Me, Luke, and sales teammates were satisfied by what I got done in a work week, but Adam B. must not have felt the same way. We didn’t have a personal relationship and he saw me as a cog in a machine. I would feel exhausted each morning at the thought of another day of work but I’d get up anyways and push through. I have been sleeping a lot later now without work and feel a sense of relief. It feels great not having to receive negative feedback or lack of responses from others at work, and instead only experience positive interactions through interview calls.
If you want something to happen, you have to make people able and make them want to.
Quality Improvement makes it our mission to ensure the wellbeing of the communities we serve, and we aim at providing care of the highest quality in collaboration with those who use our services.
Great service is delivered by great people, and our work is to enable all people in the East London NHS Foundation Trust to deliver on our objectives daily. But if we make quality improvement a mission for all those who experience our services, shouldn’t we apply the very same principle to our teams first?
There are countless examples, quotes and metaphors to illustrate this principle. Who doesn’t remember having a favourite teacher and giving their most dedicated effort to this class? A number of quotes are attributed to leaders from the biggest companies in the world - and their point is the same: happy employees and quality in an employee’s work environment deliver great results. Take it from Angela Ahrendts, former senior Vice-President at Apple: “Everyone talks about building a relationship with a customer. I think you build one with your employees first”. The key takeaway is that if you want something to happen, you have to make people able and you have to make them want to.
Quality improvement at ELFT is delivered by our valued staff, and we are making our mission to apply quality improvement principles to your work. Are you ready to embark on a journey to “Enjoying your Work”?
The below illustration will certainly resonate with you. You’re right, this is the process we follow in Quality Improvement to create projects.
A high priority project is ensuring the wellbeing of the staff across ELFT and ensuring everybody enjoys their work. So let’s talk about how we’re going to apply the quality principles to your daily work.
Since we implemented the "Enjoying Work” programme in 2017, we’ve had three cohorts taking part. This represents more than 500 staff spanning 25 teams, taking the first steps to improve their wellbeing at work. We recommend you check out the below video that sums up the work achieved over a session as part of the programme.
Through identifying recurring themes in group discussions, brainstorming as a team to create bespoke solutions, and encouraging teams to share their own experience, we hope to help you coming to the realisation that you have more control than you may think over enjoying work.
The fourth cohort will take place later in 2020 and we invite you to take a leap of faith, and join with your team to reap the benefits of a truly empowering session. We care about the people we serve, but more than anything we care about our staff and giving them the tools and the happy and positive environment they need to deliver quality improvement. Besides, who will advocate for quality improvement better than the people who benefitted from it themselves?
You can find out more the projects that will be tested to ensure our people enjoy coming to work on the this part of the microsite with posters and videos created at the end of each cohort. This should give you a pretty good overview of what you’can expect by joining in!
We’ll leave you with this video realised by the Senior Psychology team in Bedford and Luton and their “Happy Heart Island” project, to restore joy in work.
Time to work #enjoyingwork #therestorerchamber #restorerchamber #sanding #patience (at Los Angeles, California) https://www.instagram.com/p/B71Qj27gJcN/?igshid=u7vxportr9z5
Working in a beautiful loveseat. Carved mahogany. #loveseat #restoration #mahogany #enjoyingwork #therestorerchamber #restorerchamber #woodworking (at Los Angeles, California) https://www.instagram.com/p/B45tIYTg_rm/?igshid=oxk3s800cny2
Varnishing a bar and enjoying the work. #varnish #frenchpolish #enjoyingwork #therestorerchamber #restorerchamber (at Yucaipa, California) https://www.instagram.com/p/B32Yi7GAIMt/?igshid=1h2kg9ct6p5im
Cleaning and varnishing process #restoration #restorerchamber #oaktable #enjoyingwork #rescuedfurniture (at Los Angeles, California) https://www.instagram.com/p/B3KZuRRAYtK/?igshid=famnqx5jfcwr
