Latest / Stronger Business Together / E40 Protect Service Quality with Colin Beard
Transcript
- Granger Forson: So this is the Stronger Business Together podcast where business owners learn from other owners. No theory, no gurus, just real journeys and overcoming real hurdles. Today I'm joined by Colin Beard who runs Prosperity Care and Wellbeing and like any owner he's in that middle of building things, fixing things and growing something that really matters to him. So Colin, welcome. Colin: Hi Granger, thank you for inviting me to the podcast. Granger Forson: Awesome! Right, let's get on then with Act 1. In plain English, what does your business do? Colin: So Prosperity Care and Wellbeing, we provide care and support for adults from the age of 18. We joke around it to say to 118. I think the oldest person in the world at the moment is about 117. So maybe it's not such a joke anymore. We want to be the one stop shop for anything to do with care. So whether that be somebody. coming out of hospital or somebody who requires more long-term care and support maybe after a life-changing accident. We aim to be there and to hold the hands of whoever requires care for the whole of their journey. The second part of the business is the well-being aspect and we feel that the care sector very much relies on care. staff who go over and above in every day of their day-to-day duties and can very quickly get burnt out and take some of that residual challenge home with them. And very often that results in high staff turnover. So in order for us to provide the very best service, we provide wellbeing services such as meditation, yoga, mindfulness. and massage for our staff team as well as the people we support and the general public. So really looking after our staff to enable them to support other people. Granger Forson: Brilliant. Wow. Well, we all need care at certain points in our lives. And I also love that wellbeing aspect that you've tacked onto it, where you're helping your staff, but actually then using that with people as well. So awesome. Right. Who do you love helping? You said 18 to 118. Fantastic. Who do you typically help and what are they dealing with? Colin: So primarily our demographic is young adults from the age of 18, probably up to about 40, with learning disabilities and or autism. People that have got mental health conditions, which have meant that they require some additional support to live on their own. Those are people that are provided care. by the local authority across Gloucestershire and the southwest of England. We currently deliver around 11,000 hours of care and support per week across all of our services. And one of the things that we're really proud of is that we like to say that's 11,000 opportunities of making a real difference to somebody every week, making people smile and yeah, making life exciting and enabling people to thrive. Granger Forson: Fantastic. Well, I love that. 11,000 hours of people smiling. Yes. Beautiful. Beautiful. So when did the business start? What was the original spark? Colin: So I've worked for another care organization or a number of other care organizations. I started my career in care at 16 years old and worked my way through the care sector, taking on different challenges, senior support worker, team leader, manager, area manager, and was director of another organization. Prosperity Care started in 2020, just at the height of the COVID pandemic, which was in some ways a very challenging and almost impossible time to think about starting a new business. However, we like to look positively and think every cloud has a silver lining. And for us, it actually gave the opportunity for people that maybe have not worked in the care industry to think about working in a sector which was absolutely the forefront. I'm not sure if people and listeners will remember the standing on the doorstep and clapping for care workers. Granger Forson: I... I do, yes. Colin: It really feels like a very long time ago now, all slightly surreal. Granger Forson: Yes. Colin: But it was one of those periods in time where the value of care workers was actually recognized because unfortunately ill health disability doesn't discriminate and it could affect everybody. And in fact, bringing that slightly closer to home really helped champion the cause as well as that. It's an industry where there are very few kind of events, world events, such as pandemics that would steer things away from that sector. So care homes don't close, for example, whereas industries such as leisure, food and beverage, all of those things close down. So it was suddenly a workforce on furlough or people just out of work that actually thought, let's try the health and social care sector. And really we have successfully managed to sustain. that workforce of people that maybe wouldn't have given it an opportunity to try. So, yeah, was a challenging time, of course, for everybody, but we have seen some real benefits out of that and had a really good influx of skills and experiences that come from life as well as a textbook. Granger Forson: Fantastic. Well, what an amazing start that COVID had driven that and you've grown and developed ever since with some amazing people. So what does the business look like today then in terms of size and shape? Colin: So we are employing close to 400, I think it's 385 staff. And one of the primary objectives of Prosperity Care is to show care workers or people that are looking for a different career that there are multiple options. So people think of the care sector, unfortunately, as being a low skilled, low paid job. I think that Andy Burnham right now is a hot topic of trying to encourage people to think differently, to recognise the value of care workers. But we, from the beginning, have advertised our business as doing