Website of the month - September 2023

Care Quality Commission literature review on improvement culture in health and care settings: https://www.cqc.org.uk/sites/default/files/2023-07/202307-RapidLiteratureReview-improvement.pdf

Helen Bevan has summarised this report in this way: 

Overall, the review identified multiple positive outcomes associated with a "good" improvement culture including: 

1. Increased responsiveness of services 

2. Shorter waiting times 

3. Better staff retention & lower use of agency staff 

4. Better quality of care 

5. Lower mortality rates 

6. Treating people who use services with more dignity and respect 

7. Improved staff morale and motivation 

8. Increased collaboration between services 

9. Better ratings from regulators 

10. Improved financial outcomes 

i.e. many reasons why we should prioritise the so-called "soft stuff", combined with an improvement methodology.

Website of the month - August 2023

The Wheel of Life - from the Positive Psychology website -  https://positivepsychology.com/wheel-of-life-coaching/ 

The Wheel of Life is a tool frequently used by coaches , and indeed I have used it as a coach many times myself. There are a great many resources about this available on the internet, and one I rather like this onefrom the Positive Psychology website . This sets out these segment headings as an example,  but what you choose to use is very much up to you.

Website of the month - July 2023

75th Birthday of the NHS - https://www.england.nhs.uk/nhsbirthday/about-the-nhs-birthday/ 

There was plenty of coverage about this in the media and elsewhere. Here are some websites:

• BBC: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001npjn and see especially 'The NHS at 75 Live: Fit for the Future?' - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001nc4t 

• BBC Sounds: Start the Week: The NHS at 75: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001ngfh and The NHS: Who Cares?: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001nvq4 

• Kings Fund: https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/blog/2022/12/nhs-75-opportunity-renew-vision-public-holds-dear and https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/publications/nhs-75-letter-party-leaders

• The Nuffield Trust: The History of the NHS: https://www.nuffieldtrust.org.uk/health-and-social-care-explained/the-history-of-the-nhs and Diagnosing the NHS video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9M0aRg_DiyI&t=11s&ab_channel=NuffieldTrust 

• NHS Confederation: Isobel Hardman podcast on the history of the NHS: https://www.nhsconfed.org/podcast/we-go-too-far-nhs-religion-analogy 

• The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/jul/03/locked-in-a-death-spiral-state-of-the-nhs-at-75 

Website of the month - June 2023

NHS Long Term Workforce Plan: https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/nhs-long-term-workforce-plan/ 

The first comprehensive workforce plan for the NHS. Long-awaited - and essential reading for NHS managers and leaders.

Website of the month - May 2023

Resilience (new section on this website): Go to the Resilience tab under Key Topics, or click or tap on Resilience

Resilience is increasingly important in this fast-changing world when VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, ambiguity) is affecting us all. This is an article I wrote drawing together a number of resources on resilience.

Website of the month - April 2023

Compassionate leadership (new section on this website): Go to the Compassionate leadership tab under Key Topics, or click or tap on Compassionate leadership.

Evidence from high-performing health systems show that compassionate and inclusive leadership behaviours create cultures where people can deliver sustainable quality and efficiency improvements quickly. This is an article I wrote drawing together a number of resources on compassionate leadership.

Website of the month - March 2023

35 Best UK Leadership Podcasts - https://blog.feedspot.com/uk_leadership_podcasts/. Here are what are thought to be the best UK Leadership podcasts from thousands of podcasts on the web and ranked by traffic, social media followers, domain authority & freshness.

Website of the month - February 2023

Sense on the Beach - https://medium.com/@senseonthebeach. See especially 'Seven indicators for measuring team success - https://medium.com/sense-on-the-beach/7-indicators-for-measuring-team-success-our-system-to-maximize-team-self-awareness-and-resilience-deac2298a64 

Website of the month - January 2023

10 Best UK Leadership Blogs and Websites - https://blog.feedspot.com/uk_leadership_blogs/. 

Here are what are thought to be the best UK Leadership leadership blogs and websites from thousands of podcasts on the web and ranked by traffic, social media followers, domain authority & freshness.

Website of the month - December 2022

Harvard Business Review - https://hbr.org/ . You are allowed access to one or two articles a month free, but to see more HBR asks you to subscribe.

There's a particularly interesting article that appeared recently at  https://hbr.org/2022/12/how-busy-people-can-develop-leadership-skills . It's about how to learn leadership skills: 'The latest research says that structured programs should only account for 10% of leadership development. The rest of your development should be spent on experimenting (70%) and self-discovery (20%)'.

Website of the Month - November 2022

CoCreative - https://www.wearecocreative.com/tools 

'We develop, test, and refine a lot of powerful tools to help people solve complex problems together—and we share freely'. There are lots of very useful free resources about collaborative working here. 

