Latest / Embedded / How to Lead Through the Storm - Embedded Conversations With Gary Hughes. Ep. 2
Transcript
- 0:04Hi everyone and welcome to episode two of the Embedded Podcast.
- 0:09This time I'm really delighted to introduce Gary Hughes.
- 0:13Gary's a highly respected healthcare leader who I first met way back in 2015,
- 0:20when I worked with a local group,
- 0:22in Bracknell and Ascot where they were looking to develop a GP federation and Gary and I have remained,
- 0:28good friends and in touch really since that day.
- 0:33For those of you that don't know Gary, he brings a wealth of experience in system transformation.
- 0:39He's got a really strong focus on governance, on leadership and on workforce
- 0:44development in and around general practice.
- 0:46He's absolutely known and I'm going to talked to him about this this morning
- 0:50for advocating float versus swim mindset and in leadership where he promotes
- 0:55a really calm sustainable approach particularly when people are under pressure,
- 1:00and he likes to challenge close thinking in favor of really open and adaptive leadership.
- 1:07As a part of that Gary has also developed practical tools like his seven pillars of business governance,
- 1:14and to support effective decision making and he's very passionate as you'll
- 1:18see today about culture, about getting the recruitment right,
- 1:22about retention and primary care.
- 1:25He's worked right across NHS organisations and he worked with industry.
- 1:29He's also well known for working with industry partners to really try and help
- 1:33improve our collaboration and alignment between the health leaders and the suppliers.
- 1:40So good morning Gary and how are you?
- 1:42Looking very Yeah. Yeah. It's for my business. Orange is sort of one of the
- 1:47brand colors. Okay. That's not why I'm wearing it. But yeah.
- 1:51Thanks for having me on here. And.
- 1:53That's a lovely intro so yeah that's how i know you i mean that that's the guy
- 1:58that i that i know and and love and and very much respect yeah,
- 2:02and it when i was looking back it's hard to believe where's the time gone 10 years yeah it's mad i
- 2:10know and the best bit is that we've remained in touch as you say good friends
- 2:13and absolutely yeah totally totally yeah it's yeah lovely intro so So yeah,
- 2:19I'm delighted to be on here.
- 2:21Delighted that you're doing a podcast because I know you've got so much to say
- 2:25for the industry and for primary care and the wider NHS.
- 2:29So yeah, delighted that you're doing this.
- 2:33I think it's brilliant. I think we're in for real, before I dive into a few
- 2:36of the questions I've got for you, I think we're in for a really interesting time,
- 2:40ahead, particularly around this development of integrated neighbourhood teams
- 2:44and the impact that that could have on general practice. Are we losing primary care networks?
- 2:50Are INTs part? We still don't know. It's not really clear. Yeah, yeah.
- 2:55I'd agree. And I thought for a long time as well that so much of where this
- 3:01ends up could be in the hands of primary care if they just grasp that metal.
- 3:06Totally. But, you know, they haven't done it enough. We'll see if they do go forward.
- 3:13I know from all our conversations, you'll agree with this thing I'm about to say.
- 3:17I think for general practice, the opportunity around integrated neighbourhood
- 3:22teams needs to be something they lead and develop and don't allow to happen to them.
- 3:27Because if it happens to them, goodness knows where we'll end up.
- 3:31Absolutely. I quite agree. There are pockets you see around the country of whether
- 3:37it's federations or really good private networks and alliances where they have grasped that.
