Dr Caroline Taylor
NAPC Chair
Now that the Euros are behind us – and a huge well done to England for making it to the final – whilst I was watching, I had to wonder what it was about Spain that gave them the superior edge? Bear with me here as I’m no footballing expert, but it was interesting to watch the fluid movement, smooth handovers (passing!), the whole team seemingly understanding their individual role and that of their team mates as they all worked to a common purpose. They were an elite team.
It struck me that within the NHS at present many of us are trying to play a rather dysfunctional game of netball on a pitch where none of us are allowed to move out of our own square and we are only able to take one step in any direction. Each player, or professional in our case, adheres to their own set of policies as we focus on maintaining our position in our own square. The danger is that this can fall into an offside trap of a rather dystopian game where it feels like the main goal is to get the ball, or patient in our case, out of the square as fast as possible or better still don’t let it in to your square in the first place! Move it around, hopefully towards the goal but all too often just get it away from your own square by passing it to someone in one of your neighbouring squares.
Of course the best goal scorer might be somewhere else on the pitch but you don’t know them and you haven’t got time to look around so you just move the ball on quickly so you can ready for the next ball that comes your way.
In sporting terms dysfunctional teams lose matches but in our world the result is much more damaging as a result of poor care and poor patient experience. Just as in secondary care we have to get it right first time.
All this reminded me of Michael West’s work on ‘real teams v pseudo teams:
“Real teams” have a clear shared purpose, they have to work together to deliver that purpose with the same fluid movement and clarity around roles as the Spanish football team and spend time together reviewing how everything is going, something I am sure that the England football team will be doing in pursuit of addressing “60 years of hurt”!
Anything less than this results in “pseudo teams” which aren’t simply a benign state of “in need of improvement” but positively cause more harm and do less good than not just “real teams”, as you might expect, but also in comparison to no team at all! With Integrated Neighbourhood Teams being the only game in town effective team working has become more important than ever.
How effective is your team? Is it as Michael West describes a ‘real team’ and as a result deliver a better care experience for patients?
I’d love to know what you think.
