Wednesday 19 January 2011
Being the Chair……….some SHINE ramblings.
Ever wondered what goes through the mind of the SHINE Chair? As succession planning for a new Chair continues find out what I thought of my time.
I have been planning to write this post for about 3 months, but it is only now that I feel that I can readily gather my thoughts together. I announced at the last AGM in Aberdeen (2010) that this would be my last year in SHINE as Chair, and now there are only 3 months left. We are now in serious succession planning mode. But am I beginning to rethink my decision to relinquish this role and how did I end up doing this job at all?
In my type of work as a freelancer I get involved in lots of committees. However I am usually the person turning up to report to a committee on some project that I have been commissioned to do. Until I joined the SHINE committee I had very little experience of actually being a committee member myself – anywhere! Then within a relatively short space of time I was the Chair of one.
What seems like a long long time ago I had a notion to join the SHINE committee – obviously I had an ulterior motive too! I needed different types of experiences and scenarios than I was getting in my regular line of work. As a solo worker too it would be good to work as a team, not just ‘the contractor.’
Let us jump forward. I am on the committee now (for 1 year) and there is an opportunity to become the Chair. A difficult situation – a fork in the road and what should I do?
Run for the hills and not look back – leaving SHINE and committee behind?
Sit quietly and hope no-one will notice me?
Put myself forward with little or no experience – telling myself the journey will be exciting?
Well history tells us what decision I made. But this post is not about history, yes a nod to it, but to the future of SHINE. As part of the succession planning process and as a marker of my own experiences I thought it may be useful to report on the good, the bad and the ugly. Well it is part of my therapy……….only joking.
I read books and articles (probably less than I should have) about what makes a good Chair for an organisation. What I found was a mix - people handling skills, operational planning and management, strategic development, being able to listen, but also to make decisions and also manage for change. It sounded quite responsible and I was concerned as I didn’t necessarily have these skills. But worryingly couldn’t seem to find – having fun, laughing a lot, making new friendships and professional alliances, learning a lot about myself and eating biscuits. I was more concerned.
There are very few of us that have never had doubts about whether we can ‘cut the mustard’ – do we have the skills already to prepare us for the next job, project or just ‘business as usual?’ On paper I think I looked a poor candidate compared to many of you. Let’s put it this way if there had been an interview I may have been told to go away and get more experience. Thank goodness I am a great believer in ‘learning on the job’. A life-long continual process of educating myself and learning from experiences – not sure I would be able to get by if I didn’t tell myself this on a daily basis.
Happily for me I became Chair at a time of great change. This gave me something to focus on. It also gave the relatively ‘all new’ committee a goal to achieve – a common goal to bind us together with achievables and deliverables. And by God (or any other divine intervention) we managed to achieve outcomes – the new website and membership subscriptions scheme to name a few. There are many others mainly to do workflow processes to manage operational running more efficiently and effectively.
People really are everything when it comes to getting things done – easy to say but hard to harness. What I have learned the most about during my time as Chair is that people make the difference – not me (I may take the responsibility), but the collective people. Committees, groups, and members are the key - listening, understanding and appreciating the energy, enthusiasm and experience others can bring does truly work. It makes it more enjoyable too. My job really has been to put people together, give them some money (occasionally) and provide support, guidance and direction. I can talk for Scotland (some of you may know) but it is not always eloquent (usually rambling), but there are many I rely on to listen and make insightful comments that sums up an entire situation. I need this questioning, clarification and assimilation process – committees work well this way. Harnessing the power of the committee and the individual has been a great experience for me.
Obviously life is not always a bowl of cherries and things do go wrong. There may have been tears, tantrums and the odd Gin &Tonic – and that would have been me at home not at the committee meetings. But I do regret that so many NHS venues, where we have our meetings, do not allow alcohol – a couple of bottles of wine may have eased the tension at some meetings. But alas problems and issues need solved and dealt with. I have a rule that I do not like the same item appearing on different agendas – well technically it can appear again but it must have been actioned and we must have made decisions to move forward. Making decisions is hard and no-one really wants to make that final decision - with that comes responsibility. I enjoyed that more than I thought.
Have I done enough? Did I do a good enough job? Everyone always thinks that they could have done more (me included) – that is the joy and burden of hindsight. But without a crystal ball what am I to think? I did what I knew at the time, and I learned from the rest – oh and I got help from everyone on the committee, groups and members – and then I tried to do it better the next time. I think that is probably based around a quote.
I believe that it is time for me to move on – 4 years on I need some more time for my ‘other job’ and I think I have taken this ship as far as I can. Change during my time as Chair has been good for SHINE (and me) – I do believe personally the harder we work the luckier we are. But there is an element of working on the ‘right thing’. The ‘right thing’ usually involves hard thinking, problem solving and solution driven and tough decision making. I think we need a new Chair to build on the foundations of the last 4 years and put more meat on the bones. The healthcare sector is changing and we need to make sure we keep up, positioning SHINE for full participation and for the good of our members.
The AGM and Study day will be here in a few months – my last as Chair. I may cry – mixture of happiness, sadness and relief. There is no doubt in my mind that I will miss the committee. For the record I think I managed to gain some of the competencies for being a Chair (well you can ask the committee members what they think when I am gone) – but I did laugh a lot, make good friends and colleagues, learn a lot about myself and on occasion did eat way too many biscuits.
Joanna Ptolomey
Chair of SHINE
January 2011
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