- 3:44And they are doing really great things it's just not enough but,
- 3:48i like that phrase pockets i used that phrase a lot pockets of brilliance yeah there are,
- 3:54and often we don't hear enough about them yeah absolutely absolutely if you
- 3:58get on linkedin and we're both only here we are,
- 4:01you see those people on there but they're not all of them i mean not everybody
- 4:05does linkedin but you do see them and there are there are some great people
- 4:08i know you work with a lot of them as well so you know there are some great
- 4:11people that's a brilliant entry point
- 4:13to where i want to go with you because it was actually one of your posts on linkedin,
- 4:18that really sparked my first question where you talked and you really contrasted,
- 4:24high pressure leadership situations where people often feel,
- 4:28like we must swim um with your view is it's actually more realistic to float
- 4:33as your mindset because easy some of the pressure and it can improve performance
- 4:39do you think we could unpack how leaders,
- 4:42can adopt that float mentality in real time and whether you see it as a stepping stone towards swimming
- 4:48or is it a valuable standalone approach yeah and you know i'll give the background
- 4:54to all of this i started sort of putting posts short blocks on linkedin back in 2017.
- 5:01And i tend to sort of write on what i'm seeing in an experience that's going
- 5:06on in sort of primary care.
- 5:07So that throw or swim was a recent one, not well, not too long ago that I did.
- 5:13And it was actually about my situation. I was talking up in management and practice
- 5:16London and I hadn't done a big talk for a while and it was on actually on seven
- 5:22key ingredients of a successful business in primary care, so very relevant.
- 5:27I hadn't spoken to a big audience for quite a while and I was sort of quite
- 5:30They keyed up about it. And I wanted to just make sure that I was giving myself
- 5:36every chance to succeed.
- 5:38So I sort of thought, okay, I don't have to swim.
- 5:41You know, I can actually, you know, it doesn't have to be just,
- 5:44it's going to be a sink or swim. I could just float. And actually for me, I can't swim.
- 5:49So to use that sort of approach analogy was sort of quite useful.
- 5:54But I think bringing it back to where I suppose we are in primary care in this
- 5:59conversation, I see all too often that primary care leaders,
- 6:04general practice, you know, they want to go for the great biggest goal.
- 6:09And they they're thinking there straight away but actually you don't have to
- 6:13go that far you know don't shoot the moon just don't it hasn't got to be sink
- 6:17or swim there's that in the middle
- 6:20we can just float just get started just take some of the pressure off your team.
- 6:25And you you know taking some of the pressure off,
- 6:28and just start smaller let's get started and then you can take the next step
- 6:33and then you can take the next step so that as i say it was a you know an analogy that's a great analogy.
- 6:41And i use a lot with the industry that the industry often wants to be a whole
- 6:45system a whole integrated care system we're going to change it,
- 6:49and i'm like that's really tough i haven't got an example of that anywhere so
- 6:53i'm like you i'd rather start with one practice on maybe one primary care network
- 6:58and then we do a really great job there and we scale it up
- 7:01to a place footprint and then of course if you do a really good job at place
- 7:04the other place footprints potentially want to follow suit. So I really like that as an approach.
- 7:09And interesting what you said about industry there. I think,
- 7:11you know, I spent two years working in market access.
- 7:15And yes, industry would come to you with, uh, bigger budgets than primary care
- 7:20are used to and bigger ideas and plans.
- 7:24And it always felt that, you know, you'd be dealing with one person in that
- 7:29one pharma company, but it just felt like there were bigger forces behind saying,
- 7:34we've got to get something big. We've got to get something big.
- 7:36Start with one practice, start with one PCM.
- 7:39And actually, once you've got something evidence working there,
- 7:43it's going to be easier to build that.
- 7:45And that touches really on, there are a lot of people who are very close-minded
- 7:49and very fixated on, I've got to speak to the ICB and I've got to get something system-wide.
- 7:55And I know that you warn constantly against leaders with closed minds.
- 8:00And I've seen you highlight that what that will end up in is it stifles innovation,
- 8:06it drains morale completely because people can't get that level of success.
- 8:10So for you, what are the key habits or practices that you recommend leaders
- 8:14use to kind of really guard against that rigidity and foster that much more
- 8:20open-minded nature to develop in a mature organisation?
- 8:24Yeah, and it's interesting. I can see, you know, you've been reading the posts,
- 8:28done your homework. I do. You know, I've written about...