Website of the Month - October 2022

The Future of NHS Human Resources and Organisational Development - https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/B0659_The-future-of-NHS-human-resources-and-organisational-development-report_22112021.pdf . For those of you who work in the NHS or who are interested in what is happening in the NHS,  this vision for 2030 may be of interest. See especially this graphic -  https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/NHS-People-Plan-pillars-Our-People-Promise-and-the-future-of-human-resources-and-organisational-development-20.png. Let's see if it happens!

Website of the Month - September 2022

Collaboration report  on the Figma website - https://www.figma.com/collaboration-report/ . An interesting read,

Website of the Month - August 2022

The Leadership Challenge website - https://www.leadershipchallenge.com/Research/Five-Practices.aspx

This sets out the five practices  of 'The Leadership Challenge' by Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner and you can click on each one for more detail. There are also some useful blogs at https://www.leadershipchallenge.com/blog.aspx 

Website of the Month - July 2022

QAspire Consulting - Fostering Team Emotional Intelligence: There's a really interesting blog and graphic on this subject here - https://qaspire.com/2022/06/27/fostering-team-emotional-intelligence/ . QAspire Consulting's home page is at  https://qaspire.com/, and you can access many other blogs and graphics from there - https://qaspire.com/category/blog/, and also a number of podcasts - https://qaspire.com/guest-podcasts/ 

Website of the Month - June 2022

The NHS Big Conversation for Improvement - https://www.thebigconversation.nhs.uk/ 

This took place on Wednesday 11th and Thursday 12th May 2022. This co-produced event brought together thousands of people across the NHS and beyond to learn and #ImproveTogether. A wide range of recordings and resources has been shared (with permission) from across the two day event, and they can be accessed from its digital 'goody bag' - https://www.thebigconversation.nhs.uk/digital-goody-bag.  See especially:

• https://www.thebigconversation.nhs.uk/day-1-recordings 

• https://www.thebigconversation.nhs.uk/day-2-recordings 

• https://www.thebigconversation.nhs.uk/slides-resources 

Website of the Month - May 2022

Feedspot:10 Best Leadership websites and blogs to follow in 2022 - https://blog.feedspot.com/uk_leadership_blogs/ 

Here is a list of the top 10 in the UK from Feedspot. You will have seen some of these elsewhere on this LeadershipOnline website, but there are also some new ones. Which ones do you like in particular?

Website of the Month - April 2022

Lolly Daskal - https://www.lollydaskal.com/

Lolly Daskal is an American executive leadership coach. She has a large range of very interesting leadership blogs at https://www.lollydaskal.com/blog/ (e.g. '14 Things Smart Leaders Do to Boost Their Own Confidence' - https://www.lollydaskal.com/leadership/14-things-smart-leaders-do-to-boost-their-own-confidence/), and also a selection of podcasts to listen to at https://www.lollydaskal.com/in-the-hour/.

Website of the Month - March 2022

Roche Martin (Emotional Intelligence) - https://www.rochemartin.com/ 

This company specialises in all aspect of emotional intelligence. The Resources section is particularly good, with a very useful collection of blogs, videos and podcasts especially - https://www.rochemartin.com/resources.  For example here is a blog on '50 tips for improving your emotional intelligence', which is well worth a read - https://medium.com/@kw.sta/reflections-upon-systems-thinking-for-creating-change-in-a-complex-world-84ebd32109f6 

Website of the Month - February 2022

NHS Horizons - https://horizonsnhs.com/ 

This is an excellent source of leadership resources. 'We tune into the latest change thinking and practice in healthcare and other industries around the world – translating this learning into innovative, practical approaches to change. We positively impact people’s lives by building a generation of transformational leaders who together can tackle the biggest challenges in health, care and beyond'. There is a link to its blogs from the home page. It's sketchnotes section is inspiring - http://horizonsnhs.com/sketchnotes/.  And it's well worth looking at its tweets of the week - every week if possible! (links to these are on the home page) .

 Website of the Month - January 2022

John Spencer - https://spencerauthor.com/ 

Although this website is aimed mainly at teachers, there's a lot here about learning generally, and much that would be of interest to leaders and managers - articles, podcasts and books.  As an example, this article and podcast is about setting New Year's resolutions is particularly relevant at this time of year! - https://spencerauthor.com/slimemethod/ 

• Start: What practice, habit, or project do I want to begin this year?

• Let Go: What current practice, habit, or project do I need to abandon this year?

• Improve: What current practice, habit, or project do I want to take to the next level?

• Maintain: What current practice, habit, or project do I want to continue to do this year?

• Experiment: What current practice, habit, or project do I want to try out?

