Today, I‘m talking to Bob Klaber - a charismatic London paediatrician, building a global movement for kindness.
Like ‘Whose Shoes’, Bob is exploring a topic that could be seen as ‘soft and fluffy’, and bringing it centre stage. Bob’s kindness movement was featured at the Quality and Safety Forum in Gothenburg. I was delighted to contribute to one of the crowdsourced videos.
Lemon lightbulbs 🍋💡🍋
- Important to contextualise healthcare in people’s lives - find out what matters to them
- Share the power. Use healthcare appointments to codesign ways to maximise quality of life
- See things from children’s perspective, including language!
- Life aspirations are typically far more pressing than short-term medical considerations
- As a hospital consultant, find ways to make yourself accessible, not aloof!
- Everyday sexism is rife! Find ways to counter it
- #NoHierarchyJustPeople - sparking real conversations, breaking down barriers
- Storytelling – put something of yourself out there, show some vulnerability, let people know what you really care about
- Let’s act. Let’s move. This is urgent!
- Can you measure kindness? Should you try? 🤷🏼♀️
- Think beyond the processes. Be clear what you want to achieve. Don’t just measure things because you can!
- Exploring feelings and experiences is deep and energising … and hard work
- The tide has turned. There’s no place for leadership through bullying and shouting at people
- The most downloaded podcast episodes aren’t necessarily the most influential!
- Kindness, #WMTY, patient stories - coming together as a big movement
- NHS must look outwards – patients, local residents, the wider community
- Coproduce the things that will make the biggest impact
- See things from different perspectives, recognise and acknowledge the tensions - can help us move forward
- Be curious! Challenge yourself to be open-minded rather than thinking “Oh well, that’s how it is”
- Be like children.The ‘5 Why’s’ ? 🤷🏼♀️ Children ask 19 whys in a row!
- The human side of care: people join the monthly kindness sessions from Australia and New Zealand in the middle of the night!
- There are people from 30 different countries - a sense of collective power, collective learning, collective curiosity, give people a sense of hope and community
- Informal connections - the ripples are powerful
- There is value in feeling and experiencing the impact, rather than having to measure everything
- It ‘s important to reflect – but it doesn’t always need to be through formal channels. It could be on Bob‘s bike!
- Find the balance between reflection - and doing things!
- Find the things that matter most, that will have the biggest impact. Be deliberate
- Shoutout to Dr Mary Salama! #IntentionalCoffee ☕️☕️
- Relational meetings - find out what people are thinking – as opposed to transactional meetings
- Kindness goes beyond the individual leader – build it into the organisation, into the system
Links and resources
Prof. Marshall Ganz: The story of self, us, now: https://youtu.be/EfsfG3DkSuA
Crowdsourced kindness videos, shown at Quality and Safety Forum 2022 - clip including Gill Phillips: https:/
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