Yesterday a had a very interesting “engagement” with a parking ticket machine. I visited the ministry of Health Care and Sports ( yes they go together in the Netherlands) and I drove my car in the parking house , drew a ticket at the entrance ( visa was also an option, but I refused to lean backwards to find my wallet in my jacket) and parked my car at 10.50. The purpose for my visit was a briefing with the program manager ‘ZichtbareZorg’ (transparent Healthcare), a large quality transparence project on the subject of quality indicators. A huge complex problem that needs strong management and leadership but encounters a large amount of frustration, irritation and so on from the hospital quality managers who need to respond to the Government’s wants and needs.

Today I have run a workshop with some great technicians in the field of orthopedic instruments. A management team comes together to discuss the strategic focus and direction of the company. No one is late. My first kickoff question is what they remembered from the previous workshop on the same subject some 3 months ago. The first answer sets the pattern of responses: they felt lost in the jungle of descriptions, wanted to finish something into concrete writing . Sense making was not even on my mind. Nevertheless we agreed to come to an inspiring mission, vision, purpose and accompanied by core values

Yesterday I had the privilege to attend a selected meeting of directors of hospitals and other relevant cure and care organizations. The reason was a farewell party for one of the director generals of the department of Ministry of Health, who happens to be one of my favorite clients.

She’s called Diana, and appears to be a true leader. I’ve had the pleasure to attend two previously held farewell parties being organized for her in the past 5 years and a certain pattern is manifesting itself in my observation.

This is my first blog for Cognitive Edge, so welcome to my thoughts and musings! An interesting and challenging couple of days ahead as I jet off to the European Complexity Conference in Paris tomorrow, which should be very interesting. The challenging bit is I’ve also volunteered to take both my daughters with me, Bronwen who’s 11 and Saffir who’s 7 years old! Thankfully they both like museums and a bit of culture and I’ve planned some surprises for them around the conference. The Eiffel Tower is obligatory of course, and a trip down the Seine, but I have yet to tell them about the tour of the old sewer network! He he!

Well my girls discovered a new time in their lives today, and were amazed that there are actually two 5 o’clocks in one day...hehe... Our flight from Bristol to Paris was fairly uneventful and typical, as Charles De Gaulle Airport lived up to my expectations. I like travel and I like the French but this airport seems to have a knack for confusing, frustrating and offending passengers on a regular basis. Indifferent French service is sometimes described as ‘Gallic Charm’ and I’m certainly not saying all French service workers are the same, but the airport did remind me of the British in the 1970’s and 80’s. It made me wonder why we so often lose sight of the service user when we become the service provider.

Well having survived a night in the hotel room with a 7 year old who just couldn’t sleep, and an 11 year old that could sleep, but snored loudly, the morning ‘wake up’ call came as a delightful break from the 'night from hell’! The day at the University of Paris was also a delightful change even though I struggled to stay awake most of the day. Espresso help needed!

As is often the case it seems the speaker session titles promise more than the content actually delivers, which itself demonstrates to me, if I’m honest, the huge gulf in academic ‘speak’ and ‘real’ person on the street discussion. We [academics] seem to forget that we have a language or discourse that most people fail to understand, which even at times other academics struggle with. I know this may sound odd coming from an academic, but having spent the last three years talking to ‘non-believers’ - the frontline workers, who deliver the service - the last thing they want is academics debating why policy shapes practice in micro-elements of human systems, they want to know how, why and when does it start? Having sat through hours of computer based modelling demonstrations, with claims of scientific validity, we need to get real people actually engaged in the field, not bored by discussions on the micro-political power struggles of Marxist complexity thinking in a post-modernist economy via the latest software…… see I was listening! It seems that even in Complexity ‘ego’s’ get in the way of development.

Well I might be in Paris with all its attractions and distractions, including good coffee, haute cuisine - oh and the complexity conference of course - but it's a bit of news from back home in Britain that's caught my imagination today. The MacLeod Review of employee engagement, commissioned by the Department for Business, has said workers need to be properly involved in the future of their firms.

Author David MacLeod said he wanted to see people’s potential “unleashed” and said engagement was a key to innovation and competitiveness. Apparently the report’s authors were told during their research that “trust works two ways” and that not trusting staff had a negative impact. They were also told it was people, not machines, which made the difference to a business.

Responding to the report employment relations Minister Lord Young said: “Workers know better than anyone how the firm they work for can improve, innovate and succeed.”