something different. So we've moved away from the traditional images that may be used and really champion individuals. So our imagery and marketing very much is focused on creating champions and that's our kind of tagline and we feel that everybody has that ability to do that. So we really advocate roles in human resources, marketing, business, finance, IT, all the stuff with AI, it all responds and is appropriate for the care sector as well. So there's multiple avenues for career opportunities for people that maybe not thought about when you're thinking about a career in the care sector. We recently have won the large employer of the year in Gloucestershire, which is something we're really proud of because putting a care business within the arena with lots of others, I think, from different industries has really helped us to cement that it can be a meaningful career. yeah, it's a large business now and that's something that we kind of have to pinch ourselves about that we are considered to be a large business. Granger Forson: Yes. Colin: we are covering Gloucestershire and the southwest of England and every month kind of growing beyond. other counties and our aim is to nationalise by probably the end of next year we've got some good plans for expansion across the country. Granger Forson: Wow, fantastic. Well, congratulations on the award and also the growth. mean, that's a significant growth of people. So you must have some real interesting growing pains, which I'm sure we'll get to later on. Colin: We do, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, there's certainly challenges. Granger Forson: Brilliant. So tell me about maybe one or two customer successes that you're really proud of. I know there's probably hundreds and hundreds with the team that you've got, but just give us an example of the type of amazing thing your team does every single day. Colin: Okay, so I think if we look at two different avenues, one from a customer's perspective and then one from an employee's perspective, if we start with the customer's perspective, unfortunately due to lack of provision of services and government policy, sign of the times, unfortunately there have been some individuals that have gone into hospital for as long as 20 years ago requiring some element of support, whether that be to mental health, physical health, or people with a learning disability. And those people have unfortunately been forgotten about and have remained in hospital, long-term hospitals for 20 years. That feels, in this day and age, almost, you know, it should be shocking. And for the people that, you know, members of the public, maybe that that is shocking to find that this is still happening today. Prosperity Care has been very much pioneering and working with local authorities to identify people that are placed miles away from their families in the other side of the country, in hospitals, with a view to bring people out of hospital and into their own homes. So with Homes England funding, local authority commissioning and ICBs, we've been working on a pathway under the transforming care agenda to enable those people to move into their own homes. So we have seen huge successes and that is measured, sounds rather cliched, a bit cheesy, but in smiles, in the clinical terms, Granger Forson: Hmm. Colin: outcomes, but people that are going to visit their family in their family home that they haven't seen for 20 years, grandparents, uncles, aunties. just really reconnecting with the community. Going to the shop every day and buying a newspaper or choosing what they want to do and how they want to do it and what time they want to stay in bed until and all the things that we all take for granted after such a long time of institutionalisation and hospital care. That's a real sense of achievement for us and for the wider team that's involved. Prosperity Care is one part of that jigsaw. and the whole system has had to pull together to make these achievements. that's a really great story that we'd like to see. Granger Forson: That's fantastic. Awesome. Yeah. Colin: Going over there, seeing people pick their washing out and things like that. When you're in a hospital, just by the very nature Granger Forson: Beautiful. Thank you. Colin: of what they do whilst in hospital is that everything is done for you. Granger Forson: Yeah. Colin: get your clothes delivered and put on the end of your bed, but you don't go out and put washing on the line. So those everyday achievements are really heartwarming to see. From a staff member's perspective, we really value our staff and the wellbeing aspect of it is not a secondary thought. was something that we wanted to embed in our culture and our practice from the very outset of the business. So we have had individuals that have come to us as support workers following similar journey to myself that have worked tirelessly to make a real difference and through their own sheer determination, passion and ambition that they have then become senior support workers, team leaders and then moved on into a management role. and we've still got a very high number of people that was with us from day one, still with us six years on, and a lot of those are in much more senior management roles. And it's not a case of that they have just been picked up and placed there. They've gone through the right level of training, know, expertise, taking on bite-sized pieces of additional responsibilities such as managing team meetings and jumping on to calls with health and social care professionals and learning sitting in the background and lots of mentoring and coaching so that we've grown our own. And that's a real sense of achievement for us, but also for the other people that believing us as an employer. Granger Forson: that's really good. I really like that, that answer