ICS Development

Our passion to support whole system working derives from our belief that the health and social care system needs to address the inter-connected roots of ill health and work to establish communities that positively enable health and well being as well as working to provide more integrated responses to inevitable health and care needs. Across our team we are working in many different ICS areas, supporting leaders in their transition to system leaders and helping you navigate the challenges and tensions of this most complex and potentially most impactful set of leadership challenges.

We passionately support the drive towards integration and work with many system leaders to support the mobilisation of a holistic approach that can enable whole systems to use their collective resources to tackle the roots of ill-health and health inequalities in localities. We understand that this requires a shift in focus from the provision of episodic treatment for acute illness towards the promotion of wellbeing, self-care and joined up support for older people and people with long term conditions. We can help you work through the practical and philosophical implications of adopting and promulgating this new conceptualisation of individual and organisational purpose.

  • We are skilled in helping leaders understand and engage in systems thinking - helping you to see the whole, create connections between the moving parts and focus on emergence
  • We know how to bring an appreciation of multiple perspectives to our work with leaders - helping you work with people who have different mental models and behaviours deriving from their different organisational roles and cultures; helping you embrace difference, manage conflict, see possibilities, tolerate ambiguity and uncertainty and adapt
  • We know that successful systems leadership relies on collaboration and we realise that many current leaders have emerged from a competitive climate - we can help you identify and build commitments around system gain instead of a narrow focus on organisational outcome
  • We understand the challenges for ICS leaders in distributing financial resources and applying digital and data methods of driving system working whilst merging organisations with different and sometimes conflicting purpose, strategic ambitions, operational priorities, accountability structures, decision making processes, cultures and values

We know that the focus on system development is challenging for those whose identity is defined by delivering organisational defined treatment and care services. We appreciate that current and future ICS leaders are struggling with the volume and complexity of their workloads and the scale and pace of change. We understand the exhaustion of the on-going pandemic experience. We can help you navigate the cultural changes, the leadership challenges and the requirement for high levels of personal resilience that arise from such seismic shifts in the environment.

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