 Website of the Month - December 2021

 Brené  Brown - https://brenebrown.com/ 

Brené  Brown is '  a researcher and storyteller, who’s spent the past two decades studying courage, vulnerability, shame, and empathy.' Her research is relevant to leaders and managers, and you can find out more from her website which includes details of her books, videos, podcasts and other resources. The link to her 'Dare to Lead' podcasts is  https://brenebrown.com/podcast-show/dare-to-lead/ and her 'Unlocking Us' podcasts are at https://brenebrown.com/podcast-show/unlocking-us/ . You may also be interested to see her TED talk on 'The Power of Vulnerability' at https://www.ted.com/talks/brene_brown_the_power_of_vulnerability?language=en#t-12175 .

 Website of the Month - November 2021

People Development Magazine - https://peopledevelopmentmagazine.com/ 

There are many very interesting and useful articles in this magazine. Note especially the section on Leadership - https://peopledevelopmentmagazine.com/category/leadership/ 

Here is an example of an interesting article which is all about unconventional ways to increase work productivity - https://peopledevelopmentmagazine.com/2019/01/12/increase-productivity-at-work-part-1/ 

Website of the Month - October 2021

The Power of Facilitation -  https://facpower.org/download/ 

You can download an outstanding free eBook on the power of facilitation from this link. My thanks to Helen Bevan for recommending this, and as she says "facilitation skills are a 'must-have' superpower for leaders."

Website of the Month - September 2021

NHS England: The Culture and Leadership Programme - https://www.england.nhs.uk/culture/culture-leadership-programme/ 

Through this programme NHS England supports organisations 'through all phases of the Culture and Leadership Programme, a modular programme which provides opportunities for organisations to understand their own culture using evidence-based tools, develop tailored leadership strategies for developing compassionate, inclusive and collective leadership and deliver culture change'. The website has a very wide range of really useful resources. In particular, the section on 'Inspiration: sharing the “whys” and the “hows” of compassionate and inclusive leadership' (see https://www.england.nhs.uk/culture/inspiration/ ) - including this 7-minute  video from Michael West - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrPmMwg9X8s&ab_channel=TheKing%27sFund 

Website of the Month - August 2021

Introduction to Organisational Development - https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/essential-elements-od 

Another excellent  free MOOC  (Massive Online Open Course) via FutureLearn,  developed by NHS Employers. Discover organisational development models and strategies, and develop your OD skills to boost performance and improve culture. 3 weeks duration involving about 2 hours study a week.  Highly recommended (with thanks to Helen Bevan for the recommendation)

Website of the Month - July 2021

BBC Sounds - https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds 

The BBC has a huge range of recent and archive radio programmes and podcasts on this website (and on the BBC Sounds app). All free. Try searching for relevant items (e.g. 'Leadership'). Here are four recommendations for starters:

• Mitchell on Meetings (3 programmes) - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000t4t6/episodes/player 

• Lessons on a Crisis (Covid-19), with Evan Davis (3 programmes, including one on leadership) - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000t6qm/episodes/player 

• Analysis - The Fine Art of Decision-making, with Margaret Heffernan - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000t40w 

• The Leadership Gap, with John Tusa (3 programmes) - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b048nsmj 

Website of the Month - June 2021

'Leadership Theory - the Basics'. A free online course (MOOC) delivered by Coventry University via FutureLearn - https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/fundamentals-of-leadership-theory 

This is an outstanding course. An excellent introduction if you are new to leadership or management. If you are an experienced leader or manager, this will also appeal because it is a brilliant summary of all the leadership theory brought together in a highly accessible way. It is only two weeks in duration (three hours study a week).  Topics covered include:

• The fundamentals of leadership: what is the evolutionary process of leadership theories?

• What are the major conclusions of the trait theories?

• The skills approach to leadership

• What are the major conclusions of the behavioural theories?

• Identifying the major components of the contingency theories

• Transactional and transformational leadership.

Websites of the Month - May 2021

Sir Simon Stevens, NHS Chief Executive recently notified the NHS England Board of his decision to stand down at the end of July, after more than seven years as NHS chief executive. 

There are a number of interesting websites that give more information about this and look back at his time time in this job over the past seven years of change:

• NHS England - https://www.england.nhs.uk/2021/04/nhs-chief-sir-simon-stevens-to-stand-down-this-summer/ 

• BBC News: Hugh Pym:  'How heavy hitter changed the NHS'  - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-56945830

• The Guardian: 'Simon Stevens to step down as NHS Englan boss at the end of July -  https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/apr/29/simon-stevens-to-step-down-as-nhs-england-boss-at-end-of-july,  and 'The Guardian view on the NHS: the boss is leaving at a dangerous time (editorial' - https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/apr/29/the-guardian-view-on-the-nhs-the-boss-is-leaving-at-a-dangerous-time

•  The Kings Fund blog: 'Sir Simon Stevens steps down – the end of an era?' - https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/blog/2021/05/sir-simon-stevens-steps-down-end-era 

