How we behave in the NHS is a problem, but it’s also the solution
From Whitehall and Westminster, the NHS can look like an enormous machine made of units of governance, categories of activity, and financial flows. But from my point of view, having spent most of my career as a psychologist and a leader, it looks more like a culture and a society of hundreds of thousands of human beings, with values, histories, and deep affiliations. It is in this social world that the knottiest problems in our health service lie—and nearly all of the solutions. The way people speak and relate to one another should not be an afterthought. It lurks at the heart of the most troubling and tragic failures in our health service. Overconfidence and a culture...