- 8:34That combating the closed-mindedness because in my time in general practice,
- 8:41and it's not just something you see in general practice but in general practice
- 8:44i've often seen gp partners and they tend to be the ones that are,
- 8:49primarily that taking the leadership roles yeah they may be you know pcn clinical
- 8:54directors federation leads sitting on icbs,
- 8:58but they are often quite closed And I don't know whether that's because of,
- 9:02and I'm going to be honest here, I don't know whether it's because of ignorance.
- 9:06They don't understand what they should be doing.
- 9:09I don't know whether it's because of arrogance. You know, they think they know
- 9:12best and that does happen.
- 9:15And, you know, also that sense of entitlement.
- 9:17I'm a GP with professional qualification. I'm in that position.
- 9:21I don't need to be doing anything else other than what I think.
- 9:26You know what i think you need to do to combat it and what i you know believe you need to do combat it,
- 9:31is that actually make sure that you're looking out for different perspectives
- 9:35and opinions from from your team your fellow stakeholders that you're working
- 9:39with because i always found you know in leadership and management positions i still do,
- 9:46somebody on the front line and that might be a receptionist on the front line
- 9:49will have a different view to you and probably going to be seeing something you're not going to see,
- 9:55so absolutely and if we take that said industry,
- 10:00you'll if i'm in industry bringing something into primary care to pilot something
- 10:06yes i've got to be speaking to the gp partner the pc and cd,
- 10:10but actually if i'm going to be putting something in to trial something what
- 10:14do the receptionists think of how this is going to work totally,
- 10:18What do they think?
- 10:19What does the nurse think? Because I can remember working in EmTech Access and,
- 10:25I'd be working with clients and they'd be wanting to speak to the GP partner
- 10:29because they felt it was the GP that was going to be managing the long-term
- 10:33condition patients, whether it was inhalers or whatever it was.
- 10:37And when you said to them, actually, the nurses do all of that,
- 10:41it was, ah, ah, didn't know that.
- 10:44So make sure you're getting to speak to other people.
- 10:49We'll maybe get you back to have another conversation with me at some point
- 10:52in the future, because this is a hot topic for me.
- 10:54That bit about, we target the visible stakeholders, but we miss the invisible stakeholders.
- 11:01And they're the ones that actually do the work.
- 11:03And they'll be the ones that go, no, no, no, we're not doing that because.
- 11:06And i see it a lot where um we think we're you know the the gp or the,
- 11:13the lead is going to make a decision that you know we benefit from and then
- 11:17suddenly it all comes down like a stack of dominoes because they then go and
- 11:20talk to the team internally who we've not
- 11:22given a position to we've not engaged them they don't understand what we're
- 11:25doing and you meet all the blocks and barriers it's a it's a really great example
- 11:30that you've just given there,
- 11:32and i love that term invisible stakeholders you know probably pinch that and
- 11:35use that myself you're very well you know,
- 11:37it is about making sure that you're asking others and getting their perspectives
- 11:41and opinions totally you know i think i think you can't be content with what
- 11:45you know and what you've always done,
- 11:48you know you've got to be open to that new ideas new thoughts that others are
- 11:53going to bring and i think you know i sort of said about whether it's arrogance
- 11:56entitlement ignorance as well you've got to be willing to challenge your own
- 12:00thinking as well you've got to be
- 12:02willing to do that and and you know i think that,
- 12:06i'm saying this very much thinking of general practice but if i'm farmer industry
- 12:12thinking i've got to bring something in you've got to be doing the same things
- 12:15again because what you think might work.
- 12:18Possibly isn't good. It's where I think discovery before design becomes the
- 12:23language. You have to take the time to sit down with Gary and actually get him
- 12:27to map his whole pathway in its entirety.
- 12:30Where are the blocks, the barriers, the backlogs, the steps,
- 12:33the workarounds, because the pathway doesn't flow correctly,
- 12:36the money doesn't flow correctly.