• Health Service Journal Health Check podcast: 'Who will be the next chief executive of NHS England?': https://soundcloud.com/user-343574208/podcast-episode-80

Websites of the Month - April 2021

Circles of Control, Influence and Concern - from Habit 1 (Be Proactive) in Stephen Covey's book 'The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People ' - see https://www.franklincovey.com/the-7-habits__trashed/habit-1/ , and these short videos  -  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uj8dmSgQa1c&ab_channel=FranklinCovey and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sH6OFrHA7rU&ab_channel=YOGA 

Claire Newton has created an updated circle of control poster which you can see here - http://www.clairenewton.co.za/images/resources/posters/Claire_Newton_Circle_of_Control_Poster.pdf 

She also has a good selection of other posters and worksheets. Well worth a look at http://www.clairenewton.co.za/posters-worksheets.html 

Website of the month - March 2021

FutureLearn - Free Management and Leadership courses - https://www.futurelearn.com/subjects/business-and-management-courses/management-and-leadership

In the section on Digital Learning I mention MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses), and one of the providers of these courses is FutureLearn. The number of free courses that FutureLearn offer from universities and professional organisations on Management & Leadership has been increasing and you may like to take a look at the large selection of courses that are either currently available right now or which start soon. 

Website of the month - February 2021

MITSloan Management Review - https://sloanreview.mit.edu/ 

This is the website for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's highly respected Sloan Management Review. There are some really interesting and topical articles available from the home page. For example, this article on 'The Future of Team Leadership is Multimodal'  - "COVID-19 is accelerating a shift to hybrid work models, which requires a fundamental change in the skills team leaders need to succeed. Leaders will need to be "multimodal", ie, being effective in both virtual coordination mode and face-to-face collaboration mode. There are four leadership roles in this hybrid world" - https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/the-future-of-team-leadership-is-multimodal/ 

Website of the month - January 2021

The Skills Toolkit - from the UK Government - https://theskillstoolkit.campaign.gov.uk/ 

The remarkable website offers a wide range of free courses to help you learn new skills or get a new job. There are opportunities to learn about subjects which include:

• Personal growth and wellbeing

• Professional development

• Business and finance

• Computer essentials

• Digital design and marketing

• Computer science and coding

Its 'trusted course providers' include The Open University, Google, Amazon and FutureLearn. 

To explore what is on offer, go to https://nationalcareers.service.gov.uk/find-a-course/the-skills-toolkit 

Website of the month - December 2020

NHS Horizons - http://horizonsnhs.com/ 

'We tune into the latest change thinking and practice in healthcare and other industries around the world – translating this learning into innovative, practical approaches to change.'  This is an excellent website. See especially the Sketchnotes section at http://horizonsnhs.com/sketchnotes/ and the #Caring4NHSPeople Wellbeing Virtual Sessions (with lots of videos) at http://horizonsnhs.com/caring4nhspeople/ 

Website of the month - November 2020

Creating tomorrow today: a radical manifesto for leaders of health and care - https://www.slideshare.net/HelenBevan/creating-tomorrow-today-a-radical-manifesto-for-leaders-of-health-and-care-239052718

These are slides from the talk "Creating tomorrow today" that Goran Henriks and Helen Bevan gave at #Quality2020. The slides set out the principles of "simple rules" for transformation & explains our 7 simple rules for leaders that we've developed over the past 9 years. #Quality2020.

Website of the month - October 2020

World Economic Forum - https://www.weforum.org/ 

There are a number of interesting articles, papers and videos on this website. For example:

• This article on  '5 ways to better engage your employees'  -https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/09/employers-employee-engagement-research-covid19),  

• '5 ways COVID-19 has changed workforce management' - https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/06/covid-homeworking-symptom-of-changing-face-of-workforce-management

• Plenty  on leadership - https://www.weforum.org/agenda/archive/leadership 

• Some interesting platforms - https://www.weforum.org/platforms 

• Reports - https://www.weforum.org/reports 

Website of the month - September 2020

Daniel H Pink: https://www.danpink.com/

Daniel H. Pink is the author of six provocative books about business and human behaviour. His books include the long-running New York Times bestsellers When, A Whole New Mind and Drive. 

There are lots of resources at https://www.danpink.com/resources/, and several series of very short and interesting videos at https://www.danpink.com/pinkcast/ (from where you can also sign up to his newsletter).

Website of the month - August 2020

People Plan for 2020/2021, NHS England: https://www.england.nhs.uk/ournhspeople/

Essential reading for NHS staff in England. This plan from NHS England "along with Our People Promise, sets out what our NHS people can expect from their leaders and from each other.  It builds on the creativity and drive shown by our NHS people in their response, to date, to the COVID-19 pandemic and the interim NHS People Plan. It focuses on how we must all continue to look after each other and foster a culture of inclusion and belonging, as well as take action to grow our workforce, train our people, and work together differently to deliver patient care."

