Hope Behind the Headlines: Shifting Culture in Health and Social Care

Hope Behind the Headlines: Shifting Culture in Health and Social Care

Addressing the problems of managing health care is one of the most pressing and complex challenges facing western societies. In the UK the public are bombarded with negative press coverage of the National Health Service, which is often portrayed as in crisis. Hope Behind the Headlines aims to provide practical help, hope, energy and ideas about what is possible to improve health care by shifting the cultures to ones that are truly patient centred and orientated towards quality. Hope Behind the Headlines is a readable and accessible book that is packed full of learning, insights, research and experiences that will ensure leaders really understand what is required to shift cultures in theory and in practice. It will leave readers energized and hopeful about their own ability to make a difference in their own local health context. It includes chapters written by leaders in health care who have had a go at shifting culture in practice and who share their experiences, warts and all. These stories are powerful, empathetic, first-person narratives that are very different from sanitised case studies that often glorify what happened and make readers feel inadequate. A must-read for all those concerned with improving health care in the UK.

About the Authors
All three authors are with Hult International, formerly Ashridge Business School, and co-lead GenerationQ, a Master’s level development programme in Leading for Quality Improvement, open to senior people working in health, social care and health charities. Liz Wiggins is Associate Professor of Change and Leadership at Hult. She has over twenty years’ experience of coaching and consulting to public and private sector clients in the US, Europe and Asia. Liz has a Masters and a PhD in Organizational Psychology from Birkbeck College, University of London. Janet Smallwood has been involved with GenerationQ, The Ashridge Masters in Leadership (Quality Improvement) since the outset of the programme in 2009. Janet directs her own consulting organization but has previously worked with Ashridge Executive Education for over 20 years. Janet holds Masters Degrees in Natural Sciences and Chemical Engineering from Cambridge and the Ashridge Masters in Organization Consulting. Brian Marshall is Academic Director and Discipline Lead for OD and Change at Ashridge Executive Education, part of the Hult International Business School. Brian has a first degree in English literature from London University, and a Master’s degree in Organisational Change from Ashridge.