- 12:37You have to understand all of that before you start proposing a new approach.
- 12:44And this is where, again, another one of your.
- 12:47Articles you talked about um i forget this right simplicity plus preparation
- 12:52equals success it really,
- 12:55reminded me there about that bit about don't make it overly complex because
- 12:59the minute you start to make it complex it will dilute the clarity and then it dilutes the delivery.
- 13:05How do you strike the balance between delivering simple powerful messages but
- 13:09don't oversimplify it and certainly avoid making it overly complicated yeah
- 13:14and you know that the background to that to a particular post that I spoke about there.
- 13:19It was, funnily enough, it was another talk where I, at Raven,
- 13:23and I just went into it thinking that, you know, I had everything right and
- 13:29actually it was way too complicated.
- 13:32I had too much content, too much information, and it didn't go very well.
- 13:36From my point of view, it didn't go very well.
- 13:39But I suppose, you know, bringing this back to what's relevant for this conversation is again,
- 13:45this and it links to nicely to this quote versus swim mindset that we talked
- 13:49we don't put up with there is,
- 13:52if you've got an idea and a project and you know might be industry have the
- 13:56idea but it might be you might be in general perhaps have an idea don't complicate
- 14:01it you know don't over complicate it and i i see this as industry when they pitch things with,
- 14:07slide decks that are too big too much information yeah what's the headline how's
- 14:11it going to benefit patients.
- 14:13Just give me that, you know. that's one of your other posts. You called it, um.
- 14:20They'll come back to me at will small nails oh yeah yeah we've talked about that you don't
- 14:26come with something you're back to that don't bring me 400 slides no i'm gonna
- 14:30glaze over i'm not gonna get it it needs to be shot and sharp i have a phrase
- 14:34with industry a lot please don't bore us get to the chorus
- 14:39yeah tell me what i need to know tell me what you need me to do and i'm much
- 14:42more likely to engage than if you just deluge me and a load of clinical information
- 14:46and a load of slides where I'm then left working out what you want me to do.
- 14:50Yeah. It's not going to work. No, absolutely. You know, if I were industry going
- 14:55into talk, pitch to, you know, GPs or anybody from primary care or the NHS,
- 15:03At the moment, tell me how you're going to help my workload. Absolutely.
- 15:08Don't tell me how much money you're going to save me. Tell me how you're going
- 15:12to help my workload. Tell me how that patient is only going to come in once
- 15:15a year, not three times a year. That's what I want to know.
- 15:19So tell me that. Don't go through 10 slides and then tell me that.
- 15:23Tell me that right at the start. I'm going to help your workload. I'm going to cut it by.
- 15:27I find that fascinating that you've zoomed in on that because what you don't
- 15:32know is that's the top ask I get from my NHS customer base.
- 15:36Scott, what have you got in your armory right now project-wise that would reduce my workload?
- 15:41I had one of my really, really good GPs up in North Warwickshire actually say
- 15:47to me about three or four months ago, Scott, see what you're about to pitch
- 15:51me, is it going to reduce my workload? Because if it's not, I probably don't need the pitch.
- 15:56I was just blunt as that, not to be rude, not being aggressive or anything like
- 16:00that, just saying, look, where I am right now,
- 16:02if this doesn't impact my workload it's probably not going to make it onto the
- 16:06things that i'm going to spend time thinking about so it's really interesting
- 16:09that you've picked up on that as well
- 16:11absolutely it's you know it's when the time i had in industry it was always
- 16:15the thing that we were telling our clients as well how they you know want to
- 16:19know how you're going to help their workloads,
- 16:21i think knowing your audience as you know uh,
- 16:25the industry speaking to the gps primary care however of it's going to be understanding
- 16:30your audience as well is important because you could be speaking to maybe three or four GPs.