Website of the month - July 2020

Action on Happiness videos:  https://www.youtube.com/c/actionforhappiness/videos 

We have mentioned the impressive Action on Happiness website in the main website (in the Topics of interest section). This inspiring organisation now has its own YouTube channel, and there is an excellent collection of videos here. This whole issue has become especially relevant during this time of COVID-19, and there are aspects of this that are especially applicable to leaders both in terms of their own personal performance and in ways in which they can affect or influence others.

You may be aware of the work of Martin Seligman and all that he has done on authentic happiness. The most recent video features Action for Happiness co-founder Richard Layard being joined by the 'father' of Positive Psychology, Martin Seligman to discuss happiness, resilience, positive education, rebuilding after the crisis and more. - see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Po8ZP8FU7Pc&t=2s 

Website of the month - June 2020

Every Mind Matters: Looking after your mental health, from the NHS website: 'Having good mental health helps us relax more, achieve more and enjoy our lives more. We have expert advice and practical tips to help you look after your mental health and wellbeing'. See the section on 'Coronavirus and well being' at https://www.nhs.uk/oneyou/every-mind-matters

Website of the month - May 2020

nhsManagers.net - https://ihm.org.uk/roy-lilley-nhsmanagers/ 

In the Keeping up to date section of this website, I refer to nhsManagers.net. You can subscribe free to receive great regular incisive analysis in an excellent newsletter published several times a week by email from Roy Lilley (an experienced NHS commentator), and each edition has some very useful further links to current health management news and analysis. 

One particularly good recent article from this source is from Lisa Jamieson called 'Seven things that have changed me for the better'. This is very relevant to the current lockdown that we are facing.  It's  available as a PDF by clicking or tapping here. It's also on Twitter - click or tap here.

Website of the month - April 2020

Harvard Business School's Working Knowledge: https://hbswk.hbs.edu/Pages/browse.aspx?HBSTopic=Coronavirus&cid 

This month our focus inevitably is on COVID-19. Our recommended website is from the HBS Working Knowledge website which features amongst other things a section on COVID-19, currently 19 topics - and growing.

There is a huge range of other articles on a variety of subjects here too, for example on Leadership (https://hbswk.hbs.edu/Pages/browse.aspx?HBSTopic=Leadership - 354 articles) and Management (https://hbswk.hbs.edu/Pages/browse.aspx?HBSTopic=Management  245 articles). 

Website of the month - March 2020

What It Takes to Run a Great Virtual Meeting - https://hbr.org/2020/03/what-it-takes-to-run-a-great-virtual-meeting 

This is the title of a useful and practical article from Bob Frisch and Cary Greene in the Harvard Business Review. Organisations are increasingly seeing the advantages of using virtual meetings to cut down on travel, and it's especially topical as now they "scramble to protect employees from the spreading coronavirus with travel restrictions and remote work arrangements, there’s a distinct possibility that in-person meetings with teams, customers, or suppliers may be canceled for days — or potentially weeks."  It outlines 12 keys to success with this.

Website of the month - February 2020

Contextual intelligence

Contextual intelligence is the ability to apply knowledge to real world scenarios and situations..... the proficiency at adapting knowledge and skills to different situations and environments. There is an interesting article on contextual intelligence by Tarun Khanna in the Harvard Business Review at https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=47833  - 'the ability to understand the limits of our knowledge and to adapt that knowledge to a context different from the one in which it was acquired'. To find out more, take a look at this set of slides - https://www.slideshare.net/mobile/tgeurts/contextual-intelligence-43417425 and Louise Thomson's blog on this at https://louisethomson-net.cdn.ampproject.org/c/louisethomson.net/leadership-thoughts/gcx3t6narxmwfg92b8h9ahmtlfb4et?format=amp:

Website of the month - January 2020

Helen Bevan's slides of quotations for 2019

Helen Bevan is acknowledged globally for her expertise and energy for large scale change in health and care. During her 25 years as a change leader in the English National Health Service, Helen has been at the forefront of many NHS improvement initiatives that have made a difference for thousands of patients and for the staff who care for them. Helen currently leads the Horizons team, which is a source of ideas and knowledge to enable the spread of improvements at scale.

"This is a slide deck of 72 quotations that I posted with my tweets in 2019. You may not agree with everything they contain but I hope these quotations might inspire, motivate and/or challenge you as they have me". Thank you very much Helen!

https://slideshare.net/HelenBevan/72-quotations-that-helenbevan-posted-with-tweets-during-2019-212903065 

There are some other excellent presentations from Helen at https://www.slideshare.net/HelenBevan/.

