Governance

As I have mentioned I work in governance in healthcare. This is a real challenge, but very worthwhile work (most of the time).
 

Governance is critically important to leadership and is hugely difficult to get right. All of the scandals we have seen like Mid Staffordshire Hospital (where, put simply, a lot of patients died unnecessarily because the hospital was poorly run and the leadership refused to acknowledge concerns) can be explained in terms of bad governance.

 

How good governance can be applied is poorly understood. Governance is not a tool in an arsenal of weapons that you can apply to this situation or that; and it is not a stage in a process. It is in many ways more a state of mind - it should pervade the culture of an organisation and inform any activity or decision.

 

I'll bet your bosses are very careful to keep good records or make a note of something when things look a bit dodgy, or they apply very high standards of behaviour when things have gone wrong and a situation needs rescuing. I'll also bet conversely when things are going well, or seem to be going well, they are very lackadaisical and almost laissez-faire in their approach.

 

That’s not really good governance; they should be consistent behaving in a way that means things are less likely to go wrong, and if they do very little special effort needs to be made to put things right. Part of this helping people take responsibility and crucially are empowered to take actions. Too many projects, especially in the public sector, devolve into politicking where so long as no-one can be blamed, and no-one's sense of entitlement is offended, it will be OK.

 

That's tough to deliver, especially from the ground up. I strongly insist with my employers that my role is NOT to do bits of other people's jobs they don't want to do; or to charge in to rescue people when things go wrong.

 

That isn't enough of course. There is still that traditional approach of governance being a basket of unloved virtue and you are expected to be the keeper of those virtues in order to let people get on with important stuff; and you get let out of your box when they need you - particularly when things get difficult. That's especially important because of that sense of entitlement.

 

Let me illustrate:

 

Project Manager: "I need access to patient data to do finish this well-advanced project"

Governance lead: "Sorry, but without a clear legal basis for having it I can't give it to you"
Project Manager: "But without it my project will fail"
Governance lead: "I can help you work out what you need and the best legal route for getting enough information to help you deliver your project even if the scope needs to change a bit"
Project Manager: "Oh that would be great, thanks"
 

All reasonable. Except the two parties now have two different understandings. The Governance Lead thinks the Project Manager will work within a system of information governance to manage his project properly. The Project Manager thinks the Governance Lead will make it OK to have what he wants. Uh oh.

 

What should have happened is the Project Manager should have talked to the Governance Lead when he was starting his project. It’s the job of the Governance Lead to make that happen – automatically if possible – but ideally without putting bureaucratic chains around getting things done. 
 

Tough job. I’ll let you know when I start getting it right!

Wet February, sunny October

I know we’re not that far into the year, so the Christmas break should still feel relatively recent, but the truth is I really feel like a holiday.

Husband and I and haven’t really done big holidays over the last five years. Christmas is (his) family, which can sometimes be a chore. If we go abroad we usually need to consider visiting my family. We’ve been to Paris a couple of times and we’ve had our lovely honeymoon in August just gone.

The last time I went abroad for the sake of it was with my ex, but that was right at the start of our relationship and it turned out he was embarking on an affair with me behind his proper boyfriend’s back (it’s complicated – he said they were finished, then that they were in an open relationship, etc – strung me along for a while. I was fine with it and wasn’t monogamous when with him either but that was then).

So…. Well, it occurred to me that Husband and I should bite the bullet and have a nice holiday somewhere sunny this year. Admittedly, late this year but still. Hire a villa, hire a car, and here we come sunny Corfu. In October. YESSSSSS!!! 

There are lots of reasons why not: we’re looking to buy a house so need to save every penny for deposit and the horrendous costs involved. I loath flying to a degree difficult to comprehend. We’ve never gone in for lazing around in the sun. 

Nevertheless, I was really taken with the idea and I think we deserve it. We work hard and between the saving for our civil partnership, and the saving for the much talked about house-buy we’ve not gone for extravagance much. Plus Husband really loathes his job so anything that helps keep us both sane will be good.

We already have a short break in April with friends, on a canal boat of all things. It will be great fun but again it’s not the same as the two of us on a break of our own.

Another things is this holiday is a good excuse to continue on my diet! I want to enjoy that infinity pool stark bollock naked and I wouldn't do that in my current frumpiness! Since the end of Dry January I have put on a little weight but in January I lost 8 lbs so I think wet February is going to have to become damp at best - all in a good cause.