- 16:36And you might get one who's all about the patient yes so because they're not
- 16:41all the same but they all they are all struggling with workload but if you can
- 16:45say i'm going to help with your workload by this,
- 16:49but i'm also going to help the patients because there are some gps and some
- 16:53clinicians that are very very patient focused so if you can right at the top,
- 16:58i'm going to help the workload i'm going to help the patients with this benefit
- 17:02again i think it's a really interesting,
- 17:04um conversation that we're having here, because again, one of the things I talk
- 17:09about a lot, and it's certainly embedded in the book, there's a whole piece on it.
- 17:13It's just what you've described that i um picked this i stole this from one
- 17:17of my customers a lovely gp by the name of yusuf sony yusuf up in hartleypool
- 17:21in stockton he was the first one that kind of said this is how i'm thinking
- 17:24scott i thought i'm going to adapt that,
- 17:26and i turned it into what we call the perfect triangle and gary you've pretty
- 17:29much just explained the perfect triangle which is at the top of the triangle
- 17:33what's the win for the patient,
- 17:35are we improving the patient outcome or does it mean that they don't need as
- 17:38many appointments can we do more a more holistic what are we doing for the patient
- 17:42right at the top of the triangle then down in the bottom corner what's the win for the nhs,
- 17:48is it fewer appointments in general practice is it fewer referrals to secondary
- 17:52care is it fewer non-elective admissions are we tackling inequalities are we
- 17:56closing the unwarranted variation out of our pathway are we eliminating that what are we doing,
- 18:02and then once you've done that and explained that really really well then have
- 18:05the dialogue about what is the win for you as a collaborating partner,
- 18:09in this project but that's got to be tied back to what's the win for the patient
- 18:14and if you do that and do it really well it stops you leading with the product
- 18:18yeah absolutely definitely definitely you know and none,
- 18:22none of what you mentioned talks about how much it saves money for the system or because,
- 18:28well gp if you're talking to primary care they're not interested they don't see that money no.
- 18:35So That's somebody else's budget, so it's not really their responsibility,
- 18:38and they therefore don't see it as their responsibility.
- 18:41Yeah, no, so, I mean, they're great points, and the triangle,
- 18:44I think I've heard you speak about that before, and I think it's a great model to bear in mind.
- 18:50Again, you have a model around the seven pillars of business governance.
- 18:54I don't expect you to cover all seven for a second.
- 18:58And I remember the post where you talked about strengthening business,
- 19:02um practices i think it was a half hour webinar that that um,
- 19:06i sat and watched is there one or two of those that you could highlight maybe
- 19:10share a practical example of how they tangibly improve,
- 19:14decision making and the leadership within general practice you maybe got a couple
- 19:18of nuggets up your sleeve for
- 19:19us yeah definitely and it's interesting the seven pillars framework it's,
- 19:24for for many years now i've worked with practices pcns and i've worked on the
- 19:29seven pillars of clinical governance which is a really well-known model,
- 19:33but what i do very much is about making your practice pcn federation and the
- 19:38best business it can be so i wanted something that i could work on that aspect of business
- 19:44so the seven pillars are organizational structures effective leadership regulatory
- 19:49compliance financial management,
- 19:51risk management information governance and stakeholder engagement,
- 19:56Now, to give you your two examples.
- 20:02Let's give you two that I think are very relevant for today.
- 20:06And the first one is risk management.
- 20:08All too often, I see primary care networks and practices, and I'm working with
- 20:14one quite closely at the moment, where they're not aware of all of their risks.
- 20:20And certainly at the moment there i think the risks for practice a pc and a
- 20:26federation are higher than they've ever been
- 20:27yeah but most leaders they're not aware of all their risks they're certainly
- 20:31not actively recording them or measuring them and if they're not doing that
- 20:35they can't then be doing everything they can to mitigate them um.
- 20:40You know that as i said i think they're higher than they've ever been at the moment yeah so.
- 20:46What I've suggested or what I suggest PCMs and practices do is they make this
- 20:52one of the seven pillars using risk management.