Website of the month - December 2019

BBC Radio 4 management and business programmes and podcasts: 'The Bottom Line' and 'In Business'

• • • The Bottom Line programmes - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006sz6t/episodes/player. There are over 280 episodes which you can listen to online or download. A recent one which I recommend is 'The Business Gurus' - at https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0009yy9. 'The Bottom Line' is also available in the form of podcasts at  https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006sz6t/episodes/downloads or via the BBC Sounds app or most other app providers.

    • In Business programmes - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006s609/episodes/player.  There are over 330 episodes which you can listen to online or download.  A recent programme which I like is 'Light bulb moments and how to have them' - at https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00051qt . 'In Business' is also available to listen to or download via the BBC Sounds app.

Website of the month - November 2019

Skills for Tomorrow, from British Telecom - https://www.bt.com/skillsfortomorrow/ 

This is a major new initiative from British Telecom - "Empowering you with the skills you need today, for a better tomorrow". It's intended to benefit all generations. BT says "We've launched Skills for Tomorrow, a free digital skills programme to help you and 10 million people across the UK go beyond limits and reach their full potential. We've teamed up with amazing partners, like LinkedIn Learning and Google Digital Garage to provide online and face-to-face learning to help you thrive in a digital future." BT has itself produced the material in the section pitched at parents, and the other partners are Learn My  Way and iDEA. 

You may find that some of this material may be helpful to you or possibly to other members of your family or others.

The main categories are:

1. Navigating your daily life (these are basic guides about being online and using computers) - https://www.bt.com/skillsfortomorrow/daily-life.html 

• Mastering the basics - https://www.bt.com/skillsfortomorrow/daily-life/mastering-the-basics.html 

• Keeping yourself safe online - https://www.bt.com/skillsfortomorrow/daily-life/keeping-yourself-safe-online.html 

• Managing your money - https://www.bt.com/skillsfortomorrow/daily-life/managing-your-money.html 

• Accessing public services - https://www.bt.com/skillsfortomorrow/daily-life/accessing-public-services.html 

• Enhancing your wellbeing - https://www.bt.com/skillsfortomorrow/daily-life/enhancing-your-wellbeing.html 

2. Parents (this is all about supporting children to navigate the internet) - https://www.bt.com/skillsfortomorrow/parents.html 

3. Developing your work life (this is about managing your career and making your mark at work - https://www.bt.com/skillsfortomorrow/work-life.html 

• Finding a job - https://www.bt.com/skillsfortomorrow/work-life/finding-a-job.html 

• Expanding your skillset - https://www.bt.com/skillsfortomorrow/work-life/expanding-your-skillset.html 

• Realising your potential at work - https://www.bt.com/skillsfortomorrow/work-life/realising-your-potential-at-work.html 

This section covers:

• • • Empowering yourself - https://www.bt.com/skillsfortomorrow/work-life/realising-your-potential-at-work/empowering-yourself.html 

    • Strengthening workplace relationships - https://www.bt.com/skillsfortomorrow/work-life/realising-your-potential-at-work/strengthening-your-workplace-relationships.html 

    • Improving your communication - https://www.bt.com/skillsfortomorrow/work-life/realising-your-potential-at-work/improving-your-communication.html 

    • Boosting your productivity - https://www.bt.com/skillsfortomorrow/work-life/realising-your-potential-at-work/boosting-your-productivity.html 

4. Building your business - https://www.bt.com/skillsfortomorrow/business.html 

This section includes a useful section on "Creating a positive culture", which covers leadership and management styles and so is worth taking alook at - https://www.bt.com/skillsfortomorrow/business/creating-a-positive-culture.html 

Website of the month - October 2019

Michael Bungay Stanier, Box of Crayons - https://boxofcrayons.com/michael-bungay-stanier/ 

At Box of Crayons, Michael and his facilitators teach 10-minute coaching so busy managers build stronger teams and get better results. He trains managers to coach - but he also offers much of interest to anyone else who coaches. His latest book is 'The Coaching Habit' and he has also published 'Do More Great Work' and 'Get Unstuck and Get Going' - see https://boxofcrayons.com/books/ . There's a large selection of podcasts at https://boxofcrayons.com/category/great-work-podcast/.

I especially recommend an excellent video from one of his workshops in which he outlines his 7-question approach. It's at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBCwZu5kTqQ (and the last minute of this is a particularly good way to finish a workshop!).

Website of the month - September 2019

Business 2 Community - https://www.business2community.com/ 

There is a lot of very useful material on this website. If used selectively, it can be adapted to be applicable to wherever you are working, whether it is in the NHS , the public sector, charities or not-for profit organisations.

One particular article which I like is '6 Steps to Create an Effective Business Strategy'. This is written in a very clear and succinct way and can act as a great introduction or as a checklist for any project which requires a business strategy (or a business-like strategy). It's at  https://www.business2community.com/strategy/6-steps-create-effective-business-strategy-01391113 

Website of the month - August 2019

Lifehack - https://www.lifehack.org/

‘Breakthrough your limitations and level up your quality of life’ is how Lifehack describes itself: 'This is a place where you can find answers to all the questions in your life - answers that will actually help you overcome any limitations that are keeping you from your goals'.

