British Lessons for Workforce Development
April 7, 2006
One of the six key management practices discussed in the change agent paper is uncovering the right talent. Change is ineffective without the ability to find talented people and align them around a vision of the future. This becomes especially important when bringing different groups to work more closely with one another, where roles and responsibilities must shift to enable streamlined processes.
The British Department of Health established the Health & Social Care Change Agent Team (CAT) in 2002 to undertake transformation of care for the elderly. They publish yearly reports on their progress to discuss achievements and lessons learned along the way. The CAT report for 2004/2005 devotes an entire section to the discussion of workforce development, and particularly highlights the importance of sharing skills and tasks between staff members, and the value of building teams. Here is one quote from the paper that caught my eye:
"Building up trust within teams is essential to foster team development and collaborative working. Members need to develop confidence in other people's ability to assess and deliver. Integrated working is effective where teams have not only a shared goal but also shared responsibility for achieving this."
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