- 20:56It's one of the key things they do.
- 20:59And they list all the risks. Yep. They list what they're doing to mitigate them.
- 21:04And they're reviewing this every six months. Certainly, I'm sure,
- 21:08you know, we'd say it, Scott, businesses that we've worked in,
- 21:10bigger businesses, they do this. They have their risk register.
- 21:14They have their risk register and they've got their eyes on it they're reviewing
- 21:17it and they're managing it and it i mean informs your decisions as well as you
- 21:21know where you've got to focus your resources you know what you're gonna what
- 21:24you've got to be making your decisions around um,
- 21:28and i think that one of the best examples i can give on a risk at the moment
- 21:33for general practice is succession planning yeah we have issues with you know
- 21:38there's an exodus of staff
- 21:40difficult to get new staff in if a practice loses their long-term condition
- 21:45nurse their senior partner or as i always say their practice manager,
- 21:50they have got a huge problem yeah so you know the risk register major thing
- 21:57looking at all of those risks and a big one would be succession planning yeah
- 22:00if i were to bring this back to what we're talking about with the audience,
- 22:05i'm starting something new,
- 22:07We'll start that project with, okay, what are the risks as well?
- 22:12What have we got to be watching out for and what have we got to manage?
- 22:15And industry will probably be a better place to take the lead because it's a
- 22:19more formal sort of business activity.
- 22:22They've got more experience in, but, you know, that's sort of one thing.
- 22:26And then shall I give you a second example? You can. Just one quick thing to pick up there with you.
- 22:32I mean, I remember you and I doing that way back in 2015-16,
- 22:36developing a risk register for the new GP federation and a lot of it was around
- 22:40what happens if one of the board of directors leaves or
- 22:42the practices don't and we sign a contract and the practices don't engage and
- 22:46we put in place mitigation to do that,
- 22:48that was because one of the things that we were really careful about was always having a contingency,
- 22:54so there was an ability to pull people together so something's come up that
- 22:57we didn't anticipate or couldn't have anticipated when we were developing our
- 23:02risk register but now it's here so we don't ignore it we have to manage it so i think,
- 23:07you know again you're really nailing down,
- 23:09this way of having simple but highly effective governance and process in place
- 23:15that protects the business because it's what most people forget that if you
- 23:18don't protect the business suddenly the thing that pays all the bills isn't
- 23:21there anymore absolutely absolutely.
- 23:24Yeah i think it would be great mate go on yeah well the other example is the
- 23:28last pillar stakeholder engagement ah huge um you know We've just had the 10-year plan.
- 23:34We've got to be building neighborhoods.
- 23:37We've been talking about this for years, but again, we've got to build neighborhoods.
- 23:43So that stakeholder engagement is so, so important. Now, we should have been
- 23:47doing this for ages, but most areas haven't. We said at the beginning,
- 23:51there's pockets that have.
- 23:53But I'd say, you know, take the lead. If primary care are listening to this,
- 23:57take the lead or you're going to be told what to do.
- 24:00But if I'm outside and I'm industry, I still think there's a way that you can
- 24:05start to help and shape an influence.
- 24:07Have conversations with, you know, ICBs, PCNs, federations.
- 24:12You can still help and play your part to sort of bring, you know,
- 24:15you might, it might be more, you're facilitating it to happen.
- 24:19But yeah, so, you know, I think where I've seen it works well,
- 24:25it's usually because it's a GP partner that's maybe leading a federation or
- 24:30a PCN or they've got a position on an ICB.
- 24:34Quite often you might see it's a manager. You know, there are very,
- 24:37very capable practice managers in this federation. Yes, there are.
- 24:41And I'm sure industry, you know, are talking to them. If you're not,
- 24:44find out who they are because they make things happen. Yep.
- 24:48And, you know, that would be the other thing. I'd be finding out who you need
- 24:51to speak to, and I'd be having those conversations as well.
- 24:55Help build these new neighbourhood providers that we need. Totally.