The way it works is set out at https://goto.lifehack.org/start-here. Its four-pillar breakthrough framework is: 

1. Find the hidden opportunity

2. Plan your progression stairway

3. Invest by energy, prioritise by time

4. Make a self-sustainable engine

In addition to this and the courses that it offers, there is a very large number of blogs that have been posted, and you can see the range of subjects covered by clicking on the down arrow next to the “all” tab at the top right-hand side of https://www.lifehack.org/. There are 18 subject areas, and the one about work is at https://www.lifehack.org/work. Some interesting reads here. Do you have particular recommendations?

Website of the month - July 2019

David Clutterbuck Partnership - https://www.davidclutterbuckpartnership.com/

David Clutterbuck has an impressive reputation as a coach and mentor, and describes himself as an author, management thinker, conference speaker, workshop presenter and researcher. He has written a large number of books, articles and blogs which can help leaders and managers everywhere, as well as those who are mentors and coaches.

• Blogs: There’s an excellent collection of blogs (mainly about coaching and mentoring) on his website at https://www.davidclutterbuckpartnership.com/blogs/ . So, for example there is a particularly good blog on “What does a great developmental conversation look like?" - some great questions that could transform conversations between line managers and direct reports: https://www.davidclutterbuckpartnership.com/what-does-a-great-developmental-conversation-look-like-between-line-manager-and-direct-report/

• Videos: There is also a range of his videos at https://www.davidclutterbuckpartnership.com/videos/

• Books: Details of his books are at https://www.davidclutterbuckpartnership.com/products-page/

Website of the month - June 2019

The Tamarck Institute - https://www.tamarackcommunity.ca/ 

Tamarack community describes itself as "a connected force for community change", and is based in Canada. It has a range of blogs and resources, and its learning centre is at https://www.tamarackcommunity.ca/#ideas. This features some great resources on collaborative leadership at https://www.tamarackcommunity.ca/collaborativeleadership.  And these resources may also be of interest:

• Collective impact - https://www.tamarackcommunity.ca/collectiveimpact 

• Community engagement - https://www.tamarackcommunity.ca/communityengagement 

• Community innovation - https://www.tamarackcommunity.ca/communityinnovation 

• Evaluating community impact - https://www.tamarackcommunity.ca/evaluatingcommunityimpact 

Website of the month - May 2019

Oxford Centre for Triple Value Healthcare - https://www.3vh.org/ 

The Oxford Centre for Triple Value Healthcare is a small social enterprise that supports health systems achieve optimal outcomes for populations and individuals given the resources available. It was founded by Professor Sir Muir Gray. This includes the dissemination of knowledge. 

The knowledge section of the website is excellent and can be found at https://www.3vh.org/knowledge/ . It includes: 

• The Essential Glossary. "The team at 3V has selected 20 key words and phrases, together with their definitions and the rationale behind them, to give you and your colleagues the foundations for a common language with which to start your work on optimising value." - https://www.3vh.org/essential-glossary/ 

• The Essential Insight . This "acts as a catalyst, transforming information on value-based healthcare into useful and usable knowledge, providing updates of essential papers to enable you to keep abreast of and understand value in health and healthcare. 3V regularly scans at least 30 prominent journals on medicine, healthcare and value, selecting about 20 papers a month to use in our training programmes; however, each week, one of these papers is selected and its contents transformed into the ‘paper of the week’ on value. 3V also reports on an ‘issue of the month’, highlighting current healthcare value issues. Resources also include a short ‘Radio Value’ podcast, available for download on iTunes or SoundCloud." - https://www.3vh.org/essential-insights/ 

• The Essential Library. "3V provides not only a list of recommended reading on value in health and healthcare, but also the ‘Top Ten’ books that we consider to be essential reading." - https://www.3vh.org/essential-library/ 

Website of the month - April 2019

Collaboration tools from Andi Roberts

Andi Roberts is a coach and facilitator, and his website gives a number of links to some excellent resources which may be helpful in ensuring effective collaboration and facilitation: http://masterfacilitator.com/collaborationtools/ 

In particular, there are some wonderful team and facilitation exercises at https://www.sessionlab.com/library . He also has some other very useful posts which you can access from the links in the top right-had side of his home page.

(My thanks to Helen Bevan for this recommendation)

Website of the month - March 2019

First Aid - Learn How to Save a Life: https://www.sikana.tv/en/health/first-aid 

This is a collection of excellent short videos produced in partnership with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. The videos are very clear and reflect the latest best practice. Everyone should see these.

On the same website there are also videos on other health issues at https://www.sikana.tv/en/health (as well as videos on a variety of other topics - cooking, art, DIY, nature and sport).