of what you're doing and how you're doing that. So our business, the Strong Business together, one of the principles that guide us is grow your people so they grow your business. That real understanding that people are amazing and If we give them that space and that ability to grow in our organizations, they can do amazing things. I think we can micromanage people and squash them in our activities. I've seen that too many times in my career. But actually, if you inspire people, if you give them the ability to grow, if you give them a chance to challenge, to move outside of their comfort zone and try things new in a constructive way, people respond and become amazing. So yeah, fantastic. You've just demonstrated exactly that to me. Colin: And I completely agree with your point there. And we've seen some of the very best achievements that have come from ideas from others. So we proudly say that the organization is a vessel. And the people that are working on the forefront of the day-to-day delivery of care and support, they know what's going on out there in the services. And their ideas are significant. really do listen and all we do in some ways without trying to do myself out of a job is we say yes you can and if we say no we can't then we look at the reasons why and but mostly we are a yes organization and we enable the people to bring those ideas you know they come to us and it's from that that we remain pioneering and innovative because it's so easy just to do what has always been done. Granger Forson: Yeah. Colin: And every day we see significant examples of that. As one story, which I really find is a testament to the team, is a lot of adults from 18 to 45, for example. like to go out, they like to go night clubbing, go into the pub to drink and things like that. When you throw in something that may make them look different, such as a disability or behave differently, that can very much limit their environment and where people can go, not just because of safety reasons, but because they may feel uncomfortable or they may be ridiculed. And what we wanted to do is make sure that we are not creating silos within the community, but putting on an event which is an inclusive event so that people from the community can come to them. But it's very well supported by our teams. So instead of having staff with a lanyard on, we had crew on t-shirts written on the back so we could have been bar people or whatever. There was a number of staff that was in there and we rented once a month, Thursday, last Thursday of the month, a nightclub space where we had sometimes up to 200 people within that environment having the same nightclub experience. Alcohol was served and people were making friends and developing relationships, all the things that we can afford everyone else, but just within that safe space. And that was an idea that was brought to us by a support worker who had made contact with the venue. And that actually got onto the local news because it was something which was very different. And we still see those relationships happening now where people have organically created friends within a nightclub environment that we also may have done, but it's not always been awarded to them. yeah, kind of giving the people that we support the opportunities for staff to have that voice has really been quite significant. Granger Forson: Brilliant. I love that. I really do because it was an idea from somebody in the team who brought it forward. You made it happen and it's enriched. your people's lives and help that move forwards with everything they do. That's a fantastic example. Thank you so much for that. Let's move on to Act Two now, your journey. As you built the business, you and your co-founder over the last six years, there are times when things are hard, there are times when things are really high and really successful. What have you found about yourself when times have got hard for you as a business? Colin: With the change in government, the change in regulations from the Care Quality Commission, it feels sometimes like you are painting the Golden Gate Bridge, that you just get to the end and then things change again. So you kind of regularly have to go back to the starting point and find out, okay, what are we doing now to remain compliant? We... provide care and support for people that are very complex and that are sometimes felt fallen through the gaps within local authorities or within the sector. So maybe some people that have gone to prison as a result of not having their formal diagnosis of at the moment ADHD, maybe Asperger's, autism and they have rightfully been assessed that actually with the right level of support, they may not have entered into the criminal justice system. So the forensic work that's been done with local authorities and encouraging people to come out of, for example, prisons into the service has created by default a different challenge because as much as people say that they are open and happy to support people with disabilities. There is still that NIMBYism of not in my backyard, people say, okay, you can do that, but do it in a different street, in a different town, those kinds of things. So trying to encourage the community to come along the journey with us and understand that people can be kept safe with the additional support and having the right level of support to enable that transition safely is really the key. People cannot just be let out or discharged from hospital and have the door closed with Granger Forson: Yes. Colin: no aftercare. It's the level of aftercare Granger Forson: Yes. Colin: that is absolutely critical and that takes a plethora of individuals from different backgrounds to come together to make that happen. Granger Forson: And the government change, local authorities change. What's that been like