- 24:58I mean, that actually does really beautifully enter.
- 25:02My last question for you which is all around collaboration because i know you've
- 25:05done lots of this and i really want to see if i can get you to um open up to,
- 25:10to the audience about it so,
- 25:13i i know from our work from work that i've i've heard about from you and you
- 25:19absolutely help people navigate change the governance the workforce challenges
- 25:24all the things that we've talked about today but from your perspective,
- 25:28what does great collaboration look like when it's between health system leaders
- 25:33and then the pharma the medtech and the device companies and then if there was
- 25:37one thing that you say they get wrong most often what is it what goes,
- 25:42yeah and you know if we're saying great collaboration between the parties that
- 25:48you've mentioned it could be i think great,
- 25:50collaboration in anything you know great collaboration looks the same but i
- 25:55think when it's great and i'm sitting here as i'm talking about this and i can
- 25:59think of a federation that I'm working with that have some great collaboration going on their ICS.
- 26:05Okay. And also some practices that are very good at working together.
- 26:10They've got, when it's great, it looks like this. They've got a shared goal.
- 26:14Yep. Different parties, the benefits they might get might be different,
- 26:18but they all share the same goal. And it might be that we're going to,
- 26:22you know, it might be that we're going to reduce patient visits by a third.
- 26:26You know, that might be what an industry partner might want to do as a goal.
- 26:32And that might be that the practice wants as a goal.
- 26:36But the benefits, you know, the industry partner is going to get their products.
- 26:40In, used, tested, trialed, whatever it'll be, the practice is going to reduce
- 26:44their workload. So you might get the benefits, but they're sharing their goal.
- 26:47So I think grade looks like you've got a shared goal.
- 26:50The patient is going to be involved in at the heart. You know,
- 26:53I think too often when I was working in the industry, that wasn't considered.
- 26:58And too often working in primary care, it's not considered either.
- 27:02But, you know, patients, get them at the heart, find out what they want,
- 27:05what they need, what they can bring to this.
- 27:08You're also going to have great communication. When the collaboration's working,
- 27:12you're going to have great communication.
- 27:14And that means that it's going to be easy. It's going to be open.
- 27:17It's going to be transparent.
- 27:19It's not as often happens in general practice.
- 27:22It's constant, frequent, you know, in the way. But it's just going to be easy, open, transparent.
- 27:28And most importantly, all of this is going to mean that you've got trust.
- 27:32You know, you've got trust. And again, I think often the relationships exist
- 27:37between whether it's industry and primary care or within primary care.
- 27:42And the relationships are an uneasy happiness, let's just say. That's how they are.
- 27:49I think the thing that goes wrong most of the time is that at the start,
- 27:55there's a lack of understanding of each other's world.
- 27:58And we said about industry doesn't often know exactly how primary care is working with these.
- 28:03So I think the start is a lack of understanding of each other's world.
- 28:07Within the NHS, that can be the same as well, because, you know,
- 28:10secondary care doesn't understand primary care by each other.
- 28:14And then you don't have that shared goal, that one thing that we're all aiming for.
- 28:18And you then find that you've got poor communication. And then there's usually,
- 28:23as often as well, there's an insufficient sort of commitment to this in terms
- 28:28of the time and the resources I'm going to put in. And they all feed off one another.
- 28:32Yes. And ultimately, there's no trust.
- 28:34But, you know, if you say, what's the one thing? It starts with,
- 28:38I don't have an understanding of each other's world.
- 28:41Start with that. Get to know each other. And then make your goal.
- 28:44And then all these other things will come.
- 28:46That's the discovery before design bit for that. have to discover you have to
- 28:49sit down and get to know each other because i often there's a great word you use there trust,
- 28:55i often think if you take the time at the beginning to put the foundations and
- 28:58then you build the trust the trust leads to the collaboration and the collaboration
- 29:02leads to the outcome if you don't put the foundations and the trust in place,
- 29:06well then as you say got different vision of what this looks like different
- 29:09outcomes different and it just doesn't work you watch unravel in front of you.
