Supporting innovation and driving system change through compassionate leadership

Bolden, Richard; Mahoney, Hannah

Abstract

Golden Key is a Bristol-based, eight-year, £10 million system change programme focused on addressing the systemic challenges faced by people experiencing multiple disadvantages. The delivery is partnership-focussed and was reviewed by local and national evaluators. Focus was on innovation, driving impactful change across systems, following the journey of the most excluded members of our society, involving people with lived experience through genuine coproduction and evidencing real, impactful, positive changes which benefit the lives of this group and others like them.

The sectors we work in have face significant and escalating challenges, including the impact of Covid-19, austerity measures, exponential growth of populations requiring services and increases in the volume and severity of societal challenges such as homelessness, criminality, mental health challenges and drug and alcohol abuse. These challenges put increased pressure on services to process higher numbers and undermines opportunities to give the necessary time and resource to addressing complex social issues. The impact of this can be seen in increasing numbers of rough sleepers and the growth and acknowledgement of England’s mental health crisis.

As Golden key’s funding is derived primarily from the National Lottery Community Fund (NLCF), our focus and delivery has, to a degree, been protected from these challenges and we have been able to explore the realities of making real change happen in a very complex system. This work has been evaluated throughout the programme by the University of West of England Leadership and Innovation department and the reports can be found here: https://www.goldenkeybristol.org.uk/impact-evaluation-reports

In addition to NLCF funding stream, Golden Key has been called on by local commissioners and partners to directly address these system pressures through leading on several reactive innovation pilots, specifically focussing on homelessness, Covid 19 vaccination programmes, addressing the growing issue of street knife crime and young people at risk of street exploitation. By translating the learning from the programme into the delivery of these services, Golden Key has been able to achieve remarkable results within an underfunded system and using funding and resource allowances which are typical for the system. Evaluation reports relating to these work areas can be found under the same link, please see report on Housing First and a case study regarding The Call-in.
Operational staff working with people facing severe multiple disadvantages often report feelings of burn-out, vicarious trauma and overwhelm, which can lead to poor motivation, high levels of staff sickness and poor service delivery. In a recent round of video interviews undertaken with staff across Golden Key, as part of our end of programme learning portfolio, many staff spoke of the importance of culture and connection in allowing them to achieve their goals and maintain energy through the challenges they have faced.

Workshop participants will see a video clip of GK staff reflecting culture, followed by a summary of the GK programme work and impact, and an anecdotal reflection from the Golden Key programme manager, Hannah Mahoney, offering examples of compassionate leadership in practice, and the challenges this brings. These reflections will be framed against the four elements identified by Bailey and West in their Kingsfund hosted article ‘What is Compassionate Leadership?’

The four elements are highlighted below in bold, and the areas of focus from the programme manager are detailed in bullet points below each element.
- Attending: -Taking responsibility for how much connected staff and I were and adapting our internal systems to increase my ability to attend, including trialling new ways of doing things, to genuinely attend; Identifying the conditions of possibility for culture creating and driving top-down imperatives which support those conditions
- Understanding: -Celebrating success; Creating safe environments for innovation, challenge, and staff autonomy
- Empathising:- Modelling transparent learning, including acknowledging when we make mistakes; Protecting the culture from external pressures
- Helping:-Ensuring staff have the tools, guidance and boundaries they need to succeed.
The session will conclude with a Q&A with the audience.

Citation

Bolden, R., & Mahoney, H. (2022, July). Supporting innovation and driving system change through compassionate leadership. Presented at Developing Leadership Capacity Conference, Bristol Business School, UWE, Bristol

• Presentation Conference Type: Lecture
• Conference Name: Developing Leadership Capacity Conference
• Conference Location: Bristol Business School, UWE, Bristol.
• Start Date: Jul 12, 2022
• End Date: Jul 13, 2022
• Deposit Date: Sep 5, 2022
• Keywords: Leadership, Capacity, Compassion, Compassionate leadership, System change
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/9948472
• Related Public URLs: https://blogs.uwe.ac.uk/leadership-and-change/developing-leadership-capacity-conference-2022/; ; https://www.uwe.ac.uk/research/centres-and-groups/leadership-and-change; ; https://www.goldenkeybristol.org.uk/impact-evaluation-reports