Further Information

The BOA Future Leaders Programme (FLP) 2024

The BOA Future Leaders Programme aims to create an alumni of leaders with the ability to improve the delivery of clinical care and to influence positive change within the profession.

Leadership has been fully integrated into our T&O curriculum through Generic Professional Capabilities and Capabilities in Practice.  But the real need to integrate leadership training goes well beyond such rules and regulations. Today’s NHS demands innovative, creative, adept, reflective, experiential learners to deal with the complex and unpredictable world of healthcare.  Our leaders need to be able to see the bigger picture, manage risk and be able to cope with solving problems resulting from increased longevity with chronic disease burden and social pressures of unemployment and poverty. Kotter (1990) defines management as coping with complexity. He sees leadership as coping with change.  Leadership has to work within the culture of our organizations.

This 12-month programme will support at least 30 T&O surgeons (post-CCT, SAS or in the first years of consultancy) with the passion to be future leaders within their specialty and equip them with the advanced leadership skills necessary to excel.  We use the process of building a Quality Improvement Project, as a vehicle to develop these leadership skills. The structure of the programme will comprise four 2-day residential forums over the 12-month period, supplemented by self-directed Action Learning Sets. 

 

Learning Outcomes

Personal Leadership

To develop heightened self-awareness of participants as individuals, how they impact on others within their organisation, in their role as leaders in quality improvement and as a high performing surgeon.

At the end of the module, you will be able to:

  • Define your purpose as leaders within the NHS
    • Evaluate your impact on others
    • Plan effective reflection, coaching and feedback
    • Assess your style of managing conflict and develop some top tips
    • Plan how to develop and maintain resilience
    • Recognise your limits and embrace vulnerability/failure
    • Experiment with and learn from new behaviours in the workplace

Technical Leadership

To understand the science of quality improvement: when and what methodologies are best applied for a quality improvement initiative.

At the end of the module, participants will be able to:

  • Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of a range of quality improvement methodologies and adopt the most appropriate, dependent on context
  • Use data to identify areas for improvement - critically appraise information from audit, inquiries, critical incidents or complaints, and implement appropriate changes
  • Apply methods of data analysis, critically appraise data to evaluate constraints and use it for quality improvement
  • Deploy quality improvement methods (eg plan, do, study, act or action research) and repeat quality improvement cycles to refine practice
  • Evaluate the impact of quality improvement interventions

Relational Leadership

To understand how participants can influence change at an individual, team, organisation or system-wide level.

At the end of the module, participants will be able to:

  • Apply principles of influencing and negotiation
  • Plan strategies to enhance performance and to support development
  • Polish presentation skills
  • Make conflict productive
  • Hold challenging conversations
  • Analyse the relationship and tensions between technical and relational approaches and where each might be appropriate

Contextual Leadership

To develop an awareness of their own organisational culture and how quality improvement can influence local or national healthcare strategy.

At the end of the module, participants will be able to:

  • Plan strategies for dealing with complexity and uncertainty
  • Evaluate cultural dimensions of leadership in organisational change
  • Engage with stakeholders, including: the public, patients, clinicians and managers, to plan and implement service change
  • Explain the structure and organisation of the health service and system, including
    • the independent sector and the wider health and social care landscape
    • accountability through political and governance
    • how services are commissioned, funded and audited

Methods of Learning

Active learning:

  • Four two-day modules of learning and networking (face to face at Charingworth Manor)
  • Strategically grouped participants
  • Increasing use of online learning
    • To maximise opportunities
    • Participants will be asked to review screencasts or MOOCs, write reflective pieces and then discuss important or surprising elements
    • This will be mandatory prequel to face to face elements and will be assessed through online questions and discussions
  • Masterclasses and tutorials with experts in their field
  • Action learning sets
    • As a technique to drive learning
    • Participants will be trained to run action learning sets
  • Zoom Coaching
  • Evidence of Quality Improvement project achievements will be demonstrated through screencasts and presentation at Congress

Coaching: Leadership and improvement coaching.

Blended learning: Online leadership and management learning resources.

Applied learning: the legacy of this one-year development programme is a significant innovation and improvement piece of work delivered by each future leader to their Trust or Specialist Society strategic change agenda and improvement of T&O services.

Graduation: Presentation at the BOA Annual Congress

Value for Participants

  • Access to high level & big scope service improvement projects that:
    1. Have the capacity to create long-lasting service improvement / change or cost saving.
    2. Trainees can talk favourably about at interview: demonstrating their abilities to achieve and improve patient care.
    3. Have had some of the groundwork already laid or in partnership with a group of trusts or BOA /specialist societies.
  • Professional networks within and across specialities.
  • Advanced leadership skills which will be immediately useful in your current role and provide foundations for future leadership roles.

Programme Faculty

When the next cohort of the FLP has assembled, we will decide on faculty required to support the programme, based on your need.  We hope to engage a number of BOA Council members and use our wider health service and leadership networks.  As priority we will seek potential future programme directors and support their early professional development. The 2021/21 faculty included: BOA Council Members, Past Presidents, TPDs, Clinical Directors, Medical Directors anf Heads of School of Surgery.

Programme Mentors

You will be asked to identify someone suitable from within the organization funding you. Possibilities include:

  • Participant’s own supervisor or appraiser
  • Appropriate specialist society members
  • Key senior colleague within the base trust
  • Previous alumni

Effective communication channels between the FLP Participant and the Programme Mentor is the key to ensure project success in order to:

  • Provide guidance on the culture and values of the organisation
  • Keep their project aligned with organisation's strategy 
  • Help them focus on realisation of benefits
  • Recommend opportunities to optimise cost/benefits
  • Provide feedback and lessons learned
  • Help engage stakeholders
  • Help influence the organisation to overcome resistance to the project.