for you? How do you manage that yourself internally and the frustrations that you must have? What have you learned about your approach to dealing with all of that? Colin: So as in with this podcast, I think one of the main parts is linking with other business owners and sharing some of these experiences because the challenges that one business faces very often identical to or near to another problem that another business has had. And it's that age old, you know, agreement that if you've got something share it and then life becomes a little bit easier and we've got that within Gloucestershire we've got some quite high value business networking opportunities and that's really been key. Granger Forson: So, yeah, interesting. Colin: there is a... Yeah, one of the kind of arguments is that if people from the UK wanted to work, they, you know, there may be people from overseas are taking their jobs. The reality is, is that Granger Forson: Yep. Yep. Colin: we put a job advert out and we are a award winning employer. We've got lots of... Granger Forson: Yeah. Colin: additional benefits that we provide. But the care field in itself is not necessarily attractive for people that are just leaving school that are looking for a career, especially with the likes of AI, social media, influencers. There's a lot, more easier jobs out there to earn money than there is in the sector. So the idea that you're going to have 20 people from the UK lining up for that role. just isn't factually accurate. It's not our experience. Granger Forson: Yeah, no, agree. And being an influencer is not an easy job. know a couple of them and they work significant long hours at weekends as well. It takes a very long time to build up any type of traction where you could start earning money from it. yeah, it's people think Colin: It's the lifestyle, isn't it? Granger Forson: absolutely people think it's easy because they see the output, but actually it's all the work that goes into it, which is the reality of any business growing any business. The output looks easy, but actually it's everything you've done over the last six years to build. create everything you've done to drive forward all the experiments you've done the things that haven't worked the things that have worked people only see the sort of tip of the iceberg in any organization in any type of job from that because people don't really appreciate the amount of work that goes into building something that's really successful you know like your your business so brilliant Colin: Yeah, I think. Granger Forson: well Let's move on to Act 3 now because otherwise we're to run out of time. It's a fantastic conversation. Thank you so much for these amazing shares. Let's talk about the hurdle. What have you brought of the hurdle for us to discuss today? Colin: So scaling up from a micro business, just five individuals, kind of from the time that we kicked off in 2020 to where we are now with nearly 400 employees, we've always invested heavily in infrastructure ahead of time. So we could be criticized for not running a lean business, but we have emphasized that we do want to put in structure with HR as an example. with our marketing to enable us to attract the very best staff. We are training, we want it to be exemplary. We don't just want to tick boxes, we want people to enjoy learning. So there's a huge amount of investment in there to make it quite a different Granger Forson: Brilliant. Yeah. Colin: and appealing proposition for people when they are considering careers and which employer to go to. The challenge that I have personally faced, and I'm sure that owners, founders will identify with is that the more, more senior managers that is brought into a business, in some ways you would be thinking, well, that's diluting some of the stress, some of the responsibility. But in lots of ways, it is a different stress. It's a different challenge because Granger Forson: Yep. Colin: sitting at the top, have to decide what information you want. brought to you. How often that you want that because you don't want somebody calling you every minute of every day reporting everything because otherwise you may do the job yourself. But getting my balance right that there are no nasty surprises so you don't get to the end Granger Forson: Yeah. Colin: of the month and get told that you have lost a number of contracts because of poor performance or that you've had a mass exodus. None of these things has happened but you know it's that kind of Granger Forson: Yeah. Colin: tight rein that you have to put on these things. So juggling the balance between being micromanaging to enabling people to have the autonomy and opportunities to grow is a challenge. It's a bit of a tightrope and it's a bit of a tightrope. Granger Forson: Okay, definitely. Yes. Okay. Okay, so one of the great expressions that I came across by a really good business leader who'd grown a business to multi-million pounds, he said, my aim is to have a vision so big that other people can satisfy their own vision within it. I always thought that was quite a nice way of Colin: Yeah, about you. Granger Forson: helping people to sort of find those amazing people. okay, so you're worried about sort of maybe over-managing, versus not managing enough and understanding. So there are two aspects that maybe we can explore here and have a discussion about. One is process and one is people. So if we think about the process one first of all, processes are things that have to get done in the business. And a lot of times we can hide processes away. They're inside computers, they're inside people's heads. So one of the things that you've talked about not being a lean company but actually I'm a my background is in lean manufacturing and I then use lean in the office and I use lean in my new business as we