A shot in the arm...
Having worked in all three sectors I can testify that they each have their own frustrations and barriers to achievement. However the public sector, perhaps due to size and complexity, can make those barriers look insurmountable. Factor in procedures and structures that channel concentration and energy towards meeting the detail rather than the spirit of the issue and you’re a good way towards a culture where independence (and personal responsibility) of thought and action can be viewed as a high risk business. Even free thinkers such as MPs have been known to blame the system rather than their part in operating, or taking advantage of, it....
So it was a real boost today to go to a talk by someone who takes the core intent of the public sector and makes the system (in his case a PPP system) work to deliver on that promise. Richard Glenn, a project manager of nearly 30 new hospital buildings and now Project Lead for Alderhey Children’s Health Park, takes a transformational view of hospital developments. What I mean by this is that he tackles these complex projects by taking a real leadership role that not only keeps the ‘future patient’ clearly in focus but also seeks to transform clinical practice, aspiration and stakeholder perceptions through the development of the brief and the design.
At a previous project, ‘the Alex’ in Brighton, he brought together two groups – a children’s board and a group of what he calls his ‘young turks’ (clinicians who will go on to be senior staff members during the life of the new hospital) – to influence the development of the project and, in doing so, to form the basis of the culture and operation of the new service. Through this enthusiastic and honest engagement (which necessarily included frank discussions where ideas could not be realised) with these key groups the project achieved what many re-provisions struggle to – to transfer the affection and loyalty of the hospital community, and with them the broader public, from their previous magnificent, dilapidated and overstretched Victorian pile to a new home elsewhere in the city.
At Alderhey he has used design based tools such as ‘Enquiry by Design’ to engage the whole local community in planning changes that will effect local parkland, play spaces and pedestrian routes. In doing so the project has developed broad community support and a momentum of its own which, to paraphrase, would require a very brave politician to stop!
Richard’s mode of leadership is not one of lock-down, top-down control but rather to establish an environment where others feel they can make a difference. This is not to say that he abandons personal responsibility but that he sees that responsibility as being the person that clears away barriers; and having now heard him speak with some candour I can imaging the sheer force of personality that is employed to do this. This then gives space for those people responsible for making the hospital work to concentrate on what really matters – the creation of a joyous and optimistic place for children and young people.
So it was a real boost today to go to a talk by someone who takes the core intent of the public sector and makes the system (in his case a PPP system) work to deliver on that promise. Richard Glenn, a project manager of nearly 30 new hospital buildings and now Project Lead for Alderhey Children’s Health Park, takes a transformational view of hospital developments. What I mean by this is that he tackles these complex projects by taking a real leadership role that not only keeps the ‘future patient’ clearly in focus but also seeks to transform clinical practice, aspiration and stakeholder perceptions through the development of the brief and the design.
At a previous project, ‘the Alex’ in Brighton, he brought together two groups – a children’s board and a group of what he calls his ‘young turks’ (clinicians who will go on to be senior staff members during the life of the new hospital) – to influence the development of the project and, in doing so, to form the basis of the culture and operation of the new service. Through this enthusiastic and honest engagement (which necessarily included frank discussions where ideas could not be realised) with these key groups the project achieved what many re-provisions struggle to – to transfer the affection and loyalty of the hospital community, and with them the broader public, from their previous magnificent, dilapidated and overstretched Victorian pile to a new home elsewhere in the city.At Alderhey he has used design based tools such as ‘Enquiry by Design’ to engage the whole local community in planning changes that will effect local parkland, play spaces and pedestrian routes. In doing so the project has developed broad community support and a momentum of its own which, to paraphrase, would require a very brave politician to stop!
Richard’s mode of leadership is not one of lock-down, top-down control but rather to establish an environment where others feel they can make a difference. This is not to say that he abandons personal responsibility but that he sees that responsibility as being the person that clears away barriers; and having now heard him speak with some candour I can imaging the sheer force of personality that is employed to do this. This then gives space for those people responsible for making the hospital work to concentrate on what really matters – the creation of a joyous and optimistic place for children and young people.
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