Website of the month - February 2019

Google Digital Garage - https://learndigital.withgoogle.com/digitalgarage/courses 

Google now offers a selection of online courses, all of which are free if you sign up. The courses are short, typically one or  three hours of study, although a couple are much longer. Topics include:

• Build confidence with self-promotion

• How to enhance and protect your online campaign

• Land your next job

• Introduction to digital wellbeing

• Effective networking

• Introduction to business communication

• Communicate your ideas through storytelling and design

• Speaking in public

• Increase productivity at work

• Understand the basis of  machine learning 

• Digital marketing  

I would be interested to know if anyone has tried these, and if so, what do you think of them? You can email me on john.hunt@gmx.co.uk.

Website of the month – January 2019

Don't Tell Me the Score - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p06qbt0y/episodes/downloads or https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p06qbt0y/episodes/player 

Power of belief, resilience, legacy, tribalism, vision, identity, leadership, motivation, character, winning, reinvention, sleep, fear, values and community. These are the subjects covered in this excellent new series of programmes/podcasts from the BBC. Although the starting point for these programmes is sport, there are some much wider issues raised here which are very relevant to leadership and management. "What can sporting success can teach us about ordinary life?  Simon Mundie sits down each week with an expert to explore the deeper aspects of sport that mean more than the score. " Well worth a listen.

You can listen to them or you can download them as mp3 podcasts (to keep for ever if you want to) from the website links above, or they are available as podcasts from the BBC Sounds app or from all of the most popular  podcast apps by searching for "Don't tell me the score". 

If you are outside the UK,  these should be freely available to listen to or download from where you are. But if you have any problems I would like to to hear from you  - please email me on john.hunt@gmx.co.uk . 

Website of the month – December 2018

The Oxford Review - https://www.oxford-review.com/ 

This website has some excellent leadership blogs at  https://www.oxford-review.com/blog/ and there are some resources and downloads available too. For example, here is a rather good short video on organisational change from David Wilkinson - https://www.oxford-review.com/the-6-evidence-based-guidelines-for-organisational-change/ 

Website of the month - November 2018

Seapoint Center for Collaborative Leadership (Jesse Stoner) - https://seapointcenter.com/  

Jesse Lyn Stoner’s website helps “leaders connect, collaborate and create”.  Her home page has links to a range of articles, blogs, resources, books and a video. The leadership blogs in particular are very interesting and the direct link to these is https://seapointcenter.com/blog/. 

One very good article is “The difference between mission, vision, purpose, strategy and goals”, which is a helpful analysis of how these relate to each other - https://seapointcenter.com/difference-between-mission-vision-purpose/.  

Website of the month – October 2018

The Modern Workplace Learning Magazine (edited by Jane Hart) - https://modernworkplacelearning.com/magazine/ 

A recent report published on this  website is  "What are the most important ways of workplace learning for, at or through work?" - https://modernworkplacelearning.com/magazine/what-does-this-years-learning-in-the-workplace-survey-say-about-the-state-and-maybe-the-fate-of-ld/  

This interesting report from Jane Hart of the Modern Workplace Learning Magazine tells us the outcome of a survey of over 5,000 people from around the world who were asked about the importance (in terms of value/usefulness) of 12 popular methods of learning. Adding together the responses of those who ranked each as being either very important or essential, she arrived at these top four which received the most responses and rated over 75%:

• Daily work experiences (i.e. doing the day job) - 93%

• Knowledge sharing within your team - 90%

• Web search (e.g. Google) - 79%

• Web resources (e.g. videos, podcasts, articles) - 76%

Bottom of the list came classroom learning at only 31%.

Website of the month  - September 2018

Reinventing Organizations - http://www.reinventingorganizations.com/

This is the title of an interesting book by Frederic Laloux. He says "the way we manage organizations seems increasingly out of date. Deep inside, we sense that more is possible. We long for soulful workplaces, for authenticity, community, passion, and purpose." He goes on to show "that every time, in the past, when humanity has shifted to a new stage of consciousness, it has achieved extraordinary breakthroughs in collaboration. A new shift in consciousness is currently underway. Could it help us invent a more soulful and purposeful way to run our businesses and nonprofits, schools and hospitals? "

His website is http://www.reinventingorganizations.com/ and there is a selection of resources at http://www.reinventingorganizations.com/resources.html 

For a summary of the key parts of this, there are some useful presentations at http://www.reinventingorganizations.com/powerpoints.html, and in particular http://www.reinventingorganizations.com/uploads/2/1/9/8/21988088/140305_laloux_reinventing_organizations.pdf and http://www.reinventingorganizations.com/uploads/2/1/9/8/21988088/future_of_work-_self-mgt.pdf. 

This associated website is especially interesting: http://reinventingorganizationswiki.com/Main_Page