build on what we do and what we're talking about here is making it visual. So in the lean world, what we do with processes is there are key things that need to be done and we make those visible in such a way that anybody can see have they been done today, have they not been done today, what is the status of that number, is it on a graph, somebody's filled it in, someone's identified it and the leadership team go to the information, they don't sit in an office and wait for information to come to them, they go to the information. Now, I appreciate you've got multiple sites and multiple activities, etc. So you can, you know, as we move into the more office world, we can digitize that and put that on screens and be able to manage the condition of it. But it's important that the people doing the process take the responsibility of saying, I have completed this activity or I've updated this piece of information. It's there because it's important, because it's part of the process and the activity we do it. But it's visual because I am declaring that it's done. leaders don't come along and say, why isn't this done? If it's not being done, well, maybe there's a route root cause that needs to be analyzed and understand. But making this current situation visible to all is an important aspect of then making processes come alive and understanding where we are. What are your thoughts on that? Colin: So do you mean a standard operating procedure so that you've got a process that could be followed by anybody? that kind of, when you're saying something visual? Granger Forson: No, that's the purpose of standard operations is to train new people. Okay, so we often think We get this wrong with standard operations. I've seen it so many times in so many businesses. We think it's a controlling mechanism because our natural instinct as people, as managers, is to control. I need to control this person. I need to control the situation. What I need to do is need to know that the person is in control of that standard operation, that procedure. So within that procedure, I train people and I monitor them. And I always say, if you haven't trained, the person doesn't know. and understand and follow in the process it's because the trainer hasn't done it properly rather than the other way around often say well I've trained you once you should know what we're doing. What I'm talking about here is within that standard process there are key things that need to be done okay maybe I have to complete a risk assessment before I do something maybe I have to complete an assessment of something maybe during the assessment at the end of the day I need to declare that clean down has been done. Maybe there is a monthly review that needs to take place across all of my my work care workers and what their status is. So what we have is a way of knowing that's done. So often it's a board and the tasks, the key things from that, not everything in the procedure, those key things are displayed on that board and they're often green. or red. So red being hasn't been done yet but it clearly says when it needs to be done and then it's green when it's finished. It's called a kameishi buy board in the lean world. And that way everybody knows what needs to be done. Everybody's doing it and all I need to do as a manager is glance at that status and know is everything correct and up to date. I once saw it in an account department and there's a wall and they're all the daily, weekly and monthly tasks all laid out on the accounts department and they just turn them over when it's completed and they're their training steps for each of those those steps as well and they took on an 18 year old, this was a business that had around 25 employees, they took on an 18 year old and within three weeks she was fully trained on everything that she needed to do and was doing it to the standard that was already there because it's visible in front of everybody. and manager can walk in the air and say, she's struggling on this one because it hasn't gone read yet. How can I help her making sure that that's done and completed? Colin: And that's really useful. we're in that process now where we have hired per department. So we've got department heads and we are looking at the job descriptions primarily, looking at the roles and responsibilities for that role as such, and also the KPIs. And within the care sector, it can be more challenging to identify what those KPIs are. But as you've said, Granger Forson: Yes, I appreciate that. Colin: Yeah. But as you've said, it's things like, have you covered your rotor? Because if there's gaps in the rotor, then that's a missed, could potentially be a missed visit. So having your road, Granger Forson: Absolutely. Colin: a hundred percent completed, you know, there's always going to be days where somebody rings in sick and you've got to suddenly change everything. But, you know, having a, having a rotor done, which has done well is a KPI for that role. So trying to pull out each, What good looks like, I suppose, has been key. And Granger Forson: Yes. Yes. Colin: we're in that position now. We are going from the kind of old world within care. We've been digital since day one, but that still relies heavily on new systems and systems are, you know, so vast at the moment. So you could, purchased a care record system that it's six years ago. We thought was great. Now we're currently delivering 11,000 hours a week. You we want to assist Granger Forson: Yeah. Colin: could actually be a bit more intelligent. So if it says that so somebody had a fall, but that actually sends us an alert and you find that your original system didn't do that. So some of the KPIs within that are the all falls have been reported, investigated, risk assessments are done. So it's a, it's a variation of, roles. But I feel