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The journey to “Here” has connected and involved many of the people who work together at what was until recently Brighton and Hove Integrated Care Service – BICS.

BICS began as three people – me, Zoe Nicholson and Peter Devlin – believing we could support a group of people to deliver a purpose that matters. We were not just happy to live in a changing environment – but also wanted to challenge ourselves to be driven by a clear sense of purpose. This created an evolving, lively and unconstrained melting pot of ideas and ambition. “Here” releases our ambition to make a difference for people. Our job now is to create the environment to turn the combined energy into successful leadership journeys for all of us who are Here – individually and collectively.

For me personally, a creative environment requires four personal commitments:

  • Deep Listening
  • Moral Intelligence
  • Selflessness
  • Developing my capacity for radical transformation

By participating in the 18-month exploration which we undertook to “repurpose” BICS, I was able to spend reflective time to understand my personal contribution. Understanding my commitment to our purpose and the people who we work with enables me to support others to be successful. My personal impact is delivered by being present in the moment, helping others discover their human journey of leadership, and being “Here” embodies how it feels to deliver this.

Stepping into our new identity will be defined by our actions rather than putting a stamp on our behaviour. As a team we have been working beyond our original intentions of nine years ago – when we founded BICS – for some time. Our reach and impact on people’s daily lives includes and reaches beyond Brighton, Sussex and the UK. Our customers and collaborative partners work in many parts of the country. It would be a mistake to confine the definition of our work to a geographical location, as we attempt to learn from and change communities and cultures of care, that can spread to others.

“Here” is free of obvious definition. “Here” makes it possible for each person to have a personal connection to our name. “Here” creates the possibility to have fun whilst connecting and communicating our new name to others. My experience is that the name supports conversation, informality and pleasure – all important components of successful organisations.

It has been 25 years since I started studying medicine, at the time the Hippocratic Oath had been updated to include:

“I will remember that there is an art to medicine as well as science, and that warmth, sympathy and understanding may outweigh the surgeon’s knife or the chemist’s drug”

At the same time evidence-based medicine gathered pace and embedded into our culture. With the belief we were creating a standardised, safer place for people to access care, we have created guidelines and protocols for the care we give to people at the expense of the basic human interaction of listening, observing, and communicating. The “art of medicine” has been replaced by algorithms, best practice, and industrialised systems of care, with the result of decreasing trust and increasing legal fees.

Being “Here” for people on an individual and human level, I am holding the possibility that we may be able to show that there are simpler answers than those we have designed.

tagged in Enabling Team, purpose, wholeness

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