Wirral Community Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust Board Case Study

Initial discussions between the Trust’s Chief People Officer, Director of Corporate Affairs, Chair and Chief Executive, centred around previous successful examples of board development and the need for an intervention that was creative and experimental and tailored to the needs of the Trust, rather than an ‘off the shelf’ solution. It was also acknowledged that the Trust’s board already had very strong relationships between members and had the traditional frameworks for good practice already in place. One area of interest for the board was developing their communications approach with key stakeholders; focusing on how to ensure their key messages resonated and appealed to target audiences.

Equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) at the board level were also a focus for development. The board felt comfortable with the theory underpinning EDI and already have great capacity amongst Non-Executive Directors on Health Inequalities and Public Health, so they wanted to work on how they could convert theory into action, utilising examples of what has worked well in other places.

Over the course of six months, the NHS North West Leadership Academy team met with the Chief People Officer and Director of Corporate Affairs, and later with the Board Chair and Chief Executive, to help shape the requirements of this Board development project.

More traditional offers of board development were quickly dismissed and it was agreed that the scope of the project needed to be more innovative, as the Board were open to testing their comfort levels by taking a more stretching and brave approach which would include being comfortable with being uncomfortable. A simple example of this was that for the first component, that of storytelling, the members of the Board had to attend with no preparatory work and no knowledge of the agenda (other than a title), to allow for a more authentic facilitation and challenging intervention.

The NHS North West Leadership Academy is connected to a large network of highly experienced Senior and Executive level providers who specialise in developing aspects of leadership ranging from system change to equity, diversity and inclusion. The commissioning of expert knowledge was integral to the design and successful delivery of this project.

Two providers were identified for this phase of development:

Dave Thornton is an experienced Executive Coach and leadership expert, he is an NLP Master Practitioner, MBTI facilitator, and author, with a rich background in senior management and leadership development, including a significant tenure in the NHS. Dave has a proven track record of advancing executive careers and enhancing organisational leadership. Dave’s extensive expertise was important in shaping the format, outline and outcomes of the initial board development session. Dave worked in collaboration with his colleague Ben Thomas, an award-winning actor, director and leadership developer. Known for his work in theatre, TV, and film, Ben is also skilled in workshop facilitation. His past roles include assistant director at the National Theatre and Artistic Director of Talawa. Ben’s unique approach to leadership training blends his theatrical expertise with authentic communication techniques. Dave and Ben’s combined experience and skills allowed them to develop a model for how senior leadership can “create good gossip”.

“Creating good gossip” revolves around equipping a group to tell their own stories and by extension good stories and link these to the values, vision and aspirations of the organisation. These stories ideally combine organisational and personal values and are used to influence organisational culture.

Ben and Dave also challenged the Board to think about the practical applications of storytelling in communications.

The expertise of these two providers was combined to create two half-day board workshops that explored what the board wanted to achieve, and how they could communicate their actions and aspirations across the organisation.