure, and persistence. All of this must take place without any relaxation of day-to-day clinical pressures. This case study offers practitioners fresh insights into how Multi-Disciplinary Teamwork principles can be translated into practice. It is based on an eighteen month change programme led by Workplace Innovation in partnership with Southern Health and Social Care ..

A report published last week by the admirable European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound) is the latest to offer ‘Industry 4.0’ insights into the nature and potential of digital technologies for the future of work and the economy. Game changing technologies: Exploring the impact on production processes and work (http://www.workplaceinnovation.eu/PDF/Eurofound-Technology-Report.pdf) offers five case studies of emerging technologies and their anticipated impact. The return of production from developing to developed countries is often anticipated as one of the benefits to be gained from digital technologies. Reduced production costs resulting from investments in robotics and automation have made it possible for companies such as Welltec, a provider of well service solutions for oil and gas companies, to bring its production back to Denmark. Reshoring means that much of the cost and complexity of extended supply chains i..

Leadership, or lack of it, is a major cause for concern in organisations that are looking to improve performance through innovative work practices and employee engagement. Building an organisational culture in which everyone can contribute their full range of skills, knowledge, experience and creativity to the business is a lofty objective and one that is perceived as difficult to achieve with conventional approaches to management. For instance, the line manager level of control and decision-making is often the most significant obstacle to change and is a frequent cause of “innovation decay”. Research suggests that line managers often underperform in leadership and people management because of poor communication, insufficient prioritisation between competing demands on time, lack of appropriate skills and inadequate access to tools for staff engagement and change. Organisations that acknowledge this will often turn to leadership and management training, r..