The expertise and lived experience of health managers attending the 2024 HMI Annual Conference was of great value to the current organisational change in the health services ., HSE CEO, Bernard Gloster told the Conference.
He said it troubled him a bit that when we came to the challenge of change, we could overstate its complexity. We could do that because it was a nice way to protect ourselves against the natural fears and expectations, we had about what would happen next.
We could also understate the complexity of change. One of the most fundamental things to consider was what you were asking of people when you proposed a particular change.
“It is not that people resist change, but people mourn loss. There is a sense of comfort and safety in what we have and when we are asked to disturb that, there is a sense of loss.”
Mr. Gloster said that in change the structure was important for governance, but we should not get bogged down in the structure.
“As we go through change, not everything has to change. What we are doing is also important and good and we have to keep our eye on what we are doing today.”
Mr. Gloster said that the biggest ask of senior people in the public, voluntary and private health sector was to hold ambiguity. There is not certainty in everything, there are not solid lines. While ambiguity might be a source of anxiety, our job as leaders is to hold on to that ambiguity.
“We should also think about the opportunities rather than the challenge of managing through change. Agility is the answer to ambiguity.”
Mr Gloster thanked the HMI for organising the Conference, to examine things that were important. “What you are doing today is important and contributes to the shared knowledge and reflection that helps us all to change.”
