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Can NHS organisational culture really change? Drawing on my work with Tony Bell at Alder Hey Children's Hospital, I reflect on rebuilding trust after the organ-retention scandal and how the award-winning Excellence through Learning programme helped develop leadership, staff involvement and organisational learning.

We spend much of our lives learning how to earn a living. But how well do we prepare ourselves for living itself? Since my early nursing days in the 1970s, understanding the human mind has been central to both my career and my own personal development. That interest led me to qualifications in counselling and psychology, and to years of reading about how we think, feel, behave and cope with life. Over time, I noticed a gap. At one end were little books of wise sayings: a quot

More than twenty years ago I wrote about Organisation Development in the NHS during another period of substantial structural change. I have returned to it because one question has never really gone away. Why, after so much reorganisation, do so many of the same organisational problems continue to appear? Organisations have been created, merged, renamed and abolished. Management arrangements have changed. New approaches to quality, improvement, governance and patient safety ha

Most of us remember the fantasy stories that captured our imagination as children. Whether it was The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, The Lord of the Rings or, more recently, Harry Potter, they offered far more than magical creatures and exciting adventures. Beneath the fantasy were timeless themes of courage, friendship, sacrifice, hope and the triumph of good over evil. That was the challenge I set myself when I began writing The Fearless Trio. I didn't want simply to wri

More than 30 years ago, I published my first book. It was called 54 Approaches to Brickwall Management, using the brick wall as a metaphor for the resistance people often encounter when trying to bring about change in organisations. The book was illustrated by a young neighbour, Rebecca, and to my surprise it travelled much further than I ever expected. It was serialised in a Hong Kong newspaper and used by management consultants as a resource for workshops on change manageme

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