that you're right. We're in that position now where we're really critiquing and, yeah, tying down. Granger Forson: Yeah and making it visible that's the most important thing with process. Are the key things in the process, the SOP as you called it, being done. Can I see that status? Can I report that status? So that's the first step. The other step is sort of the other side, which is the human side. So with the person has to carry that out. The person has to record some numbers, especially as we become managers and we move up through the hierarchy. We're a lot more sort of manage numbers orientated as much as people orientated. So what's important here is the people record that number themselves. The difficulty we can do with systems is we can Once you generate automated reports, you lose the understanding of that report. What you actually want to do is you want people to take ownership of turning those cards, people taking ownership of filling in a number on a chart. What that does is it drives the understanding of what that number does. It's the understanding of why I'm completing that task because I own it and I have to do some manual activity, even though it might be small, in order to make that happen. As as you automate, as soon as you replace it with other systems, you lose that interaction and that responsibility and that ownership. Because that's the first part we want to do. We want to empower our people to take ownership, so therefore we do that. The second part of it is when it goes wrong. When it goes wrong, that is an opportunity to improve the process. So what I always say to my clients is you never blame the person, you blame the process. Something has gone wrong in your process. attitude and focus because you've got good processes that are visible to see the status. When it goes wrong, we can look at that process together. We can understand as a manager to you, we'll look at the process, we'll understand why it failed, we'll work out how we can improve it and you will take ownership because you own that process, not me the manager. You own that process to make that change. I want you to take ownership of that change and deliver that change because that way then you'll actually understand and you grow. when you need to train somebody else when you're moving on, you'll be there to train that understanding and that knowledge into people which you didn't have if either manager just changed that process and moved on from it. What's your thoughts there? Colin: I completely identify with that and with the risk of systems. having automated dashboards, there is a risk of it just becoming a number. So if you have a dashboard which says that there's 43 activities which are not completed, some of those might be that they just need to check that a support worker has signed at the end of their shift to say that everything's all complete. the manager has to go in and check that all of those things have been completed and is just the case that they've got to sign. Otherwise they could pick up something that's not being done. I don't know, example, giving a medication. So there is a process that's in place, but the number can take away and distract from the importance of what that task is. having... Granger Forson: Yes. Colin: the manager is directly accountable for understanding, investigating what all of those actions are is really key. Otherwise, if that gets taken to another department, so for example, the quality team, they are then bypassing the manager's responsibility, though they are in effect doing the manager's job by default. So I think that it's really good that you've acknowledged and highlighted the importance of the visualness of having those reminders, but that the processes in place are the manager's responsibilities and that they have to complete the task themselves. Granger Forson: Yes. Colin: nothing more satisfying than starting a day with maybe 20 actions that you need to do. And then by the end of it, clearing that deck. that's, I think that's what drives us, isn't it? That achievement. Granger Forson: Absolutely, absolutely. And working with our people at the point of use when they're doing it, making it simple for them to understand what they need to do, those tasks and how they sign off to say they're complete, you know, it is an important part of that process of development of it. some of the most Colin: I think an age thing, and I'll be very careful when I say this, but with my preference, so I'm absolutely pen and paper, that's my kind of go-to, especially when you're talking visuals, like you said. And I like to have a whiteboard in the office with numbers written on it so that when I go past, I could see actually this is overdue, this is good. And I also have like the green, the red amber green. system. For me, it's something I've been brought up with and used for all of my career. So there's anything in red immediately, we can get the team together and say, right, guys, let's come together. Let's get that off. Let's get that green. And it's the everyday language. Where things become more difficult is when stuff becomes digitalized and it's on some, individual's personal, not personal, obviously business laptop that no one else can see. because then you rely heavily on how is it and a good manager will say, actually, I've got this to do and I'm falling behind. But it's very easy, isn't it, for people to say, yeah, yeah, it's all great. And then really be like the duck on the pond with your legs, scrabbling like mad. So it's Granger Forson: Yes, yes. Colin: easy hidden, whereas if something is big, it's Granger Forson: Yeah. Colin: visual or shared, it's easier to. Granger Forson: And I'm very conscious of time, but the final element there is then... What happens when it's red? So as you digitize these things, I