Chief Executive Fortnightly Blog to NHS Orkney Staff – My Reflections – on my first year anniversary as your CEO – 4 April

Message for All NHS Orkney Staff 

Dear Team Orkney

My reflections – on my first year anniversary as your CEO

A year ago today I joined NHS Orkney as your CEO. This was the right decision, and the right move for me for so many reasons.

I am incredibly proud to be your CEO and I consider it a privilege to do what I do. What motivates me every day is working with Team Orkney to deliver outstanding care and services for our patients and local community and making NHS Orkney a better place to work.

I want to take this opportunity, on the anniversary of me joining Team Orkney, to share my honest reflections with you of my first 365 days leading this wonderful organisation.

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, I have been blown away by you, Team Orkney – your commitment, dedication and desire to do the best job for our local community.

As Meghan and I have been out listening to our patients, community and partners in recent months and asking ‘what matters to you’ to inform our new Corporate Strategy, without exception people praise the care, commitment, and brilliance of Team Orkney.

It’s clear that NHS Orkney has a very special place in the heart of our local community – and we have seen this with our Team Orkney Awards and the People’s Choice Award. We need to build on this and do even more to reconnect with our community, building on the work we have now started. It is clear that our community want us to have honest conversations about what health and care services in Orkney will look like in the future recognising the changing landscape we are now operating in – and we need to be brave enough to do so and manage expectations in a way we haven’t previously so we respond to this very clear ask of our community and be honest that our future, and future offer, will need to be different.

I know recent years have been difficult for you – because of the pandemic and instability the organisation has experienced – and I feel every day the impact of this play out in so many ways – the fragility, anxiety and concern about change and what the future holds. Linked to this, I want to acknowledge that trust doesn’t come easy and I get this. I (and we) need to deliver on the many commitments we have made, be consistent in our own behaviours and lead by example and only then will trust build and develop. What I’m saying is that building trust takes time and comes with delivering on our own promises and I understand this.

And for this reason, I want to give you my word on a number of things:

1. I am absolutely committed to NHS Orkney – as some of you know I hope to build a house here and settle here (being part of this community is hugely important to myself and wife and we truly feel part of this wonderful community having been here for a year now) – in other words, I’m all in
2. Listening to and responding to feedback from patients and staff must be constant if we are to become a continuously improving and learning organisation
3. We have more to do to truly connect in a meaningful way with you – Team Orkney – and our community and this will remain a focus in 24/25 and beyond – because it matters so much and we have much more to do in this space
4. I will be unrelenting in my pursuit to create a culture where staff feel safe speaking up when they have concerns and feel valued, feel heard and feel respected
5. That compassionate and visible leadership is vital and non-negotiable
6. I make mistakes and I am human like anyone else – and when I get it wrong I will always own this and say so. I’ve made a number of mistakes in my first year and if I could go back and do certain things again I would do many things differently.  What’s most important is that when these mistakes have happened, I have tried to be as open and honest as I can be that I’ve got things wrong, and I will continue to do this – because authentic leadership matters. Making mistakes is normal – it’s what we learn from our mistakes and how we respond that is most important  

I believe our future is very bright. We have laid many positive foundations over the last 6-12 months upon now we will build – including:

• Leadership stability – we now have a substantive Executive Team in place and we are working hard to build this team
• Better involving you in decision-making and ensuring speed of decision-making
• Listening to and acting on your feedback (and closing the loop)
• Honesty and transparency in our communications and decision-making
• Launching our Improving Together Programme – so that we are all empowered to lead change (no matter how big or small)
• Putting people first – and reconnecting with you and our community
• Strengthening our approach to governance and risk management
• Developing a new Corporate Strategy which we are excited to launch in April – setting our exciting vision for the future in response to your feedback and that of our patients, partners and community

I want to say thank you to you, Team Orkney, for all you do, and to Meghan, our Board Chair, for supporting and encouraging me and for being such an outstanding leader. We are incredibly lucky to have Meghan leading our Board because every single day her focus is on nothing other than striving to make improvements for our community.

I want us to remember that this is a team sport, and we will improve by working better together and by improving together, Team Orkney.

My determination is that we can evidence year-on-year to our performance in every area – as you will see from our new and soon to be published Corporate Strategy.

So, as I start my second year as your CEO – notwithstanding our challenges, I am hugely excited and up for our future, I want to recognise all you have achieved over the last 12-months, I want to say ‘thank you’ and I want you to know you make me proud – every single day.

Onwards and upwards Team Orkney – our future is very bright.

We are all in this together – never forget this.

Big thanks.

Laura