- 29:14I'd also add one extra bit again at the risk of you disagreeing with me,
- 29:18i i also think that you really need to understand and work on the nhs agenda
- 29:24not on your product agenda it's got to be nhs agenda that we're working with
- 29:28because if you're not addressing a known problem for the nhs
- 29:32they're not going to engage yeah i i and i think you're absolutely right i completely agree
- 29:37and i don't know what what you'll say to this but you know my time working in market access yeah
- 29:43i always felt that to get industry to work on the nhs agenda or aligned with it wasn't difficult,
- 29:50there's plenty of scope there and you know that is whether it's population health
- 29:56would be a good thing at the moment.
- 29:58Uh or whether it's you know workload that we said about it's actually not difficult
- 30:02but they didn't industry doesn't didn't seem to always take that as a starting
- 30:06point right what's the agenda i want to fit with that do you find that as well
- 30:10i do find that i had a really interesting conversation,
- 30:13uh october last year with um again And one of my lovely,
- 30:18uh customers uh dr katherine patrick katherine's a gp down in somerset she's
- 30:23also the part-time medical director for somerset foundation trust for primary
- 30:28care so the vertically integrated model and katherine said,
- 30:31just what you've said literally there she said i have no problem i can still
- 30:35remember she sat with her hand up she'd have no problem with industry coming in
- 30:39and asking me as many questions as they want about what's on my agenda but then
- 30:43they've got to pick something off that agenda that we can work on and collaborate
- 30:47on together if you do that and do it well i'm going to engage,
- 30:50if you don't if you come in and you're not really interested in what's on my
- 30:54agenda and it becomes about your agenda
- 30:56five minutes after you've gone out the door i'm going to have forgotten we've
- 30:59even met and you've just pretty much summarized that you have to work on there
- 31:03you've got to do the discovery before the design we're going to have that shared
- 31:06vision and shared goal or it isn't going to go anywhere yeah,
- 31:09yeah and and you know if you don't want them to forget five minutes after make
- 31:13sure that you've given them that headline i'm going to do this.
- 31:16That's it please don't bore us get to the course tell me what it is that you
- 31:20can do to help me with one of my many known problems and i'm going to engage
- 31:24with you absolutely absolutely oh gary what a wonderful,
- 31:29wonderful time that has been with you i'm so grateful i really value the fact
- 31:33that you've given up your time to come and talk to us this morning and share your insights
- 31:37some great really great key takeaways there around that bit about discovery
- 31:41before design work on the nhs agenda patient be patient centric think about
- 31:46it from a patient perspective,
- 31:48some fabulous insights and i'm really grateful to you mate thank you absolute
- 31:52pleasure and uh well i'm interested in your book embedded i think that's going
- 31:57to be a great thing when that comes out and i think when i saw you post on,
- 32:02linkedin about that that's got to be on every bookshelf and every pharma company
- 32:08rep you know representative whatever it's got to be yeah i think that's really keen i um.
- 32:14I i mean i'm kind of well you've done it you've you're a published author so
- 32:18yeah yeah you wonder will i sell one well i know my mum will buy one because
- 32:23mom's always wondered what i do um and doesn't really understand it so i'm sure
- 32:27my mother mom and dad will have a copy,
- 32:29and then slowly but surely i've had lots of really great positive feedback people
- 32:34saying where can i get it when can i get it i've even had people jokingly i
- 32:38think saying to me can i get a signed copy.
- 32:40I'm sure if people want that, we can absolutely sort it. We're a matter of weeks
- 32:47away from publishing at the time of recording.
- 32:50It's going to be great. Magic, mate. Thank you. And thank you again for taking
- 32:53the time to come and talk to us this morning.
- 32:55Absolute pleasure, Scott. Anytime. Cheers, Gary. Thanks again.