Culture Camp: Learning to live with friction and discomfort

7 Apr 2021 12:46 PM

COVID-19 has impacted on how we live and work and so we ask: ‘What do we need to do now to create the culture in our organisations and across our systems that keeps people resilient, connected, and innovative?’  

Marking the one-year anniversary of lockdown the Innovation Agency Coaching Academy held it’s first ever Culture Camp event. This was a two-day exploration of what it means to build good team, organisation and system culture that is focussed on wellbeing, equity and innovation.  

Culture Camp provided an opportunity to reflect on the many lessons learned over the past year, gathered from across our health and care systems.  Of these lessons, we know that we need to meet the mental health needs of our workforce and communities if we are to keep them well and resilient. As our health and care organisations are emerging from a third wave of the pandemic our frontline staff are exhausted.  

Secondly, the pandemic has highlighted many inequities and we have seen particular groups of people more adversely affected than others by the pandemic, both within the healthcare system and in our communities. Sadly, we are discovering that it is not the fault of the virus. 

Thirdly, the economy has taken a huge hit during COVID-19: tax revenues are falling and government spending is increasing.  The role of innovation in economic growth is critical and our challenge is to create conditions in our organisations where innovation thrives. We are witness to a healthcare digital revolution right now and after so many years of efforts to embed tele-medicine and remote monitoring at scale we are now seeing historical barriers to implementation suddenly being removed. 

Finally, our health and care workforce are hugely talented and innovative, so how do we harness that talent and build cultures where we support people to stay well, to create a sense of belonging for everyone and support the great ideas to improve service delivery that they have? 

Culture Camp is the place for that exploration, and in March we invited people to be curious about what we need to do to develop great cultures. We had over 250 people register for the event. The first day was split into three sections: people and mindsets, systems and relationships, strategy and sustainability. Each two-hour session examined the themes of wellbeing, equity and innovation. 

It is impossible to share all the learning from Culture Camp in this short blog. However, you can access the videos of all the speakers here and I would encourage you to do so. 

Meanwhile, here are some of my own personal key takeaway messages from just a few of our various speakers: 

On wellbeing  

On equity  

On Innovation  

To conclude  

My main reflection from the event was that wellbeing, equity and innovation are inextricably linked. To have good culture in organisations, wellbeing, equity and innovation must have parity. This is because you cannot ignore the wellbeing of your workforce AND expect them to be resilient. You cannot create a sense of belonging for all AND continue to ignore your own privilege. You cannot demand creativity and innovation AND tolerate a lack of psychological safety. 

Finally, as we go on this journey of building compassionate and inclusive cultures, we must expect to feel discomfort. As I go on my own personal journey I have to remind myself at times of such discomfort - it's not all about me.  

Thank you for taking the time to read about Culture Camp. If you missed the event we have created a video playlist of all our speakers for you to view in your own time.  

Do you have any challenges as you build culture in your organisation?  Let us know in the comments and get in touch if you would like to find out more about the Innovation Agency and the culture work of the Coaching Academy.  

Do please also listen to our playlist of podcasts we have curated on themes of wellbeing, equity and innovation.  

Juliette Kumar 
Juliette.kumar@innovationagencynwc.nhs.uk