totally agree on the walls. Some of the most productive businesses in the world use walls all the time. And manual stuff. Everybody thinks that we need to digitize it. Yeah. I've seen amazing high performance businesses using walls. So don't always think it has to be digitized, but sometimes we do because we've got people going into homes and you know, we've got that phone to be able to do. But The last point is this. If somebody... something goes red and a manager doesn't deal with it because it's away on their computer. It's what we do next. Because if they don't bring it to us as the next manager up in the chain or we hide it, et cetera, there must be fear in the business. And there's a great book which is about how John Mullally turned around Ford and he had all the senior managers from all of the plants come to the monthly meeting and he just kept saying, All of you, one of you has to tell me when there's something wrong because every month everything was good. know, wasn't. Ford was losing money. They were late on delivery of new vehicles. Everything was wrong in the business. But everybody was saying, it's all green. Everything's happy. And after the, I think it was the fourth meeting, the fourth month, he'd just about had enough of it all. And one site manager put his hand up and said, okay, I've got a problem. We will not deliver this on time. And John Mullally stood up and he clapped. and thank that individual and he just said we are going to spend the rest of this meeting helping this person, I don't know his name, to solve his problem and by next month it will be green because everybody in this room will be committed to this one person. From that point onwards everybody then brought the problems to life because they knew that everybody would help them, they wouldn't be shouted down or in the past for doing that. So if a manager ever ignores the reds and doesn't deal with it because it's maybe locked away. That's when you maybe challenge yourselves have we actually got a little bit of fear in this person or fear in the way that we're doing things that they wouldn't bring that up as a problem because it needs to be fixed. Colin: Yeah, it's the psychological safety aspect and, and, you know, having a Granger Forson: it is. Colin: trusting relationship with colleagues and having that open culture, isn't it? And a Granger Forson: Yeah. Yeah. Colin: lot of what we find when people struggle to bring things forward is that they not necessarily, well, not necessarily, it's not from a place of fear. It was from more a place that we don't want to let you down or we don't want to let the business down. and it's that self. criticizing, imposter syndrome. And we've said, it's okay, you know, bring it forward. It's okay. Granger Forson: Yeah. Colin: If you're not going to get it done on time, let us know about it because exactly as you've just said, we can really help with that. And the problem is, Granger Forson: Yes, absolutely. Colin: is that when people sit on it and then that goes home with them, know, those kind of stress level just increases, productivity slips further, people get further and further away from their target and Yeah, it's a no-win situation when it gets to that point. Granger Forson: And that's the three elements of sort of a CEO type activity with people. It's how do I make my processes visible? how do I ensure that my people are following the process and understand what we need to do and do they have, whether it's empowerment or no fear, in order to flag up every time there's even a minor red on the process that allows us all to help that individual and do things. So awesome. Right, let's move on to our wrap up and close now. Colin, thank you so much. Great conversation. What did you hear yourself say today that maybe surprised you? Colin: think just having an opportunity to sit back and reflect on the six years of business and how we've gone from, micro business to large business and some of those struggles because when you come up to these struggles, you find a way somehow of getting over them. Otherwise it swallow you up and can, you know, completely wouldn't be able to move forward. So just articulating to those what they are. So for example, the changes with the employee pool, I suppose, and the impact on the wider business from decisions that are made in central government, you know, kind of airing that and thinking about how we actually have that level of threat whilst continuing to deliver a quality service. Yeah, just I think that that's the point is just having that time to reflect on those challenges and how we've overcome them. and to the point where we are the position of being a larger business now and the question that we have discussed together, around how to, let go and to a Granger Forson: Yeah. Colin: point where we've got the, you know, we've still got, we've still got confidence in our product, but also got confidence in our team to deliver and continue to kind of take us forward to the next stage. Granger Forson: Fantastic. And finally Colin, how can people find out more about you if they want to follow more of your journey? Colin: So if you onto our website, which is prosperitycare.co.uk, you can see some of our testimonials for the kind of impact stuff that we've managed to achieve with the people we support. Lots of stuff around our career development and journeys of our employees and really proudly our awards and what we did to get those awards. Granger Forson: Fantastic. Well Colin, thank you so much for an amazing conversation. I know our listeners will get an awful lot from this conversation. It has been fantastic. Thank you. Colin: Thank you very much, Granger, and thank you for having the opportunity to come and share some of that with you. 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